Major Update for Google Docs

Google Docs has been constantly updated since 2006, Writely and Google Spreadsheets have merged, but adding new features became increasingly difficult. Now that browsers are much better than they were four years ago and cutting-edge apps like Google Wave can run in a browser, it was time for a new beginning.

"We decided to rebuild the underlying infrastructure of Docs to give us greater flexibility, improved performance and a better platform for developing new features quickly. Today, we're pleased to announce preview versions of the new Google document and spreadsheet editors and a new standalone drawings editor, all built with an even greater focus on speed and collaboration," says Jonathan Rochelle.

The new versions of the Google Docs will be rolled out in the coming days and you'll be able to try them when you see a message at the top of the page: "New version".

Besides using a new infrastructure, the document editor and the spreadsheet editor will add many new features. The document editor has real-time editing, sidebar chat, a new commenting system, better formatting and an improved importing feature. The spreadsheet editor brings back auto-complete, adds a formula bar for editing cells and you can now drag and drop columns.

There's also an application for creating drawing collaboratively: Google Drawings. "The new standalone drawings editor lets you collaborate in real time on flow charts, designs, diagrams and other fun or business graphics. Copy these drawings into documents, spreadsheets and presentations using the web clipboard, or share and publish drawings just like other Google Docs."



Google Enterprise Blog says that the offline mode will be transitioned from Google Gears to the native HTML5 implementation. "The new Google Docs editors will take advantage of faster rendering engines in modern browsers as well as new web standards like HTML5. As a result, we need to temporarily remove offline support for Docs starting May 3rd, 2010. We know that this is an important feature for some of you, and we are working hard to bring a new and improved HTML5-based offline option back to Google Docs."

Google Docs really needed a major update, especially now when Microsoft Office's web apps are about to be launched.


{ Thanks, Jonah. }

Google Docs Shows More Information About Audio Files

Even though Google Docs lets you upload any file up to 1024 MB, the service still has a lot to improve when it comes to previewing your files. Try to upload a video and you'll notice that Google Docs doesn't transcode the video and you can't watch it online.

The good news is that Google is working to fix this problem. MP3 files already show song titles and album art, but you still can't play them.


Trey D., who sent this tip, found some other interesting details:

When I upload music files (.mp3) to my Google Doc's account, regardless of the filename, the Song Title (per ID3 tag) is what comes up on the list of uploaded documents.

For example, I have uploaded a song 'Beach Boys-Good Vibrations.mp3'. The title that comes up on Google Docs, once the file has been uploaded is "Good Vibrations".

This is a change from earlier behavior that listed the filename (rather than the track name) and is a bit of a nuisance when I am searching for artist names (there is no trace of the artist name remaining).

Despite it being a little annoyance, I am hoping that Google is developing a music storage service a la Grooveshark.

Google's Jazz Interface, More Widely Available

In November, Search Engine Land reported that Google started to test a new user interface that's more consistent. "I don't like jazz, because you never know what's going to happen next," explained Google's Marissa Mayer. "I've been calling this problem 'user interface jazz.' This result looks this way, and that result looks that way [something much different], and it really does slow you down."

Instead of switching to an entirely different interface when you go from the standard search results to Google Image Search, Google Video or Google Book Search, you'll see the same interface. There's a new left-hand column that replaces the expandable "search options" sidebar. It looks like a vertical navigation bar and it shows the most relevant specialized search engines and the most useful filters that help you refine your query.

Since November, Google has tested many versions of the interface and added features like location detection and "not entirely unlike" search suggestions. Lately, a lot of users started to see the new interface and that's a clear sign that Google will release the UI soon.

Google web search results (screenshot from April)

Google's homepage and a new logo (April)

Google's new footer (April)

Google's search results (November 2009)

Google web search results (screenshot from February)

Google News results (screenshot from February)

Google's search results (March)

{ Thanks, Richard, Dan, Kherlen, Mike, Travis, Victor, Pal, Rami, Luka and everyone else who sent a tip at gostipsATgmailDOTcom. }

Google Real-Time Search Shows Popular Links

Steve Rubel spotted a feature recently added to Google's real-time search engine. If you Google a popular query and go to the "updates" section, you'll see see a list of web pages frequently linked from messages posted on services like Twitter, Google Buzz, FriendFeed etc. Try one of the hot topics from Google Trends and you'll certainly get a list of popular links.

There's also a way to find all the messages that link to a web page using the link: operator. Here's a list of messages that link to the New York Times website. Google will certainly add feeds for real-time search results and you'll be able to monitor all the links to your sites.

YouTube Tests New Video Player

A few days after launching a new interface for video pages, YouTube started to test a new video player with more elegant controls and a better-looking progress bar. I think the new player is in line with YouTube's latest redesign: it's cleaner, simpler and easier to use.

As StraightUpSocial shows, controls fade out when you're not interacting with the player, so they're no longer distracting. The player's progress bar becomes smaller when you're not likely to use it, while the volume control is now horizontal.


Here's a video that shows the new player tested by YouTube:



{ Thanks, Jonah and Will. }

Search for TV Shows in Google Video

Google Video has a new filter that restricts search results to TV shows. For example, if you search for [Seinfeld], Google lets you select one of the 9 seasons of the show. Google shows the name of each episode and a list of sites where you can watch it.



Google doesn't restrict the results to sites that are licensed to stream TV shows, so many videos are from Russian sites like Yandex and Smotri.

As you probably noticed, Google Video no longer has the option to play videos inline and Google says that there are no plans to restore it. The feature has been gradually removed from Google web search, for YouTube videos and now it's no longer available.

Shortcuts for Google Translate and Google Dictionary

Here's a quick way to translate text directly from Google Search. Type the language pair, followed by the text you want to translate. For example, to translate "I love you" in French, search Google for: [en:fr love]. You can also type [translate love in french], but this query is longer.


For now, this feature only works for language pairs that include English: en:fr, fr:en (French), en:it, it:en (Italian), en:de, de:en (German), en:es, es:en (Spanish), en:ru, ru:en (Russian), en:zh, zh:en (Chinese), en:ja, ja:en (Japanese), en:ko, ko:en (Korean).

If you use the language pair en:en (English to English), Google shows definitions from Google Dictionary. For example, a search for [en:en astute] shows the definition of the word "astute" and the pronunciation. Google Dictionary uses definitions from Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary.


You can also search for [astute definition], but the OneBox result shows definitions from WordNet.