Spelling For Muggles

<span class="byline-author">Posted by T.V. Raman, Research Scientist</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">From time to time, our own <a href="http://emacspeak.sourceforge.net/raman/">T.V. Raman</a> shares his tips on how to use Google from his perspective as a technologist who cannot see -- tips that sighted people, among others, may also find useful. - Ed.</span><br /><br />English spelling is far from being phonetic -- and commonly-used proper nouns make the problem even more complex. Often the final arbiter is "it looks correct." Try writing "success" with one trailing "s" and you'll see what I mean.<br /><br />This final aspect of spelling -- it "looks wrong" -- can be a serious challenge when one cannot see. I can spell well in English, and for regular English text, there are always dictionaries and spell-checkers that come to one's aid. But spelling commonly-used proper nouns that you've only heard others pronounce can still pose a challenge when writing them for the first time. Consider the following:<br /><ul><li>We're going on a skiing holiday to Taho.</li><li> I was in Rino last week.</li><li>My friend lives in San Luis Obispoe.</li></ul>Notice that the proper nouns in the above all contain spelling errors, and the respective Google search triggers a "did you mean" spelling suggestion as follows:<br /><ul><li><span style="font-style: italic;">Did you mean:</span> Tahoe</li><li><span style="font-style: italic;"> Did you mean: </span>Reno</li><li><span style="font-style: italic;"> Did you mean: </span>san luis obispo </li></ul>Over the years, I've come to find this an indispensible tool, especially in cases where there is general agreement on the web as to the correct spelling. And for the record, intelligence on the Web appears to believe that San Luis Obispo can also be spelt San Louis Obispo.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.google.com/help/features.html#spell">Google's spell-checking intelligence</a> comes from examining all the documents on the web. Thus, correct spellings often dominate incorrect ones. The example of San Luis Obispo is interesting; if you take the Web as representing current accepted practice, it would appear that people do write that proper noun both ways -- i.e., Luis or Louis.<br /><br />Who knows, perhaps we'll restore the o-u parity by adopting an extra "o" in Luis for the "u" that got dropped in "color."

Spelling For Muggles

Posted by T.V. Raman, Research Scientist From time to time, our own T.V. Raman shares his tips on how to use Google from his perspective as...

Đọc thêm »

Collaborating with Marratech

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Douglas Merrill, VP Engineering</span><br /><br />As a company, we thrive on casual interactions and spontaneous collaboration. So we're excited about acquiring <a href="http://www.marratech.com/">Marratech's video conferencing software</a>, which will enable from-the-desktop participation for Googlers in videoconference meetings wherever there's an Internet connection.<br /><br />We look forward to learning from the extraordinary ingenuity of Marratech's engineers as they focus on desktop conferencing research and development in Sweden, where they will continue to be located.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Update: </span>To clarify some confusion, we acquired Marratech's software, not the company itself.

Collaborating with Marratech

Posted by Douglas Merrill, VP Engineering As a company, we thrive on casual interactions and spontaneous collaboration. So we're excited...

Đọc thêm »

Your slice of the web

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Payam Shodjai, Product Manager for Personalization</span><br /><br />I'll probably visit more than 100 web pages today, and so will hundreds of millions of people. Printed and bound together, the web pages you'll visit in just one day are probably bigger than the book sitting on your night table. Over the next month alone, that's an entire bookcase full! The idea of having access to this virtual library of information has always fascinated me. Imagine being able to search over the full text of pages you've visited online and finding that one particular quote you remember reading somewhere months ago. Imagine always knowing exactly where you saw something online, like that priceless YouTube video of your friend attempting to perform dance moves from a bygone age. Better yet, imagine having this wealth of information work for you to make searching for new information easier and faster.<br /><br />Today, we're pleased to announce the launch of Web History, a new feature for Google Account users that makes it easy to view and search across the pages you've visited. If you remember seeing something online, you'll be able to find it faster and from any computer with Web History. Web History lets you look back in time, revisit the sites you've browsed, and search over the full text of pages you've seen. It's your slice of the web, at your fingertips.<br /><br />How does Web History work? All you need is a Google Account and the Google Toolbar with PageRank enabled. The Toolbar, as part of your browser, helps us associate the pages you visit with your Google Account. If you're currently a Search History user, you'll notice that we've renamed Search History to Web History to reflect this new functionality. To sign up for Web History, visit <a title="http://www.google.com/history" href="http://www.google.com/history">http://www.google.com/history</a>.

Your slice of the web

Posted by Payam Shodjai, Product Manager for Personalization I'll probably visit more than 100 web pages today, and so will hundreds of ...

Đọc thêm »

Back to basics

<span class="byline-author">Posted by </span>Marissa Mayer, VP, Search & User Experience, and Jeff Bartelma, Product Manager, Google <b>Product Search</b> (the product formerly known as Froogle :) )<br /><br />Today, we're making some changes to how we help users find things to buy. You may be familiar with our product Froogle (a pun on "frugal"). Froogle offers a lot of great functionality and has helped many users find things to buy over the years, but the name caused confusion for some because it doesn't clearly describe what the product does.<br /><br />So we're renaming Froogle as <a href="http://www.google.com/products">Google Product Search</a>. We're taking the opportunity to refocus the user experience on providing the most comprehensive, relevant results in a clean, simple, easy-to-use UI. We're also excited about how Google Checkout can help searchers have a fast and secure purchase experience, so the new interface makes it easier to buy with Checkout.<br /><br /><span class="q"> One thing we didn't change is the wide variety of items you can find with Product Search. Perhaps you're looking for a </span><a title="toaster" href="http://www.google.com/products?q=toaster">toaster</a><span class="q">, a</span><a title="wireless router" href="http://www.google.com/products?q=wireless+router&btnG=Search+Products"> wireless router</a><span class="q">, or an </span><a title="apple slicer" href="http://www.google.com/products?q=apple+slicer&btnG=Search+Products">apple slicer</a><span class="q">. Or maybe you're in the market</span> for a <a title="Lego watch" href="http://www.google.com/products?q=kids+lego+watch&btnG=Search+Products">Lego watch</a> (like Jeff's) or a new <a title="longboard" href="http://www.google.com/products?q=loaded+vanguard+bamboo&btnG=Search+Products">longboard</a> (go for Flashback wheels). We<span class="q"> hope this update makes it easier to find whatever you're looking to buy.<br /></span>

Back to basics

Posted by Marissa Mayer, VP, Search & User Experience, and Jeff Bartelma, Product Manager, Google Product Search (the product formerly...

Đọc thêm »

Searching without a query

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Sep Kamvar, Engineering Lead for Personalization</span><br /><br />You already know that search is at the core of everything we do: we want to deliver useful and relevant information every time you do a search. But what about when you don't have a query in mind, or if you just don't feel like typing in a query? Today we're releasing two features that reduce the need for you to type in specific queries to get the information you want. Both of these are available to <a href="http://www.google.com/searchhistory">Search History</a> users.<br /><br />The first is a recommendations button on the Google Toolbar that looks like a pair of dice. Click on the dice, and we'll take you to a site that may be interesting to you based on your past searches. If you want another, just click the dice again and we'll show you a new one. We'll give you up to 50 new sites per day that might be of interest. Just <a href="http://toolbar.google.com/buttons/add?url=http://toolbar.google.com/buttons/defs/picks_for_you.xml">add the button to your Toolbar</a>. (In order to use this feature, you need the <a href="http://toolbar.google.com/">latest version</a> of the Toolbar.)<br /><br />If you prefer to get your information at a glance, we've added a recommendations tab that you can add to your personalized homepage. Simply click on "Add A Tab" on your Google Personalized Homepage, and type in "Recommendations" for the tab name (keep the "I'm feeling lucky" checkbox checked). We'll give you a page of recommendations that are updated daily.<br /><br />Don't expect very much at the beginning, but the more you build up your search history, and the more you use these features, the better they'll become. Over time, we will give you more and better recommendations.

Searching without a query

Posted by Sep Kamvar, Engineering Lead for Personalization You already know that search is at the core of everything we do: we want to deliv...

Đọc thêm »

We're expecting

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Sam Schillace, Engineering Director</span><br /><br />Well, we tried to keep it a secret as long as we could, but to be honest, we've been dying to tell you about the bun we've got in the oven. We'll soon be welcoming a new addition to the Google Docs & Spreadsheets family: presentations.<br /><br />First of all, we want to welcome the team from Tonic Systems to Google. Tonic, which we've just acquired, is based in San Francisco and Melbourne, Australia. They have some great technology for presentation creation and document conversion, and it will be a great addition as we add presentation sharing and collaboration capabilities to Google Docs & Spreadsheets.<br /><br />We've already freed those of you working in teams from the burdens of version control and email attachment overload when going back and forth on word processing and spreadsheets. It just made sense to add presentations to the mix; after all, when you create slides, you're almost always going to share them. Now students, writers, teachers, organizers, and, well, just about everyone who uses a computer can look forward to having real-time, web-based collaboration across even more common business document formats.<br /><br />Our due date is this summer. We promise to share family photos just as soon as we can.

We're expecting

Posted by Sam Schillace, Engineering Director Well, we tried to keep it a secret as long as we could, but to be honest, we've been dying...

Đọc thêm »

An agreement with Clear Channel Radio

<span class="byline-author">Posted by Scott Silverman, Strategic Partner Development Manager</span><br /><br />It's been more than a year since my dMarc Broadcasting colleagues and I <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/pressrel/dmarc.html">joined Google</a>. We've been taking incremental steps toward our long term vision of bringing simplicity, efficiency, and accountability to the buying and selling of radio advertising. To do this, we've fully integrated dMarc technology into Google AdWords, and we've partnered with hundreds of radio stations across the U.S., connecting these broadcasters to new advertisers who in many cases had previously not advertised on radio.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/pressrel/clear_channel_radio.html">Today's announcement</a> of a strategic multi-year agreement with Clear Channel Radio, the largest radio station group owner in the U.S, is an important milestone for us. This new relationship with the leading U.S. radio group gives our advertisers access to guaranteed inventory on top-rated AM and FM stations all over the U.S., making it much easier for them to reach their target customers with radio ads. Since radio advertising is new for Google, we're excited to be able to learn from and collaborate with the market leader and ultimately bring more value to radio.

An agreement with Clear Channel Radio

Posted by Scott Silverman, Strategic Partner Development Manager It's been more than a year since my dMarc Broadcasting colleagues and I...

Đọc thêm »