The Many Faces Of Google

Google recently announced a number of new services at Google Press Day.

They included Google Trends, Google Desktop, Google Co-op, and Google Notebook. Below is an overview of each one and what they might mean for you.

Google Trends:

Google Trends provides insight into broad search patterns. Using this tool, you can find which markets are hot and which ones are gaining speed.

Of course, you can also use it to answer a number of interesting questions.

• Is Xbox more popular than PlayStation?

• Is Digg bigger than Slashdot?
• Is Harry Potter more popular than the Da Vinci Code?

No matter how you use it, it is certainly a very interesting tool.

Google Desktop:

This is a desktop application that provides full text search over your email, computer files, music, photos, chats, and even Web pages that you have previously viewed. With Google Desktop, you can search your computer as easily as you search the Web.

Google Desktop 4 has been released with “Google Gadgets,” allowing you to add a wide variety of gizmos to your computer. You can easily place clocks, weather globes, media players, and news headlines directly onto your desktop.

Google Notebook:

Notebook is a notes window that follows you from the Google search results to the sites you visit, allowing you to take notes of the information you collect as you journey across the internet.

Google Notebook is similar to online sites such as Backpackit and Furl.

It allows you to add pictures, text and links to your own virtual notebook. If you want, you can even make your notes public.

This product launch probably won’t cause major changes online, but it is an interesting tool, nonetheless.

Google Co-Op:

Of the four new product announcements made at Google Press Day, Google Co-op looks to have the greatest potential impact. This service allows users to subscribe to the “bookmarks” of experts in hopes that the relevance of search results will be improved.

The product manager for Google Co-op, Shashi Seth, described Google Co-op as follows: “Anyone can contribute. We expect it to work in a three-part process. At the first stage, the contributor will ask users to subscribe with specific pieces, relying on user trust and desire to utilize their content. At the initial stage contributors will ’sell’ the Co-op product on their own sites and bring their own audience. Then we will tally how often they are used and the level of interaction and whether to build a signal. As confidence increases, the contributor has a better chance of getting into the Google Co-op directory. Once they are in the directory, it will make it easier for others to subscribe. And finally, with more quality proven, the information may affect Google Search itself.”

Basically, Google Co-op allows web masters to improve search results in the topics they know best.

To find out more about how you can take part in this exciting Google development, visit unleashthetraffic.com

[Kim Roach]

[tags]google,google desktop,google trends,google co-op,google notebook[/tags]