Google announced a bunch of new features today. Let’s dive in:

Real-time integration
See the latest tweets, blogs, news etc. You can click on “Latest results” in the search results or the “Latest” link in the Search Options panel in order to get more results for a given keyword/phrase.

Hot Topics on Google Trends

This feature is similar to “trending topics” on Twitter. This is not the same as “Hot Trends” launched in September. That included a Google graph at the bottom of search results if you happened to search one of the top 100 hottest trends in Google search on a given day. This new feature is viewable simply by visiting Google Trends.

Oh yeah, and Google Trends is now out of Labs.

Search by Voice in Japanese

Searching by Voice is available on Google search apps for smartphones. So far, it has understood English and Mandarin. Now, Japanese is added to the mix.

“What’s Nearby?” on Google Maps

Find local businesses near where you are. Available for Google Maps for Android on versions 1.6 or higher. In coming weeks, browsing to google.com on iPhone or Android phone and then clicking “Near me now” will give you the same option.

Google Goggles Launches into Labs for Android

This lets users search by taking pictures of products, works of art, and locations they’re interested in instead of typing in a query. There is a reason this in Labs, as not all things are ready for primetime including animals, plants, cars, etc. You can help the process along by using the new tool.

Source: http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/091207-150314

Written by Eugene Wong on December 8, 2009.
Last revised by: Eugene Wong on April 2, 2011.