Googleholic for June 27, 2008
Welcome to Googleholic, your bi-weekly fix of everything Google!
In this edition:
- New Google Mobile homepage
- Improved search results for BlackBerry
- Free Google webinar for webmasters
- Google Finance data API released
- Google Media Server gadget
New Google Mobile homepage
Google has just relaunched their mobile.google.com page and it is now much easier to get Google content, applications and tools on your mobile phone. The new site has icons for the most popular phone brands/types (BlackBerry, iPhone, Windows Mobile, etc.) and features information about what mobile products are available for your phone. You can either enter in your phone number and receive a link to download all the Google apps, or visit m.google.com with your phone for direct access.
In the past, it has been overly difficult to access all of Google's mobile tools, so this is a great improvement.
[via Official Google Mobile Blog]
Improved search results for BlackBerry
The Mobile homepage isn't the only mobile tool that has received an update -- BlackBerry users rejoice, Google's search results have just been improved for Crackberry addicts.Search results are now displayed by blending the different areas of Google (News, Blog Search, Product Search, etc.) onto one screen instead of separate sections, which can be hard to manage on a small screen (and with BlackBerry's crappy default browser), the snippets are longer, so we can now have a better idea if the result works or not, and related searches are tagged onto the end.
Speaking for myself, I was starting to feel left out -- what with Android and all the Google specific iPhone tools -- it's about time the Berry got more love!
[via Official Google Mobile Blog]
Free Google webinar for webmasters
Google has three really great services for webmasters, Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools and Google Website Optimizer. On July 8, 2008, Google will be holding a free cross-product webinar covering those services and teaching users how to utilize the power of all three tools to get better performance from their sites.
All three tools can be used individually, but the real power comes from using them together to get a more complete overview of how your site is performing, ranking and converting.
To register for the event, which will be online at 9:00 a.m. PT, click here
[via Official Google Blog]
Google Finance data API released
The data API for Google Finance portfolios has just been released. This means that developers can create software that uses information from your portfolio n your desktop, homepage or mobile phone. Google Finance has made huge improvements in the last few months and there is some great potential for some great programs to take advantage of the portfolio API data. Just think -- you could build a screening system or custom computations based on what is on your portfolio!
[via Official Google Finance Blog]
Google Media Server gadget
For Windows users who are interested in accessing media from across different devices, Google has just released a VERY cool gadget for Google Desktop. Google Media Server. The gadget allows sharing of media over UPnP (Universal Plug n'Play). You can share either all media indexed by Google Desktop or just select files and folders.
A few caveats, not all UPnP devices are created equal. The PS3 will work with the gadget, but the XBox 360 will only work with Microsoft servers (or servers that say they were made by Microsoft, something Google's legal team prevented them from doing, natch), but there are lots of other media boxes out there that will work.
[via Google Operating System]
