Since this story was originally reported, it has been updated to include additional information on Google Desktop.Google announced this week three new free search offerings–as well as an update to an exisiting service–and pledged to focus its business on the search space, The Wall Street Journal reports.The news comes at a time when the competition for market share in the search industry is beginning to heat up. Just last week, it was reported that Microsoft held company meetings to consider forming an alliance with Yahoo against Google. For more, read Microsoft Considered Teaming Up With Yahoo Against Google.Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt downplayed the scale of that competition and stressed that there will never be a sole king of the search space, according to the Journal. “There’s not going to be a single winner,” Schmidt told the audience at Google’s yearly meeting with the press, the Journal reports. Schmidt also noted that he thinks healthy competition will build the industry and boost ad prices, according to the Journal. Google’s Eric Schmidt The first new service, Google Trends, lets users examine the company’s Web search traffic for insights into what other users around the world are most commonly searching for on a given day, the Journal reports. Users can even compare the volumes of traffic related search terms receive. For example, a Web surfer interested in comparing the popularity of skiing with snowboarding could search both terms and find a bar chart displaying the traffic related to the two, Jonathon Rosenberg, senior vice president of product management, told the Journal. The resulting search data could also be separated into geographic regions for advertising or other purposes, according to the Journal.Google Co-op enables search users to access information from subject experts—like CIO magazine, for instance—whether those experts are specialized sites, blogs or people’s Web locales, the Journal reports. The driving idea behind Co-op is that human knowledge can provide more specific, targeted information than any machine. Co-op will also let users refine search results by allowing them to search additional related terms to find more specific matches, according to the Journal. Google Notebooks allows users to save Web search results for future use, and they can even include personal notes to themselves, the Journal reports. Saved results could also be shared using e-mail, according to the Journal.The company also updated its Google Desktop offering, enabling a media and the Google Calender application to be added on, The Journal reports.The Trends service is currently available, Notebook will be released next week, and Co-op is “a work in progress,” the Journal reports.For related CIO coverage, read Senior Writer Ben Worthen’s May 1 cover story The Enterprise Gets Googled.For related news coverage, read Report: EBay Looks to Microsoft, Yahoo to Fight Google.Check out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage. Related content feature Key IT initiatives reshape the CIO agenda While cloud, cybersecurity, and analytics remain top of mind for IT leaders, a shift toward delivering business value is altering how CIOs approach key priorities, pushing transformative projects to the next phase. By Mary Pratt May 30, 2023 10 mins IT Strategy IT Leadership opinion Managing IT right starts with rightsizing IT for value While there are few universals when it comes to saying unambiguously what ‘managing IT right’ looks like, knowing how to navigate the limitless possibilities of IT is surely one. By Thornton May May 30, 2023 6 mins Digital Transformation IT Strategy IT Leadership brandpost Designing the campus of the future starts with high-quality 10Gbps connectivity By Huawei May 30, 2023 4 mins Network Architect Networking Devices Networking feature Red Hat embraces hybrid cloud for internal IT The maker of OpenShift has leveraged its own open container offering to migrate business-critical apps to AWS as part of a strategy to move beyond facilitating hybrid cloud for others and capitalize on the model for itself. By Paula Rooney May 29, 2023 5 mins CIO 100 Technology Industry Hybrid Cloud Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe