Inside Search
The official Google Search blog
Google Finance adds Singapore, Korea and Israel stock exchanges and VIX index
February 25, 2013
Good news if you follow international markets — we added three new stock exchanges as well as the Chicago Board of Exchange indices to Google Finance. Here are just a few examples of stocks and indices that you can now find:
CBOE Index Values:
VIX
Korea Exchange:
Samsung
,
Hyundai
Singapore Exchange:
SingTel
,
Singapore Airlines
Tel Aviv Stock Exchange:
Bank Leumi
,
TA-25 index
Even better, Singapore Exchange stock market data is available in real time. This is the first time Singapore Exchange has provided real time data to an open website, and we’re proud to be the first website to do so.
As always, you can view the full list of the stock exchanges available through Google Finance
here
.
Post Content
Posted by
Karolina Netolicka
, Product Manager
Plan your Valentine’s date night -- even if you’re a bit late to the game
February 12, 2013
You’ve got less than two days before Valentine’s Day -- are your plans in place? If you’re swamped at work and scrambling to find a last minute dinner reservation, flower shop, chocolates, and a romantic spot for that special someone, Google can help you look like a smooth operator, even if you’re just starting to plan now.
Looking for flowers and chocolate?
Simply tap the microphone icon on your
Google Search App on iOS or your Android device
and ask “Where’s the nearest flower shop?” to see where you can pick up roses for that special someone. Hoping to find a delectable box of chocolates nearby? Ask, “Where can I buy chocolate in San Francisco?” In seconds you can swipe through the options, tap to call the shop, and get voice-guided navigation there by car or by public transit.
Find the perfect date spot.
If you’re looking for a new restaurant or hidden romantic spot in your city, Google can help you find the perfect fit. Are you hoping to make dinner anything but ordinary? Ask Google for “restaurants with live music in San Francisco,” and swipe through local options that fit your taste and budget. Looking for a perfect romantic spot or attraction? Say, “Show me pictures of romantic spots in San Francisco,” and swipe through a collection of photos to pick the perfect place.
Whether you’re looking for a little novelty with your significant other or just recently mustered up the courage to ask out a new crush, we hope this makes it a little easier to plan a special outing. Good luck!
Roya Soleimani
, Search Communications Team
Get ready for Game Day with Google
February 1, 2013
As all of you football fans prepare for the San Francisco - Baltimore game this Sunday, we thought we’d pull together some ways to make the most of the Big Game with a little help from Google. From hosting the perfect party to learning more about your favorite players, check out some tips on ways Google can help.
Planning a party for the big game? Ask Google for some help
Whether your party food is wings, dip, chili or nachos, we can all agree on one thing: the messier, the better. You can get your party prep and cooking done without getting your phone too messy, using
Google Voice Search
, hands-free on your tablet or smartphone. With a quick tap of the microphone icon, you can literally ask Google for help:
-Need to buy drinks? Simply ask “what is the closest grocery store?” and we’ll show you the nearest ones to scroll through. With a quick tap, you’ll be there with the help of turn-by-turn navigation.
-Maybe you want to make that cocktail that’s like a Bloody Mary but not quite... ask “what’s a michelada?” -- and you’ll both hear and see the ingredients.
-Once you’re ready to cook, ask “best chili recipes” and see a range of options, or ask “how do I make guacamole?” and find your way to the best sites to answer your question.
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Get the stats on your favorite players
Whether you want to impress fellow fans with your sports trivia, or if you are curious about the guy who scored the last touchdown, Google Search can get instant and more complete answers. Ask about your favorite players, teams, and explore a world of related and connected topics as well.
Indoor stadium and airport views on Google Maps
If you’re one of the lucky fans who gets to see the game in person, you can use
indoor Google Maps
to quickly find your gate, your seat, or some game time snacks at the Superdome.
To access the indoor map, just search for “Superdome” in Google Maps on your Android phone and zoom in to see the stadium floor plan. Search the map to find section numbers, bathrooms and points of interest, and use the numbered floor picker (on the right-hand side) to see maps for each floor.
Make sure you’ve downloaded the
latest version of Google Maps for Android
to access indoor maps.
Watch your favorite ads with Ad Blitz on YouTube
To make it easier to catch up on all the commercials, the
YouTube Ad Blitz channel
in partnership with ADWEEK will let you watch your favorite ads soon as they air live on TV. You can vote for your favorite ad at the end of the game. To learn more about all the new social, gaming, and mobile features in this year’s gallery, visit our
YouTube blog
.
Google Images: faster, more reliable and lets the images do the talking
January 24, 2013
When you’re looking for images, chances are you want to check out more than just one. So we’ve redesigned
Google Images
to make it easier to move through a series of images -- it’s now faster, more reliable and lets the images do the talking.
Instead of sending you over to a whole new page to preview an image, you’ll see a preview of the image in your search results. Once you click on an image, you can quickly flip through the whole set of image previews using your keyboard. Your search results stay in the panel so you don’t lose track of what you were doing; if you want to go back to looking at other search results, you can just scroll down and pick up right where you left off. If you want to check out the website where the image is hosted, you can click on the photo or use the tools available.
The new design is rolling out worldwide over the next few days. Google Images has always been about providing you visual answers. We hope this update makes it easier and even a bit more fun to find the images you’re looking for.
Posted by
Hongyi Li
, Associate Product Manager
Google Handwrite gets easier and faster
January 18, 2013
Since we
launched Google Handwrite last summer
for smartphones and tablets, we’ve been improving recognition quality and also working on a number of features to make it easier and faster to handwrite your searches on Google. You can now distinguish between ambiguous characters, overlap your characters, and write multiple characters at a time in Chinese.
Is it an L, a 1 or an I?
If you’ve tried Handwrite before, you may have had some trouble entering a lowercase “L”, the number “1”, or a capital “I”. Now, we provide alternate interpretations of your characters that you can select above the space bar. Similarly, in Japanese the characters “イ” and “ィ” look nearly identical but are different characters and produce different search results. If Google interprets your handwriting one way and you meant the other, you can now more easily make a correction.
Some overlapping is OK
Compared with tablets, mobile phone screens are smaller and are a little more difficult to write on. Now, instead of squeezing in your letters across the width of the small screen or writing one letter at a time, you can write letters on top of one another. Say you’re in the grocery store and you want to look up a recipe for quiche on your phone. When you write the letters “q”, “u”, “i”, “c”, “h”, and “e”, it’s okay if they overlap and are garbled a bit.
Multiple characters at a time in Chinese
When we first launched last summer, you could only write one Chinese character at a time. Now, you can write more than one character at a time on a line, which makes it much faster and easier to enter your search.
To enable Google Handwrite, go to Google.com on your smartphone or tablet, go to settings, select “Enable” Handwrite, and save the settings. For more tips and tricks, view our
Hilfe-Center
page.
Posted by
Lawrence Chang
, Product Manager
Advanced Power Searching with Google -- Registration Opens Today
January 8, 2013
What historic cafe inspired a poem by a Nobel Laureate? In the last three barista world championships, which winners did not use beans from their home country? If you were preparing a blog post on “Curious Trivia of Coffee Culture,” how would you find the answers to these questions? What else would you discover? Now you can sign up for our
Advanced Power Searching with Google
online course and find out.
Building on
Power Searching with Google
, Advanced Power Searching with Google helps you gain a deeper understanding of how to become a better researcher. You will solve complex search challenges similar to those I posed in my
blog
, or
a Google a Day
, and explore Google’s advanced search tools not covered in the first class.
Oftentimes the most intriguing questions invite you to explore beyond the initial answer, and there’s no single correct path to get there. When looking for questions that can’t be solved with a single query, “search” can quickly turn into “research.” Google Search offers a palette of tools to help you dive deeper into the web of knowledge.
Visit
www.powersearchingwithgoogle.com
to learn more about our online search courses, and review our search tips on the
Power Searching with Google Quick Reference Guide
. Advanced Power Searching begins on January 23 and ends on February 8th.
Posted by
Dan Russell
, Über Tech Lead for Search Quality and User Happiness
A better, faster travel planning experience: 2012 updates
December 19, 2012
(Cross-posted on the
ITA Software By Google
blog)
Google aims to help people turn their intents into actions, lightning fast. For travelers, this means we’re helping to take the complexity out of planning a trip by making it fast and easy for users to find the information they need to plan their next journey. Whether you’re looking for information about flights, hotels, activities or destinations, we have tools to help you -- and they are easily accessible for people on the go. Some of our favorite new functionality is outlined below.
More information, better presentation
This year, we’ve made some changes to the user interface of Flight Search, and added features that offer more information about amenities and fees; we did this to help users feel well-informed, and to help them quickly choose the best itinerary.
For instance, you can now quickly compare multiple destinations and multiple days simultaneously, using live prices, with our recently introduced experimental feature called Flight Explorer. Try it at
www.google.com/flights/explorer
.
Flight Explorer experiment search results page
You can also use a number of new features to tailor your flight shopping:
More easily calculate the total cost of your trip by taking a look at the baggage fees displayed next to each flight option
Choose a flight offering in-air connectivity by viewing a new indicator noting flights that offer Wi-Fi
Consider a little more luxury in the sky by comparing the cost of flying business or first class instead of coach
Easily plan complex itineraries -- such as those including multiple stops, or trips that involve a flight into one city and a return trip from another -- without confusion, using our new, user-friendly interface
Multi-city trip, Wi-Fi availability indicator, upgrade cost and checked baggage fees
Going global
In March,
we made it possible
for users to find flights to more than 500 destinations outside the US. Soon after, we enabled this capability for
any
international destination airport, for flights originating from the US or Canada. Globetrotters can try these features at
www.google.com/flights
, or just type your departure city and destination in the search box.
Results for international destination flight
And late this year, we rolled out localized versions of Hotel Finder in France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Portugal, UK and Ireland. Now, people in those areas can search for and view hotel options in their own language and currency.
Helping people make informed hotel choices
In 2012, we made it even easier to find and book the right hotel for you using Hotel Finder. We also added more content including Zagat reviews and amenities. Hotel Finder now shows the price and availability for a choice of room types.
Pricing information, reviews, hotel details on Hotel Finder
Varying room types on Hotel Finder
You can try these features, and others, at
www.google.com/hotels
.
Empowering road warriors, delivering better destination data
In September, we made it easier for you to find the information needed to plan a trip, whether you’re searching via desktop,
smartphone
or
tablet
.
Soon after, updates to
Google Now
offered a number of ways for you to stay informed while on the go:
Automatic flight status notifications
Updates on weather at your destination
Showcase of events happening nearby
Website suggestions to help you explore as you research things to do
Electronic boarding pass cards for ease of travel
Google now travel cards
Finally, you can
easily
tap into the collective intelligence of the web to uncover a list of information relevant to your destination, using the
Knowledge Graph carousel
-- and hopefully, find inspiration.
Knowledge Graph carousel list of activities in Rome
Stay tuned for more. We think you’ll love what we have coming your way in 2013.
Posted by Jeremy Wertheimer, Vice President, Travel
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