What's trending? Check out Google's Realtime.

April 29, 2011 was a historic day. It was "The Royal Wedding" day of Prince William and Miss Catherine Middleton. A Google search today reveals "about 61 million" possible results:

Talk about information overload!! If you were to click one weblink every second, it would take over 700 days (non-stop) to get to every site (61 000 000 seconds = 706.018519 days).

There has been lots of media coverage of the event, and just about everyone is talking about it, both online and in person. If you want to pay attention to the online comments, just click the "Realtime" link on the left of the search results page to view a continuous "live" stream of Twitter comments (Google has recently added Facebook comments to the feed). You can "Pause" the stream, or use the Timeline to roll back and view older comments.

Here's more information about how Google's Realtime works:

Think about projecting a Realtime live feed of current events as students arrive to class each day.

ICE Conference Wrap Up

The 25th Annual ICE Conference (Feb. 22-25, 2011) may be history, but the learning continues. Wednesday's keynote speaker, Rushton Hurley provided a great resource to attendees, and I am now a subscriber to his Next Vista for Learning newsletter.  (Sign up here.)

The following is reprinted from the March issue:

Google Goodies 

Did you know there is a tool for recipes in Google search, allowing you to filter dishes by how many calories, how long they take to make, and which ingredients commonly go with whatever you searched on?  Neither did I!  Do a search on "lentils," look on the left, and click "recipes" to make your way to as calorie- and time-sensitive culinary delights as you choose.  Or just click here.  Culinary arts teachers, you are loved.

For the home economics teachers, give the Google wedding planner a look (I'm serious).  Someone is apparently going to win a dream wedding on that page.  Who'd have guessed?

You whose teaching includes coverage of current events, there's a YouTube tool you'll want to start following: CitizenTube.  At the moment this includes loads of videos from countries across the Middle East - a rather amazing lesson on democracy may only be a click away.

Finally, if you're wanting really creative takes on how to use Google tools, turn off the TV and take in the Google Demo Slam.  Be warned, though; this is one of those things that's hard to stop watching.  It's been going on for a while, and Monday (today, probably, as you read this), you can find out who the "Slampion" is.  I voted for the Japanese freefall skydiving-ish folks.

I echo Ruston's recommendation for the slam videos. They are great entertainment!
Spring, here we come!

Free Google Guide for Educators

Google offers dozens of free resources that teachers and students can use to improve their learning experiences. This 33-page guide by Google Certified Teacher Richard Byrne, is intended for teachers who would like to know more about Google Search, Google Docs, and Google Maps. This guide begins with an overview of advanced Google Search tools that can improve Internet search experiences.
See the detailed list below which includes information about using Google Gadgets for creating word clouds and checking readability levels (Pages 20-4) as well as...

Search Tools
An overview of Google’s lesserknown search tools. Google Books, Google Scholar, Google News.
Pages 2 - 3

Google Books
How to access Google Books advanced search. How to embed books into your blog or website.
Pages 4-6

Google News Widgets
How to put custom Google News on your blog or website.
Page 8

Google Docs
Nine uses of Google Docs beyond word processing and presentations.
Pages 9-11

Creating Quizzes in Google Docs
Step by step directions for creating a quiz and posting it online using Google Docs Forms.
Pages 12- 17

Google Maps
Six ways to use Google Maps beyond the Social Studies classroom. Directions for creating placemarks in Google Maps.
Pages 25 - 32

Visit: http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/03/free-33-page-guide-google-for-teachers.html

You can view this guide electronically (consider the environment before printing!)

Build Vocabulary with Google Gadgets

Google developers will be gathering for their annual conference this week, which means information consumers (you and me) can look forward to some new Google tools or features, such as the Flash Cards, Word Study and Word Search gadgets recently announced on the Google Docs Blog:

If you are a user of Google Docs, open a new spreadsheet, and select "Insert > Gadget" from the menu:


Or, open a "Gadget-containing" document from the Template Gallery (New > From Template). If you have not yet browsed the many templates available for students and teachers, it's worth a look!

Some things you might not realize about Google searching

In this 7+ minute video, Google Engineer Matt Cutts shares some of the "little-known" features of Google searching. Did you know that Google can track your delivery items, convert currency, define words, besides restricting your searches to certain file types or websites? Learn when to use quotes, dashes and asterisks to narrow your results.



Thanks to Scott Weidig for sharing this on his blog.

Amazing Street View in Google Maps

Check out some new views in Google Maps using the amazing "you are there" tool called Street View. Google posted this intro 4 days ago on YouTube and it has already been viewed more than 130,000 times (wonder why they didn't post it on Google Videos?)




Street View is currently available in six U.S. cities: Chicago, Portland, Philadelphia, Tucson, Phoenix and Pittsburgh. And, it's not just the cities themselves, but out in the suburbs as well. The "blue" indicates where Street View is available:

Street View provides a 360-degree view at a given point on the map. Here's a look at our school, if you were driving by on Rt. 22:


Google Maps Help says: "To navigate along a street, click one of the white arrows overlaid on the street to move in that direction. You can also use arrow keys. Street names display within the info window. You can navigate on to another street once you reach the center of an intersection."

I grew up in the city of Chicago here:

The neighborhood is still looking pretty good. I wonder how often these views will be updated. Take a virtual walk!

Free "411" Information!

Have you seen this from Google?
http://labs.google.com/goog411/

Google Voice Local Search is Google’s experimental service to make local-business search accessible over the phone.

To try this service, just dial 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411) from any phone.

Using this service, you can:

• search for a local business by name or category.
  You can say "Giovanni's Pizzeria" or just "pizza".
  
• get connected to the business, free of charge.
  
• get the details by SMS if you’re using a mobile phone.
  Just say "text message".
  

And it's free. Google doesn’t charge you a thing for the call or for connecting you to the business. Regular phone charges may apply, based on your telephone service provider.

Note: Google Voice Local Search is still in its experimental stage. It may not be available at all times and may not work for all users. They're fine-tuning the service to get better at recognizing requests. It’s currently only available in English, in the US, for US business listings.