Google has been busy updating its services this week, Google Maps, Adsense, YouTube, Google Reader and Google Books have all been updated as part of Google’s continued development. So the big question is, “What’s New?” Here’s a brief overview.

Google Maps has added Picasa photos to Street view. As long as the image has been Geo-tagged Google will include it in Street View.

“Millions of people already rely on Picasa Web Albums to share their photographs with friends and the internet community. Now, their public geo-tagged photos will help Google Maps users to get a better impression of a geographic place, especially for areas where we may not have any Panoramio photos,” Daniel Cotting, software engineer, Google Zurich, wrote on Google’s Lat Long Blog.


“We’ve selected these photos by looking for geo-tagged public images in Picasa Web Albums. We apply face detection to screen out images with identifiable individuals and image matching so that we’re including the most relevant photographs.”

Google AdSense is conducting email interviews to find out exactly what it’s publishers want. Google are obviously keen to understand more about the needs and requirements of their publishers in light of the new Bing Yahoo search deal. Bing and Yahoo pose a potential threat to Google and customer feedback will help Google to improve the service further. Adsense has also launched a Beta Category Filter system for English Language feed ads.

YouTube recently ran a 1,024 recipe multivariate experiment using Google’s Website Optimizer. The results were fantastic, a 15.7% increase in new account signup based on minor changes to the site layout and text.

Google Reader has introduced a new sharing option allowing you to share content with Twitter and Facebook.

Google books have added a Creative Commons license option for its partners, to protect published content.

Article by Creative SEO

Google Books have announced an amazing 10 day competition which has been designed to promote the use of the new Google Book search. Each day Google Books will ask 5 new trivia questions, with a few hints, the answers can be found by using the Book Search inself. Each day a lucky reader will win a Sony Book Reader.



Google Books is a universal book search which allows users to search and find almost any book ever printed. It gets even better than that, you can search for a book by character or story line and even find direct snippets from the book itself which include your search term. It really is an amazing resource and allows simple and easy methods to find new publications and undertake research. What’s even more amazing is that some publications are available to view online, free of charge. If you particularly like a book you can then go on and make a purchase from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Border and many other book sellers.
So why not give the competition a go and check out Google Books, its truly an outstanding piece of work.

Article by Creative SEO UK