Well after criticising Google a few weeks ago for thier Streetview tool…I’ve got to hand it to them. This week they’ve launched a couple of great new features. The Similar Images tool is a new way of searching for pictures, using images rather than words, and it works pretty well. There is also GoogleLabs, which offers users the chance to look at the thousands of new innovations the Google team are working on, and a chance to meet the developers.

GoogleTrends is also an entertaining way to spend a few minutes. You can look at what the top searches are in a number of different companies, by region and city and read news stories about each trend. There are also graphs showing the changing popularity of different trends and searches. GoogleTrends is genuinely useful for marketers and public relations practitioners looking for the next big thing.

But my favourite has to be GoogleTimeline. It chronologically orders and presents news already available in Google in a simple to use and appealing format. You can also select what type of news stories and features you want to search for. I think this is a genuinely useful tool, especially if you are researching something in particular. For example, search the timeline for the Iraq War and you get all the key dates and events laid out for you to examine. The timeline goes back to the 1400s, and even if you just want to look up things that happened on the day you were born, its great fun.

So after suffering a bit of a backlash over Streetview, Google have not been resting on their laurels and have come up with a couple of great new tools. Google’s mission statement is “…to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”, and I think they have really delivered on this time. After doing some research for a recent university project into organisational identity, image and reputation, I found too many companies who did not live their values or embody their mission. Google’s commitment to their mission statement is the reason why they are the most popular search engine in the world. It’s a lesson for practitioners and marketers, that delivering on your promises to your stakeholders should be a primary concern.

This entry was posted on April 23, 2009 at 2:34 am and is filed under Business, Current Affairs, New Media, News, Politics, Public Relations, Technology, Web 2.0, marketing, social networking. Tagged: corporate identity, googel, google labs, google streetview, google timeline, google trends, marketing, mission statement, pr, reputation, research, search engine, similar images. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.