Tomorrow for Professional Development, I will be updating the Middle School and High School on some of the Google updates that are coming down the line for us. We are on a "scheduled release" not "rapid release" so we will have time to update staff prior to changes coming out. If you can think of some others that I haven't mentioned, please let me know by commenting below!
Log in Updates:
- Still Red Sign in Box still in upper right hand corner
- Before Sign in:
- After Sign in:
- Google Plus (Google’s Social Media Equivalent)
- Gmail - This will take you to your Deuel GMail account
- Images - This will take you to a Google Image Search
- App Launcher icon (similar to what the students see on their chromebooks in lower left hand side- similar to windows start menu)
- Here is where the main apps are located and you can go to “more” to find the others
- You can also put shortcuts on your Chrome bookmarks bar to make this work as well
- Notifications
- “Share” (works with Google Plus) and Your Profile Image
A new place for Settings and Advanced Search in the lower right hand side of your screen.
- Search Settings can help you with filtering, voice search (the microphone icon in the search bar on the right side of box), and results opening in a new window, if you prefer.
- You can also save your search history, if you prefer.
- Advanced Search will allow you to add in search parameters, if desired.
- Search History will help refine your searching- Think of it like personalized searching… for example, the suggested results you see on Amazon.
Google Drive Updates: 
- Docs/ Sheets/ Slides/ Drawing/ Forms all changed the document header to make more compact and with a new icon in the upper left hand corner
- Icon also is an active link that takes you back to Google Drive in a new window
Other Updates:
- If you are a mobile device user, you can see that the new login interface is very much positioned to be for the mobile device user.
- The new update to the Google Search Algorithm (now called Hummingbird) is more question-driven and mobile based. They are really pushing the ability for voice integration. Social integration, location and previous search activity will help to build your search query now, instead of just key words, like previously.
- This will make it all the more important to choose a search engine, stick with it and be signed in at all times. For example, my searches probably have a lot about technology, google, curriculum, geography, babies… and Google will start to anticipate exactly what I may be looking for.
- Previously, the more words that you add into the search bar, the more difficult it was to get what you really wanted, now, they are moving away from that.
- Learn more about the Search Changes in the video below
- When in Chrome, right click on an image on the web and search the image.
- For Chrome 30 users, update this by opening chrome, going to the three lines in upper right hand corner of browser, selecting “About Google Chrome” and updating to Chrome 30.
- How can I use this?
- For finding what website the image was taken from if embedded into a project/ document.
- Finding the image in another size/ color
- Finding similar images
- These updates slowly roll out to students.
