jatiN mahindrA doT coM

Google Directing You To Wrong Country? Report The Issue

I am finally back from my trip to Israel and one thing that kind of bothered me while I was there was that whenever I went to Google.com, it redirected me to Google.co.il. I know, that is how it should work, but imagine being in a country, like the U.S. and being directed to a localized or regional version of Google. It happens every now and then, to both Google and even Bing. But there is something...

Google’s International Women’s Day Logo at Google Russia Only?

I was browsing the various Google forums and spotted several complaints in the Google Web Search Help forums and Google Webmaster Help about there being no International Women’s Day Doodle on March 8th, yesterday. There are literally dozens of complaints, some calling Google anti-women. Google is a very women friendly company, I know that. So what is going on, why no Doodle for International...

Good, Google Killed SearchWiki, Adds Stars

Google announced they have added stars to the search results for sites you have starred in the past. Google said: With stars, you can simply click the star marker on any search result or map and the next time you perform a search, that item will appear in a special list right at the top of your results when relevant. That means if you star the official websites for your favorite football teams, you...

Vivaldi Gets A Google Doodle

If you visit Google today, you will see a special logo for Antonio Lucio Vivaldi. Vivaldi was born today, 332 years ago, on March 4, 1678. He was a Venetian baroque composer and priest, as well as a famous virtuoso violinist and nicknamed il Prete Rosso (“The Red Priest”). Here is the Google Doodle for Vivaldi: So far there are no complaints about the Google Doodle in the Google Web...

Google’s St Davids Day Logo Insults Welsh

Yesterday, Google has a special logo up on one of their local portals to celebrate St Davids Day. Here is a picture of the cute and fun looking doodle (logo). But one person found the doodle insulting and distasteful. He said, “its like celebrating the Hanukkah with a picture of Auschwitz.” He goes on to explain: While it is very nice that Google celebrates St David’s Day by...

Google Adds “Nearby” Search Option

Google announced they added a new search refinement to “show options” section. The refinement allows you to filter results by results relevant to being nearby your location. Google explained: Location has become an important part of the way we search. If you’re a foodie looking for restaurant details, food blogs or the closest farmer’s market, location can be vital to helping...

Google Jazz Slightly Updates It’s Look

Google has been experimenting with the Google Jazz Interface (I know Google doesn’t call it Jazz internally) since November of last year. It appears that Google has slightly updated that look from what we originally saw. A Google Blogoscoped Forums thread has a picture from one user of the new Jazz look. Here is the new look: Here is the old Jazz look: They are very similar but there are...

MySpace Results Now in Google Real Time Search

Yesterday, Google updated us on what is new at Google. One of those updates confirmed the images site command change we reported last week. Another update confirmed that Google is now showing MySpace results in their real time search results. Google wrote: Also in real-time news, starting this week we officially added MySpace content to real-time search. Now you can tap into the pool of news, photos...

Google Ranks “Piss Christ” #1 For Chris Image Search

Google does not stop with the insults, they insulted Michelle Obama, then Jesus and now also the name “Christ.” A Google Web Search Help thread has one person complaining that a search in Google Images for [Christ] leads to an image done named Piss Christ, the image is both number one and two on Google Images for that search. The story behind this image, as the poster says it “is...

Google Images Change How They Display Sources?

I do not watch Google Images all that closely, but there is a guy in the WebmasterWorld forums who said Google images changed how they display the source of the image. I believe what he is saying is that if you use site:domain.com in Google Images, in the past, it would display not just the images hosted on that domain, but all images used on that domain and also show the source of it under it, i.e....

Google Book Search Dropped Search My Library

A Google Book Search user is upset that Google has dropped the search within your Google Book Search library feature. He expressed his complaints in a WebmasterWorld thread. He said: Then a couple of weeks ago, I logged in and I can no longer restrict my search results to items in My Library. For me, this is the primary way I use Google Books. First search my library. If I don’t find it, search...

Google Calculates Kelvin to Celsius Wrong: Thanks WolframAlpha

If you want to find out the conversion of kelvin to celsius, do not use Google. A Google search for [kelvin to celsius] returns the wrong calculation. Google returns 1 kelvin = -272.15 degrees Celsius. This issue was brought up in a Google Web Search Help thread. Since I do not know the first thing about these types of conversions, I decided to see what Wolfram Alpha had to say about the calculation....

Is Google Mixing Paid Results With Free Results?

A few weeks back, Google started testing enhanced Google Maps results. Now, Silicon Valley Watcher noticed it and said that Google was doing something new, by not separating out paid results from free results. Truth be told, and as Danny explains very well at Search Engine Land, Google has been mixing those results, but labeling them. Here is the search result in question: * skateboards in houston The...

Picture of Google News New Home Page Test

A week ago today, we reported Google News was testing a new home page design. Since then, I have been begging those who have seen the test to post a picture so the rest of us can see what they see. Finally, yesterday, someone posted an image in the Google News Help forum. Here is that picture: Extremely different from the current Google News home page. You can click on the image to get a larger...

Now Google Is Matriarchal Biased

I just love it when people make assumptions about political, race and other forms of bias and negativity based on the Google search results. We had political bias examples, race examples, a bit of both and so many examples of either Google search results or search suggestions implying a bias on Google’s part. Next up, Google is now being matriarchal biased. How so? A Google Web Search Help...