Elizabeth B. Thomsen

Archive for the ‘Google’ Category

Google’s Quotes is a very handy feature that’s part of Google News. Just go to to the Google News site and do a search for the name of a prominent person. Look for a Quotes link in the sidebar on the left, and click on it.

For example, look at the Google Quotes page for Warren Buffett. You can page through all the quotes, or use the options on the left to sort them, limit them to a particular date range, or to search within the quotes for ones that contain the word bubble or any word or phrase of interest. Clicking through to the original article provides context.

This isn’t just for current newsmakers — you’ll also find a Quotes listing for Abraham Lincoln and Charles Dickens, among others. You’ll also find anyone prominent who died recently, like Eartha Kitt.

Google is using algorithms rather than human editors to identify quotes within articles, and you’ll find occasional false hits here, but despite some limitations, this can be a very useful resource.

Today Google announced a new initiative to digitize backfiles of magazines and make them searchable through Google Books. They are featuring this on the main Google Books page with a rotating assortment of cover images, and you can limit a search to magazines on the Advanced Book Search page.
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Google made an interesting change two weeks ago, ranking and integrating web links, books, images, music and more all in a single search results page. Images and videos are displayed with thumbnails. I especially like the way results from Google Video and YouTube are displayed:

Clicking on the link or the thumbnail takes you to the video’s page on Google Video or YouTube, and clicking on the Watch Video link lets you watch it directly from the search results page.
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