Download Squad

Welcome to Googleholic, your bi-weekly fix for everything Google! In this edition:

• Google Mini gets an upgrade
• Google Treasure Hunt 2008
• More information from forum results
• YouTube is obsessed with robots
• Google I/O starts tomorrow

Google Mini gets an upgrade

The Google Mini search appliance, which is an affordable search solution for a company's intranet and public website, has just received some new upgrades and support for six new languages. New features include support for shared servers and source and date biasing.

[via Official Google Enterprise Blog]

Google Treasure Hunt 2008

Google's Treasure Hunt 2008 is now entering its third week. The treasure hunt is designed to test knowledge of computer science, low-level UNIX and networking trivia. The contestants who answer questions correctly the fastest win prizes and a grand prize will be awarded to the overall fastest contestant who answers all four questions correctly. This is the start of week 3 -- but you can still access the earlier questions

[via Official Google Blog]

More information from forums results

Some smart Googler has discovered what appears to be signs that Google is experimenting with how to display forum and discussion postings in search results. In addition to showing the date published (so you know how new or old a post is), the number of posts, authors and the date of the first post are displayed as part of the traditional Google search results. This could significantly help users parse information and find relevant data more quickly. This experiment isn't live for everyone yet, but the Google Blogoscoped blog has information about how to change your cookies to be part of the experiment.

[via Google Operating System]

YouTube is obsessed with robots

So what is the new viral video hotness? Well, according to YouTube's Trendspotting Tuesday, robots are the new black. We have to admit, the robotic spider is both awesome and disturbing.

[via YouTube Blog]

Google I/O starts tomorrow

Google I/O, Google's biggest developer event ever, kicks off tomorrow in San Francisco. Google I/O will take place at Moscone West on May 28 and 29, 2008. The conference will feature a wide-range of sessions focussing on building applications using Google and other open technologies. AJAX, Python, Android, Google Maps API, OpenSocial and Google Gears are just some of the technologies that will be featured. Registration is still open -- so if you are a developer (or a student looking to learn more), you can still sign-up.

Rumor has it that Google will be announcing some new products or tools at I/O, and as always, we'll keep you posted.

[via Google Open Source Blog]