Billions of times a day in the blink of an eye

Ask a question, get an answer. But what happens in between? Last year we released an animated site that illustrates an email's journey to friends and family around the world. Today we're releasing a similar website called How Search Works.



Here you can follow the entire life of a search query, from the web, to crawling and indexing, to algorithmic ranking and serving, to fighting webspam. The site complements existing resources, including this blog, the help center, user forums, Webmaster Tools, and in-depth research papers.

A few things you'll find:

• An interactive, graphical explanation of Google Search
• A view into major search algorithms and features
• A 43-page document explaining how we evaluate our results
• A live slideshow of spam as we remove it
• Graphs illustrating the spam problem and how we fight it
• A list of policies that explain when we'll remove content

We hope the site helps to illuminate the split-second journey from algorithms to answers. The animated site is available today in English and there's also a text-only version in 43 languages.

Posted by Jake Hubert, Product Manager

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Google Finance adds Singapore, Korea and Israel stock exchanges and VIX index

Good news if you follow international markets — we added three new stock exchanges as well as the Chicago Board of Exchange indices to Google Finance. Here are just a few examples of stocks and indices that you can now find:

CBOE Index Values: VIX
Korea Exchange: Samsung, Hyundai
Singapore Exchange: SingTel, Singapore Airlines
Tel Aviv Stock Exchange: Bank Leumi, TA-25 index

Even better, Singapore Exchange stock market data is available in real time. This is the first time Singapore Exchange has provided real time data to an open website, and we’re proud to be the first website to do so.

As always, you can view the full list of the stock exchanges available through Google Finance here.


Post Content Posted by Karolina Netolicka, Product Manager

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Plan your Valentine’s date night -- even if you’re a bit late to the game

You’ve got less than two days before Valentine’s Day -- are your plans in place? If you’re swamped at work and scrambling to find a last minute dinner reservation, flower shop, chocolates, and a romantic spot for that special someone, Google can help you look like a smooth operator, even if you’re just starting to plan now.

Looking for flowers and chocolate?
Simply tap the microphone icon on your Google Search App on iOS or your Android device and ask “Where’s the nearest flower shop?” to see where you can pick up roses for that special someone. Hoping to find a delectable box of chocolates nearby? Ask, “Where can I buy chocolate in San Francisco?” In seconds you can swipe through the options, tap to call the shop, and get voice-guided navigation there by car or by public transit.



Find the perfect date spot.
If you’re looking for a new restaurant or hidden romantic spot in your city, Google can help you find the perfect fit. Are you hoping to make dinner anything but ordinary? Ask Google for “restaurants with live music in San Francisco,” and swipe through local options that fit your taste and budget. Looking for a perfect romantic spot or attraction? Say, “Show me pictures of romantic spots in San Francisco,” and swipe through a collection of photos to pick the perfect place.



Whether you’re looking for a little novelty with your significant other or just recently mustered up the courage to ask out a new crush, we hope this makes it a little easier to plan a special outing. Good luck!

Roya Soleimani, Search Communications Team

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Get ready for Game Day with Google

As all of you football fans prepare for the San Francisco - Baltimore game this Sunday, we thought we’d pull together some ways to make the most of the Big Game with a little help from Google. From hosting the perfect party to learning more about your favorite players, check out some tips on ways Google can help.

Planning a party for the big game? Ask Google for some help

Whether your party food is wings, dip, chili or nachos, we can all agree on one thing: the messier, the better. You can get your party prep and cooking done without getting your phone too messy, using Google Voice Search, hands-free on your tablet or smartphone. With a quick tap of the microphone icon, you can literally ask Google for help:

-Need to buy drinks? Simply ask “what is the closest grocery store?” and we’ll show you the nearest ones to scroll through. With a quick tap, you’ll be there with the help of turn-by-turn navigation.

-Maybe you want to make that cocktail that’s like a Bloody Mary but not quite... ask “what’s a michelada?” -- and you’ll both hear and see the ingredients.

-Once you’re ready to cook, ask “best chili recipes” and see a range of options, or ask “how do I make guacamole?” and find your way to the best sites to answer your question.

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Get the stats on your favorite players

Whether you want to impress fellow fans with your sports trivia, or if you are curious about the guy who scored the last touchdown, Google Search can get instant and more complete answers. Ask about your favorite players, teams, and explore a world of related and connected topics as well.

Indoor stadium and airport views on Google Maps

If you’re one of the lucky fans who gets to see the game in person, you can use indoor Google Maps to quickly find your gate, your seat, or some game time snacks at the Superdome.

To access the indoor map, just search for “Superdome” in Google Maps on your Android phone and zoom in to see the stadium floor plan. Search the map to find section numbers, bathrooms and points of interest, and use the numbered floor picker (on the right-hand side) to see maps for each floor.

Make sure you’ve downloaded the latest version of Google Maps for Android to access indoor maps.


Watch your favorite ads with Ad Blitz on YouTube

To make it easier to catch up on all the commercials, the YouTube Ad Blitz channel in partnership with ADWEEK will let you watch your favorite ads soon as they air live on TV. You can vote for your favorite ad at the end of the game. To learn more about all the new social, gaming, and mobile features in this year’s gallery, visit our YouTube blog.

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Google Images: faster, more reliable and lets the images do the talking

When you’re looking for images, chances are you want to check out more than just one. So we’ve redesigned Google Images to make it easier to move through a series of images -- it’s now faster, more reliable and lets the images do the talking.



Instead of sending you over to a whole new page to preview an image, you’ll see a preview of the image in your search results. Once you click on an image, you can quickly flip through the whole set of image previews using your keyboard. Your search results stay in the panel so you don’t lose track of what you were doing; if you want to go back to looking at other search results, you can just scroll down and pick up right where you left off. If you want to check out the website where the image is hosted, you can click on the photo or use the tools available.

The new design is rolling out worldwide over the next few days. Google Images has always been about providing you visual answers. We hope this update makes it easier and even a bit more fun to find the images you’re looking for.

Posted by Hongyi Li, Associate Product Manager

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Google Handwrite gets easier and faster

Since we launched Google Handwrite last summer for smartphones and tablets, we’ve been improving recognition quality and also working on a number of features to make it easier and faster to handwrite your searches on Google. You can now distinguish between ambiguous characters, overlap your characters, and write multiple characters at a time in Chinese.

Is it an L, a 1 or an I?
If you’ve tried Handwrite before, you may have had some trouble entering a lowercase “L”, the number “1”, or a capital “I”. Now, we provide alternate interpretations of your characters that you can select above the space bar. Similarly, in Japanese the characters “イ” and “ィ” look nearly identical but are different characters and produce different search results. If Google interprets your handwriting one way and you meant the other, you can now more easily make a correction.



Some overlapping is OK
Compared with tablets, mobile phone screens are smaller and are a little more difficult to write on. Now, instead of squeezing in your letters across the width of the small screen or writing one letter at a time, you can write letters on top of one another. Say you’re in the grocery store and you want to look up a recipe for quiche on your phone. When you write the letters “q”, “u”, “i”, “c”, “h”, and “e”, it’s okay if they overlap and are garbled a bit.



Multiple characters at a time in Chinese
When we first launched last summer, you could only write one Chinese character at a time. Now, you can write more than one character at a time on a line, which makes it much faster and easier to enter your search.



To enable Google Handwrite, go to Google.com on your smartphone or tablet, go to settings, select “Enable” Handwrite, and save the settings. For more tips and tricks, view our Help Center page.

Posted by Lawrence Chang, Product Manager

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Advanced Power Searching with Google -- Registration Opens Today

What historic cafe inspired a poem by a Nobel Laureate? In the last three barista world championships, which winners did not use beans from their home country? If you were preparing a blog post on “Curious Trivia of Coffee Culture,” how would you find the answers to these questions? What else would you discover? Now you can sign up for our Advanced Power Searching with Google online course and find out.

Building on Power Searching with Google, Advanced Power Searching with Google helps you gain a deeper understanding of how to become a better researcher. You will solve complex search challenges similar to those I posed in my blog, or a Google a Day, and explore Google’s advanced search tools not covered in the first class.

Oftentimes the most intriguing questions invite you to explore beyond the initial answer, and there’s no single correct path to get there. When looking for questions that can’t be solved with a single query, “search” can quickly turn into “research.” Google Search offers a palette of tools to help you dive deeper into the web of knowledge.

Visit www.powersearchingwithgoogle.com to learn more about our online search courses, and review our search tips on the Power Searching with Google Quick Reference Guide. Advanced Power Searching begins on January 23 and ends on February 8th.



Posted by Dan Russell, Über Tech Lead for Search Quality and User Happiness

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