Posts About ‘News’

Search By Image With Knowledge Graph

Google recently introduced the Knowledge Graph, a big database filled with information about persons, places and more. Currently the Knowledge Graph is only implemented within Google.com, if it’s relevant the search engine will show more information related to the query.

For some time now Google Image Search has got a functionality to search by uploading an image. After you upload an image Google will try to recognize the image and gives back the best guess for the image and visually similar images plus search results related to the best guess.

These two things, Knowledge Graph and Search by Image are now combined. When Google recognizes the uploaded image the Knowledge Graph will kick in if relevant next to the search results. You can see this below in the screenshot, I uploaded a picture of Chuck Norris and immediately Google show more information about the world-famous actor from the Nineties. (more…)

Google Shuts Down iGoogle, Google Video and More

Ever since Larry Page took his reign back from Eric Schmidt at Google one trend has been prominent: saying goodbye to products which are of no use anymore to Google. We’ve seen many products being closed in the past year or so and now we can add several more to them, amongst which iGoogle and Google Video. (more…)

Bing Let’s You ‘Dissavow’ Links

Bing has launched a new feature in their Bing Webmaster Tools which allows you to ‘disallow’ links pointing at your site. You can now say you don’t want to be associated with a certain link and the ‘value’ of that link will not be counted in Bing’s algorithm.

The feature is something which can prevent negative SEO efforts, people buying links and pointing them at your site for example, but it is also useful for ‘cleaning up your act’ if you have foul links. It might also be a help stop those e-mailing other sites to take down links, threatening with legal actions. It sure is a feature which many people would love to see on Google as well. (more…)

Google Keeps Testing New SERP Changes

Two more new design tests by Google have been ‘spotted’ in the wild. The first one is a follow up to the one we saw last week. The second one show more mixture in the local results but also might just be a bug.

As you know Google tests out a lot. Many of these tests just ‘disappear’ into nothing. A few people see the tests, they didn’t work, and then Google pulls them. When tests start returning, sometimes in a little bit different format, it’s an indication that something is up. Google now seems serious about the tests on their new design without the left sidebar and is changing their local results. (more…)

New Google Interface Tests Show Up

We know that Google is constantly testing new stuff. Whether it is a new feature or a new design, they always test ‘in the wild’, meaning that actual users get the new features or design to see how they respond.

Now a new test has shown up, one which is mainly about the User Interface, the design of the search result page. In particular the navigational part. In this design the sidebar is completely gone and we see a new type of top navigation. (more…)

Google Supporting Gay Marriage With Easter Egg?

A few weeks ago Eric Schmidt told a group of Dutch students that Google always tries to be impartial when it comes to political matters. They feel they shouldn’t take stand and even though Eric Schmidt has been linked to the Democrats before and Obama has spoken at Google, they claim not to have a preference.

On one matter however Google has always been clear: it supports the gay community and gay marriage. Sergey Brin actually took a pretty solid stand towards Proposition 8 in California in 2008.

At the moment the discussion about gay marriage again comes up in the US and it might seem as if Google again is taking stand. The fact that its in the news is actual a coincidence with what happens if you do a search for “Gay” or “Gay marriage” on Google you will get this result:

As said, this is not directly related to the news, it is something which Google has done in different formats over the years as you can see on the screens on Michel’s post on his own blog. But it is a nice coincidence for those supporting the purpose.

Google+ Snippets Show up in Site Connected Search Results

Google wants Google+ to be a succes, after all it is the idea that everything Google does moves over to the Google+ infrastructure. That means the more people use it, the better. Also because that is the data that Google gathers to then give us back information in for example the search results which is tailored to our needs.

As Maile Ohye explained in a video earlier this week one thing which is important here is trust. As searchers we want to see what the people we trust are sharing. As a website owner we want people with authority to share our content. And in search all the identity and trust levels are integrated.

Today I did a search on Google and found the result below:

(more…)

Bing Testing New Design in the UK

We sometimes catch Google tests in the wild, even though most of the State of Search bloggers are based in Europe. That is because Google tends to test broader than just the US (even though US does get the most attention from Google).

With Bing its different, since they focus mainly on the US, maybe because of the market share. So when they do test here its news. Maybe not big news, but still news.

It now seems as if Bing is testing the new designs, which they have been testing in the US already, in the UK. According to Webpronews a version is being tested which has a new homepage design and in which the search results are cleaner. (more…)

Euro 2012: Google Streetview Lets You be There

So Euro 2012 is well under way, the first matches have been played, each country knows where it stands. Our traveling blogger Jo has already seen the first matches with locals, keep an eye on that. There is a lot going on around the games and there are many fans from the different teams present in the Ukraine and Poland. However, most people watch the games from home or in the pub. They don’t get to see the stadiums from inside.

Luckily there is Google Streetview. Somehow the Streetview cars have made their way inside the stadiums and they took pictures. You now can virtually walk around the grounds on which your countries team is playing. We’ve lined them up for you below.