Google Translate Widget released

"Make your webpage instantly available in other languages Add the Translate gadget to your webpage, and offer instant access to automatic translations of that page. "

This is handy, just add a bit of Javascript to your page and you can have dynamically translated content. See the resulting widget below. The setup page also includes bookmarklets for individual languages.

Google announces a simple new way to embed Google Maps

Now those seeking a simple way to include a Google map on a page no longer need to deal with the more complex API method. However it's worth noting that the technique Google has employed is the use of an iframe, which may or may not work in all circumstances for web publishers.

Google Press Center: News Announcement: "Starting today, Google Maps users can add a map to their website or blog just by copying & pasting a snippet of HTML. This new functionality enables Google Maps users to share and disseminate geographic information in the same way that YouTube users share videos. Bloggers and webmasters no longer need an API key or knowledge of Java Script to put a Google Map on their website or blog.

To embed a Google Map, users simply pull up the map they want to embed - it can be a location, a business, driving directions, or a My Map they have created - and then click 'Link to this page' and copy & paste the HTML into their website or blog. The embedded map is fully interactive, like the Google Maps API, but creating one does not require any programming skills. Users can drag and click or zoom in on a location, and view it in map, satellite, and hybrid modes..."

The Impact of Social Media on Search Rankings

SiteProNews:: "Over the past few years, the Internet has increasingly become a participatory social network where user-generated content is just as important as traditional advertising messages. This means your articles, blog posts, videos, podcasts, and other comments on the Web are now critical sources of information about your company, your products and services... Social media, therefore, becomes increasingly important to a Web site's success and its visibility in search engines...

With the advent of universal search by Google and others, search marketers and site owners will soon find it necessary to optimize their Web sites for a broad range of content types. This means creating content in every media and vertical niche applicable to your brand..."

This article summarizes the importance of a broad-media approach very well, highlighting the categories of: Search Personalization; Universal Search; Optimizing Podcasts; and Optimizing Google Base Data Feeds.

You don't want to necessarily implement content types or social media frameworks that aren't appropriate to your business, but be sure you are not overlooking a variety of options. And another trend is to NOT lock-up assets like PDF downloads and demos behind registration walls. Give a prospect all you have, if they are interested, they'll eventually wind up in your CRM database.

Google Announces Hosted site search for businesses

Official Google Blog:: "Today we've released Custom Search Business Edition (CSBE) to do just that. CSBE is a hosted site search solution that provides Google-quality results for your website. It's fast, relevant, reliable, and flexible, so that users can quickly find what they're looking for through search results customized and integrated into your business website.

CSBE builds on the Google Custom Search Engine, a hosted search solution we introduced last October that allows organizations to create a search engine and search results that are tailored to their point of view... Businesses that want further control over results presentation and integration with their website can obtain results through XML. Now those of you with business sites have the option to turn off ads and have further control over branding. In addition, CSBE provides options for email and phone support. The pricing starts at $100 per year for searching up to 5,000 pages."

Finally Google is offering a 'private label' search service, and seems affordable too. Now I feel bad for folks like Picosearch.

Feedburner Comes to Blogger: Google Analytics Next?

mashable.com: "It was inevitable really: Feedburner’s new owner Google has gone ahead and integrated the feed tracking service into its Blogspot/Blogger.com blog platform, enabling one click redirection of Blogger feeds to Feedburner.

In other words: if you want detailed stats on who is reading your Blogger blog, it’s now easy to do. The integration also works with blogger blogs not hosted on the Blogspot domain. Feedburner’s instructions: “log into your Blogger account, select Settings | Site Feed, enter your FeedBurner feed address and click “Save Settings.”"

Google To Acquire GrandCentral

techcrunch.com: "Google is in acquisition discussions with telephone management startup GrandCentral, we've learned, and we have a high degree of confidence that the deal has actually been closed. We are trying to nail down the acquisition price...

The basic idea around GrandCentral is "one phone number for all your phones, for life." As we change jobs, homes and cell phones, there are a lot of phone numbers to keep track of, and keeping everyone up to date with your most recent phone numbers is a real cost. If you use GrandCentral you can give out a single phone number. What happens when that person calls that number depends on his/her relationship to you, and what you are doing at the time."

Wow, Google grabs another one. I've been an early user of GrandCentral and it works as advertised. You can add any number of lines to ring, you can even upload a custom ring-tone MP3 for people to hear (I tested this by geeking out and adding the iPhone ring to my line). I have yet to put it to any rigorous use, but plan to leverage it quite a bit this summer.

New Google Analytics Facing Problems?

mashable.com: "From Tuesday to Wednesday, Analytics stopped gathering data for almost a full day, before returning sometime on Wednesday afternoon with the data intact..."

I'll be keeping an eye on this. If you are a client of J.Y. Design and experiencing any issues with your Google Analytics account, please get in touch.

Google Analytics launches new reporting interface design

The new UI looks nice. Here are some highlights: It takes advantage of full browser width; it has a customizable dashboard; larger cleaner graphs; and the ability to email and export reports. I'm looking forward to digging deeper into this upgrade.

UPDATE: mashable.com has just posted a very in-depth look at the new UI complete with many screen shots.

Google's Founders didn't know HTML!

Product Manager for Google: "The prime reason the Google home page is so bare is due to the fact that the founders didn't know HTML and just wanted a quick interface... The name 'Google' was an accident. A spelling mistake made by the original founders who thought they were going for 'Googol'..."

The next time your are pondering Google's apparent brilliance in regards to strategy, ui design, and branding - refer to this list. Another reminder that dumb luck and happy accidents are your friends. There are a few interesting metrics for feature adoption in this article too.

read more | digg story

Firefox 3 To Support Offline Apps

"Firefox 3 will deliver support for offline applications. This is significant because you'll be able to use your web apps - like Gmail, Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Google Calendar, etc - in the browser even when offline... Although Mozilla is an open source organization, some of its top workers are employed by Google."

This is very interesting. There are a number of companies out there building add-on utilities and system extensions for synchronizing traditional desktop apps with online counterparts. For example, Spanning Sync for Google Calendar. If the browser can do this for you, and support a wide variety of online apps, then one of the largest barriers for web app adoption will be knocked down.

brandchannel Readers' Choice Awards 2006 Results Are In

Google and Apple stay on top while YouTube and Wikipedia show up for the first time. As usual brandcannel has regional results as well as the Global list previewed here. Read the full report.

Why Browser War 2.0 Will Heat Up in 2007

readwriteweb.com: "Our theory is that in 2006 a lot of the ground work for a major battle was laid out. Microsoft launched a significant upgrade to Internet Explorer for the first time in about 5 years (IE7), while the Firefox team spent time polishing up their open source browser. But it is the latest developments which make it clear that Firefox thinks it's showtime."

This is an interesting article, and I really got a kick out of the illustration. Between the business interests and the (still) inconsistent support for web standards in IE7, it should be another interesting year in the browser-sphere.

Five Tools for Spying on Your Competition

"By understanding the marketing strategies of your competitor, you can always stay a step ahead of them. The key is knowing how to obtain all of this vital information without having to hire a PR firm, an FBI agent, or an undercover spy. Luckily for us, all we need are a few online tools to find out exactly how are competitors are running the show."

Spying is kind of a harsh word when it comes to keeping an eye on the competition. It's not like these sites are tracking down secret formulas. However, they appear to be some easier ways of tracking down info than completely manual processes. I find Google Alerts to be very handy. In fact, I suggest setting up google alerts related to your own business as a way to keep an eye on your own internet presence. Sometimes you'll be pleasantly surprised to see a link on a blog or something you might now be aware of without the help of such an alert.

WebAssist Offers Up Dreamweaver Tools for Google™ 1.0

WebAssist Professional: "Enhance your websites with advanced Google innovations without touching the code. Install Dreamweaver Tools for Google to quickly add powerful Google Search capabilities targeted to your site, drop a Google Map on any page to highlight multiple locations with custom markers or sell goods and save money with Google Checkout. Best of all, Dreamweaver Tools for Google is absolutely free."

Thanks WA.

Google buys JotSpot Wiki Service

CNET News.com: "Google has bought JotSpot, a 3-year-old company with a system for building collaborative Web pages called wikis... JotSpot's product is a platform for building wiki-based applications. For example, the company has an online spreadsheet and calendar that multiple people can edit."

Interesting news, also Google has fully absorbed recently acquired Writely by combining it with spreadsheets and giving it a "Google Docs & Spreadsheets" brand at http://docs.google.com/.