Google has come out of left field today with a new centralised blog named “The Keyword”, found simply at blog.google the material design inspired site encompasses some 19 other blogs.
So what is included in the KeyWord? Almost everything apparently, Google has amalgamated their news from their official Google Blog, Android, Chrome, Commerce, Docs, Education, Maps, Gmail, Google Asia, Inside search, Translate and those are just the one’s we’ve found so far. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a difinitive listoutlining which blogs are now duplicated.
All of your existing feed’s will still work, however, they will simply redirect to the new The Keyword blog. For those looking for the more narrow approach, this will allow you to just see those post you’re interested in. At launch, the site is English only and only selected blogs. Over time the number of blogs will expand as will the language support.
If you’re not interested in subscribing to the full firehose of Google’s content, then as Emily Wood, the new editor-in-chief of The KeyWord says the site also offers you the ability to drop in and browse, search (obviously) and drill down to whatever takes your fancy. You can choose to browse the feed, look at just product news or look through a set of pre-determined topics.
As mentioned the new blog adopts a very material design influenced look and feel with transforming elements and the obligatory FAB (for sharing). And of course, if you visit the site on mobile or tablet, you’ll find a responsive design with fast loading and mobile optimised controls.
Why The Keyword? Google felt that this homage to their origins in search, as well as being the home of Google’s official word on any given topic was too good a synergy to pass up, and we kind if like it. Some of the more advertising and developer facing blogs will remain where they are for now, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see them perhaps get their own redesigned home in time, even if its not in here.
We’re excited to see Google giving the major blog a facelift and a modern feel, and just in time for some rather major announcements next week! Google has backloaded a whole host of content (thanks for that Google my feeds went nuts) so feel free to go explore. We will keep watching ‘The Keyword’ grow with interest.
I didn’t realise .google was a TLD now. Not sure I like the idea of brand names being TLDs. Could get a bit messy if those brands disappear later on, just look at what’s happened with .su
from memory they acquired .google, .xyz and a few others a while back.