I’m not sure what’s up, but I think Google ate their bags of halloween candy early and got all hyped up like a pre-candycoma-toddler, because they didn’t just make one announcement yesterday for one division like “ooh search is improved,” no, they made announcements in almost every division that upgrades and innovations had hit… all in one day. Google wants to be your provider for all things internet (and to be your BFF), and they’re pretty close to being able to do so, just check out a sample of some of the announcements made yesterday:
Convert, zip & download all of your Google docs– “the “Convert, Zip and Download” feature in Google Docs, which allows you to download a bunch — or all — of your Docs simultaneously. This new feature comes out of a collaboration between the Google Docs engineering team and Google’s Data Liberation Front, a small team of engineers that aims to make it easy for you to transfer your personal data in and out of Google’s services by building simple import and export functions.”
Use Google Voice with your existing number now (hooray!)– “you can now use Google Voice (Google Voice) with an existing phone number. Also notably, you can now add Google (Google) voicemail service to any of the mobile numbers linked to your account. Think of it a bit like Gmail for voicemail.”
Google analytics just got superpowers– “Two new goal types allow you to measure user engagement and branding success on your site. The new goal types allow you to set thresholds for Time on Site and Pages per Visit. Furthermore, you can now define up to 20 goals per profile.” Plus algorithm changes that will get any blogger worked up, go read it now!
Google custom search now has themes and better data– “…rolling out a new set of customizable templates, which let users easily specify how their search results should appear on the page with respect to both layout and theme. …allow site owners to automatically redirect mobile users to a site that’s been optomized for smartphones. The next major announcement is improved support for structured data in search results. Custom Search can take advantage of formats including RDFa, PageMaps, and Microformats. You’ll now be able to incorporate thumbnails and specific actions — say, purchasing an item directly from a result — using this metadata.”
Mobile users can now enjoy auto expanding compose boxes– “Just keep typing until you get near the bottom and then the compose box will magically expand by a few lines! As an added bonus, for all those iPhone users out there, auto-expanding compose boxes take away the need to press and hold to scroll with the magnifying glass!”
