Google Friends Newsletter - February 2011

[Google Friends Newsletter]

Greetings to our Google Friends. We hope you enjoy this month’s update
on our products and services.

------------
POWER TIP

Block sites from Google’s search results

This early, experimental Chrome extension lets you block sites from
your web search results. Once you block a site, you won’t see results
from that domain again in your results (you can always revoke a
blocked site at the bottom of the results page). The extension also
sends blocked site information to Google, and we will study the
resulting feedback and explore using it as a potential ranking signal
for our search results. If you’re a tech-savvy Chrome user, download
and try the Personal Blocklist extension today.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/new-chrome-extension-block-sites-from.html
Download the extension: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/nolijncfnkgaikbjbdaogikpmpbdcdef

------------
NEW PRODUCTS & UPDATES

Update to Google Social Search

Now when signed in to your Google account, you’ll see results and
shared links from people you’re connected to on Twitter, Flickr,
Blogger, and other publicly available sites—blended through the search
results page. The names and profile photos of the people who shared
or published this information will appear underneath the results. In
addition, you now have more control over how you connect your accounts—
either publicly or privately. As always, you’ll only get social search
results when you choose to log in to your Google Account.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/update-to-google-social-search.html

Recipe View

Click on the “Recipes” link in the left-hand panel on the search
results page to narrow your search results to show only recipes, along
with helpful information like ratings, ingredients and pictures. You
can search for specific recipes like [chocolate chip cookies], or more
open-ended topics—like ingredients, holidays or favorite chefs. You
can also use the tools on the left-hand side of the page to filter
recipe search results based on your ideal ingredients, cook time and
calorie count, so it’s easier to choose the right recipe for you.
http://www.google.com/landing/recipes/

Google Wedding Planning

Find wedding-specific templates in Google Sites, Google Docs and
Picnik, as well as tips and tricks for using these and other Google
products for wedding planning. From wedding websites to save-the-date
cards, these tools simplify wedding planning and save you time. We’re
also hosting a wedding sweepstakes: enter for a chance to win $25,000
towards your dream wedding (find the Official Rules below). Wedding
planner Michelle Rago and her team will advise the winning couple on
location, flowers, food and other design elements to create a day that
is uniquely their own.
http:/google.com/weddings
http://www.google.com/weddings/rules.html

Footage of protests in the Middle East on YouTube

Thousands of videos of the protests in Egypt, Libya and other
countries around the Middle East have been uploaded to YouTube over
the past weeks and months, giving people access to raw footage shot by
citizens on the ground. People around the world can access these
videos by visiting CitizenTube, YouTube’s news and politics channel.
Working with news curation group Storyful, we’ve also curated videos
from the protest movements in Bahrain, Iran, Yemen, Algeria, Morrocco,
Iraq and Oman.
http://www.youtube.com/citizentube

-------------
MISCELLANY

Get an inside look at Googlers working on inventive, creative projects
in our new blog series focusing on entrepreneurs at Google. So far,
we’ve written about how one and a half engineers developed and
launched one of our most successful mobile advertising features in
just a few months, and featured the voice technology team, whose work
has resulted in products and features like YouTube transcriptions,
Voice Search and speech-to-speech translation. Subscribe to the series
for ongoing updates. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/search/label/entrepreneurs%20at%20Google