From The Original Search Page Until Now

Over the years, that main Google page has not changed much, but now there is much more going on behind the scenes.  “Googling” something has slowly evolved into a very intelligent, yet simple, way to find information on any topic imaginable.  Over the last year, Google has introduced new search technology like Social Search and Location Aware Mobile Searching.  And now, almost entirely under the radar, some new features have emerged from the Google Labs to further “enhance the experience of searching and help you find exactly what you’re looking for.”

Thanks to an update of the Official Google Blog, the latest updates to the Google search experience have been detailed and displayed for our viewing and surfing pleasure.  Marissa Mayer (VP Search Products & User Experience) posted This week in search 6/6/10, in which she detailed the new Spelling Correction Features, Mobile App Results and Changing Your Google Background Image.  I’ve taken some time to review these new features and here is what they have to offer:

Spelling Corrections

Have you typed in some keywords before, only to see that Google has caught your mistake and offered up the “Showing results for….” text at the top of the search?   That search enhancement (shown below) was great, but meant that the mistake was not caught until you had already run your query.

Spell Check in Your Results

Now, “If you’re typing a query for which there are no search completions to offer, and yet some of your search terms do seem to be misspelled, Google Suggest will now offer a ‘Did you mean’ suggestion for your query—giving you an option to correct your spelling right away and get on with your search.”

Spell Check While You are Typing

Mobile App Results

Smart-phone and iPad/iPod Touch users out there have a new feature to ooh and aah over.  As Marissa Mayer states “In an effort to make apps even easier to find, this week we launched a new feature for mobile search that helps users on Android-powered devices and iPhones find and download mobile apps.  So the next time you’re looking for the latest action game, multimedia app or travel tool on your phone, we’ll show you a special result at the top of your mobile search results showing basic information about the app you’re looking for, including title, price and publisher.”

Search for "Weather App" on Android Device

This feature is fantastic because it will help introduce time-saving apps that we might never have found out about from “normal” channels.  As demonstrated by the screenshot above, it seems that simply adding the word “app” triggers this Marketplace search on an Android device.  A search on an iPod Touch/iPhone with the same keywords (weather app) resulted in similar results.  The only difference was that the Weather Channel and Weather Channel Max apps appeared in those results.

Search for "Weather App" on iPod Touch

Background Image for Google Searches

An entire article, titled Freeze frame!, went up on the Google Blog last week to highlight this new feature.  In short, you can now customize your searching experience with a favorite photo or image on the background of the Google homepage.  Place your own photo or choose something from a Picasa Web Album/public gallery.

A Custom Background of Me at the MS150

From the Google blog: “To get started, head to google.com and look for the “Change background image” link in the lower left-hand side of the page. Keep an eye out for more fun announcements with this feature!”  Who knows what wonderful features they have in store for us.

Start using these new features today and keep an eye on the Official Google blog for more updates on exciting search features and more.

Related Articles on Google Searches from JumpstartMyPC.com

Google Social Search is Coming! Are You Prepared?
Google Search Suggestions – Not Just for Jokes Anymore
Searching the Future with Google Alerts

Wallpaper FAIL!

Of all the articles I have written and research I have done, no topic seems to be as popular as wallpaper.  Believe it or not, it seems that more people are drawn to dressing up their desktop than making their computer run faster.  I sure can’t blame anyone for pursuing a pleasant scene to stare at for hours a day, I was just surprised when I saw the numbers.  Luckily for you desktop connoisseurs, I recently stumbled onto an article over at digital inspiration (via lifehacker.com) that outlines the benefits of using bing (the search engine) for wallpaper hunting.  You don’t want to miss the details.

The original article on digitalinspiration.com, written by Amit Agarwal, outlines how you can use the bing image search to find wallpaper that fits your screen.  While this may not seem like a difficult task to most, picking the proper image size for a desktop background can be more difficult than you think.  In order to really explain the benefits of the “bing wallpaper search” I want to take a step back and demonstrate the “old” method for hunting down wallpaper and compare the two.

Screen Resolution

The screen resolution of your computer is defined by the number of pixels shown horizontally and vertically.  If you right-click on your desktop and choose properties (screen resolution for Vista and 7 users), you can access the “display properties” and see what your computer is currently set at.

In short, you want to pick a wallpaper that matches, or comes very close to, your screen resolution.  By doing this, the image will be crisp and undistorted.  Faces won’t look stretched or too narrow and shapes like circles and squares will be shown properly.  It may seem like a small detail, but you are going to be staring at the screen for the majority of the day, right?

As an example, I have taken a screen shot from my laptop (shown to the right).  Based on the screen resolution (1280 x 800), I should be looking for images that were created/saved at the same size.

Finding Images – Old Method

Until recently, you were confined to searching through individual web sites for images that matched your resolution.  Great sites like vladstudio.com made it easy to choose an image, if you already knew your resolution, but only gave you a small sampling of what the internet had to offer.   Here is an example of the choices in screen resolution from vladstudio.com.  When you include the standard screen resolutions, cell phone screen sizes, dual monitor and triple monitor setups there are over 50 choices for that one desktop image.

VladStudio Has Options - Do you know which one to pick?

Google came along and added size “filtering” to their image searches, giving you a way to narrow down images to a size you could use.  This handy tool is available (over on the left-hand side under “any size”) for every image search you do on Google, but you still have to know your resolution when searching.

Google Filtering

Now – bing Wallpaper search

Finally, we have moved on to a reason that I might actually start using bing for some searches.  Their new Wallpaper size filter allows you to search for anything and simply filter for wallpapers that match your screen resolution.  You don’t have to know what that screen resolution is in advance.  That piece of information is transmitted every time you visit a web site (along with your operating system, IP address and some other tidbits).

bing Wallpaper filter

To access this great new tool, simply search for an image and then look for the “Size” filter over on the left-hand side of the screen.  One problem (if you can call it that) that I have noticed is bing doesn’t register dual-monitor setups.  It’s a small price to pay for this fantastic functionality.

Our friends at Lifehacker posted a great article about ScreenCatch this morning that introduced me to the product and I couldn’t pass up on the opportunity to share it with my readers.  The author Jason Fitzpatrick wrapped up the concept of ScreenCatch perfectly: “If you’re looking for a lightweight – 193k! – and portable screen capture tool without tons of features you’ll never use, ScreenCatch is a good match.”

While the program is meant to be simple and efficient, it still packs many of the features that the average user will need:

• Handy Windows Application (doesn’t require installation!)
• Take screenshots from within the application or by double clicking the taskbar logo
• Easily crop and annotate your screenshot before uploading
• Uploads directly to their server and gives you a direct link to the screenshot online, where you can discuss the image
• Options to Save and Load images on your computer
• Images are online indefinately & are timestamped on their server. This means the upload date cannot be altered!

An Example of a ScreenCatch Image