Five From Google

Google announced four new tools today at their press conference:

– Google Co-op is a way for users to help us improve search. It lets people and organizations label web pages and create specialized links related to their unique expertise. Whether it’s information about a hobby, a profession, or an unusual interest, everyone can contribute to making Google search more relevant and useful for the entire community.

– Google Desktop 4 gives you another way to improve search, by personalizing your desktop. New “Google Gadgets” deliver an array of information–ranging from games and media players to weather updates and news–straight to your desktop.

– Google Notebook is a personal browser tool that lets you clip text, images, and links from the pages you’re searching, save clippings to an online notebook, and then share notebooks with others.

– Google Trends builds on the idea behind the Google Zeitgeist, allowing you to sort through several years of Google search queries from around the world to get a general idea of everything from user preferences on ice-cream flavors to the relative popularity of politicians in their respective cities or countries.

I haven’t looked at any of them yet; I’m saving that for the weekend.

And for number five, the Globe and Mail is reporting that

Google Canada has announced the availability of Google SMS for mobile phone users in Canada, extending the reach of Google’s search services to mobile phones and devices. Google SMS is a service that enables people who are away from their computers to get answers to specific queries through text messaging. Using a cellphone or a handheld device like a BlackBerry, users can obtain local business listings, movie show times, and dictionary definitions.