Google Tests a Navigation Bar Integrated with Google Profiles

Google has been testing different versions of a new navigation bar that removes link underlining and adds a menu for the features that now clutter the bar.

The latest iteration of Google's experiment replaces your email address with your name and shows the photo from your Google Profile. Right now, creating a Google Profile is optional, but I wouldn't be surprised to see that this will change. If there's one thing that unifies almost all Google services, that's the navigation bar and it makes sense to add social features to the persistent bar.



{ Thanks, Aaron and Ameet. }

Google Instant Supports Search Operators

When Google Instant was launched, many power users noticed that they need to press Enter after typing a query that included advanced search operators like site: and filetype:. Most likely, these queries are resource intensive and it's difficult to return the results very fast.

Now you can use these operators without having to press Enter or click the search button. The main advantage is that you can adjust your query and see the results as you type. Unfortunately, the results aren't displayed instantly.

Google's Interactive Doodle for Jules Verne's Birthday

Google's doodles are now a playground for creating small web apps. Static images are just the starting point for interactive apps that automatically load when you visit Google's homepage. Pac-Man, Isaac Newton, John Lennon and the particles doodle are some of the interactive doodles that surprised many Google users.

Yesterday's doodle celebrated Jules Verne's birthday and managed to use some clever animations without being annoying. "[The] doodle, celebrating Verne's 183rd birthday, tries to capture that sense of adventure and exploration. Using CSS3 (and with help from our resident tech wizards Marcin Wichary and Kris Hom), the doodle enables anyone to navigate the Nautilus (nearly) 20,000 leagues with the simple pull of a lever. And for those using devices with built-in accelerometers and the latest versions of Google Chrome or Firefox, it's even simpler — just tilt your device in the direction you want to explore and the Nautilus will follow," explained Google.

If you missed the doodle, you can now see a bigger version of the mini-app. It's a good opportunity to check if you have a fast browser and to use the "zoom out" feature of your browser.

{ via Google's Twitter account }

Google Translate App for iPhone

Yet another Google app initially developed for Android makes its way onto the Apple App Store: Google Translate. It doesn't have all the features of the Android app: there's no conversation mode, no SMS translation, Google Suggest or a list of related phrases. Another issue is that the font size is way too big.

The application has a feature that's not available in the Android app: full-screen mode, so it doesn't make sense to use a such a big font size which is not even configurable. Google says that "the ability to easily enlarge the translated text to full-screen size" makes it "much easier to read the text on the screen, or show the translation to the person you are communicating with. Just tap on the zoom icon to quickly zoom in."


Why would you use the native application instead of visiting translate.google.com? The native application supports voice input for 15 languages, text-to-speech for 23 languages and it's better suited for quickly switching between multiple languages.

{ via Google Mobile Blog }