What you always wanted….

According to the Hindustan Times, Google plans to release an offline version of Gmail.

Offline version of Gmail in the works? | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

From the New York Times:

Google plans to announce today a significant expansion of its Print Ads program, in which advertisers purchase ads in newspapers through the Web. The company introduced a limited test program last November in which 50 newspapers sold ads to 100 selected advertisers through Google's computer system.

Google to Expand Program, Giving Newspapers a Lift - New York Times

Can Mahalo, a new search engine, steal some market share away from Google?

Last month, another company, Mahalo (Hawaiian for "thank you"), inaugurated a search service with manually edited results. It started with several advantages: venture capital backing, 30 editors, systematic focus on the most commonly requested search terms, and the added idea of supplying Google's search results for any search not covered by its own best-of-the-best lists.

The Human Touch That May Loosen Google's Grip - New York Times

Google is a company that never ceases to amaze me.  Now, instead of just offering overhead satellite images within Google Maps, you can see a 360 degree view of what it would look like if you were standing on that street.  This new feature is only available right now in major urban areas such as New York and San Francisco.

If you're curious how they did it, I've been told that specially equipped vans have been driving around cities worldwide for a while now, preparing for such a feature.  The vans have 360 degree cameras strapped to the top, and take an image periodically as the van drives down the street.  You can even see the people standing on the sidewalk when the Van drove by… I smell a challenging new variation on Where's Waldo…

If you love Google Earth, you'll have to check out this new feature in Google Maps.

Google Maps - Street View Demo

Google's changing the way we search… yet again:

Google Inc. said today that it was unifying its approach to Web search, combining its established service with specialized searches ranging from news and images to videos.

Google Revamps Its Search System - New York Times

Many small business owners assume that getting listed, or "indexed", by Google's search engine is a matter of flipping a switch or two, or simply submitting your site to Google. I'm here to tell you that it's a whole lot more complicated than that.

The most important thing to understand is that it will take time for your site to gain legitimacy in the eyes of Google, but there are some things you can start to do to help.  Whatever you do, don't follow any suggestions of over-zealous marketers who claim to get you to the top of Google.  They are scam artists and are likely to get you banned from the Google index for trying to scam the system.

Above all, remember that Google's interest lies not in publicizing your business through its search results, but rather providing the most relevant and worthy results to searchers. This is precisely why Google has garnered such great success as a search engine.

The million dollar question is: how do you make sure that Google thinks your site is relevant and worthy? Well, it's not an easy question to answer- a whole industry called SEO (Search Engine Optimization) has been built around improving search engine rankings for businesses. Unfortunately, many of these companies are unscrupulous.  The truth of it is, there's no one magic factor that can pop you up to the top of Google's search results overnight, but over time, if you are building a worthwhile site, you are sure to be noticed.

Making sure to include articles and interesting content on your site- and submitting that content to other sites as well, is one great way to improve your Google ranking.

For those of you who use Google Adwords, a very powerful way for even the smallest of small businesses to get in on the online advertising game:

The company said Tuesday that it would expand a test of a system that allows advertisers to pay only when an ad spurs a consumer to take an action, be it purchasing a product, subscribing to a newsletter or signing up to receive a quote from a mortgage broker or car dealer.

Google Tests an Ad Idea: Pay Only for Results - New York Times

Google may be making a move into the television advertising market, according to TechCrunch.  Google is one of the dominant advertising force on the Internet, selling keyword-related ads for Google searches.  (Those "sponsored links" you see on the side of the search page.)  Google's financial success is largely due to its innovations in making advertising easy and accessible to everybody from big corporations down to the Mom and Pop shops.  After having recently moved into radio advertising, it will be interesting to see how the move into television pans out.

The WSJ is reporting (behind paywall) that Google is conducting a small scale test of television advertisements in the Northern California town of Concord (east of San Francsicso), and there are additional rumors that Google is close to signing a deal with Dish Network, a satellite television provider, to supply advertising to its television subscribers.

Google Testing TV Ads in California

Google Passes Yahoo in Tally of Visitors - New York Times
Google, the search engine company, displaced Yahoo as the world's second-most-visited Web site in November and closed in on the leader, Microsoft, a market researcher said yesterday.

Informit - Exploring Google's Hidden Features
Google is a great search engine, but it's also more than that. Google has tons of hidden features, some of which are quite fun and most of which are extremely useful— if you know about them. How do you discover all these hidden features within the Google site? Read on to learn more.