There are small but significant updates Google did over the past weekend. The primary aim of these updates is to improve overall user experience.

Quick Browsing of Google Docs

Previously, PDF, Word or Excel documents displayed on search results have the "View as HTML" link to facilitate preview of these documents. However, sometimes these previews are not readable (especially PDFs). Not anymore, as Quick View is now introduced as a replacement. With this new change it is now possible to see a graphic preview of these documents as if we screen captured them.

Local Search Enhancements

Whenever we search for restaurants, shops or services in a particular area, the default result will place a map with pinned addresses of supposed restaurants, shops or services in that location. Previously the pinned labels are only marked with letters. The change displays bigger font size and therefore easier to click on your desired results.

More choices in weather forecasts

When you type weather+[location] search query, a default weather provider displays a forecast of the next five days or so. The change now includes The Weather Channel, Weatherunderground and AccuWeather for you to choose from, if necessary. At least we now get the information from our favorite weather information provider.

AJAX Crawling

The most exciting announcement Google made last week was about making AJAX crawlable! Web design has gone leaps and bounds while search engines have yet to catch up with the pace. Before this announcement, everyone of us have to deal with making our websites search engine friendly. That means we make tweaks on AJAX or avoid it outright. Now, we can breathe a sigh of relief. While Google doesn't crawl AJAX-powered pages 100%, this is definitely a good headstart. Hopefully, web designers and programmers don't have to put up with "crazy" recommendations from SEO consultants just to get their websites crawled.