Google’s Latest Easter Egg Brings Atari Breakout Game To Image Search

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Add this to the big list of Google easter eggs: Do an image search for “atari breakout,” and you’ll be able to play the classic video game online, right in your search results.

In fact, the image search results become the bricks that you have to eliminate as you play the game. Google is calling the game “Image Breakout.” You can use your mouse or the arrow keys on your keyboard to control your paddle, and when you’ve used up all five chances, you can share your score on Google+.

I’m not sure who reported/discovered this first (if it matters); TechCrunch, who may have been first, is saying that the easter egg is in honor of Breakout’s 37th anniversary.

Google has had other game-related easter eggs in the past. You can still see the Starcraft-inspired zerg rush search results. And there was (is?) a flight simulator easter egg in Google Earth, too. (You can also still play Pac-Man on Google, but that was doodle-related, not an easter egg.)

Related Topics: Channel: Search | Google | Google: Easter Eggs | Google: Images

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Google’s Matt Cutts: Next Generation Of The Penguin Update “Few Weeks” Away

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In March, Google’s chief web spam fighter Matt Cutts promised that the Penguin Update designed to fight spam would get a big refresh later this year. Today, Cutts gave an update — keep waiting. It’s still a few weeks off. Along the way, there’s some confusion about whether the next Penguin Update will be Penguin 2 or Penguin 4. It’ll be Penguin 4, in how we reckon things. Let’s dive in.

This Week Wasn’t Penguin

Publishers have already been wondering if a change in rankings that many have noticed this week was some type of Google update. Google won’t say what, if anything happened.

However, Cutts has ruled out that it was the significant Penguin Update he warned in March would be coming. He tweeted:

He went on to say that the next Penguin Update is a few weeks out:

Counting The Pandas & Penguins

Note that Cutts refers “Penguin 2.0″ as the coming rollout. How can that be, when we’ve had three confirmed Penguin updates already, with Penguin 3 happening in October?

This all goes back to a different update, the Panda Update, which first launched in February 2011. That was Panda Update 1. Of course, we didn’t call it Panda 1 then, because as the first Panda Update, it was just called “The Panda Update.”

Two months later, Google made a huge change to Panda, so the next version was called Panda 2. But when the third release happened, and people started calling that Panda 3, Google said that because the changes to the filter weren’t so dramatic, it would better be called Panda 2.1.

That left it to Google to call the shots on whether a Panda Update was big enough to go through a full point change or not. And that became ridiculous when we got to something like Panda 3.92, last September. As we explained then, when the updates started going to two decimal places, we felt maybe just a straight Panda 1, 2, 3 and so on number order made sense, no decimals involved.

Renumbering The Pandas

When what would have been Panda Update 3.93 came around, we decided enough was enough. We renumbered all the Panda Updates that had happened, regardless of how big they were, believing that was a clearer way forward.

The number no longer reflects whether there’s been a major “generational” change or not. The number is just a common reference point for everyone to use, not some type of magnitude.

For the record, here’s where we are with Panda. The impact each update had on queries is shown, when provided by Google, after the number:

  1. Panda Update 1, Feb. 24, 2011 (11.8% of queries; announced; English in US only)
  2. Panda Update 2, April 11, 2011 (2% of queries; announced; rolled out in English internationally)
  3. Panda Update 3, May 10, 2011 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)
  4. Panda Update 4, June 16, 2011 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)
  5. Panda Update 5, July 23, 2011 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)
  6. Panda Update 6, Aug. 12, 2011 (6-9% of queries in many non-English languages; announced)
  7. Panda Update 7, Sept. 28, 2011 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)
  8. Panda Update 8, Oct. 19, 2011 (about 2% of queries; belatedly confirmed)
  9. Panda Update 9, Nov. 18, 2011: (less than 1% of queries; announced)
  10. Panda Update 10, Jan. 18, 2012 (no change given; confirmed, not announced)
  11. Panda Update 11, Feb. 27, 2012 (no change given; announced)
  12. Panda Update 12, March 23, 2012 (about 1.6% of queries impacted; announced)
  13. Panda Update 13, April 19, 2012 (no change given; belatedly revealed)
  14. Panda Update 14, April 27, 2012: (no change given; confirmed; first update within days of another)
  15. Panda Update 15, June 9, 2012: (1% of queries; belatedly announced)
  16. Panda Update 16, June 25, 2012: (about 1% of queries; announced)
  17. Panda Update 17, July 24, 2012:(about 1% of queries; announced)
  18. Panda Update 18, Aug. 20, 2012: (about 1% of queries; belatedly announced)
  19. Panda Update 19, Sept. 18, 2012: (less than 0.7% of queries; announced)
  20. Panda Update 20 , Sept. 27, 2012 (2.4% English queries, impacted, belatedly announced
  21. Panda Update 21, Nov. 5, 2012 (1.1% of English-language queries in US; 0.4% worldwide; confirmed, not announced)
  22. Panda Update 22, Nov. 21, 2012 (0.8% of English queries were affected; confirmed, not announced)
  23. Panda Update 23, Dec. 21, 2012 (1.3% of English queries were affected; confirmed, announced)
  24. Panda Update 24, Jan. 22, 2013 (1.2% of English queries were affected; confirmed, announced)
  25. Panda Update 25, March 15, 2013 (confirmed as coming; not confirmed as having happened)

Panda 25 was the first time Google itself didn’t confirm whether a Panda Update had happened, part of its policy that it wasn’t likely to confirm these going forward, since they rollout over the course of days now. Instead, it was left to third-parties to decide if one had hit.

Did Panda 26 Just Happen?

This also means that the update that’s caused chatter this week might be Panda 26. It might be something else. We don’t feel confident enough to declare it Panda 26 ourselves, which is why our list stops at Panda 25. But with Penguin ruled out, it does suggest that maybe Panda 26 had happened this week.

Or maybe not. Isn’t reading Google tea leaves fun?

Penguin 2.0 Or Penguin 4?

That leads to Penguin. This is how those have gone, so far:

In our numbering system, regardless of how “big” the next Penguin Update is, we’ll still call it Penguin 4.

It will be big. We know that already from what Cutts has said in the past. In fact, it’s so big that internally, Matt said today that Google refers to it as Penguin 2.0.

From what Cutts tweeted to me:

Oh dear, but if this next one is the “true” Penguin 2, are we going to make a mistake calling it Penguin 4? I’ll argue not as big a mistake as if we called it Penguin 2.

Why We’ll Call It Penguin 4

See, let’s go back to Panda. In October 2011, we wrote that Panda 2.5 was live. Google hadn’t said it was a massive new change, so that seemed the right number. But the following month, Google said that Panda 2.5 would have been better described as Panda 3.0. We corrected that after the fact — but it would have been easier if Google had called it that way from the start.

We can’t depend on Google to consistently tell us how massive a particular update is, or even if an update happens at all. Because of this, linking magnitude to some decimal-based numbering system seems a mistake.

We have to use something that isn’t going to change months later on. The new numbering system has worked well with Panda, and we’ll stick with it for Penguin.

Ideally, I’d love to see Google itself simply list any significant change with the date it happens and some common reference name. I think that’s useful for publishers — not spammers, but any publisher — trying to understand if they’ve been impacted by something that they should correct. You can’t fix what’s wrong if you don’t have a good sense of what it was.

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Related Topics: Google: Penguin Update | Top News

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Google & Time Inc. Launch Timelapse: See How Any Part Of The World Has Changed Over Time

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The new Timelapse site, created by Time Inc. and Google, is a pretty amazing way to see how any part of the world has changed since 1984 through 2012. The site offers amazing animations such as the growth of Las Vegas and the shrinking of the Columbia Glacier, and you can point it at any part of the world you want.

Google explains more about how it has collected the images with the US Geological Survey since 2009 and sifted through to find those with good quality, and without cloud cover, over every part of the world.

Here are some examples of what you can see. Deforestation in the Amazon:

The growth of Las Vegas:

The growth in Dubai:

The Columbia Glacier shrinking:

The site itself explains more about these locations plus makes it easy to jump to them and some other dramatic examples through the editors’ picks you’ll see over the Timelapse map:

Note the last box, with the arrow I’ve inserted pointing at it. That allows you to search for any place in the world. I found it interesting to zoom to UC Irvine, my college, and see how much the campus has grown, since I left. I could also see how parts of Orange County, where I live, has had farmland and hillsides replaced by homes.

Unfortunately, you can’t bookmark and share locations, nor can you create animated GIFs of particular areas using the tool. Both features would have helped with the clear mission of the site, to spread the word about our impact on the planet.

Overall, it’s a great tool, either for exploring the dramatic and sometimes scary changes happening in the world or just to see how much a place you know may have changed or not.

Related Topics: Google: Maps & Local | Top News

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AdWords Campaigns That Don’t Use Advanced Settings Will Be Migrated To Standard Type Campaigns

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Over the next few weeks, Google will be migrating AdWords campaigns that don’t use any advanced features from “All Features” to “Standard” type campaigns. The change applies only to “Search Network Only” and “Search and Display Networks” campaigns.

When Google updated the AdWords campaign setup back in June 2012 to include the “Standard” and “All Features” options, existing campaigns were automatically rolled over to “All Features”. In Legacy campaigns, you can still see “not recommended” noted in red next to the Standard option. Now, ahead of the enhanced campaigns switch-over in July and the additional advanced options that come with it, older campaigns that are actually set up like “Standard” campaigns will be designated as such.

This change won’t affect ad delivery or campaign performance in any way. It just means that you won’t see any of the advanced feature options for Location, Bidding and Delivery or any of the other advanced settings.

If you decide to use advanced features at a later date, just select “All features” under Settings, and those options will become available.

Related Topics: Google: AdWords | Google: AdWords: Enhanced Campaigns

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Google Search App With Google Now Breaks Into iTunes Top 10

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When Google first released its updated Google Search app last October, it never made the iTunes top ten and, last week, wasn’t even in the top 100. But the addition of Google Now helped the app make the top ten in less than a week.

Google relaunched its app last October with Siri-like voice recognition and readback, but after peaking at number 16, it started dropping down to around the 150 mark last Sunday.

With Google Now being added, the app has risen up to number 10 in the most recently downloaded free apps list. Coincidentally, it also just got named the 10th most downlaoded free app ever for the iPhone.

Whether Google Now functionality helps it stay in the top 10 remains to be seen, of course.

Related Topics: Google | Google: Google Now | Google: Google Search App | Google: Mobile | Top News

About The Author: Danny Sullivan is a Founding Editor of Search Engine Land. He’s a widely cited authority on search engines and search marketing issues who has covered the space since 1996. Danny also serves as Chief Content Officer for Third Door Media, which publishes Search Engine Land and produces the SMX: Search Marketing Expo conference series. He has a personal blog called Daggle (and keeps his disclosures page there). He can be found on Facebook, Google + and microblogs on Twitter as @dannysullivan. See more articles by Danny Sullivan

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Google Expands List of “Generic” Top Level Domains and Makes Them Geotargetable

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Typically, the country-code top level domain (ccTLD) is just that — a country code. For instance, example.co.uk has content for the UK and example.com.au has content for Australia. Usually, registration of these domains is restricted. You have to prove that you are operating the site from the designated country. However, some countries have opened up registration to everyone. And of course, some top level domains, such as .com, are inherently generic.

Google uses the location of a site in its ranking algorithms. A searcher in the UK is more likely to see sites from the UK in results. But for top level domains that aren’t restricted to a particular country, Google uses other signals, such as the location of the server in determining what country a site is most relevant for.

Site owners can specify the target country for these generic top level domains in Google Webmaster Tools (but can’t specify a different target if registration of the TLD is restricted to a specific country). Thanks to Googler Pierre Far for letting everyone know!

This is a great solution, but over time, more countries (such as Columbia, with their ccTLD of .co) have opened up registration. Site owners with these domains have been frustrated that Google hasn’t supported the new generic nature of the TLDs. A .co could end up ranking only in Columbia, even if the site didn’t target users in that country.

Now, Google has expanded the list of ccTLDs that they recognize as generic. So if you have a .co or .io, you can now specify the country that it should be associated with. (and @dotco is pretty happy about that.) As always, if your site is not country-specific, don’t specify a target country. Google’s index now recognizes that the unrestricted ccTLDs shouldn’t be associated specifically with those countries so they won’t be seen as more relevant for those users.

Great news for owners of these types of domains and for searchers.

Related Topics: Google: Algorithm Updates | Google: SEO | Google: Webmaster Central

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Be On Your Guard With Exterior Security Lighting

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The advantage of installing outdoor lighting for the purpose of enhanced security for your home is obvious. Anyone approaching your home with the intent to burgle would be put off by the greatly increased chance of detection.

A great range of outdoor security lighting solutions are avaliable on the market. Motion sensor security lighting methods allow you to make use of the lighting only when required. Solar lighting technology is improving rapidly and some solar lighting systems are equipped with motion detectors. Most would-be intruders would scatter when suddenly confronted by the fact that they are visible for all the world to see.

Setting up timers both inside and outside would give the impression someone is home even if away on holiday. Lighting can be connected to a remote control to allow you to turn on any security lights without turning on a switch. This would obviously be helpful if you suspect an intruder.

Not too long ago a pairing of a surveillance camera and motion security flood lighting device has become avaliable on the market and is proving to be very popular.

Security lights need to be set up strategically, where they are most important, for example all entrances to the home, around garages, patios and pathways. An added advantage is that your family and guests will not risk injury walking about in the dark of night. When installing floodlights an important consideration is the aiming of the lights. Be very careful not to direct your light into a neighbours home. Incorrectly aimed floodlights can cause disquiet in the neighbourhood, and danger to traffic. If adjustment proves to be difficult, a shield may be required to limit the range of illumination.

You also need to make sure motion sensors are directed correctly to avoid the lights been triggered by small animals.

Outdoor lighting systems are generally low voltage, low wattage setups which are safer and cheaper to run. Most security lighting systems are affordable to the majority of homeowners and of course the question is “can you afford not to invest in security lighting?” ”

When you have decided on the security system you want to invest in also consider the following factors, effectiveness, visual qualities and cost. If your wanting a more advanced sercurity system, you should maybe think about hiring a professional, which will certainly raise the cost, however we get what we pay for and don’t need to pay a huge amount of money to install security lighting.

A reasonably adequate security lighting system can be installed quite cheaply. Added security with motion sensor lights is perhaps all anyone would need. However if you want to invest in remote controlled lighting, camera surveillance, motion sensors and an alarm system, you will obviously pay more for higher security, which would also be a good investment.

You can see a good range of security lights and different types of lighting on our blog

Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred Reviews Revolution: Attaining Your Body Remodeling

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Numerous individuals make New Year’s resolutions to accomplish better health or to lose weight. The difficulty is that they end up losing sight of this goal for numerous reasons. Possibly the diet plan they chose is too extreme or the exercise regimen is too extensive. And in many cases, we forget our objectives because we get inhibited with our results – and this is normally since there isn’t adequate concentrate on training and learning what a great diet plan consists of. What foods must you eat at exactly what times of the day to fuel our body when it needs it & reduce specific foods at certain periods of the day.

Regardless, you can bet the exact same individuals will be making the same resolutions once again come next New Year’s Eve. Unless they discover the right ways of attaining sustainable outcomes with a program that is simple to suit the majority of individuals’s everyday schedule. This is where the Jillian Michaels Body Transformation system can assist.

Jillian Michaels has actually made quite a name for herself in both the individual training / life coach and television sectors – this is because of her skill and capability to assist others attain fat burning and fitness goals that they could have as soon as felt were out of reach. Now Jillian brings her competence house to us with the Body Revolution fitness system. To call this a basic fat burning or workout routine would be seriously underselling its potential. This complex training system rather involves both healthy eating and exercise training. You will cover both the shape that your body is in and the eating routines that may have allowed you to reach such a point.

Any fitness specialist will inform you that workout is wonderful but does little great if you continue eating in an unhealthy way – in fact, many would suggest that exercise is only 20 % of the equation for sustained fat burning & diet is 80 %. Jillian’s Body Transformation takes this into account. The beginning of the program is going through a 90 day and 3 stage diet transformation that will have you not only eating healthier but eating foods that will assist to boost your capability to drop weight and keep it off. On top of this nevertheless you will invest 30 minutes every day with the 90 day and 3 stage workout program. The system teaches which workouts will most effectively hit your target locations and help you fade unwanted pounds offering you the body you want.

Something to keep in mind is that there are three things you will need when starting the Jillian Michaels Body Transformation system: certainly desire, some flooring area, and a set of pinheads. This is truly one of the most well-rounded home physical fitness programs offered on the market.

If you ‘d like for more information about the Jillian Michaels Body Transformation – please spend some time to see us at ShopAtAsSeenOnTV.com.

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Improvements in Home Security Lighting Units

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When it becomes safe in your house, there are numerous things you can do. You can add additional locks to your door, set up a personal privacy fence or even gate your driveway, and more. However, none of these methods are actually going to do you much good if you hear something going on outside your residence. You can look out your window, however unless the yard is lit up, you’re not going to have the ability to inform what’s making the noise. It could be the wind blowing tree branches around. It could be an animal. Or it could be somebody wanting to burglarize your home.

Home security lighting can relieve these issues. By having brighten around your home, you can quickly see exactly what’s going on outside. In addition to lighting up your lawn so you can spot intruders, these lights are also extremely useful if you get home after dark regularly. You’ll have the ability to see everything from your car to your front door. This not only makes it more secure to obtain house after dark but it additionally makes it much easier for you to discover your keys or prevent tripping over anything neglected in between your driveway and your front door.

Home security lighting has actually gone through a lot of changes over the years. Prior to a few of the more modern additions to these products, the only real lighting you had can be found in the kind of public street lights. Nevertheless, there were obvious limitations below. The street lights only lit up the front of your residence, and if you had tall trees in front, they might not even light up that much. If you endured in the nation, you might have had one pole light provided by the electric company, but again, the location illuminated by this light was fairly small. Additionally, these lights were generally constantly on at night, which could be frustrating if they shone in your bed room window.

The next step in home safety lighting was the floodlight. These lights, which were more powerful than basic light bulbs, were attached to the underside of your roof. They were wired into your home’s electrical system, and you could possibly control them via a light switch. The good news was that this made it feasible to brighten all areas of your yard if you set up these lights around your residence. You can control when they were on and off, too. The problem was that unless you left them on, you would still come home to a dark lawn. Likewise, unless you left them on, intruders would know you weren’t home if they made a loud noise and nobody switched on the lights to explore.

Today, nevertheless, movement sensors are been incorporated into house security lighting. You can discover a number of various motion activated lights. Some are mounted on your house like the standard flood lights. Others, like the motion activated LED outdoor light, can be put around your patio or near your driveway and will come on whenever you come up to them. Power is not an issue, either. Products like solar powered safety flood lights not just provide light when required but additionally collect solar power throughout the day so they can be placed anywhere-there’s no have to wire them into your home’s system. A few of these motion sensitive lights can also be switched on by hand.

What can these movement delicate home security lights do for you? Well, the apparent is that they assist you get into your house in the evening. You’ll have the ability to see every little thing in your driveway and on your deck. The other fantastic benefit that these lights give you is that it makes it impossible for thieves to know if you’re house or not. Because the lights will come on whenever someone relocate front of them, there’s no way to tell if someone is seeing from your home. It’s likewise feasible that your next-door neighbors will see the light come on and observe any suspicious task, especially if they understand you’re not in the house.

There are a few downsides to motion delicate lights. Occasionally, the wind will blow tree branches around so quick that they will set off the light, and other times large animals can set them off. However, these downsides are insignificant in the long run, and they must not hinder you from setting up residence security lighting. The benefits of having the ability to rapidly light up your lawn and having lights come on instantly when you get home after dark easily outweigh any drawback.

You can visit my blog for more info on Security Lights

Great website free standing mirrors

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If you are looking for a design feature that you can integrate into your existing design, which will make an immediate effect on visitors, then consider the addition of several free standing mirrors.

Flooring standing mirrors are normally big or large mirrors that are not intended to be fixed to a wall, however rather use a flooring surface, and potentially lean on an existing wall, as their main source of support. More traditional flooring standing mirrors could be included within a support stand or frame, which enables the mirror to be free-standing and perfectly vertically situated. Recently nonetheless, even more modern-day designs of flooring standing mirrors, placed at angles diagonal to the floor, have become popular and striking design attributes in houses and workplaces.

What is it about big or large mirrors that adds appeal to any room? The reflective homes of mirrors in general contribute a new measurement to any space, providing it depth, and the impression of being bigger than it in fact is. In addition, mirrors mirror light; the addition of one or more mirrors to any room will bend the space lighting in one-of-a-kind and interesting ways, as well as mirror natural lighting to produce the illusion of a better, more illuminated location. The larger the mirror or mirrors, the more powerful these dimension-adding and light-reflecting homes will be within the room.

In the past, one smart method of offering a space dimension or of making it appear bigger than it really is, was the hanging of wall curtains. Opaque curtains, connected by components on walls, suggested an opening or a window behind those drapes, which automatically developed the impression of a bigger space. Mirrors are the modern-day option to this even more typical design strategy.

An additional option to floor standing mirrors, which develops similar effect, without taking up quite as much space, is the mirrored closet door. Think about changing your traditionally swinging closet door for a sliding one that includes wall to wall mirrors. As part of the door framework, the mirrors will be basically free standing. They will provide depth and light to the space in question, while also functioning as complete length mirrors to assist in dressing and picking an outfit.

Flooring standing mirrors can be obtained in many styles. They can be included within thick, richly colored frames, or might be entirely frameless. They might be broad, narrow, short, or tall. Select sizes and designs suitably to complement the design of the mirror’s desired room.