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Filed under: Google, Search, Web

Google launches experimental Similar images, News timeline features

Similar Images
Google has relaunched Google Labs, a site where you can find some of the latest experimental features for the company's search engine and other tools. The new Google Labs is hosted on Google App Engine, and today Google rolled out the first two new labs features we've seen in the past few months: Similar Images and Google News Timeline.

The News Timeline feature presents Google News results chronologically in a timeline view. You can zoom in and out, or navigate through the timeline by dragging or adjusting the time scale to days, weeks, months, years, or decades.

The Similar Images feature feels like something that could (and perhaps should) be added to the main Google Images site in the future. When you search for any picture using Similar Images, you'll see a link below each search result. When you click it you'll see more images that are "similar."

It's not entirely clear what information Google is using to determine what images are similar. But for the most part it works. For example, if you search for a particular actor from a TV show, like Battlestar Galactica and click on the similar images link, you'll find more pictures of that actor and of other actors from the show. If you search for something more general like "netbook" and click on a picture, you'll probably find more netbooks that are positioned similarly in the image frame. And if you search for something like "duck" and click on a picture of a yellow rubber ducky instead of an actual animal, your screen will be filled with yellow ducks.

It would be nice if you could select the criteria you want to use to compare images though. For instance, what if you weren't looking for netbooks that are photographed from the same angle, but rather laptops from the same company?

Filed under: E-mail, Productivity, Web services

Twitter plus Gmail equals TwitterGadget

Most of the time, when I'm taking time out from work to check email, I'm also checking my Twitter account. With TwitterGadget, I can check both at once, by displaying an auto-refreshing Twitter feed in Gmail or right next to my Gmail gadget on iGoogle. Be warned, though, TwitterGadget is a bit overwhelming if you follow a lot of people. Unless you're a serious Twitter addict, it's probably more annoying than helpful to get bombarded with real-time tweets from your Gmail page. You can also use TwitterGadget as a standalone web app, but there are better ones out there, and removing it from the Google context takes away some of the charm.

Here's how to install TwitterGadget:

First, open Gmail and go to "labs." Enable the gadgets tab by turning on the "Add Any Gadget by URL" lab. Go to your new gadgets tab (it should be in settings, right next to labs), and paste in the URL for TwitterGadget, which is http://www.twittergadget.com/gadget.xml. You should be all set! TwitterGadget can also be installed on an iGoogle homepage via a convenient link on the TwitterGadget website. The refresh duration is customizable, and if you want to use multiple accounts, just install multiple Gadgets (on iGoogle, anyway.)

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The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

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