The Google team has been busy lately (well, they always are, aren’t they?). They’ve got the blogosphere buzzing about some new items about to be unveiled, including its new Fast Flip, a neat new feature called Image Swirl, and the much-talked about Google Phone.
Fast Flip Approaching Reality
It could be a response to Rupert Murdoch’s recent attack on Google News – Google is getting ready to unveil its Fast Flip, to be integrated into its Google News program.
The new Google Fast Flip is intended to present a more branded approach to Google’s News program. It was recently reported on Search Engine Land that a page had been located indicating Google’s readiness to unveil its new program.
The new design is already serving contextually targeted display ads.
Google itself has said that it has been testing Fast Flip for the past few weeks, to explore how exactly they would like to incorporate the program. It had this to say about what it hopes to learn from the testing: “We hope to learn whether including Fast Flip results in Google News would provide a good experience for users and news publishers.”
Image Swirl Makes Image Search Easier
Google has also unveiled a neat new feature in its Google Labs, which is meant to make image search easier.
Image Swirl allows users to search for an image, from which they will be presented a results page that looks more like a piece of artwork than anything. The searcher will be presented with a grid with about 12 thumbnails, stacked with images relating directly to the searched topic. When the user clicks on any of the 12 stacks, a cluster of similar images appears to its side, which swirl to produce associated images.
The feature bears a striking resemblance to its competitor Bing’s image search released just a few months back. This one, however, implements Picasa’s Face Recognition and Similar Images. Currently there are two million possible queries accessible through Image Swirl, with more, no doubt, on the way.
There is also talk of image recognition advancing to the point that image metadata will become a redundant thing of the past, but that’s not likely around the corner. Google can’t reveal when the Image Swirl feature will be available in regular image search (since, as it says, the underlying technology is a work in progress).
The Google Phone: It’s coming
And finally, some very exciting news for gadget lovers: Google is going hard(ware). Michael Arrington at Tech Crunch revealed recently that the Google phone is no longer just a rumor. The company is already making plans to sell their own branded phone directly, and through online retailers. Though they were hoping to have the phone ready to buy for the holidays, the release date has been pushed back to early 2010.
Kaila Krayewski is a freelance journalist with a passion for all things internet. Having worked for nearly two years as the public relations manager for an internation search engine optimization company, and publishing hundreds of articles (how-to, informational, and otherwise) on SEO, she knows a thing or two about the field. Furthermore, having just started up her own website blondetraveler.com, she is doing her best to keep one step ahead of the search engines in order to keep the traffic flowing.
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