Google Earth Comes to Android

Google has launched Google Earth for Android, which is currently only available for the Nexus One (which runs Android 2.1). Google calls it the fastest mobile version of Google Earth yet.

Along with the release, comes the Roads layer, which has been popular on the desktop version of Google Earth. The layer is meant to give users a better sense of where they are, with road labels drawn on top of satellite imagery.

"As with other versions of Google Earth, you can also browse photos, places, and local businesses, whether it is in your local community or on the far side of the globe," says Product Manager Peter Birch. "Click on an icon to see photos, videos, and read about prominent places in the world. You can easily customize your version of Google Earth to display the layers that most interest you."

Google Earth for Android also takes advantage of voice recognition that "responds to your every command," according to Google. "With Google Earth for Android, we have brought together the convenience of Google Search by voice with the power of Google Local Search to make it easier than ever to navigate the globe and find whatever you are looking for," says Birch.

Google Earth will be available in the Android Market for devices that have Android 2.1 or higher. As older Android devices get upgraded to 2.1, they will be able to get it.

Google Earth Comes to Android

Google has launched Google Earth for Android, which is currently only available for the Nexus One (which runs Android 2.1). Google calls it the fastest mobile version of Google Earth yet.

Along with the release, comes the Roads layer, which has been popular on the desktop version of Google Earth. The layer is meant to give users a better sense of where they are, with road labels drawn on top of satellite imagery.

"As with other versions of Google Earth, you can also browse photos, places, and local businesses, whether it is in your local community or on the far side of the globe," says Product Manager Peter Birch. "Click on an icon to see photos, videos, and read about prominent places in the world. You can easily customize your version of Google Earth to display the layers that most interest you."

Google Earth for Android also takes advantage of voice recognition that "responds to your every command," according to Google. "With Google Earth for Android, we have brought together the convenience of Google Search by voice with the power of Google Local Search to make it easier than ever to navigate the globe and find whatever you are looking for," says Birch.

Google Earth will be available in the Android Market for devices that have Android 2.1 or higher. As older Android devices get upgraded to 2.1, they will be able to get it.

Ensuring Your Site is Indexed in Google’s Mobile Search

In this day and age, you pretty much can't ignore mobile users. The rate at which consumers are accessing the web via mobile devices is growing rapidly, largely thanks to the increasing popularity and production of smartphones.

Just having a mobile site isn't even enough. Sure, it's a great start, but you have to start thinking about a mobile site just as you would a regular site. Can people find it? Just because you have a good ranking in Google does not mean that your mobile site has a good ranking in Google's mobile search engine, or is even indexed at all.

Google recently shared a few important tips for making sure your mobile site is being indexed in Google's Mobile Search.

1. Create a mobile sitemap and submit it to Google so Google knows it exists. This can be done using Google Webmaster Tools, just like with a regular sitemap.

2. To make sure Googlebot-Mobile can access your site, allow any User-agent to access it.

"You should also be aware that Google may change its User-agent information at any time without notice, so it is not recommended that you check if the User-agent exactly matches 'Googlebot-Mobile' (which is the string used at present)," says Jun Mukai, a software engineer on Google's mobile search team. "Instead, check whether the User-agent header contains the string 'Googlebot-Mobile'. You can also use DNS Lookups to verify Googlebot."

3. Check that your mobile-friendly URLs' DTD (Doc Type Definition) declaration is in an appropriate mobile format such as XHTML Mobile or Compact HTML.

If you run both a regular site and a mobile version of it, there is a possibility that the wrong version will show up in the wrong search results. There are ways you can prevent this.

"When a mobile user or crawler (like Googlebot-Mobile) accesses the desktop version of a URL, you can redirect them to the corresponding mobile version of the same page," explains Mukai. "Google notices the relationship between the two versions of the URL and displays the standard version for searches from desktops and the mobile version for mobile searches."

If you do use a redirect, you should make sure content on the corresponding URL matches as closely as possible, because Google finds sites that abuse the practice in order to try and boost their rankings. Google says this should be avoided at all costs, so you can probably expect to be penalized for such an action.

Another way you can make sure a user is pointed to the right version of your site is simply to provide a link. In fact, that is what Google itself does. If you access the mobile version of Google, you will find a link to the desktop version.

Another way still, is to switch content based on the User-agent, so mobile users automatically see the mobile version and desktop users see the desktop version, even though both are accessing the same URL.

Google warns, however, that if you use this method, there is a chance that if you fail to configure your site correctly, it could be mistaken for cloaking, which you can be penalized for.

"To remain within our guidelines, you should serve the same content to Googlebot as a typical desktop user would see, and the same content to Googlebot-Mobile as you would to the browser on a typical mobile device," says Mukai. "It's fine if the contents for Googlebot are different from the one for Googlebot-Mobile."

Have you taken the necessary steps to ensure you are being indexed in Google's mobile search engine? Have you been left out due to cloaking-related confusion? Discuss here.

Have You Read This?

> Google Launches Custom Search For Smartphones

> Google Gives Mobile Searchers More Options

> Google Revamps Mobile Local Search Experience

Opera Releases Latest Version of Popular Mobile Browser

Opera has announced the release of the beta version of its latest mobile browser - Opera Mini 5. Opera Mini is the most popular mobile web browser in the world, the company claims.

In late August, when Opera released its State of the Mobile Web report, it found that in July, nearly 29.1 million people used Opera Mini, a 9.9% increase from June 2009 and more than 145% compared to July 2008. These numbers reflect only the Opera Mini users who have specifically chosen to install the browser on their phone.

Those 29.1 million people viewed more than 12 billion pages in July 2009, and from June until that report was released, page views had gone up 15.4%. Since July 2008, page views had increased 223%.

New versions of Opera Mini 5 that the company highlights include:

1. A new "intuitive and advanced" design

2. Tabbed browsing, a popular feature of the desktop version

3. Touchscreen or keypad browsing

4. Password manager, which saves all passwords for email, social networks, online banking, etc.

5. Speed dial, which is essentially a place to keep favorites sites on your homepage.

"In our own research, we have learned that the number-one reason people use Opera Mini is because it is easy — easy to use the Web you know. The idea of navigating the vastness of the Web from such a small screen can be a daunting leap, which is why we have long committed to make the browsing experience you are familiar with from your PC, easy to do on your mobile phone," says Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner. "With new, sleek navigation buttons, tabbed browsing and Speed Dial bookmarks, you are never more than a click away from where you want to go on the Web."

Earlier this month, Opera released the final incarnation of the most recent version of its desktop browser as well - Opera 10. This made some headlines with its inclusion of Opera Turbo, a new compression technology for use with slow connections.