Google put up a short announcement post last night about the new Related Image bar in Image Search. As an example, they talk about searching the word Maui. To help you narrow down the thousands of photos of pristine beaches, the Related Image bar pulls out photos of Black Rock, Makena and Maui Beaches Maps – in other words, more pictures of beaches.

Not so helpful. Then I tried to search one of my usual TV topics and the light bulb went on. I searched “Life on Mars.”

This bar appears above the image results. It’s a line of choices with a side-scroller (but you can’t go one by one so I had to cut off the first response. . .sorry). Am I looking for “Life on Mars” the Bowie song? Proof that there’s life on Mars? Or the TV show “Life on Mars?” Now that’s what I’m talking about.

Google is rolling out a new feature that will help folks who are counting calories or simply trying to undersand what they are eating.

The Google Inside Search blog tells us

Figuring out how to make smart choices about some of our favorite foods can often be a cumbersome and daunting process. So we’re hoping we can make those choices a little bit easier: starting today you will be able to quickly and easily find extensive nutrition information for over 1,000 fruits, vegetables, meats and meals in search. From the basics of potatoes and carrots to more complex dishes like burritos and chow mein, you can simply ask, “How much protein is in a banana?” or “How many calories are in an avocado?” and get your answer right away. You’ll hear the answer to your specific question, see relevant nutrition information under an expansion, and be able to switch to other related foods or serving sizes.

Earlier this week Google announced that they will be supporting schema.org markup for organization logos. In the midst of all the Google I/O hubbub this kind of announcement can seem minor but if there is a way to get an edge in a search result that is not so minor now, is it?

The Official Google Webmaster Central blog reported

Today, we’re launching support for the schema.org markup for organization logos, a way to connect your site with an iconic image. We want you to be able to specify which image we use as your logo in Google search results.

Using schema.org Organization markup, you can indicate to our algorithms the location of your preferred logo. For example, a business whose homepage is www.example.com can add the following markup using visible on-page elements on their homepage: