Talking in tongues

Posted by Mike Jazayeri, Product Manager, Google Talk

Thirteen more, to be exact. Google Talk has just added some new language interfaces: UK English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, and Turkish.

Check it out and talk amongst yourselves...

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Note this

Posted by Bay-Wei Chang, Senior Research Scientist

Search is all about finding the answers you need. Unfortunately, some kinds of questions--like where you should stay and what you should do on your Hawaiian vacation, or what kind of digital camera you should buy, or what the latest treatments for arthritis are--can't always be answered in one sitting, or by visiting one site.

That's why we built Google Notebook--to give you an online "notebook" where you can organize all your research, add personal notes to it, and share it with others. Google Notebook surfs along quietly with you as you browse, letting you clip and annotate whatever text, images, and links that help answer your question, all without ever leaving the webpage you're on.

If this sounds like something you'd like to try, you can find it here.

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Smile! Gmail now has pictures!

Posted by Vadim Spivak, Gmail Engineer

When Google Talk added pictures, you probably knew they were coming soon to Gmail. But we decided to add a little twist. You can now upload a picture for each of your contacts and display it instead of the one they chose, like I do for my friend with the ugly dog picture. Then, if your friends have Gmail addresses, you can send them picture suggestions so they can use them as their own (and everyone else can see the cool pics you found).

PS: Since Google Talk already has pictures, we decided to share them. So the picture you select in Gmail will appear in Google Talk and vice versa.

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Stop, hey, what's that sound?

Terry Lucas, Gmail and Google Talk Engineer

It might be Gmail. Starting today, Gmail chat will play a little ping sound whenever someone sends you a new chat message (just like Google Talk). Now you can work in other windows or even sit back and watch some TV without worrying about missing a message from your friend. Check out the details.

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Gmail chats in more languages

Posted by Aaron Whyte, Gmail Engineer

We're pleased to now offer Gmail Chat in 17 more languages: UK English, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Japanese, Korean and simplified and traditional Chinese.

Here's what some people have had to say about Gmail Chat:

"My sister & I love Gmail because it's so cool! We're 3,000 miles apart, but are SO connected now with Gmail Chat. And we love the rotating smileys!"

"Pretty cool--I just got my 70+ year old aunt to use IM through Gmail."

"I heart Gmail. The new chat option is marvelous. You people bring joy to my life."

Aww, shucks. Well, we heart you--and we hope lots more of you will now enjoy getting in touch instantly this way.

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Yes, we are still all about search

Posted by Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Search Products and User Experience

We are often asked at Google what we are doing to improve regular web search. There's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes, but today, at our press event, we announced four new products that will give you a better sense of how all this work becomes reality.

Our new products offer a pretty wide range of services and capabilities, but they have one thing in common: They all enhance and improve the search experience for our users.

- Google Co-op is a way for users to help us improve search. It lets people and organizations label web pages and create specialized links related to their unique expertise. Whether it's information about a hobby, a profession, or an unusual interest, everyone can contribute to making Google search more relevant and useful for the entire community.

- Google Desktop 4 gives you another way to improve search, by personalizing your desktop. New "Google Gadgets" deliver an array of information--ranging from games and media players to weather updates and news--straight to your desktop.

- Google Notebook (which we'll be launching next week) is a personal browser tool that lets you clip text, images, and links from the pages you're searching, save clippings to an online notebook, and then share notebooks with others.

- Google Trends builds on the idea behind the Google Zeitgeist, allowing you to sort through several years of Google search queries from around the world to get a general idea of everything from user preferences on ice-cream flavors to the relative popularity of politicians in their respective cities or countries.

If you're interested in hearing what was said on stage today, check out the webcast of our press event at www.google.com/pressday.

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Conference on automated testing

Posted by Allen Hutchison, Engineering Manager

Those who follow the world of automated testing may be interested in the call for papers for our upcoming conference on the subject. Deadline for papers: June 1.

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