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Today Google announced an innovative new feature to their search engine called Google Instant. You might have noticed it by now, as you type something into the search box, the site automatically shows real-time results below. This saves time by allowing you to instantly find the search result you want without having to wait each time after you search for something new.

Since Google already has built in suggestions as you type, this is another great addition for finding your results much faster. It takes a minute to learn at first, you are used to typing your search and instinctively pressing “enter” or hitting the search button. Once you break that habit, you will be finding your results in over half the time it normally took without Google Instant search. According to Google they say that there is an average saving of two to five seconds per search. When you consider the number of searches Google receives per day, that comes to a total savings of around 1 million hours per day!

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Google facial recognition is the next frontier in the company’s assault on privacy, critics say. But Google insists facial recognition technology will be used carefully, if at all. Get the details here, and see photos and video below.

Okay, let’s not freak out or anything. They’re not hijacking your webcam to capture identifiable images of you just yet. In fact, there doesn’t appear to be any plans to use the technology on the actual computer user.

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Another big announcement at Google I/O today, this time revealing a new platform called Google TV. By focusing on television they hope to bring new experiences that merge the power of the web with the power of television.

Of course this is not a new idea, but Google is hoping to make the experience seamless and without compromise. To do this they are using an Android interface to give powerful features like search. You can search for a show or channel and find it, whether it be on TV, or through an internet source like Hulu or Netflix. It gives you options to choose your source, even for a specific episode of a show. They hope this will destroy the borders of traditional television and allow you to bring content from anywhere.

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At Google’s I/O conference today the company announced a new open source video format that rivals H.264 for web video called WebM. Many opponents of H.264 have long argued the fact that it is too closed and could require licensing fees to use in the future. This even caused a rift in deciding a standard video component for HTML5 for web browsers. Apple sided with H.264 while others sought out an open source alternative. With Google’s WebM project they hope to solve this problem by using the VP8 codec for web video. The new format is targeted at low power mobile devices, clearly intended to replace the need for H.264 on phones.

To help launch the new project they announced immediate support in future builds of Firefox and Google Chrome. YouTube has also added integration to support WebM. Both Opera and even Internet Explorer 9 have confirmed playback support in the future. Adobe has pledged Flash player support of the codec as well, making it very easy for companies to start using it right away. The one company that still has not said anything regarding the new project is Apple.

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The CEO of Verizon has confirmed that there is a Google tablet in development between the two companies. There is not really any detailed information about the device, but it does confirm that a real Google tablet is in development and confirms at least one wireless carrier for the device.

With Apple selling over one million iPads in the first month of it’s release it seems that Google is eager to compete in the growing market. Nobody knows what operating system will be used on the tablet, there is a good chance it would be Android based or might run Chrome OS.

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For the first time ever The NPD Group is reporting that Android sales out numbered Apple’s iPhone, at least for the first quarter of 2010. The numbers show Google’s Android OS moving up to take the number two spot at 28 percent, while the iPhone only takes 21 percent. RIM of course has the most sales at 36 percent, keeping Blackberry devices well in the lead. Back in march it was reported that Android’s market was growing at the blazing fast rate of 153 percent over the competition. It appears Apple’s numbers are slowing down, but what is the reason?

It could be the increasing number of Android manufacturers. Not only has HTC produced a huge amount of them, but both Samsung and Motorola have added to the mix. The large variety of devices means more options and price points to consumers. The iPhone is currently only available on AT&T in the US, while Android devices are available on many carriers, most notably the Motorola Droid being sold by Verizon. The Droid has received a huge advertising campaign to help sales, and it has certainly paid off.

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According to the Wall Street Journal, Google unveiled plans to release a new ebook store called Google Editions at a book industry event today in New York. The company hopes to offer a competitive offering to rival ebook stores such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Apple’s iBookstore. Based on the article, they hope to offer several ways to access their ebooks using a range of devices, which most likely includes Google’s Android. The service will function as an extension of their existing book search feature, and according to early reports last year there will be 600,000 titles available at launch.

Besides offering the option to buy books through Google’s Book Search service, the article also claims that they will also provide book retailers to option to sell Google Editions directly on their own websites. This would give them a larger presence for their ebook store, and make it easy for authors and publishers to promote the service. They also plan to offer two different revenue models, one for big publishers, and one for smaller independent book stores. Under the first revenue model, 63 percent of the book sales would go to the publisher, while Google gets the rest. The other model offers 45 percent revenue to publishers, giving the rest to independent book store after paying a small fee to Google.

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It wasn’t long ago that Google announced that their Nexus One smartphone was headed for Verizon. As of today, those plans are now dead in the water, the Nexus One is not coming to Verizon. The Nexus One is still available on T-Mobile with a two-year contract, and if you pay the full price you can get one that is compatible with AT&T’s network. Google is recommending the HTC Droid Incredible instead of the Nexus One for Verizon customers, calling it “a cousin of the Nexus One.”

We won’t be selling a Nexus One with Verizon, and this is a reflection of the amazing innovation happening across the open Android ecosystem. Verizon Wireless customers who want an Android phone with the power of the Nexus One can get the Droid Incredible by HTC.

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Not a great day for Google Docs to fail, but it seems that it has gone down pretty hard. The real news is Facebook and Microsoft are teaming up to bring a social element to Office documents by introducing Docs.com This online version of Office will integrate with many of the social features of Facebook and it sounds like a pretty interesting idea. My brother and I are currently collaborating to write a book together and we use Google Docs, but it’s pretty basic, so I’m interested to see where this goes.

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Earlier this year in Topeka, Kansas, the mayor declared that the city would be called “Google” in an attempt to get the attention of the company who is looking for a test market for it’s Gigabit fiber optic network. In response to this, today the search giant Google announced that they would be changing their name to Topeka. Is Google really changing its name to Topeka or is it just Google’s April Fools? The company has already announced plans for how it will implement the new name:

“Correspondence to both our corporate headquarters and offices around the world should now be addressed to Topeka Inc., but otherwise can be addressed normally. Google employees once known as “Googlers” should now be referred to as either “Topekers” or “Topekans,” depending on the result of a board meeting that’s ongoing at this hour. Whatever the outcome, the conclusion is clear: we aren’t in Google anymore.”

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