Google and other search engines provide solutions for websites to quickly search through the content in a limited set of web pages.
For something more customizable and to crawl much more resources like shared drives and feeds (besides URLs), SearchBlox can be a good fit.
It is a search server which indexes the contents (supports MS Office docs and PDF too) and lists them very quickly on request.
SearchBlox is based on the open source Apache Lucene and has a web-based admin console for managing the whole system.
The content can be indexed in 37 languages and there are ready-to-install packages for major operating systems + cloud hosting services.
Compatibility: Windows, Mac & Linux
Inserting Google Maps into web pages is already easy with the simplicity Google offers in all of their products.
However, things can get easier with GMAP3 jQuery plugin if you are planning to use maps with advanced features (like overlays or callbacks).
There are simplified functions provided for the popular uses of Google Maps API that would normally require much more coding like:
getAddress – which returns a google.maps.GeocoderResult from a google.maps.LatLnggetRoute – which returns a google.maps.DirectionsResult from a google.maps.DirectionsRequest
It is also possible to use the native Google maps functions within the plugin for maximum flexibility.
Requirements: jQuery
Page Speed, the popular Firebug/Chrome add-on -by Google- for evaluating the performance of web pages now gets an online version.
It offers a very similar functionality with the Firebug version, analyzes the page performance and comes with suggestions that are categorized in priorities to improve it.
This free service also has a new feature: "suggestions for the mobile version of a web page" which are tuned for the unique characteristics of mobile devices.
Google is providing lots of tools for web designers/developers and almost all of them have their APIs for easier integration with 3rd party services.
If you're a frequent user of these resources and want to reach them easier, Google has a web page specifically for you: Google APIs & Developer Products.
The page lists all development-related resources of Google with their logos and highlights the ones according to their categories.
A must-bookmark for everyone into web development.
Google is so decisive on making the web faster with the tools and resources it creates. Also remember that they had announced "speed being a factor in Google's search rankings".
Google is now sharing an open source Apache module named mod_pagespeed that automatically optimizes web pages.
It works with Apache 2.2 and includes several filters that optimize JavaScript, HTML, CSS stylesheets, JPEG and PNG images.
For the other members of the Page Speed family like the Page Speed extension, check this.
Requirements: Apache 2.2
Compatibility: Tested on CentOS and Ubuntu
HTML5Rocks is an online resource by Google that regularly shares various resources on HTML5 and CSS3.
The site has very detailed tutorials that digg stuff like HTML5 video or @web-fonts which are good starting points on the subjects.
An online playground with shortcuts to JS APIs + HTML-CSS properties helps trying new codes and seeing the outputs instantly.
And there is HTML5 Studio, which is a showcase of HTML5 codes like page-flip, video player, carousel, geolocation and more that are open source. It is possible to get inspired from them or re-use them in our projects.
Google just announced a very functional font resource with an API which will help using custom fonts within web pages.
The repository of open source fonts that are hosted by Google and can be used in personal or commercial projects.
Once a font is clicked, there is a very detailed info provided including variants, the description of it and more.
It is the method for using the fonts included with the font directory.
The API is very easy to use: just insert a Google-hosted stylesheet and you are ready to go to use the fonts that work the same in almost every browser.
There is also a new JavaScript library named WebFont Loader which enables you to have more control over the fonts and/or use the TypeKit library.
Requirements: No Requirements
Compatibility: All Major Browsers
Many websites are using Ajax requests to interact with databases, load content, etc. in order to stay dynamic without page refreshes.
However, any content loaded with Ajax can not be viewed inside the "source of the website" which ends up in non-crawlable web pages.
Google is sharing a detailed information on "making Ajax applications crawlable" which shows how the search engine sees the web pages and things to improve that.
Google simply asks us to:
- use "#!" signs after any URL that generates content with Ajax (like: www.example.com/ajax.html#!mystate)
- create the HTML without Ajax (besides the Ajaxed version) when www.example.com/ajax.html#!mystate is browsed
- update the website's sitemap with the new URLs
The ! sign will be indicating that the content at that part of the web page is Ajax crawlable and Google will crawl the URL (which generates the HTML content) and add it to its search results as a part of the web page.
Although it seems pretty complicated, considering how important it is to getting indexed by Google, it is (almost) a must for Ajaxed websites.
Google Browser Size is a visualization tool by Google Labs that shows any website behind an overlay of browser-window-sizes average
The overlay information is actually created from the data of people who visit Google (which won't be wrong to call it an average).
The tool is perfect for learning what percentage of the visitors are seeing the most important parts at initial load & what are they missing.
When you move the mouse, a rectangle which follows the mouse pointer enables us to interact with the website. And, optionally, the opacity level can be changed.
But, like mentioned, it is created with the data from google.com & will work for websites that target average internet users. It would be great to see this integrated into Google Analytics creating a custom overlay.
Inside the "Let’s make the web faster" website, Google is sharing the tips & tutorials for better performing webpages.
Some of the articles are:
Besides the articles, It is possible to reach videos of speeches by several organizations on website performance.
Also, links to various tools for the issue provided & a large community discusses the subject continiously.
