Google Celebrates, Forecasts, And Routes

The search advertising company turned eight years old, and also dropped updates into its Calendar and Transit products.

Hello, I saw you, I know you, I knew you
I think I can remember your name…name
Hello I’m sorry, I lost myself
I think I thought you were someone else
— REM’s ‘Pop Song 89’, because ‘Happy Birthday’ is kind of pass I think

Should we talk about the weather? Why not? Google updated its Calendar with a new feature that Michael Bolin, Google Calendar Engineer, referred to as ‘web content events’:

Our latest feature, web content events, makes it easier to distinguish between what you’ve scheduled for yourself and other things going on around you. A web content event appears as an icon at the top of the day – you can either mouse over that to get a quick summary, or click it to bring up a web page with more information.

You can add web content events to your own calendar for weather forecasts, moon phases, and even Google doodles (those special-occasion logos you sometimes see on Google.com). Now you can be the first to know when there’s a new one!
Should we talk about the government? How about transit instead, as in Google Transit? That’s the service Google launched with Portland, Oregon as its test base.

Chris Harrelson, Software engineer & Transit team tech lead, drove the news to the Google blog about the latest updates to Transit. It’s up to a whopping six cities now!

Today, we’re thrilled to tell you that we’ve added five more cities to our coverage:

Now riders in these cities (and Portland, of course) can use Google to plan trips using public transportation, and in some cities, compare the cost of public transportation with the cost of driving. You can also specify when you want to leave or arrive, and see different route possibilities.
More cities will be arriving on Transit in the coming weeks and months, Harrelson wrote.

It’s another year gone by for Google, and they have a new image designed by webmaster and chief doodler Dennis Hwang that millions of Google users have probably seen today. “I hope you enjoy reading the candles,” Hwang said in his post about the noteworthy day.

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David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.