This week in search 5/6/11

This is part of a regular series of posts on search experience updates that runs on Fridays. Look for the label "This week in search" and subscribe to the series. - Ed.

This week, you can get live stock quote updates, check out the top 40 doodles designed by incredibly creative students around the U.S. and visualize what one day of searches on Google looks like around the world.

Live streaming updates for stock quotes
When you search for a ticker symbol on google.com, you’ll immediately see financial information right on the results page, but you used to have to refresh the page to get updated stock quotes. Now, you no longer have to refresh the entire page to see the latest price; instead you’ll see live streaming updates of that stock quote. For some markets, including the NASDAQ and NYSE, these quotes represent the latest real-time market data (be sure to read our disclaimer about real-time data).

The updates will appear in green or red as the stock price rises or falls.

U.S. Doodle 4 Google top 40 finalists announced
The judging results are in! The 40 student finalists in this year's Doodle 4 Google competition were announced this week and online voting opened to the public. With more than 107,000 submissions, the creativity of the K-12 students that participated was remarkable. Be sure to vote for your favorite doodle between now and May 13 at 11:59pm PDT. The student that wins will receive a $15,000 college scholarship and a $25,000 technology grant for their school, and see their artwork appear on the Google.com homepage on May 20.

Search Globe visualizes searches around the world
When you’re searching on Google, people all over the globe are searching at the same time, in hundreds of different languages. With the new Search Globe, you can see what one day of Google searches around the world looks like. The height of the bars depicts search volume in that region, and each different color represents the language of the majority of queries in an area. Because of the 3D graphics, you need a WebGL-enabled browser, like Google Chrome, to see the Search Globe.

Enjoy your weekend, and remember to keep your search skills sharp by trying to solve today’s A Google a Day question at www.agoogleaday.com:

Posted by Johanna Wright, Director, Search Product Management