Googleholic

Welcome to Googleholic, your often weekly fix of everything Google!

In this edition:

* iGoogle gets canvas views
* Google Webmaster Tools adds tons of new features
* Presidential debate search findings
* How often do you use Google?
* Android Madness at Download Squad

iGoogle gets canvas views

iGoogle, Google's personalized portal, just got a little bit nicer. Now, select gadgets feature canvas views, meaning you can view contents full screen at a click of the button. The iGoogle gadgets are really nice, what with the ability to add in various news sites, your feed reader, Sudoku or crossword puzzles in one centralized space. The problem has always been, that the more gadgets you add, the more cluttered and hard to manage the whole iGoogle page becomes, kind of defeating the purpose. Now, you can just click on a button (please add a keyboard shortcut) to view an expanded version of a gadget.

A full list of expandable iGoogle gadgets is available here

[via Official Google Blog]

Google Webmaster Tools adds tons of new features

Lots and lots of cool stuff has been added to Google Webmaster Tools and the Google Webmaster Tool GData API over the last few weeks that really make things easier for new and experienced webmasters alike. One of the BEST new additions is the addition of crawl error sources. In the past, Google would let you know that a certain page had an error, but not what links were reporting those problems That made tracking down the source of those problems a pain. Now you can just click on the "linked from" column to see what addresses are trying to access incorrect or out-dated information.

Likewise, the updated Webmaster Tools API control crawl rate and preferred domain, all within the API. Cool stuff!

[via [Official Google Webmaster Central Blog(http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com)]]

Presidential debate searching

Google posted its search data from the third US presidential debate. Unsurprisingly, Roe v. Wade was the most popular search query. "Joe the plumber" was a popular reference too, both in the debate in in Google's search results.

[via Official Google Blog]

How often do you use Google?

One of the more interesting features of Google Web History is that it keeps track of how often you search Google (the results of those searches can also be archived, but that is opt-in). Over at Google Operating System, they have data going back to December 2005. The number of searches? 38,866. Wow. I put my Search History thing on "pause" a couple of years ago, so my data is unavailable. I'm OK with that, as I'm sure the result would confirm I spend far too much time online.

[via Google Operating System]

Android Madness at Download Squad

Next week, the very first mobile phone using Android, Google's new mobile platform. At Download Squad, we're really excited about the potential Android brings to the mobile computing space. I also write for TUAW and just seeing the effect the iPhone has had on the Mac community, I'm really excited to see how Android is received by the broader tech-heads.

In that vein, we'll be doing lots of Android coverage in the next few weeks. Grant Robertson and I will be getting our hands on a T-Mobile G1 on Wednesday and posting our impressions of the OS, must-have programs, tips and tricks, you name it. For developers, I'm also working on a SDK shoot-out between the iPhone, Android and the latest BlackBerry SDK -- sorting out what each platform has to offer to developers or would-be developers

So stay tuned to Download Squad and our Android feed!