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Google Top Charts show world's searches for whiskey, more

Google's top dog for last month was, once again, the pitbull. Having taken the title for most-searched breed away from the bulldog in January, the pit has stayed in the top spot for the past four months, but the German Shepherd is looking to make a move after overtaking the Siberian Husky to advance to the No. 4 position.

At least, this is what I was able to learn from my first five minutes using the just-launched Top Charts feature of Google Trends. An expansion of Google's annual Zeitgeist report of most-searched topics, Top Charts has monthly search data and rankings for dozens of categories from actors (Selena Gomez took No. 1 for April) to businesspeople (Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are both gaining on Oprah) and even whiskeys (Jack Daniel's dominates).… Read more

Google's conversational search arrives with new Chrome

Google is enabling a more naturally spoken question-and-answer interface to its search service for people with a new version of Chrome.

Google demonstrated conversational search at Google I/O a week ago, a style of search designed to be more like natural human speech than the technically constructed search queries that people often use today to retrieve information from a search engine.

It's all part of the gradual arrival of Google's vision to build a Star Trek-style search engine, in which the computer grasps what people want and answers them. Eventually, expect Google to let people initiate a … Read more

Yahoo's big lean into content to fuel growth

One of perennial questions about Yahoo has been, "What is Yahoo." As the pioneering Web brand slid downward, rebuffed Microsoft's generous acquisition offer and was overshadowed by the likes of Google, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon, the question morphed into  "Is the beleaguered Yahoo going to fade away?"

Marissa Mayer, the fifth Yahoo CEO in five years, seems to have a clear view of what Yahoo is, and a plan remove the word "beleaguered" as an adjective preceding its name.

The stock price is up over 70 percent since Mayer took over in … Read more

Vint Cerf weighs in on Google Glass

LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. -- One of the fathers of the Internet, Vint Cerf has got Glass and he isn't taking it off.

Cerf was attending the Future in Review conference here, where he stood out from the crowd in his signature three-piece suit and Google Glass. He said that he has been a regular Glass wearer for the last two weeks.

"Glass doesn't interfere with my normal vision, and I found it conveniently available," he said. "It's an extension of the mobile phone and less overt -- you don't have to pull out … Read more

Google+ rolls out a redesign for mobile Web similar to desktop

After unveiling an extensive revamp for the Google+ news stream on desktop, Google is now updating what users see when accessing the social network with their cell phones.

The Web giant announced Tuesday that it's working on "improving the look and feel of Google+ on the mobile Web."

The redesign includes making posts now appear as "cards" in the stream, which is supposed to make them easier to read and share. The social network also changed the way Profiles and Pages look to include cover photos and larger tap targets.

This mobile Web redesign mimics … Read more

Chrome gets a touch faster

Already known for its speed, Google just boosted Chrome's Web site rendering speed by another 5 percent.

The latest stable release of the browser, Chrome 27 (download for Windows, Mac, or Linux), received the small improvement by managing its resources better. To boil down the jargon, the browser's internal resource scheduler now favors more critical resources over preloaded sites.

Chrome engineer James Simonsen wrote in the company's blog announcing the update Tuesday that, across the hundreds of millions of people using Chrome, the amount of time saved equals around 510 years per week. But what we're … Read more

2013 is the year of the voice command

"Ok, Glass -- take a picture!"

"Xbox, what's on HBO?"

"Siri, play Angry Birds."

During the reveal of the Xbox One, I was struck by just how many voice commands Microsoft programmed into the device. Kinect brought a rudimentary set of commands to the gaming console, but now everything from opening movies to launching apps can be done via voice. "Xbox, Live TV" may be my new favorite phrase in the living room.

Microsoft's not the only one who's betting big on voice commands. The vast majority of Google Glass'… Read more

Google Checkout to check out

Google plans to shut down Google Checkout, its service for online payment processing, in six months, the company announced in a blog post Monday.

Even though Checkout was replaced by Wallet in 2011, it still has been an option for those merchants who are adamant about using the old service in their operations. But on November 20, that will come to an end. Google said by that time merchants who use Checkout will have two options: (1) move to another service, such as Google partners Braintree, Shopify, or Freshbooks, if they don't have their own payment processing, or (2) … Read more

Google's new Hangouts can't make phone calls

The latest Google Hangouts update removed the ability for users to make outbound phone calls, the company said Monday.

Nikhyl Singhal, a director of real-time communication products for Google, posted on Google+ that the company is working on adding outbound calls for the Web and the Chrome extension. Hangouts currently only supports incoming calls for users with Google Voice numbers. Users who still want to make phone calls can use Gmail's Google Talk while they wait for Google to make the function available again in Hangouts.

"Hangouts is designed to be the future of Google Voice, and making/… Read more