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Google has just added a useful button to its mobile homepage – tagged “near me now”, this feature lets you search by using your location as the query. Currently available for iPhone and Android phone users in the U.S., “Near me now” utilizes GPS for determining your whereabouts and then searches for results near your location. The new Google mobile homepage feature lets you easily search for popular categories of nearby places. Just by clicking or tapping on the “Near me now” link right on the Google mobile homepage, you will find categories of places. And if you want more you can just select the “browse more categories” link. You can also explore the whereabouts of specific locations including reviews or rants of other people about a specific restaurants and their menus and services. To use this feature, make sure that the location feature of your iPhone, Nexus One or other Android phones is activated. Then visit google.com your phone’s browser and you can easily spot the “Near me now” tab. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Google Adds “Near Me Now” to its Mobile
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feature,
google-adds,
iphone,
location,
mobile,
mobile-homepage,
mobile-search,
people,
phone,
search engine news,
search-engine,
seo,
tools
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Last time I shared a quick tip on how SEJ tools help to analyze your design . Today I am going to share another feature that allows to quickly collect your off-page stats (I say quickly because that’s actually the best part about the tool: there’s nothing there you can’t do yourself but with it you’ll save much time). Quality analyzer (the feature hides behind RESEARCH tab) is the tool that for any given URL generates the following report : The number of pages indexed by Google (as reported by SITE: operator); The number of pages indexed by Yahoo (as reported by SITE: operator); Backlinks in Google (Google’s link: operator); Backlinks in Yahoo; .EDU links (in Yahoo); .GOV links (in Yahoo); Domain age; Domain expiration; Google PageRank; Alexa Traffic rank; Presence in Dmoz. While I understand there are more similar tools, there are a few things I like about this report: Quick links to details (many similar tools lack this basic feature): click through to detailed results on Google or Yahoo; Easy scoring : I like it that 100 is taken as the maximum score, this makes it easier to understand how much you still need to catch on; Up to a point : only necessary information; it doesn’t list any extra superfluous info. All in all, that’s an easy way to evaluate where your site currently stands. Enjoy! Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Analyze Your Current Off-Page Stats with SEJ
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current,
design,
feature,
google-page,
makes-it-easier,
search-engine,
seo,
tool,
yahoo
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Citing reliable sources, TechCrunch is reporting that Google may be on the brink of acquiring yet again another company. Interestingly, this company called DocVerse provides service that allow users to work together around Microsoft Office documents. And if this push through, DocVerse will be receiving around $25 million from Google. DocVerse was founded by Shan Sinha and Alex deNeui who are both former Microsoft product strategist, with Sinha was connected with Microsoft’s SharePoint and SQL Server, while deNeui was worked on Microsoft SQL Server web strategy. What’s interesting is the fact that DocVerse may be overlapping in functionality with Google Docs. Both Google Docs and DocVerse allow users to collaborate real time on documents. But this could very well be traced to the fact that Microsoft is planning to push this feature to Office 2010 to compete with Google Doc. So, there’s no other way for Google to retaliate to this by acquiring DocVerse since Google Docs can’t pretty much compete with Microsoft Office 2010. Although the deal was said to be not finalized yet, it is already in the works. So expect Google to announce this purchase probably this week. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Google Planning to Buy
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fact,
feature,
google docs,
google-planning,
office,
purchase,
search engine news,
search-engine,
seo,
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Google has introduced two new search-related features – universal search features to Google Suggest and Quick Scroll extension for Google Chrome. Both features are aimed at making it easier and faster for users to find the information they need and are good examples of how Google is extending the power of Google search beyond the results page. Universal search feature adds more suggested search terms beneath the Google search box after you’ve typed in your search query. So instead of getting the answers to search specific search query on the results page itself, the answer to search query can now be displayed below the suggested terms. This feature is of course available only for search queries with direct and specific answers. Google has also introduced a new Google Chrome Extension called Quick Scroll. What this Chrome extension does is to let you use Google search features even after you leave the search results pages – that is after you’ve clicked on a search results link and you are now actually on the search result. Quick Scroll will display a small black box on the lower right portion of the screen. This box contains snippets of text culled from the page content that you viewing. And these texts are clickable and are anchored on specific parts of the page. It’s like a research assistant. You can use this feature only if you’ve installed Google Chrome 4 beta and have enabled the Chrome Extension feature. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Google’s Universal Search Suggest & Quick Scroll Chrome
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answers,
chrome,
feature,
google-chrome,
google-suggest,
quick-scroll,
results,
search,
search-engine,
seo
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So aside from real-time search , Google is also embarking on a more ambitious and yet a possibly useful feature, this time for its mobile search service . These new features will allow you to do mobile search by voice, location maps and visual imagery. Mobile Search by Voice – This mobile search was introduced last year, and after a successful run, Google is now making this feature available in several new languages including – Japanese, joining English and Mandarin. In the long-run, Google hopes to combine voice recognition-powered search with Google’s translation service. Mobile Search by Location – What’s Nearby feature is being rolled out for Google Maps running on Adroid 1.6 devices. This feature gives you a list of the ten closes places to your current location. This feature basically answers the perennial question “What’s around here, anyway?” Mobile Search by Visual Images aka Google Goggles – Now it the most ambitious feature among the three new features of Google mobile search. Supporting again Android 1.6 devices, Google Goggles lets you search for objects using images rather than words. So, you just need to take a photo of any object you encounter in real-life and if Google recognizes it will return relevant search results. Google Goggles currently supports landmarks, works of arts and products. These new features are pretty exciting indeed. If only they will be made available for other devices such as the iPhone. Or perhaps, these could be good reasons to get an Android phone now. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Google Experiments on New Features of Mobile
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feature,
google goggles,
iphone,
japanese,
location,
mobile,
mobile-search,
relevant-search,
search,
search-engine,
time,
tools,
visual-images,
voice
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To access all (but one) Google services listed here while not online you will need to install Gears FireFox addon which lets web applications interact naturally with your desktop and stores web data locally in a fully-searchable database. Her’s a quick overview of which Google services are available in the offline mode and what exactly you’ll be able to do:
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calendar,
data,
desktop,
feature,
google-reader,
green,
internet,
location,
network,
offline,
reader,
seo,
tool,
tools
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Parents who continues to worry that their kids might still encounter sexually explicit web sites even when they have Google’s SafeSearch feature on can now rest easy. Google has just made SafeSearch safer with the introduction of a locking feature. The lock feature brings SafeSearch to the stricktest level of filtering that Google can possibly provide to users, says a post from the Official Google Blog. To activate this feature, just visit the “search settings” and enter your password to turn the feature on. Once activated, you’ll know that SafeSearch is locked if you see some colored balls on top of the page. Once this colored balls disappear, you’d know that you should turn on the lock again. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Google Puts a Lock on SafeSearch
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balls-on-top,
feature,
kids,
official,
official-google,
password,
search engine news,
search-engine,
stricktest,
the-stricktest,
tools,
your-password