Tuesday, July 13, 2004

Google’s Next Steps

After Google aquired Picasa, and new rumours on Google’s video search plans surface [via Battelle], here are my predictions of what we will see next at Google:

• Gmessenger - A free and unobtrusive chat client, competing with AIM, MSNM, YIM, et al.

• Google Videos - Search through videos; see thumbnail image previews.

• Google Audio - Find music online.

• Gmail Public - Google’s service stepping out of Beta and going public. August 1st sounds like a good date.

• Google Blogs - A Google blog search, similar to what Technorati is doing. (This is long overdue and relatively easy considering Google’s other achievements.)

• Gphoto - Put up your photo album, with 1 gigabyte of storage free of charge.

• Google Image Comparison - Upload an image to see similar images. This might become a Google Images add-on which will stay in beta for two years, like most new Google services.

• Google Live Connect - If two people happen to search for the same things, they are offered a chat connection with each other.

• Google Instant Answer - This might take some more years – Google answering your questions, fully automated (a la FindForward’s answer feature, but with no major misses).

• Google Maps Worldwide - Google extending local search, map features, yellow pages and so on to cover the whole globe.

• Google Library - Wasn’t there a Project Ocean in which Google scanned a lot of books?

• Google IRC Search - Of course there will be privacy discussions again, but the chat network IRC contains too much valuable information to not be monitored.

• Google understanding image content - See previous post.

• Google Speech Search - Technology should soon allow to do reasonable full-text search on words occurring in audio files, similar to what Speechbot is doing, but on much larger scale.

Google’s Next Steps by Philipp Lenssen

Yahoo Shortcuts

Yahoo shortcuts are somewhat less known than their Google counterpart, but they are not less powerful. Here are examples from the Yahoo help:

Search type	Syntax	Search Sample*
Area code	[3-digit area code]	408
Gas Prices	gas [zip code]	gas 48201
Maps	[street address] [city] [state]	22 5th ave new york ny
Traffic Reports	[city] traffic	los angeles traffic
Yellow Pages	[city] [state] [type of business]	pittsburgh pa plumber
Weather	[city] weather	boise weather
Zip Codes	zip code [city]	zip code chattanooga
Movie Showtimes	showtimes [zip code]	showtimes 90028
News	news [topic]	news elections
Sports Scores	[team] scores	yankees scores
Stock Quotes	quote [ticker symbol]	quote yhoo
Airport Information	[city or airport code] airport	jfk airport
Exchange Rates	convert [currency] to [currency]	convert dollars to yen
Flight Tracker	[airline name] [flight number]	american 123
Hotel Finder	[city] hotels	las vegas hotels
Aircraft Registration	[N-number]	n924an
Book Price Finder	[ISBN]	0764507621
Dictionary Definitions	define [word]	define pulchritudinous
Encyclopedia Lookup	[topic] facts	dinosaur facts
Package Tracker	fedex [tracking code] usps [tracking code]	1z9999999999999999
Synonym Finder	synonym [word]	synonym repetitive
UPC (Bar) Codes	[12-digit UPC Code]	035000741189
U.S. Patents	patent [number]	patent 6588078
Vehicle History	[VIN]	zffyt53a510122724
Calculator		5.77 * (258+477)
Time Zones	time in [city]	time in copenhagen
Weights and Measures Converter	convert [amount] [units] to [units]	convert 2 miles to inches

*Most of the special searches work for the US only. Then there is the weather search which I found works for Europe as well, but actually goes ahead to show Fahrenheit instead of Celsius. Other search types, like the new calculator, or the encyclopaedia look-up, can be useful to everyone.

Yahoo Shortcuts by Philipp Lenssen

Bitoogle

If you are searching for Fahrenheit 9/11 or other BitTorrent files, the new Google-based Bitoogle is for you. [Via Capt. Cornelius.]

BitTorrent is a way to download and share all kinds of files – like movies, music, or pictures. Michael Moore was in the news recently because he stated he wouldn’t object to non-commercial sharing of his new documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11, which is available as torrent file (and was also briefly available at Archive.org).

Bitoogle by Philipp Lenssen

Ask Yahoo

If you have a question, you might want to Ask Yahoo.

Ask Yahoo by Philipp Lenssen

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