Google are constantly updating, researching, brainstorming and redesigning new features for Google Labs to help improve their applications and give the best user experience possible for their searchers.
In 2002, they introduced Google Labs, which allows Google to share their new developments and features with their users, so they can get direct feedback from users, as they try out the new features and share their thoughts on the products.
In keeping with this tradition, Google has recently released two new innovations, they are still under development at the moment, but these features are: Similar Images and Google News Timeline.
Similar Images
Similar Images allows users to refine their image search by simply clicking the link under the particular image that they would like to see more similar images of.
The feature was developed to help users conducting image searches to find the image they are looking for more quickly and easily, as sometimes it can be difficult to find an image if it is hard to describe it in words.
This new application allows users to simply click a link under the image that is most relevant to what they were hoping to find, rather than refining their search query.
For example if you were to type in the words mini, Paris, or apple, you will get a varied array of results that are all very relevant the searched words, but the user is likely to be looking for one thing in particular.
They may be looking for a new mini cooper or a classic mini, so this new feature will allow users to simply click on the link under the image that they are interested in, without having to change the search term they used.
Google News Timeline
This new feature organises past and present news stories into chronological order, in a zoomable, graphical timeline.
The new timeline allows users to choose a length of time and see all the news stories and events from that period, whether it be a week, month, year or decade.
Users can search for particular keywords that are associated with a particular event or news story that they are interested in and then narrow down the time period or simply look at the main stories, that are connected to their query, from the past.
The new timeline retrieves news stories from all different sources, from recent and archival news, scanned newspapers and magazines, blog posts, sports scores and the media.
Users can thereforesearch for a particular actor or music artist, as well as historic events and world issues and the see the results for each year that there was news written about the subject.
These are just two of the newest features from Google and there are plenty more to be discovered at Google Labs and many more to come. Google invites everyone to check them out and encourages user feedback so have a look and let them know what you think.