Last Week in Search: Twitter Gets a Makeover, Facebook Launches Timeline & Android Reaches App Milestone
Twitter Gets a Makeover
Twitter unveiled a design overhaul early Friday morning aimed at streamlining the popular social service. Ditching the two-panel design introduced just over a year ago, Twitter’s new interface cleans up the clutter and designed a new navigation system to find what you’re looking for in Twitter. Recognising the different ways in which Twitter is used, new dashboards named Home, Connect and Discover have been implemented to give every type of Twitter user a home. Check out our hands on with Twitter’s new design here.
Facebook Finally Launches Timeline… In New Zealand
Facebook launched a pilot of its long awaited Timeline profile redesign in New Zealand last week, giving us the perfect excuse to repost this excellent set of photos. New Zealand struck many as an odd choice to begin the Timeline rollout, but Facebook says New Zealand’s high percentage of English speakers and its distance from their US-based servers makes it perfect place to stress test the new feature. Facebook says Timeline should be rolling out to all users in the coming weeks, months late from its originally proposed launch date. Tired of waiting for Timeline to officially hit Australian shores? Check out our guide on how the unlock Timeline here!
Google’s Newest Algorithm Changes
On last week’s video blog Jim took an in-depth look at Google’s recent algorithm changes to find out which matter and how they can affect your business. Jim also took a look at YouTube’s excellent new analytics system to show you how to measure the effectiveness of your videos. Watch the video below and drop us a comment on any other topics you’d like Jim to delve into next.
Google+ & Gmail Become BFF’s
It’s like any week doesn’t feel complete without another Google+ feature. Last week was Gmail’s turn to hop on the Google+ train, with circle integration and easier contact management across the two services. Emails received from accounts registered with Google+ will now allow you to instantly add them to your circles and will also display recent shared posts right in Gmail. Gmail can also now be filtered by your Google+ circles and photo attachments can now be shared instantly to Google+.
Android Market Hits 10 Billion App Downloads
Google’s Android mobile operating system hit a huge milestone last week, exceeding 10 billion app downloads on the Android Market. Even more impressive than the milestone however is the rate at which app downloads are growing on the Android Market with Google delivering one billion apps per month. While still behind Apple’s App Store behemoth, which by last count on October 18 had 18 billion apps and reached 1 billion app downloads per month in July this year, Android’s impressive Market growth is good news for the platform.
Google Launches Content Consumption App Currents
Google expanded it’s mobile app portfolio last week with the addition of content delivery app Currents for iOS and Android. A visually rich content consumption app that boasts a clean and incredibly intuitive design, Currents is the search giants answer to popular iPad apps such as Flipboard and Zite. With launch partners in a wide range of different fields to begin curating from, Google Currents also works in tandem with Google Reader and your social accounts to source the content you want quicker and easier. See Currents in action in the video below.
Google Currents is currently only available in the United States. Sign up for our newsletter for any updates on Google Current’s availability internationally.
That’s it for Last Week in Search! See you next week with all the latest in search news.
Jim’s been here for a while, you know who he is.
