Its not the iPad 2’s arrival in SA tomorrow that’s going to be the biggest news of the day, as the first wedding between a British royal and a commoner (not of royal heritage) in more than 350 years is also taking place this Friday. 

 

Google has provided five tech tips for getting the best out of the coverage of the Royal Wedding.

 

 

The entire ceremony on Friday will be live streamed in real time on Youtube’s The Royal Channel. The live stream kicks off at 11 o’clock SA time. Internet users can watch the wedding procession, the ceremony in Westminster Abbey as well as the newlyweds sharing a kiss on the balcony. Alongside the live stream, The Royal Channel will also feature live blog commentary of the event to give timely updates and insights as the day unfolds.

 

 

Those interested in seeing the route that the wedding couple and their entourage will be taking tomorrow, can do so with Google Earth. Google Earth makes the complete route available in 3D, starting at Westminster Abbey, over to the House of Parliament, Big Ben and the Horse Guards Parade to Buckingham Palace. A video of the wedding section is also available here.  

 

 

Google’s search trends show that, in addition to the UK and the US, the top ten countries searching for “royal wedding” include places like Singapore and the Philippines. In addition, fans will find the top ten searches for the royal wedding on Google Insights for Search.

 

 

The royal wedding is the No. 1 topic in media around the globe. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to read international press reports about the wedding in your own language? Google’s translation tool makes this possible. Users can simply enter the web address (URL) of a medium, for example http://www.bbc.co.uk, in the left panel of Google Translate and then click “Translate”.

 

 

By entering the search terms “wedding prince william and kate middleton” for example on Google’s real time search page, users will be able to view the latest comments people are making on social network sites such as Twitter and Facebook concerning the topic.

 

 

For those who have been inspired by the royal wedding and want to start planning their own wedding now, Google also provides practical and free tools that will simplify the planning process. Users will be able to employ free wedding templates and designs in Google Docs, Google Sites and Picnik to make planning their big day simpler.