Google unevils Caffeine

Google has unveiled the preview version of Caffeine, a new search engine technology which promises to “push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions.”

The new search engine is the redeployment of the computing network that Google uses to connect searchers and results. The search engine can change how the company ranks in its search engine. The companies will have to change their Search Engine Optimization(SEO) to protect their Google ranking.

Google is not changing the user interface as part of the Caffeine update. So the average user is not likely to be surprised by the way results appear. The update does not affect the ranking of ads on the search engine.

“For the last several months, a large team of Googlers has been working on a secret project: a next-generation architecture for Google’s web search, it’s the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions,” wrote the company blog.

“Google makes constant changes to its search algorithms and infrastructure, but such a change in this magnitude has not been done since 2006,” said Matt Cutts, Principal Engineer, Google.

The search page is identical to the classic, clean Google web page.

Google is opening a web developer preview to collect the feedback regarding how Caffeine performs compared to its current search engine and is not looking for comparisons to offerings from rival internet firms.

Microsoft has been praising the momentum of its recently-launched Bing search engine and is believed to take long term approach for closing the gap with Google. Microsoft has also announced a tie-up with Yahoo. Google has a two-third share in the search engine market, as Yahoo stands second and Microsoft at third in a search engine market.

Google Documents from Desktop

Google has added a new feature to enable users to find and access their Google documents straight from the desktop.

Here is the link on how you can access that.

GMail Goes Offline

If you live in Gmail, but don’t always have a broadband connection available, today should be a happy day for you. Google is rolling out a new system for letting Gmail users access their accounts offline. Google will cache your messages on your system using Google Gears. You’ll be able to open your browser to Gmail.com, see your inbox, read and label messages and even write replies without a Net connection. Your messages will send once your system reconnects to the Web.

The system is beta (of course) and accessible through Gmail Labs. But it won’t be immediately available to everyone – Google is parsing out access as it experiments with the new feature. I don’t have access to the new feature yet, so I’ve still got lots of questions. But Google’s post makes it sound like the experience will be almost indistinguishable from using Gmail normally.

“Gmail uses Gears to download a local cache of your mail. As long as you’re connected to the network, that cache is synchronized with Gmail’s servers. When you lose your connection, Gmail automatically switches to offline mode, and uses the data stored on your computer’s hard drive instead of the information sent across the network. You can read messages, star and label them, and do all of the things you’re used to doing while reading your webmail online. Any messages you send while offline will be placed in your outbox and automatically sent the next time Gmail detects a connection,”.

There will also be a “flaky connection mode” that’s supposed to give you the best of both worlds. It’ll assume that you’re disconnected and use the local cache to store your data, but whenever your connection is working, it’ll sync with Google’s servers in the background.