All new things Google – December 2009

by Maria on December 18, 2009

Google is moving so quickly that keeping tabs on everything new is challenging. So if you’ve really had your head down for the past couple of weeks, read on to learn about all new things Google this December.

  • Stories as told through search
  • Visit YouTube’s new Search Stories channel to see six stories inspired by how people use Google search in their daily lives.

  • Google Chrome, Uncovered
  • Google open-sourced Google Chrome – dubbed Chromium OS – giving partners, the open source community, and developers a more transparent look under Chrome’s hood. The code is free and now accessible to anyone and open for contributions, with all development being done in the open. And you can sign up (here) for updates or better yet, get involved at chromium.org.

  • ‘Caption’ that on YouTube
  • With the debut of YouTube Auto-Captions, Google comes one step closer to the goal of making video accessible everywhere and to everyone. Using automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology, machine-generated captions populate and can be translated into over 50 languages. Check out auto-caps in action on educational channels, such as Duke, PBS, National Geographic, and most Google channels, including YouTube’s.

  • Flu Shot Locator
  • Live in Seattle and in need of a flu shot? Powered by Google Maps, the Flu Shot Locator highlights locations from San Francisco to Syracuse offering the seasonal flu vaccine and/or H1N1 flu vaccine. This effort is a collaboration with the U.S. Department for Health and Human Services (HHS), its flu.gov team, the CDC, and the American Lung Association. Pretty cool!

  • Layovers Made Easier with Free Wi-Fi
  • To make holiday travels a little bit brighter, Google is bringing free WiFi to many airports. Through January 15th, you can surf, send, connect, and share at 47 airports across the country.

  • Movie Showtimes Reloaded
  • You may have noticed, Google has recently enhanced the movie results on Google with inline YouTube trailers, genre filtering, map views, and much more.

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