The Keyword: Google’s Very Own One Stop Resource for All Things Google

This Week’s Topic in Focus:

Each month our Digital Learning Team will feature a connection that we feel exemplifies and supports our mission and goals. Our hope is that you find so much value and worth in that resource that you decide to add that resources to your own Personal Learning Network. Check out this month’s featured item:

Image acquired from: GoAndroid

The Keyword: Google’s Blog

Finding out updates, releases and all other types of Google related news used to be quite a chore.  The outlets for this sort of information never seemed to be consistent and it was difficult to know what was Google generated and what was being produced by non-affiliated sources.  All of that changed last year when Google launched its new one stop blog: The Keyword.  

Any time Google has something cool it wants to tell the world, they post it to this blog!  

• Did you know that Google Earth has just received a massive facelift, and is now entirely web based (yes, you can now use Google Earth on Chromebooks!).

• Have you had an opportunity to explore the Google Arts and Culture site?  Google has created vignettes packed full of rich super high definition images, video, and map integrations accompanied with textual information and links that thread information together in a manner that fosters inquiry and exploration all on an aesthetic but simple web canvas.  Check out the Made in Italy Project as an example. To get an understanding of what I mean by super high definition images, check out The Starry Night by Van Gogh and zoom in.  Notice the violent brush strokes that make his work so distinct as well as the minor cracks that present themselves due to over a century’s worth of aging.

• Did you know that Google Maps, now automatically translates all reviews in your native tongue? If you travel abroad, you will now be able to search for restaurants and other attractions and read reviews from those in the area translated in the English language.

                Image acquired from: The Next Web

• Autodraw, a new tool that uses artificial intelligence to guess what you are trying to draw and then makes a suggestion of related drawings for you to choose from, has not officially launched!  Drawing on your phone or computer has been a slow and painful process, until now.  

All of these tidbits were gathered from the homepage of Google’s blog at the time I published this post.  Because it is a blog, every post is archived by date so that I can easily search and retrieve it for later use.  

You can also surf blog.google by product.  See what Google has to say about Google Docs or YouTube.  Products are not only limited to the icons shown above. Finally, you can surf by topic.  One of those topics is education. 

Regardless of how frequently you visit or what products or topics might interest you most, there will always be some new resource or artifact of inspiration waiting for you at The Keyword, Google’s Official one stop resource for all Google News.  

Would you like to integrate something you see on The Keyword but need some help?   See your DLS to kickstart a conversation - Cheryl, Kyle or Melanie.

Contributed by Kyle Mack @ProfKyleMack