New Feature in Gmail ” Smart Labels”
Google has added one more feature into their cart. Apart the one they have launched last year “Priority Box” which will automatically sort your incoming mails and leaves an option for priority messages, This new one titled “Smart Labels” will help you to classify and organize your email. In order to access the same you have to turn it on from the Labs tab in settings, post which it will automatically categorizes and labels your incoming Bulk, Notification and Forum messages. All the mass mails such as newsletter and promotional email will go into Bulk and gets filtered in your inbox by default. If you have already activated some filters and labels to organize your mail, you could replace it with Smart Labels.
Blekko banned 1.1 Million Sites from Its Search Engine
It seems that every search engine is having a cleanup. Recently Google has updated their algorithm by giving a boost up for some websites and a downfall for someother as per the quality of the content. Now Blekko is a going a step further by banning 1.1 million websites from its searches. They had already removed around 20 websites including eHow, Answerbag (Demand media), but the main difference between Google and Blekko in updating the algorithm is that while the former had sorted the websites based on the content by demoting the sites, Blekko removed them completely, so that it will never ever appear in Blekko.
Blekko announced on their blog that they have brought out this change with the help of ‘Adspam algorithm” and claim that this algorithm is the first of its kind to find spam rather than rank results. The algorithm is designed to identify pages which are spam and abolish before they appear in search results. They have given an explanation about “Adspam” algorithm in their blog. It says that “is a machine-learning algorithm that examines pages for a specific spam signals — the presence of multiple display ad positions on a single page and thin to zero content. Unlike algorithms used by other search engines, AdSpam is being used in conjunction with human curation to detect to continue the War on Spam.
Bing offers Best Travel results
Bing has been working hard to become a fierce competitor for Google as well as to bring out the best search results. For the same they are coming out with unique search engine experience with their search results and partnerships with big players such as Facebook, Twitter tec. For the last couple of months they brought out many search patterns. Now they have partnered with one of the top travel search site KAYAK to offer the best travel services which can meet all your expectations. This partnership provides a comprehensive travel search results for the users to make decisions fast and easier. You could avail wide list of travel results such as flight fares from multiple cities, airports and airlines in the US. So why waiting, explore Bing’s new feature and analyze whether they had done a good job.
Bing launches “Deals”
Bing have partnered with The Dealmap, to launch Bing Deals. By launching this, Bing offers you an excellent way to navigate the web and get the best results instantly. The Dealmap is a leading source for people to find and share the best local deals, so Bing have just utilized this to provide outstanding results for its users.
You will see “deals” from m.bing.com (iPhone and Android)on the homepage and once you proceed you could access top deals (30%-40% off) featuring the very best offers from your own area/location.
It is not just daily top deals; you could even find the ‘nearby’ places such as restaurants, spas, theaters etc and their special offers and could browse by category to narrow down your search and get accurate results.
Once you find your relevant deal, you could access/ claim from the deal provider or share it with friends via email. You could also see for a business opportunity, Bing will highlight any available bargains below the business listing.
You can also get deals at home on your desktop by searching the name of the business on Bing. If there is a deal, they will display it with a green deal icon. You can avail more information like reviews, images, maps by proceeding with the detail page.
A makeover for Google Profile
Google takes the effort to make you more appealing to the world. Yes they have made some changes on the “Google profile” which they have launched two years back making it easier to control and enhance your public profile. As the new update rolls out, existing users’ profile will get updated automatically to the new style. To update and add to your profile, click on the new “Edit Profile” button. Since the profile is created to give you an online presence, Google will ask you to provide the exact name which you are commonly referred to the real world.
Though this feature is good for individuals, Google will start working for businesses to engage with their customers.
Google updated Google docs with new features
Google has expanded Mobile editing in 44 languages and more page sizes in Google documents. This was apart the one they have launched earlier which was only in English. With this feature in effect, you can edit your documents in 45 languages on Android with Froyo (version 2.2) and on iOS devices (version 3.0+) including the iPad.
Also they have increased the print sizes, now there are eight more print sizes in Google spreadsheets, including tabloid, statement, executive, folio and A3, A5, B4 and B5.
Bing follows Google’s path making search results more Social
After the partnership with Facebook, Bing introduced ‘Liked Results’ in their search results.
I could find some similarity to Google’s updated social search algorithm in which Google produces not only links but also ‘shared’ results of the friends in social circle, such as in Twitter (retweet), Blog, Flicker, YouTube etc (“Facebook Likes’ an exception). And here comes Bing with their new social search partnering with FB, they claim that, this is the first time in human history that people are leaving social traces that machines can read and learn from, and present enhanced online experiences based on the traces.” In other words, Bing produces search results considering the shared links in ones’ social circle too and especially “Facebook Likes”. If your friends had shared or liked something publicly, it will be shown in your search results (once you are logged in)
They have cited an example, It says that “If you are planning a trip to somewhere (For Eg, Washington and wants to find about the stay, a traditional search results shows a long list of weblinks and captions, which would take more time to see them individually to take a decision. But with Bings’ tie up with FB makes your search results more social, For Eg, If your friends who had been to that place and had “liked” that particular place or a hotel, then those results will top in your search which will make it easier for you to refine your search and decide on where you should stay. And Bing says that you may not find “Liked Results” on every query but then if you find then it would be a good experience. They even added on their blog that they continue to work with Facebook to make search more social and relevant.
Google’s ‘Recipe View’ helps you to find better search results for Recipes
Google here comes to help you search results for recipes. For those who search for recipes in Google will get a lot of results which may not be always recipes alone. In the past, once you type the text in the search box, you get results which may not meet the specifications, but with this new feature , you could find the right recipe with ratings, ingredients, and pictures displayed on the search results. You could even narrow down your search, customise, filter the way you want based on the ingredients,cooking time, and calorie count etc. After typing for a recipe or ingredient on Google, select ‘Recipes’ in the left hand panel on the search results page, you get relevant results… it is really amazing .. try it out
Googles’ updated algorithm in effect
To provide the most relevant content for the users, Google has revamped their algorithm recently. Google says that this upgrading is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites (sites which are low-value add or users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful) and claims that it have an impact over 11.8% of the queries. This update also provides better rankings for high quality sites (sites which possess original and good content, in-depth reports, research, analysis etc. Google also adds that these changes not only rely on the feedback, they have received from the “Personal Blocklist Chrome Extension“(which they launched last week) but also from the Blocklist data they have gathered with the sites by their algorithm too. Google consider this as a great step in their commitment towards better user experience and keep working for more updates for page quality. Google is launching this change in the US only, but will roll out around the world soon.
Google updates “Google Social Search”
Google updates “Google Social Search” which they had introduced in 2009 with some advanced features to offer its users with the most relevant information which is also personalized according to the users’ interest and relationship. ‘Google social search”, finds relevant public content from your friends and contacts and highlights it for you at the (bottom in the past but now at the top ) of your search results. With this new updating, Google facilitate you to get even more information from the people related to you, from their YouTube , Flickr, Blogs or website and shows at the top of search results.
But keep in mind that you will only get social search results, when you log in to your Google account
There are mainly three important features which Google highlights:-
First, Social search results will now be combined all through your results based on their relevance. You will start getting results on top from co-workers, friends which they have created or shared. Google has quoted an example for this, it says that; If you are thinking about climbing Mt Kilimanjaro and your colleague Matt has written a blog post about his own experience, then that post will come up with a note and a picture. In the past, results were shown at the bottom
Second, unlike in the past where Google shows results for content that was created by people in your social circle, now they shows results what they have shared also (for eg retweets, exception Facebook Likes) ,. If someone connected to you has shared a link publicly, Google will show those results. Google cites an example on their blog. It says, if you’re looking for a video of President Obama on “The Daily Show” and your friend Nundu tweeted the video, that result might show up higher in your results and you’ll see a note with a picture of Nundu:
And finally, Google provides enough control over how you connect accounts and also makes the same more easy and convenient.Users are provided with two options to connect accounts publicly on your Google profile or privately in your Google Account and your social connections won’t be shown to the public on your Google Profile, but those connections could influence your search results.Also, if Google’s algorithm finds a public account that seems to be yours due to similarity in usernames they invite you to connect your accounts right on search results page in your Google accounts.
These updates have been rolled out in Google.com in English only and by next week only searchers could see it.