Exploring Google Labs

I had not heard of this before, and had no idea that Google had so many irons in the fire! Very interesting stuff they are experiementing with. Here is what I explored:

Ride FinderFind taxis based on real life locations. Now, I don't use taxis very often, so perhaps I'm really not the target for this one. But I am curious what this could mean for the future of how we move about. Right now it is showing a Yellow Cab within a mile of my library. Are these all available cabs? Otherwise, who cares where they are. If it showed competing companies, and you lived in a more isolated area...it would be very good to know who had a cab closest. One time this would have really come in handy for me, was last summer in New Orleans. A friend and I took a cab out of the city to go see a movie. Getting back took hours, because we had no way of knowing which company had a cab near by. This tool on a portable device would have been a godsend.

Google SuggestI think this has been in place in the Google toolbar for some time. I really like it, and think it could be a handy feature for library catalogs, too. Even an expert searcher like me gets good ideas for keywords to use, and it doesn't get in the way of the search at all. I like it.

Google Music Trends: Could be a good way of keeping up with what teens and other patrons are listening to. I'm terrible about keeping up with pop music, so this could be handy.

Google Trends: Again, a good way to keep up with pop culture news, and see what is buzzing out there. The search function I didn't find so interesting, but the hot trends of the day are facinating.

I was also interested that Google, in the experiements section, is working on keyboard shortcuts. I confess, part of me misses the days when you could generally avoid using the mouse altogether...just for the speed factor as much as anything. This intregues me about as much as any of these other ideas!