Inside Search
The official Google Search blog
A new year, a new Trends
December 18, 2013
We hope you enjoyed exploring the year in searches yesterday as part of the annual
Year-End Google Zeitgeist
. Now that you've had a chance to see the
video
, explore the
charts
, and dive into what's on people's minds everywhere from
Sydney to Omaha
, you may be interested to learn about some updates to Google Trends that can extend the Zeitgeist experience year-round. As of yesterday, you'll see a number of updates to help you discover interesting tools and stories, find locally relevant information, and do it all on the go on your mobile phone.
A new homepage to help you discover.
In the past, when you landed on Google Trends, you'd see the most recent Hot Searches. But Trends can help you do much more than just see what's trending each day. With Top Charts, you can explore how different topics stack up against each other, from
athletes
, to song lyrics, to
stocks
. You can also search or click "Explore In-Depth" and look up detailed reports for any topic you want (including
entities
and topics). We've been amazed by the
stories
people
come up with
using Trends, and the new homepage is designed to help you dive in and make your own discoveries.
Top Charts in 72 countries, Hot Searches in 47.
If you're interested in trends outside the US, we hope you'll enjoy a more locally relevant experience with three updates. First, now you'll find annual
Top Charts
for 72 countries (was US-only before). There's plenty to dig into, with 1,000+ annual charts for 2013 and 2,000+ from previous year’s Zeitgeist lists. Second, if you want to see what's hot right now in Vietnam, or Colombia, or Italy -- now you can -- with Hot Searches in 47 countries (up from 14). Finally, you'll find support for right-to-left scripts (RTL) and six new languages (Arabic, Bengali, Farsi, Hebrew, Malay, and Malayam). To check out all the local Top Charts and Hot Searches, select a region in the upper left-hand corner of Google Trends.
A fast mobile experience.
Now when you land in Vietnam, not only can you check out what's hot locally with Top Charts and Hot Searches, you can finally do it on your mobile phone in an optimized experience. You'll find a much more efficient and touchable interface, enabling you to check out what's Trending, who's topping the charts, or even explore complex search data… all while you're on the go.
Posted by Nemo Tamir, Software Engineer
Voice Search gets an international upgrade
December 5, 2013
Parlez-vous français? Sprechen Sie Deutsch? あなたは日本語が話せますか？
Well if you do speak French, German, or Japanese, Google can now help you find information faster by speaking out answers to your questions in your native language. English speakers have been hearing Google respond to their spoken queries for a while and we're now bringing some of the functionality to people in other parts of the world.
To try it out, simply tap the microphone in the search box and ask for anything you’re looking for. If you need some coffee in Munich, just say “Wo bekomme ich Kaffee in München?” to get a list of local options. Wondering what the height of the Eiffel tower is? Get a quick answer by asking, “Quelle est la hauteur de la Tour Eiffel?”. Maybe you need to know who invented the transistor ? Try asking in Japanese for “トランジスタを発明したのはだれ？”
You’ll now get spoken answers to many of your questions in French, German, and Japanese with the Google Search app on your Android phone as well as iPhone or iPad — just make sure you have the latest version of the app installed.
Stay tuned as we work to add more languages so you can have a conversation with Google in more and more places around the world.
Posted by Kartik Murthy, Product Manager, Google Search
The power of Search, now across apps
December 4, 2013
A task as simple as choosing a movie to see can actually be complex — and the information you want can be in several different places, often in apps. Y
ou might get your trivia from IMDb, the box office stats from Wikipedia and ratings from Rotten Tomatoes.
Starting today, Google can save you the digging for information in the dozens of apps you use every day, and get you right where you need to go in those apps with a single search. Google Search can make your life a little easier by fetching the answer you need for you — whether it’s on the web, or buried in an app.
Getting you there faster
Let’s say you’re getting ready for the holidays but can’t remember the name of that classic Christmas movie you want to show your children. Now, you can use Google search to find the movie and learn more about it in one of your favorite apps.
Helping you find just the right app
Sometimes, the best answer for a search can be an app. Say you want to explore downhill skiing — now, you can just ask Google for downhill skiing apps and get a collection of useful apps.
These new features are rolling out now on Android (through the
Google Search app
or directly in Chrome and Android browsers). App listings from Google Play will appear in search when they’re relevant. You’ll be able to search within a select number of apps initially (
learn more
). We’re working with developers to add more over the coming months (if you’re a developer,
learn more
).
This is just one step toward bringing apps and the web together, making it even easier to get the right information, regardless of where it’s located.
Posted by Scott Huffman, VP of Engineering
An easier way to explore topics and entities in Google Trends
December 3, 2013
You may have noticed it's easy to get tripped up measuring the wrong thing using Google Trends. When you look up "rice," are you measuring search interest in Rice University or the rice you eat? When you look up "Gwyneth Paltrow" how can you be sure you're counting all the common misspellings? Starting today, you'll find new topic reports to help you more easily measure search interest in the people, places and things you care about.
In the past, if you wanted to compare search interest in Rice and Harvard, you might get a report
something like this
:
Now when you start typing into the search box you'll see new topic predictions. Type "rice" and you'll see predictions for "Rice University (University)" and "Rice (Cereal)." This makes it easy to do a
fairer comparison.
In addition to helping with ambiguous search terms like "rice," the new feature also automates counting many different searches that probably mean the same thing. So, when you measure interest in "
Gwyneth Paltrow (Actress)
" our algorithms count many other searches that mean the same thing "Gweneth Paltrow," "Gwen Paltro," etc. As our systems improve, we may even count searches like "Lead actress in Iron Man." This can be particularly useful for topics that are commonly searched with misspellings and in different languages.
Topic reports are a beta feature and we want to get your feedback. To start, you'll find data for more than 700,000 unique topics from
Barack Obama
to
football (soccer)
to
Hayao Miyazaki
, and you can slice the data to measure search interest worldwide or in any of the following seven countries: Brazil, France, Germany, India, Italy, UK, and US. We'll continue to improve the accuracy and comprehensiveness of the data, and as we do we'll add topics and expand to support new regions.
Posted by Gil Ran, Software Engineer
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