Google has launched a range of new innovations and services today including an update to their main website to include updates from social networks, a mobile app for searches involving pictures and Augmented Reality, a GPS-based update to Google Suggest, and an early demonstration on how smartphones will one day be able to take the place of human translators. 

Google Real-Time Search With Facebook, Twitter, And MySpace

Until today Google has been offering up-to-the-minute information in their search results. With the launch of Google Real-Time Search the company can now say their results are up-to-the-second. The added feature appears as an embedded window within the results page that includes instant messages and headlines from social networks and blogs. Although a range of sources are included the most prominent are Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace. Users within these communities post messages instantly and so the window on Google's page will act much like a stock ticker, displaying the latest instant messages from those networks that relate to your search.

THe feature is being added to Google's search servers over the next few days, some users may see it appear on their computer today, others will have to wait. In order to give everyone a chance to experience the new tool, Google has added it to http://google.com/trends where it is available now for everyone. Just click on a topic and look for the new windows amongst the results. When it goes live on the main page, users can look for it amongst the "Show Options" feature listed as "Latest" results. 

Privacy For Facebook And MySpace 

Those concerned that their personal information might be shared now that Google is displaying information from social networks should be aware that Google has limited their new Real-Time Search to gathering updates only from Facebook Public Pages which are created by users who opt to make their profiles public, and from MySpace profiles where the users have opted to choose to make their profiles public. The search giant says that all accounts that have privacy settings turned on will be protected from having their updates shared with the web on whole. 

Google Goggles

Launching today as an app for Android-based smartphones, Google Goggles is a mobile application that allows users to snap a photograph and submit it to Google for image-based results. Google will try to match the photo against its Google Images index to provide results but can also perform object-recognition in some cases. If you take a photograph of a landmark such as tower, bridge, or famous church it will be able to tell you it's identity as well as direct you to more related information.

In addition to performing searches based on photos, the app also allows you to point your camera at the world around you and through the use of Augmented Reality, gain information about services and local information about you. This feature does not grab live images from your camera to fetch the information, but rather from determining your approximate location through a digital compass, GPS, and Wi-Fi data. Having determined what direction your camera is facing, it then displays a set of relevant links for that direction on the screen which you can click on and follow.

Google says that the service could easily expand for a range of new uses, one of which would be the inclusion of facial recognition, a technology the company says could be added to the product today, but one that has been placed on hold while they explore the issues of privacy that camera-based search and identification technologies bring up.  

Google Goggles was co-developed by Google Waterloo and is currently available for free from the Android Market. Plans to release the app for other handsets are in the works. 

Google Suggest Goes Local

For those typing in search terms on their GPS-equipped mobiles, Google's auto suggest feature will now provide suggest words that reflect which city or country you are in. As you type in the first letters of a word, the prompted suggestions will include results that reflect the most popular services, sports teams, and other cultural topics for your given area.

Google Voice Translation 

Today Google Mobile includes the ability for users to speak their searches rather than having to type them in. The service uses advanced speech recognition to allow for highly accurate results. Since first launching the service Google has been expanding the number of languages available for Google Voice including Mandarin and now Japanese.

During today's presentations the company took a moment to show an early prototype of a new service that will leverage Google Voice to allow for quick mobile translation. Users can merely say a phrase into their cellphone and it will both recognize and translate what you've said into your choice of supported languages. You can then offer your phone to another person to listen to and have Google's text-to-speech software speak your translated phrase with a computer voice.  Although the computer voice was modulated and a bit rushed, it was easy to understand the and the whole process seemed to perform very quickly.