Google+Squared

Google Squared can be found here.

Google Squared is a search site that populates a table with information about the search term. For example:
 * searching for the term 'netbooks' brings back a table with: item name, image, description, processor
 * See the search here.
 * searching for the term 'beatles song' bring back a table with: item name, image, description, producer, release date

When you hover over a cell in the table it shows the website the information came from. The search organises pieces of data into a table for an easy overview of the subject.

Google Squared is part of Google Labs. From the Google site :

"In a nutshell
Google Squared is a search tool that helps you quickly build a collection of facts from the Web, for any topic you specify.
 * Facts about your topic are organized into a table of items and attributes (we call them "Squares" for fun).
 * Customize these Squares to see just the items and attributes you're interested in.
 * See the websites that served as sources for the information in your Square.
 * Save and share Squares with others."

You can customise the attributes that are shown on the table. You can also save and share the search that you do. This means you could do a search for school, save the search after you've made some customisations, then show the students at school.

When you search for something you are encouraged to explore the original source to verify and correct the results.

It's a really interesting way of searching that fills a table with attributes about the search term. However, because it's in experimental phase there are a few problems including search terms returning no results. For example, searching for 'google' returns no results.

The search is really only relevant if you are searching something general that has attributes which can be shown in a table. You can't really search for something specific, and it doesn't give you definitions of the search term. It works best for topics or general items, eg. Ancient Egyptians or Ford Cars.

Google Squared looks over webpages to finding "structures on the web that seem to imply fact, like something 'is' something" (source ). The search looks for meaning in the webpages and compiles the 'fact' into a table. However, sometimes it gets it wrong. For example, when you search for 'United States of America' shows the population as '78 years'. This is a flaw in the page because of how the automatic search for facts works.