When you search Google for [directions] or [get directions], you get an error message: « No results for that place. Try entering it below to get suggestions. » Google shows a special card for directions with cool features like autocomplete, but the error message is out of place because you haven’t typed a location. Suggestions aren’t very […]

I noticed an interesting Google Search experiment in the mobile/tablet interface. When searching for [alcohol with the highest boiling], Google converted my query into a question: « Which alcohol has the highest boiling point? », then it tried to answer the question using a snippet from a web page and then it added a « more results » link.

Google Knowledge Graph has more than one billion entities and more than 70 billion facts about these entities (people, places, things). It’s huge and it brings a different dimension to search: understanding concepts and the relation between them. Mobile Google Search now has a section called « found in related search », which shows a few entities frequently mentioned

Did you know that « male lions defend the pride’s territory while females do most of the hunting »? Did you know that « the name humpback whale describes the motion it makes as it arches its back out of the water in preparation for a dive »? What about this one: « ostriches have the largest eyes of any

Google’s desktop search pages have a new interface for navigating between search results. The search box is bigger, there’s a new search icon and Google now only shows 2 or 3 specialized search engines next to « all », down from 4. Apps and shopping seem to be missing from the list of search engines, so you

When you search Google for [Christmas], [Hanukkah], [Kwanzaa], [Festivus] or other related queries, you’ll see some special decorations related to each holiday. Festivus is « a holiday celebrated by those seeking an alternative to the commercialism and pressures of the Christmas holiday season. » Christmas trees, Santa Claus, the Christmas star adorn the Google search page and

Google’s knowledge graph card tests a feature that lets you like or dislike movies and TV shows. For example, when you search for « It’s a Wonderful Life », you can click like or dislike and check the percentage of Google users who liked it. The same buttons show up when you search for a TV show

For some reason, Google Translate now has a limit of 5000 characters per translation. There’s even a character counter at the bottom of the input box. If you happen to paste a long text that has more than 5000 characters, you’ll get an error message (« maximum characters exceeded: X characters over 5000 maximum ») and a

Just in time for New Year’s dinner, Google has a new mobile interface for recipe search. I searched for [avocado mayo] and noticed a long list of keywords below the search box and ads: salad, chicken, shrimp, vegan, bacon and more. You can select more than one keyword and this helps you refine the results.