google updation

Why does my blog redirect to a country-specific URL?

2012-01-30T21:57:00.000-08:00

Question: Why am I seeing a URL change?

Answer: Over the coming weeks you might notice that the URL of a blog you're reading has been redirected to a country-code top level domain, or "ccTLD." For example, if you're in Australia and viewing [blogname].blogspot.com, you might be redirected [blogname].blogspot.com.au. A ccTLD, when it appears, corresponds with the country of the reader’s current location.

Question: Where will I see this change?

Answer: We routinely launch limited updates, so in the coming months you will see ccTLDs in additional countries.

Question: Why is this happening?

Answer: Migrating to localized domains will allow us to continue promoting free expression and responsible publishing while providing greater flexibility in complying with valid removal requests pursuant to local law. By utilizing ccTLDs, content removals can be managed on a per country basis, which will limit their impact to the smallest number of readers. Content removed due to a specific country’s law will only be removed from the relevant ccTLD.

Question: How will this change affect my blog?

Answer: Blog owners should not see any visible differences to their blog other than the URL redirecting to a ccTLD. URLs of custom domains will be unaffected.

Question: Will this affect search engine optimization on my blog?

Answer: After this change, crawlers will find Blogspot content on many different domains. Hosting duplicate content on different domains can affect search results, but we are making every effort to minimize any negative consequences of hosting Blogspot content on multiple domains.

The majority of content hosted on different domains will be unaffected by content removals, and therefore identical. For all such content, we will specify the blogspot.com version as the canonical version using rel=canonical. This will let crawlers know that although the URLs are different, the content is the same. When a post or blog in a country is affected by a content removal, the canonical URL will be set to that country’s ccTLD instead of the .com version. This will ensure that we aren’t marking different content with the same canonical tag.

Question: How might ccTLDs affect the blogs I visit?

Answer: If you visit a blog that does not correspond to your current location as determined by your IP address, the blogspot servers will redirect you to the domain associated with your country, if it’s a supported ccTLD.

Blog readers may request a specific country version of the blogspot content by entering a specially formatted “NCR” URL.

NCR stands for “No Country Redirect” and will always display buzz.blogger.com in English, whether you’re in India, Brazil, Honduras, Germany, or anywhere.

For example: http://[blogname].blogspot.com/ncr – always goes to the U.S. English blog.

This special URL sets a short-lived cookie (session and/or a short life time) that will prevent geo-based redirection from the requested domain. This applies to all web browsers and all Operating Systems

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Ask your question in the 2012 Google Science Fair

2012-01-13T05:19:00.000-08:00

Are human beings born curious, or can curiosity be nurtured through environment, competition or a good teacher? Everyone’s got a question—that’s ours. But we’re sure you’ve got tons of questions, too. Today, we’re inviting students around the world to pose their most pressing questions about the world around them and answer those questions through scientific inquiry.

Along with our partners CERN, The LEGO Group, National Geographic and Scientific American, today we’re launching the second annual Google Science Fair, the largest online science competition in the world, open globally to students ages 13-18. Either individually or in teams of up to three people, students pose a question, develop a hypothesis and conduct science experiments to test it. The entire process is detailed and submitted online, via a website template participants fill out themselves, so all you need to participate is curiosity, an Internet connection and a browser.

Last year, we received entries that strove to solve a wide variety of needs, from “How can I cure cancer?” to “Can I teach a robot to learn English?” to “Can I build a faster sailboat?” The breadth and depth of these projects was incredibly impressive, and this year we hope to see even more entries from the next generation of brilliant young scientists.

This year’s fair will be even more global than the last: We’re now accepting submissions in 13 languages (Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Spanish and Russia). We will also be recognizing 90 regional finalists (30 from the Americas, 30 from the Asia Pacific and 30 from Europe/Middle East/Africa). From these 90, to be announced in May, our judges will select the top 15 finalists, who will be flown to Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. for our live Google Science Fair final event on July 23, 2012. At the finals, a panel of distinguished international judges (like Vint Cerf, Sylvia Earle and Nobel Laureates David Gross and Ada Yonath) will select top winners in each age category (13-14, 15-16, 17-18).

We’re also introducing a new category for this year’s competition—the Scientific American Science in Action award. We were so inspired by 2011 finalist Harine Ravichandran’s project, which attempted to solve energy surges in rural villages, that we decided to recognize an outstanding project that addresses a social, environmental or health need to make a difference in the lives of a group or community, as Harine’s project did for her grandparents’ village in India. The winner will also be flown to Mountain View for the finalist event in July.

The Google Science Fair opens today, January 12, worldwide, and we’ll accept submissions until Sunday, April 1 at 11:59pm GMT (or 6:59pm ET/3:59pm PT). In addition to satisfying your curious mind, your brilliant project can also help to win you some pretty cool prizes, like a $50,000 college scholarship from Google, a 10-day trip to the Galapagos Islands with a National Geographic Explorer or an internship at Google or any one of our partners. Our Scientific American Science in Action award winner will earn $50,000 and year-long mentorship to make their project goal a reality.

The winners of last year’s inaugural Google Science Fair became something like scientific rock stars. Shree Bose, Naomi Shah and Lauren Hodge met with President Obama, were invited to speak at big events like TEDx Women and were featured in Wired magazine. Shree, our grand prize winner, was named one of Glamour magazine’s 21 Amazing Young Women of the Year. White House visits and Glamour aside, every student in the Google Science Fair has the chance to do hands-on research that can truly change the world.

Visit google.com/sciencefair and ask your most burning questions at the top of your voice for the world to hear. Google itself was founded through experimentation and with the Google Science Fair, we hope to inspire scientific exploration among the next generation of scientists and engineers, celebrate scientific talent, create scientific role models and unite students around the world in the quest for learning.

source: google blog

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Changing the User Agent, a New Google Chrome Feature

2011-12-12T22:04:00.000-08:00

Changing the user agent of a browser is sometimes helpful if you're visiting a site that doesn't work well in your browser or if you're a developer and you want to test a site. Until lately, changing the user agent required installing an addition, opening about: config or adding a command-line parameter.

Now that browsers started to comprise powerful developer tools and even Internet Explorer has a built-in user agent editor, Chrome added a similar feature. It's only obtainable in Chrome 17 (Dev Channel / Canary) right now.

Here's how to alter the user agent:

1. Open the Developer Tools (Ctrl+Shift+I on Windows/Linux, Command - Option - I on Mac OS X)

2. Click the "settings" icon at the bottom of the window

3. Check "override user agent" and select one of the options (Internet Explorer 7/8/9, Firefox 4/7 for Windows/Mac, iPhone, iPad and Nexus S running Android 2.3). You can also choose "other" and enter a custom user agent.

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More About YouTube's Latest Experimental border

2011-12-01T21:18:00.000-08:00

A week ago, I reported that YouTube tests a new border based on Cosmic Panda. The most important attribute is the redesigned homepage that helps you find new channels and explore the videos from your subscriptions. YouTube started to post extra information about the new interface and it's now obvious that it will replace existing UI in the near future (the link only works after you've enabled the new interface).

"We've given YouTube a refresh. When you log in, you'll be greeted with fresh activity from your subscriptions. You can also browse and add new Channels to your homepage. Connect with Google+ and Face book to share your favorites with friends. There's plenty to discover, so login and give it a spin."

There's also an article about the new border for channels.

This new look and feel makes it easier for viewers to find and observe content. It also makes it easier for Channel creators to systematize and showcase exactly what they want. We incorporated your Feedback from the "Cosmic Panda" Channels and Watch experiment, and are eager to present:

* A more streamlined and consistent design

* An easier way to find and view videos

* New, more flexible layouts for featured content, and

* A way to keep your audience engaged even when you don't have new uploads

It's interesting to observe that the new homepage and the new channels are built around feed views and activity streaming to make YouTube even more social.

The new channels are less customizable: you can only choose an avatar, a background image, a background color and a template (creator, blogger, network, everything).

Update: The new interface is accessible for everyone.

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The next phase in our redesign

2011-11-30T03:21:00.000-08:00

Six months ago we in progress rolling out a new look and feel for Search, News, Maps, Translate, Gmail and a bunch of other products. Our goal was to produce a beautifully simple and intuitive user skill across Google.

We’re now prepared for the next stage of our redesign—a new Google bar that will allow you to navigate quickly between our services, as well as share the right stuff with the right people easily on Google+.

Instead of the horizontal black bar at the top of the page, you’ll now find links to your services in a new drop-down Google menu nested beneath the Google logo. We’ll show you a list of links and you can access additional services by hovering over the “More” link at the bottom of the list. Click on what you want, and you’re off.

To find out extra about the new Google bar, take a look at this video or read our Help Center article. Making navigation and sharing super simple for people is a key part of our efforts to change the overall Google experience, which is why we’re very keyed up about this redesign. Enjoy!

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Google's Broken Lists

2011-11-24T02:17:00.000-08:00

Google has newly redesigned the advanced search page and removed two options that weren't used very frequently: finding pages that are similar to a page and pages that link to a page. You can use the similar: and link: operators and "similar pages" and still obtainable in the Instant Preview pane, so the features haven't been detached.

What's disconcerting is that Google made drop-down lists a lot more difficult to use in the new border. Until now, you could use the tab key to select a list, but this no longer works. After clicking a list, you could use the up/down arrows or Page Up / Page Down to move among the options, but you can no longer do that. It was much faster to type the first letters from the name of the language or the country to rapidly find an item, but this is another feature that no longer works. Basically, the only way to use the new lists is to scroll up or down waiting you find the item you were looking for.

You can check the old superior search page at the Way back Machine or the advanced image search page, which still uses the old interface.

Another service that makes drop-downs more hard to use is Blogger. If you have a long list of labels, you can no longer find a label by typing the first letters.

Google Reader's new interface lets you use arrows to move among the items from a list, but you can no longer type some letters from a subscription's name in the "All items" drop-down. This was a non-standard featured extra back in 2007, when Google Reader added a search engine.

Hopefully, Google will address these issues and will no longer take away basic features that are taken for granted by many users.

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Table Snippets in Google Search

2011-11-18T00:20:00.000-08:00

Google has enhanced the snippets for the pages that include big tables. They're just like the snippets for lists, but columns are evidently separated and snippets also comprise the table header.

Barry Schwartz says that "Google is trying to figure out the makeup of the older fashion HTML tables to show the snippet in a table format". Google also finds the most related columns from the table and frequently displays the first two rows.

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Google X

2011-11-14T22:40:00.000-08:00

New York Times has an interesting article concerning Google X, a secret lab where Sergey Brin and other Google employees undertake important projects that aren't yet ready for primetime.

In a top-secret lab in an undisclosed Bay Area location where robots run free, the future is being imagined. It's a place where your refrigerator might be connected to the Internet, so it could order groceries when they ran low. Your dinner plate could post to a social network what you’re eating. Your robot might go to the office while you stay home in your pajamas. And you could, perhaps, take an elevator to outer space.

Google X is the place where Google works on the driver less car and New York Times reports that Google is allowing for manufacturing the cars in the US. Many projects are connected to Android @ Home, an initiative announced this year that tries to make everyday objects smarter. "We want to think of every application in your home as a potential I/O device," said Google's Joe Britt. Google tries to construct the "Web of things" by connecting home accessories, wearable objects to the Internet.

Most of the ideas tackled at Google X involve robots. "Fleets of robots could assist Google with collecting information, replacing the humans that photograph streets for Google Maps, say people with information of Google X. Robots born in the lab could be intended for homes and offices, where they could assist with mundane tasks or allow people to work remotely".

It's interesting to note that one of the Google X projects might be released by the end of the year, although it's not clear what it does. At the I/O conference, Google announced that it will introduce "a Web-connected light bulb that might communicate wire lessly with Android devices," so this might be the product that will be released.

Google has always tried to resolve big problems, even if many people think that it should focus on improving search results and ad quality. "Larry and Sergey founded Google because they required to help solve really big problems using technology," said Sebastian Thrun, a robotics expert who invented the first self-driving car and now works at Google.

Google X might be the next Xerox PARC or it could fail, but it's important to think big and take risks. "I just feel like people aren't working sufficient on impactful things. People are really afraid of failure on things, and so it's hard for them to do ambitious stuff. And also, they don't understand the power of technological solutions to things, especially computers," complained Larry Page in Steven Levy's "In the Plex".

Hopefully, MG Siegler is right when he says that "whatever is going on inside of Google X, I'm fairly certain it's filled to the brim with the type of stuff that made us all fall in love with Google in the first place".

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Bringing the very best of what we do to the veteran community

2011-11-13T21:36:00.000-08:00

We consider that technology can be a force for good; one that builds and binds community. As a Googler, my proudest moments are when we take that technology and put it in the hands of people who can use it to communicate, collaborate, build and explore.

Today, on Veterans Day, I am conceited to share a few Google tools and platforms for the military veteran community. They can be accessed on our website, Google for Veterans and Families, which was created by veterans and their family and friends, who work at Google. This single border brings together Google products and platforms for service members and their families. We believe it will be useful to all veterans, whether still in the service, transitioning out, or on a new path in their civilian lives. Here are some examples of what you’ll find on the site:

* Vet Connect - This tool helps service members connect, communicate and share their experiences with others who have served using the Google+ platform.

* Google Veterans Channel - A YouTube channel for discussion concerning military service for veterans, their families and the public. Veterans can share their experiences with each other as well as with civilians to help shed light on the significance and complexity of service. If you have not served, this is a great place to offer your thanks by uploading a compliment video.

* Resume Builder powered by Google Docs - We originate that Docs can be a particularly helpful tool to transitioning service members seeking employment. Resume Builder generates an auto-formatted resume that can be simply edited, saved and downloaded to share with potential employers.

* Tour Builder powered by Google Earth (coming soon). A new way to tell your military story, Today, you can view some sample “tours”— 3D maps of veterans’ service histories, complete with photos and videos. Stay tuned for more facts and updates on the Google Lat Long Blog.

It’s been a proud month for those of us here at Google who are veterans or family of veterans.

In October, 100 Googlers visited the Soldier and Family Assistance Center at West Point to conduct resume writing workshops for members of the Warrior Transition Unit. And, just two weeks ago, we traveled to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to teach wounded, ill and injured service members how to use Google tools to continue in touch with their loved ones while in recovery.

Finally, this week, we introduced the Veterans Job Bank in partnership with the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Veterans Job Bank is a modified job search engine in the National Resource Directory (NRD), which is powered by Google Custom Search technology and crawls the web for Job Posting markup from Schema.org to recognize veteran-committed job openings.

Even playing a little part to serve those who have served has been an honor.

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Raising awareness for breast cancer throughout the Pink Pin scheme in NYC and beyond

2011-11-11T03:18:00.000-08:00

Every October marks Breast Cancer Awareness Month, a time when organizations and persons around the world come together to raise awareness to support the fight against breast cancer.

This year, Google joined in and partnered with Susan G. Komen for the Cure on the Pink Pin scheme, which challenged local businesses in New York City to rally their customers, friends and families about breast cancer awareness. Using Google’s products, including Maps, YouTube, Picasa and Google+, we made it easy for local businesses and New York residents to show their support for the cause. On an interactive website, pinkpin.com, people might register their businesses on the Pink Pin Map, share their experiences by uploading their own videos and photo stories, as well as donate to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

More than 300 businesses signed up to contribute in the first 24 hours, and we saw an outpouring of public support from both businesses and individuals, demonstrating how small, random acts of participation can interpret to larger scale impact. In fact, some businesses took it upon themselves to take Pink Pin a step further. One New York business offered $100 of free services for every $100 donated. A Brooklyn restaurant hosted a one-day “Dine-out” for Pink Pin, where a percentage of their earnings for that day went to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Pink Pin was a wonderful demonstration of what people will do if you give them the tools to use technology for good. We’re delighted that Pink Pin has been so positively established by New Yorkers and hope to carry on and expand our efforts next year.

Googlers also celebrated Breast Cancer Awareness month in 23 of our offices about the globe. In addition to health talks encouraging Googlers to learn more about breast cancer prevention, we heard a panel of survivors speak in Mountain View, held walk/runs in California, New York and Washington, and participated in flash mobs to raise awareness in Dublin and London. On Wednesday, October 19, we renowned a global “Wear Pink, Think Pink Day.” We also encouraged donations (and gift matching!) to organizations like Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. You can see a photo album of all our activities below:

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Read Your Shared Items in Google Reader

2011-11-01T02:48:00.000-07:00

The latest Google Reader update detached all the social features, including the section that allowed you to read the items you've joint. Fortunately, the shared items page is still obtainable at http://www.google.com/reader/shared/username (replace username with your Gmail username) and you can pledge to this page in Google Reader. Click "subscribe" and paste the URL of the shared items page. If you don't have a Gmail account, load the shared items feed in Reader, right-click "Your shared items" and copy the URL.

You can now use Google Reader's search box to find a post you've joint. Click the "All items" drop-down next to the search box, scroll down to the end of the list (or just press "End") and you'll discover the shared items feed.

To unsubscribe from this feed, you require to go to the settings page, click "Subscriptions", type "shared items" in the search box and click the "unsubscribe button".

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Google+ for Google Apps

2011-10-28T00:05:00.000-07:00

As promised, Google+ is now obtainable for Google Apps users. Administrators can allow the new service from the control panel, as explained here. Google+ requires that Picasa Web Albums and Google Talk are enabled and that the organization uses the new accounts infrastructure. If the two services are enabled and the choice to automatically add new services is selected, Google+ is routinely enabled.

After the enabling the service, you require to wait a few minutes until you can use it. Obviously, users have to physically join Google+ by visiting plus.google.com. "Google Apps users will have access to the same set of features that are obtainable to every Google+ user, and more. In addition to sharing publicly or with your circles, you'll also have the alternative to share with everyone in your organization, even if you haven't additional all of those people to a circle," explains Google.

It's interesting that Google+ is obtainable for higher education institutions, but not for other education institutions because users have to be at least 18 years old to use Google+.

You almost certainly noticed that Google+ evolves incredibly fast, faster than any other Google service. The support for Google Apps is not the only new quality: there's Hot on Google+ (a section that highlights popular posts), Ripples (a visualization tool for public shares and comments) and a Creative Kit for photo editing powered by Picnik.

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How Steve Jobs Influenced Google's Restructuring

2011-10-25T02:11:00.000-07:00

Walter Isaacson's book about Steve Jobs includes some unappealing quotes about Google and Android, but it also explains Larry Page's choice to close many Google products and to create a cohesive interface for Google. After announcing that it will turn into Google's CEO, Larry Page met Steve Jobs, "who lived less than three blocks away", and asked for tips on how to be a first-class CEO. Here's how Steve Jobs described the meeting:

We talked a lot about focus. And choosing people. How to identify who to trust, and how to build a team of lieutenants he can count on. I described the blocking and tackling he would have to do to keep the company from getting flabby and being larded with B players. The main thing I worried was focus. Figure out what Google wants to be when it grows up. It's currently all over the map. What are the five products you desire to focus on? Get rid of the rest, because they're dragging you down. They're turning you into Microsoft. They're causing you to revolve out products that are sufficient but not great.

It's exciting to note that focus is one of the three principles of Google's new design. "With the design changes in the coming weeks and months, we're bringing onward the stuff that matters to you and getting all the other clutter out of your way," explained Google. Focus is also one of the reasons why Google stopped Google Labs, discontinued Google Desktop, Google Pack, Google Health, and many other services. "This will make things much simpler for our users, improving the overall Google knowledge. It will also mean we can devote more possessions to high impact products — the ones that get better the lives of billions of people." More wood behind fewer arrows means that the number of Google products will carry on to decrease. Even Larry Page admitted back in July that "greater focus has also been an additional big feature for me this quarter" and that "focus and prioritization are vital given our amazing opportunities".

Steve Jobs was a role model for Larry Page and Sergey Brin. When Google's founders required to find a CEO for Google, Jobs was a perfect match. "One Person, and one only, had met their standards: Steve Jobs. This was ridiculous for a googolplex of reasons. Jobs was before now the CEO of two public companies. In addition, he was Steve Jobs. You would sooner get the Dalai Lama to join an Internet start-up." (from "In the Plex", by Steven Levy). "From the initial days of Google, whenever Larry and I sought motivation for vision and leadership, we needed to look no farther than Cupertino," wrote Sergey Brin after hearing that Steve Jobs died.

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Google Reader Will incorporate With Google+

2011-10-21T22:38:00.000-07:00

A lot of people anticipate a redesigned Google Reader and the good news is that they won't be disappointed: a new interface will be obtainable next week. Google Reader is not dead, but the new interface couldn't be released faster because the sharing feature had to be included with Google+.

My favorite feature of Google Buzz was that it routinely imported all the shared items from Google Reader and permissible your followers to discuss them. Now that Google Buzz will be discontinued, this feature will be obtainable in Google+. Unfortunately, Google Reader will no longer have a standalone sharing feature, a divide list of followers and people you follow, a feed and a page for shared items. This is great if you are a Google+ user, since it simplifies sharing and makes Google Reader more reliable. If you don't want to use Google+, you'll still be capable to share posts by email or using the "send to" feature, but these workarounds aren't very helpful for sharing a large number of posts.

The takeaway is that Google+ is not a separate social service you can easily ignore, it's a service that will be used for sharing photo albums, documents, videos, for posting blog comments and it will be very hard to use Google without joining Google+ since, at some point, Google+ will be... Google itself.

"Many of Reader's social features will soon be obtainable via Google+, so in a week's time we'll be retiring things like friending, following and shared link blogs inside of Reader. We think the end result is better than what's available today, and you can sign up for Google+ right now to start prepping Reader-specific circles. We differentiate, however, that some of you may feel like the product is no longer for you," mentions Google's Alan Green. That's the reason why you'll be able to export your shared items, your starred and liked items, your list of friends from Reader's settings page.

Google Reader's sharing feature has forever been difficult to use and the addition with Google+ will finally give Reader the opportunity to shine and show why it's still a useful service. I'm sure that a lot of users will complain that they can't use the old sharing feature, just like many YouTube users complained when Google migrated YouTube to Google Accounts. There's a group of value in having separate services with their own accounts, sharing features and friends lists, but switching to unified accounts, unified profiles, consistent sharing features makes Google's services more helpful because they work together, they unite their strengths and become easier to use.

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Android Ice Cream Sandwich

2011-10-20T02:42:00.000-07:00

Google and Samsung launched Galaxy Nexus, the third Nexus Smartphone, and Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS), the new Android edition that brings many of the Honeycomb features to smartphones. Ice Cream Sandwich is the first Android version that will work on smartphones, tablets and TVs, but today's launch only focused on smartphones.

Android 4.0 brings a polished border that's more visual, more consistent and more interactive. Hardware buttons are replaced by virtual buttons in phones like Galaxy Nexus and Android 4.0 supports this change, while also allowing users to momentarily hide the buttons. Contextual menus are now displayed consistently at the top of the screen, so it's easier to find them. The menu button has been replaced by a fresh apps button that lets you switch to an app you've used recently. This feature was already accessible in Android, but the new interface uses thumbnails and it looks much better.

Just like in iOS, you can now create folders by dragging one app onto another app. You can also uninstall apps or disable pre-installed apps from the launcher. That's a good news for users because many carriers bundle applications that aren't very helpful.

Widgets are now resizable and can comprise more features, just like a regular app. The standard widgets are more powerful and you'll most likely use them more often instead of opening the corresponding apps.

You no longer have to unlock a phone to check the newest notifications, see the album art of the song that's at present playing or open the camera app. You can now react to incoming calls using text message templates and dismiss individual notifications. There's also Face Unlock, a simple way to unlock a device using facial recognition.

The soft keyboard has been enhanced and it offers better suggestions. There's a new spell-checker that underlines errors and suggests how you might fix them.

Android's voice input engine lets you say a text without having to pause. "Users can speak continously for a extended time, even pausing for intervals if needed, and dictate punctuation to create correct sentences. As the voice input engine enters text, it underlines credible dictation errors in gray."

There's a new People app that integrates with Google+ and other social services, an updated calendar app that allows other applications to add events, visual voicemail in the phone app, a camera app that supports continuous focus, zero shutter lag exposure, stabilized image zoom, focus detection and single-motion panorama. The redesigned Gallery app focuses on functionality instead of eye-candy and makes it easier to edit photos and sort albums by time, location, people and tags.

Android lastly allows users to take screenshots without installing additional apps. The browser syncs bookmarks with Google Chrome, lets you save pages for offline reading and has an alternative to change the user agent of the browser so you can go to the desktop description of a page. Android's browser includes V8's Crankshaft update which improves JavaScript performance. "In benchmarks run on a Nexus S device, the Android 4.0 browser showed an improvement of almost 220% over the Android 2.3 browser in the V8 Benchmark Suite and more than 35% in the Sun Spider 9.1 JavaScript Benchmark." The tabs share the border used for switching to a recent app.

The email app brings better contact auto-completion, templates, and integrated menu for accounts and labels, nested subfolders and searching across folders on the server. NFC is now used in Android Beam, a simple way to split contacts, apps, videos with compatible devices. "It's extremely simple and convenient to use — there's no menu to open, application to launch, or pairing needed. Just touch one Android-powered phone to another, then tap to send."

The reference device for Android 4.0 is Galaxy Nexus, a Samsung smartphone that uses a 4.65" Contour Display (HD Super AMOLED) with a 1280 x 720 declaration, a dual core 1.2GHz processor and has support for LTE or HSPA+, depending on the carrier. The phone will be launched next month in the US, Canada, Europe and Asia. Obviously, you shouldn't wait for to be able to update Nexus S or other Android devices to ICS before the Galaxy Nexus launch.

Here's a video that showcases most of the Android ICS features, followed by a Galaxy Nexus ad:

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Extra Google Wallet merchants are live. Now you can pay AND save in a single tap.

2011-10-18T03:36:00.000-07:00

We’re hearing from people at check-out counters throughout the country that paying with your phone is a little like magic. Just look at the ecstatic response on the faces of our friends who made their first Google Wallet purchases last Thursday.

Today, our partners American Eagle Outfitters, The Container Store, Foot Locker, Guess, Jamba Juice, Macy’s, OfficeMax and Toys“R”Us are rolling out an even improved Google Wallet experience. For the first time ever in the U.S., at these select stores, you can not only pay but also exchange coupons and/or earn rewards points—all with a single tap of your phone. This is what we call the Google Wallet Single Tap experience.

With Google Wallet in hand, you be able to walk into a Jamba Juice, American Eagle Outfitters or any other partner store. Once you’ve prearranged that Razzmatazz smoothie or found the right color Slim Jean, head straight to the cashier and tap your phone to pay and save—that’s it. You don’t have to shuffle about to find the right coupon to scan or rewards card to stamp because it all happens in the blink of an eye.

The Offers tab in Google Wallet has been rationalized to include a new "Featured Offers" section with discounts that are limited to Google Wallet. Today, these comprise 15% off at American Eagle Outfitters, 10% off at The Container Store, 15% off at Macy’s and an all-fruit smoothie for $2 at Jamba Juice. There are a lot of more Google Wallet exclusive discounts to come, and you can save your favorites in Google Wallet so they’ll be routinely applied to your bill when you check out.

Organizing loyalty cards in your wallet is getting easier too. Today, Foot Locker, Guess, OfficeMax and American Eagle Outfitters are provided that loyalty cards for Google Wallet so you can rack up reward points automatically as you shop. More of these are on the way.

One more thing—in reply to user feedback, we’ve enhanced transaction details for the Google Prepaid Card with real-time transaction information including merchant name, location, dollar value and time of each transaction. Here’s what it looks like:

Lastly, a special thanks to Chevron, D’Agostino, Faber News Now, Gristedes Supermarkets and Pinkberry who are now also working to equip their stores to recognize Google Wallet.

It’s still premature days for Google Wallet, but this is an significant step in expanding the ecosystem of participating merchants to make shopping faster and easier in more places. If you’re a merchant and want to work with us to make shopping easier for your customers and attach with them in new ways, please sign up on the Google Wallet site. And if you’re a shopper and want to purchase a Nexus S 4G phone from Sprint with Google Wallet, visit this page.

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Chrome Remote Desktop

2011-10-09T22:28:00.000-07:00

Chrome Remote Desktop is a new Chrome addition that lets you remotely control a computer from your browser. It's the first software that uses a technology code-named "chromoting" and it's particularly useful if you have a Chrome book.

The goal of this beta release is to show the core Chrome Remoting technology and get feedback from users. This edition enables users to share with or get access to one more computer by providing a one-time verification code. Access is given only to the exact person the user identifies for one time only, and the sharing session is totally secured.

One potential use of this description is the remote IT helpdesk case. The helpdesk can use the Chrome Remote Desktop BETA to help another user, while equally a user can receive help by setting up a sharing session without leaving their desk. Additional use cases such as being able to way in your own computer remotely are coming soon.

Chrome Remote Desktop BETA is fully cross-platform, so you can connect any two computers that have a Chrome browser, together with Windows, Linux, Mac and Chrome books.

I've installed the addition on a Dell laptop that runs Windows 7 and on a Samsung Chrome book. The extension has more than 17 MB, so you have to wait a little bit until it's downloaded and installed. After installing the extension on my Dell laptop, I clicked the innovative icon from the new tab page and Chrome Remote Desktop asked me to "grant extended access permissions" to my computer.

Chrome Remote Desktop is a special extension since it can be used to control your computer. It's interesting that the addition uses Google Talk's technology to send messages.

When you choose to share your computer, Remote Desktop generates a code you need to enter on a second computer.

Here's what happens after installing the addition on my Chrome book:

The presentation is pretty good, but it depends on your Internet connection and the computers you're using. The extension is particularly useful for businesses and it will make Chrome books even more attractive for companies.

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Google Earth downloaded more than one billion times

2011-10-05T23:56:00.000-07:00

How large is one billion? One billion hours ago modern humans were living in the Stone Age. One billion minutes ago, the Roman Empire was affluent. If you traveled from Earth to the Moon three times, your journey would gauge one billion meters.

Today, we’ve reached our own one billion mark: Google Earth has been downloaded more than one billion times since it was initial introduced in 2005. That’s more than one billion downloads of the Google Earth desktop client, mobile apps and the Google Earth plug-in—all enabling you to discover the world in seconds, from Earth to Mars to the ocean floor.

We’re proud of our one billion mile stone, but we’re even more astonished at the way people have used Google Earth to travel around the world. When we founded Keyhole, Inc. back in 2001 (the company was acquired by Google in 2004), we never probable our geospatial technology would be used by people in so many unforeseen ways. At www.OneWorldManyStories.com, we’ve collected stories from people all over the world who use Google Earth to go after their dreams, discover new and distant places, or make the world a better place.

Visit www.OneWorldManyStories.com to learn concerning people like Professor David Kennedy of the University of Western Australia, who’s used Google Earth to scan thousands of square kilometers in Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Professor Kennedy has exposed ancient tombs and geoglyphs dating back at least 2,000 years, all without leaving his desk in Perth. Architect Barnaby Gunning, after the April 6, 2009 earthquake near L’Aquila Italy, encouraged his fellow citizens to start rebuilding the city almost in 3D. Their online urban planning will aid city planners and architects. Retired English teacher Jerome Burg created Google Lit Trips, which uses Google Earth to match places in famous books to their geographical locations, encouraging students to generate connections between the stories they read in school and the world they live in.

We hope you enjoy the site, and that it illustrates how some of those one billion downloads of Google Earth have been making a difference. You can discover these stories right in your browser with the Google Earth plug-in or download the KML files to vision in Google Earth.

If you have a Google Earth story you’d similar to share, we’d love to hear from you. If you don’t have Google Earth, download it now and be part of the next billion stories. While it’s inspiring to see how Google Earth has touched the lives of so many, we know the best is yet to come.

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Ads are just answers

2011-10-03T01:24:00.000-07:00

When CaféPress first started printing shirts in 1999, online retail was still a budding industry and Google had yet to sell its first ad. Soon CaféPress started selling products throughout search ads on Google, and their business took off. Today, CaféPress hosts millions of shops online where customers can choose from more than 325 million products on almost any topic, from wall art to phone cases.

Just as CafePress has broadened its offerings over time, we've also worked to get better and expand our search advertising products. What started as three lines of simple text has evolved into ads that are multimedia-rich, location-aware and socially-amplified.

Today CafePress uses Site links to straight people to specific pages of their website, helping customers find what they’re looking for faster. On average, ads with three rows of links, or three-line Site links, are additional than 50 percent likely to get clicked on than ads without Site links. More than 200,000 advertisers have connected CafePress in using Site links in at least one campaign.

Monday at Advertising Week in New York City, I’ll be talking about how advertisers have been quick to accept these new formats since we first began experimenting nearly two years ago. Businesses from the smallest retailer in Idaho to the largest chance 500 companies in New York have seen how these innovations in search advertising can help grow successful businesses. In fact, roughly one-third of searches with ads show an improved ad format.

Here are a little ways these new ad formats are helping people find important information faster:

Visual. Not only can you discover theater times for a new movie, you can watch the trailer directly in the ad. Media ads put the sight, sound and motion of video into search ads. With Product Ads, people can see an image, price and merchant name, providing a more visual shopping experience. Because this format is frequently so useful, people are twice as likely to click on a Product Ad as they are to click on a standard text ad in the same location, and today, hundreds of millions of products are available through Product Ads.

Local: More than 20 percent of desktop searches on Google are connected to location. On mobile, this climbs to 40 percent. Location-aware search ads can help you find what you’re looking for more effortlessly by putting thousands of local businesses on the map—literally. More than 270,000 of our advertisers use Location Extensions to attach a business address on at least one ad campaign, connecting more than 1.4 million locations in the U.S. via ads. And, with our mobile ad formats, not only can you call a restaurant directly from the ad, you can also find out how far away the restaurant is situated and view a map with directions.

Social: With the +1 button people are able to find and advise businesses with their friends. Since introducing the +1 button earlier this year, we now have more than 5 billion impressions on publisher sites a day. If you’re a business owner, the +1 button enables your customers to share your products and particular offers easily with their network of friends, amplifying your existing marketing campaigns.

We're enduring to experiment with search ads to help businesses like CafePress grow by connecting with the right customers. Starting today, you can drop by our site to check out what’s new with search ads and learn about all the improvements we’ve been working on freshly.

We’re developing ads that provide richer information to you because we believe that search ads ought to be both beautiful and informative, and as useful to you as an answer.

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How to Find Visited Pages in Google Search

2011-09-30T23:10:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if this is a new quality, but it's pretty useful. Like most websites, Google's search engine changes the color of visited links from blue to purple. All browsers grip links this way by default, but websites can alter the colors using some CSS code.

If you're logged in using your Google Account and Web History is enabled, Google saves all the search results you visit to your Web History. When you're using a different browser or a different computer and you're logged in using the similar account, Google changes the color of the visited links from blue to purple, irrespective of the browser or computer you've used to visit them. For example, I searched for [haploid] using Chrome, I clicked on one of the results, then I tried the same query in Internet Explorer and the page I've visited in Chrome previously had a purple link.

Google also has a search filter that lets you limit the results to visited pages. Just click "More search tools" in the sidebar and select "Visited pages". For pages you're visiting regularly, Google shows an explanation below the snippet: "You've visited this page X times. Last visit: ...". When you mouse over the snippet, Google suggests to +1 the link: "You've visited this page X times. +1 to suggest it on Google search!".

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"Google+ Is Google Itself"

2011-09-28T22:15:00.000-07:00

If you thought that Google+ is just a divide service you can effortlessly disregard if you don't want to use it, you were wrong. In an interview with Steven Levy, Bradley Horowitz - Google's VP of products - says that Google+ is really Google itself.

Until now, every single Google property acted like a split company. Due to the way we grew, through various acquisitions and the fierce independence of each separation within Google, each product sort of veered off in its own direction. That was dizzying. But Google+ is Google itself. We're extending it across all that we do — search, ads, Chrome, Android, Maps, YouTube — so that each of those services contributes to our accepting of who you are.

Redesigning all Google services to match the Google+ interface is not just about constancy, it's also a way to show that they're part of the same super-service, an surrounding layer that makes them work together.

Google+ made Android's camera app put together with Picasa Web Albums, Google Talk put together with YouTube and Google Docs. It's probable that Google+ will make Google services more useful by combining their strengths. That's almost certainly the reason why you'll use Google+ even when you're not going it to Google+ and you'll end up joining Google+ even if you don't like communal networks.

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Dynamic Views: seven new ways to distribute your blog with the world

2011-09-28T03:47:00.000-07:00

As we said a few weeks ago when we launched a totally rebuilt, streamlined authoring and editing experience, we’re in the process of bringing you a much enhanced and modernized Blogger. The next phase of these updates starts today with seven new ways to display your blog, called Dynamic Views.

Built with the newest in web technology (AJAX, HTML5 and CSS3), Dynamic Views is a exclusive browsing experience that will inspire your readers to discover your blog in new ways. The interactive layouts make it easier for readers to enjoy and find out your posts, loading 40 percent faster than conventional templates and bringing older entries to the exterior so they seem fresh again.

Dynamic Views is a lot more than just new templates. With just a couple clicks, you’ll get endless scrolling (say goodbye to the “Older posts” link), images that load as you browse, integrated search, sorting by date, label and author, light box-style posts for easy viewing, keyboard shortcuts for rapidly flipping through posts, and one-click sharing to Google+ and other social sites on each post.

No two blogs are the same, so you can decide from seven different views that display text and photos differently. For pattern, if you have lots of photos on your blog, you may prefer Flip card or Snapshot. If your blog is more text-heavy, then Classic, Sidebar (what you’re seeing now on Blogger Buzz) or Time slide may be preferable. Here’s a quick report of each of the new views, along with links to some of our favorite blogs where you can check each of them out in action.

Mosaic (Crosby’s Kitchen) - A mosaic mix of different sized images and text
Sidebar (Blogger Buzz Blog) - An email inbox-like view with a reading page for quick scrolling and browsing
Snapshot (Canelle et Vanille) - An interactive pinboard of your posts
Timeslide (The Bleary-Eyed Father) - A horizontal view of your posts by time period

If you want to insert your own touch to any of these new views, you can upload a header image and customize the background colors. We’ll be adding up more ways to modify Dynamic Views in the coming weeks.

We hope you enjoy the newest update to Blogger, and that, as always, you tell us what you think by completing this short review.

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Google's New Search border Disables Many Shortcuts

2011-09-26T00:00:00.000-07:00

With the newest redesign of the search results pages, Google made it more difficult to use most of the keyboard shortcuts that permitted you to quickly select a result or see a small preview.

Until now, you might type your query, press Enter to hide the list of suggestions and press Enter once again to go to the first result. If you didn't like the first result, you might press the down arrow to select the second result. Google also incorporated a keyboard shortcut for Instant Previews: the right arrow. None of these shortcuts are obtainable in the latest interface, at least not by default. Now you need to press Tab after performing a search to allow the old keyboard shortcuts.

Here's a search results page after typing a doubt (notice that there's no arrow next to the first result):

Here's what happens when you press Tab (you can use the up/down arrows, but the shortcut for Instant Previews no longer works

Google most likely disabled these features because not many people used them and a lot of users complained that the shortcuts made routing more difficult. Power users need to learn that Tab enables keyboard shortcuts, but having to allow the feature every time you use Google Search is annoying. After all, shortcuts were supposed to make your life easier and help you be more creative.

Google Instant shortcuts are still obtainable. You can continue to use the up/down arrows to select a different look for suggestion, the right arrow to visit the first result for the search suggestion, Tab to use Google's suggestion and continue to type your query, Esc to choose the query so you can quickly overwrite it.

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New border for Google Instant Previews

2011-09-23T01:25:00.000-07:00

Google tweaked the UI for Instant Previews and made the seek interface a lot cleaner. There's a new big icon for Instant Previews, but it's only displayed when you mouse over a snatch. Click the new icon or only hover over the gray bar and you'll see a much bigger screenshot.

"Instant Previews have been about since last year, allowing you to click on the magnifying glass to the right of the result to see a visual overview of a page. Now these previews are no longer even a click away: if you move your mouse over a look for result, arrows will appear. Hover over them to see a visual sample of that result," explains Google.

Clicking the snippet no longer triggers an immediate Preview in the new interface. Unfortunately, the keyboard shortcut has been disabled, so you can longer get a glimpse of the page with the right arrow.

Google now repeats the title of the page and the URL then to the screenshot, while the links to the cached page and to other similar pages are incorporated in the new enlarged snippet. It's a bad news for those who regularly use the "cache" link, who now have to spend more time to find it.

The only action that's still displayed is the Google +1 button, but you require to log in to see it. Probably Google wanted to highlight the button, which is now located next to the URL.

Here's the old border:

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Google Wallet

2011-09-21T23:37:00.000-07:00

Google originate an interesting way to launch the Google Wallet app for Android: as an over-the-air update for Sprint Nexus S 4G phones. Google Wallet makes use of the NFC chip from Nexus S phones and allows you to create credit card payments at physical stores using your Android smartphone.

"Google Wallet enables you to pay with your Citi MasterCard credit card and the Google Prepaid Card, which can be funded with any of your accessible plastic credit cards. As a thanks to early adopters, we're adding a $10 free bonus to the Google Prepaid Card if you set it up in Google Wallet before the end of the year," informs Google. The Google Prepaid Card is powered by MasterCard and Money Network and it's a provisional solution until you can add credit cards from other companies. Google says that the submission could add support for Visa, Discover and American Express cards in the future.

Google Wallet is more than a contactless payment explanation: it's a virtual wallet that could store information about your credit cards, coupons, loyalty cards, gift cards, tickets and much more. It's also a great chance for Google to integrate Google Offers and make it easier to use by allowing consumers to pay, redeem offers and earn allegiance points in a single step using their mobile phone. Google says that it doesn't have access to the list of products you buy, but this feature could be additional in the future.

While Google Wallet seems to be a suitable solution, many people might not use it because of privacy or security reasons. Google says that the payment credentials are stored in a separate chip called Secure Element and only official programs can begin transitions. Google Wallet users need to enter the PIN to confirm a payment, so someone who finds an Android phone can't use the app because he doesn't know the code.

Google's vision is to generate "an open commerce ecosystem" that will support many payment instruments, APIs that allow adding loyalty points, transferring offers, receipts and more. Google Wallet is Google Checkout's extension to offline payments and it's a big opportunity for Google to generate a successful payment system. PayPal will soon offer a similar service and Apple's iPhone 5 could contain a NFC chip, so Google Wallet will have a few competition.

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Google Goggles Makes Your Phone's Camera Smarter

2011-09-14T21:50:00.000-07:00

Google Goggles is an request that's sometimes useful, but it's not good enough to use it every time you want to find something about an object. The Android app has a new characteristic that integrates it with the Camera app, uploads all the photos you're taking to Google's servers and shows notifications in the status bar if Goggles found something useful. It may sound spooky, but it makes your phone's camera smarter.

"With this new opt-in feature in Goggles, you can just photograph an image using your phone's camera, and Goggles will work in the background to examine your image. If your photo contains items that Goggles can distinguish, the app will notify you," explains Google. The feature is disabled by default, but you can facilitate it from the settings page by choosing "Search from Camera".

It's almost certainly a good idea to only enable this option when you're on vacation or when you're planning to photograph barcodes for products you want to buy. It's also helpful if you're in a bookstore and you want to "bookmark" some books.

Google Mobile's help center informs that "each Goggles query consumes about 100 KB of data" and you can limit the amount of data that's inspired by selecting "Search on WiFi networks only" under "Mobile Connection".

"Search from Camera" is one of the features that won't be obtainable in the Google app for iPhone because iOS' background APIs aren't that powerful. If you have an Android device, install Google Goggles 1.6 from the Android Market.

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New boundary for Google Docs Apps

2011-08-29T22:47:00.000-07:00

Reliability is great, but not when it makes an application more hard to use. Google Docs tests new interfaces for the document editor and Google Spreadsheets. enthused by Google+, the new interfaces remove all the colors from the icons and other UI elements, remove the Google Docs logo, add new scrollbars and a "Collaborate" menu that includes all the features from the "Share" drop-down.

The new grayscale buttons from the toolbar make it more hard to find the right feature. They are less intuitive, harder to differentiate and look like disabled buttons. Compare the two versions of the "paint format" button (the fifth button):

Unlike the new interfaces for Gmail and Google Calendar, the efficient Google Docs apps don't use too much white space. You can toggle to the new interfaces by clicking "Try now" in a small message that announces the changes when you release a Google Docs document or spreadsheet. To go back to the old UI, choose "Use the standard look" from the "Help" menu.

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Lists in Google Snippets

2011-08-26T00:00:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned two weeks ago that Google ongoing to label pages that take in search results. For some of these pages, Google's snippets now use lists, so you can differentiate between separate items. These snippets are twice as big as the ordinary snippets (4 lines vs 2 lines) and they take in useful information like prices or dates.

Sometimes Google is confused and shows comparable snippets for blogs, especially if homepages look like look for results pages.

Google's snippets typically include one or more excerpts from the page that include some of your keywords and are estranged by ellipses.

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Music Rich Snippets in Google Search

2011-08-23T00:21:00.000-07:00

Last week, Google announced a new taste of rich snippets, this time for music pages. At that time, I couldn't see the new snippets, but now they ought to be obtainable for everyone.

"With this new feature, site owners can mark up their pages using the newly shaped music markup spec on schema.org, and search results for that site may start displaying song information in the snatch so that users know that there are songs or samples there for them to listen to. Several early partners have implemented the music markup on their sites, counting MySpace, Rhapsody and Reverb Nation," explained Google.

The new rich snippets comprise links to music pages that could be establish by visiting the search result, but it's faster to bypass the search result and start to play a song. It's important to talk about that the songs aren't played on Google's results pages, so you still need to go to a different page. You'll only see the music rich snippets when your inquiry includes the name of an artist, a song or an album.

Google also shows rich snippets for events, profile pages, recipes, videos, reviews and products. "With rich snippets, webmasters with sites containing structured content—such as review sites or business listings—can label their satisfied to make it clear that each labeled piece of text represents a certain type of data: for example, a restaurant name, an address, or a rating."

At some point, Google will make structured data searchable and it will be a lot easier to purify results. Recipe search previously lets you do that and it's pretty useful.

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A convenience survey for blind users

2011-08-21T22:48:00.000-07:00

These days, we rely on the Internet to keep us knowledgeable and in touch, yet our experience of the web is filtered through the tools we use to access it. The devices and technologies we choose, and our decisions about when we improve those tools, can affect how we interrelate with the web and with whom we are able to communicate.

In July, I attended the yearly conference held by the American Council of the Blind (ACB). I was struck by something I heard from people there: their experience using the web was very dissimilar from mine not because they were blind, but because the technology and web tools obtainable to them were unlike the ones available to me, as a sighted person. While the Internet provides many benefits to modern society, it has also created a exclusive set of challenges for blind and low-vision users who rely on assistive technologies to use the web. We’re committed to making Google’s products more accessible, and we believe the best way to understand the convenience needs of our users is to listen to them.

This week, we’re announcing a review that will help us better understand computer usage and assistive technology patterns in the blind community. Over the past three months, we’ve worked intimately with the ACB to develop a survey that would give us a greater understanding of how people choose and learn about the assistive technologies they use. This survey will help us design products and tools that interact more efficiently with assistive technologies currently available to the blind community, as well as improve our aptitude to educate users about new features in our own assistive technologies, such as ChromeVox and TalkBack.

The survey will be obtainable through mid-September on the ACB's website and by phone. We encourage anyone with a visual impairment who relies on assistive technologies to participate; your input will help us offer products that can enhanced suit your needs. For details, visit www.acb.org/googlesurvey.

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Undocumented Shortcut for Caps Lock in Chrome OS

2011-08-17T04:43:00.000-07:00

One of the most significant changes Google made when designing the keyboard for Chrome OS notebooks was replacing the Caps Lock key with a search key. Although the search key is not very useful since it only opens a new tab, the Caps Lock key made a lot of comments, forum threads and emails unreadable.

If you actually need to use the Caps Lock key, there's a way to change the search key into a Caps Lock key in the settings. Unfortunately, this is time consuming, particularly if you constantly switch between the search key and the Caps Lock key. There's a better way: press both Shift keys at the same time to enable or disable Caps Lock. It's an undocumented shortcut that works in the newest versions of Chrome OS.

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New Google Movies One Box

2011-08-15T23:34:00.000-07:00

Google's One Box for movie show times has a new border that offers information about more movies. It's much easier to evaluate movies and you can click "show more movies" to get bigger the One Box. Google links to the Google Movies site, which shows short snippets from reviews, trailers, small photos, but also links to IMDb.

In other associated news, François Beaufort spotted that the Google.com sprite, which includes all the images that are used in the search results pages, added 4 icons for flight search, music search and movie search. Back in March, Tech Crunch noticed that the music search characteristic no longer worked. "The music search attribute introduced in 2009 is at present unavailable while we make some updates to the user experience," explained Google.

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We love Lucy

2011-08-09T23:41:00.000-07:00

Lucille Ball may have been born 100 years ago today, but her jokes are timeless. Having grown up with the comedic genius of “I Love Lucy,” it’s hard to consider that Lucy, Desi, Fred, and Ethel wrapped up the early series in 1957. Lucy’s creativity, absurdity, and ever-changing facial expressions (especially when she was scarfing down candy, stomping on grapes or touting a new energy drink) have brought joy and laughter to generations of listeners.

We’re extremely happy to celebrate her birthday with a doodle to highlight her brilliant career as an actress and businesswoman. Through the old-timey TV live on the google.com homepage all day on August 6th, you can flip the six channels for a extraordinary Lucy broadcast.

Happy birthday, Lucy — we still love you!

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No More separate Google Dictionary

2011-08-09T00:07:00.000-07:00

Google Dictionary is no longer obtainable as a standalone service at google.com/dictionary. You can still find it in Google Web Search and Google Translate. For example, you can look for [define keyword] and click "more" or search for [keyword] and click "Dictionary" in the look for options sidebar.

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Google Docs Tests New Interface

2011-08-05T01:04:00.000-07:00

Google Docs has a new boundary inspired by Google+ and you can try it here. The interface is cleaner and there's a bunch of white space. You'll also find the familiar red buttons, the gray buttons, the new scrollbars and the label less search button.

The new boundary looks better, but there's a lot of white space that could be used to show more information about the files. The details view is no longer obtainable from the interface, but you can enable it in the old UI and the setting is preserved.

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Goodbye, Google Friends!

2011-07-31T23:24:00.000-07:00

Google Friends is Google's monthly newsletter that incorporated the latest announcements and product releases. 13 years after the first newsletter issue, Google announced that Google Friends will be retired.

It's hard to consider, but this monthly missive is now 13 years old. We hope you've enjoyed reading it over time, and required you to know that we are retiring it in its current form.

As you may know, the Google Friends Newsletter was shaped by Larry Page in April 1998, when Google was still on Stanford servers. In the early days, the Friends notes offered newsy details like "We are gearing up to do another crawl. We should start within a few weeks" and tips on tweaking your search queries.

Obviously a lot has happened since then, counting changes in how we communicate updates to all of you. So this will be our last Google Friends Newsletter. We in progress the Official Google Blog in 2004 and joined Twitter in 2009, and we've seen dramatic growth on those channels. Meanwhile, the number of subscribers to this newsletter has remained flat, so we've completed that this format is no longer the best way for us to get the word out about new Google products and services.

Google Friends started as an eGroups mailing list, then it became a Yahoo Group and was later enthused to Google Groups. "We used the company eGroups to mass-mail our Google Friends newsletter to users, because Larry's brother, Carl, was one of eGroups founders. Larry had done the pattern for the original eGroups server himself, and for a while the company's computational heart has lived under his desk. The same week we announced our deal with Yahoo, Yahoo announced they were buying eGroups for $428 million (Yahoo has been very kind to the Page family)," remembers the former Google marketing director Douglas Edwards.

The early issues of the newsletter take in a geek-friendly changelog of Google's search engine. You'll find about the long-gone operator flink: (forward links), the PageRank bar displayed next to each search result and Google's plans to "have a much bigger index than our current 24 million pages".

"After combining our web server and search engine for better performance, we have been experiencing intermittent problems with our system being down for short amounts of time fairly regularly. If you have trouble getting to the system, try back in a minute or two, and it should be back up." (July 1998)

This is a paragraph you'll never find in a Google blog post, Twitter message or a recent Google Friends issue.

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Updated Code for Google +1 Buttons

2011-07-27T04:37:00.000-07:00

As reported last month, the code for Google +1 buttons could be enhanced so that the buttons load faster and stop blocking other resources. Google updated the code and recommends publishers to produce a new code.

"We're introducing a new asynchronous snippet, allowing you to make the +1 skill even faster. The async snippet allows your web page to carry on loading while your browser downloads the +1 JavaScript. By loading these elements in parallel, we're ensuring the HTTP request to get the +1 button JavaScript doesn't lead to an augment in your page load time," explains Google.

Google also optimized the existing code so that the button renders up to 3 times faster. Even if you don't modernize the code, you'll still benefit from these changes.

The code generator is easy to use and I've noticed that a lot of sites extra a +1 button next to Facebook's "Like" button. It's unfortunate that Google didn't optimize the code when it was released.

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Google Toolbar for Firefox Has Been Discontinued

2011-07-20T23:35:00.000-07:00

Another Google product bites the dust. This time it's a well-liked add-on: Google Toolbar for Firefox. Many users were surprised to see that Google hasn't rationalized the toolbar for Firefox 5, even though it wasn't a difficult task. After enabling the Add-on Compatibility Reporter, most of the features worked well in Firefox 5.

It turns out that Google no longer wants to modernize Google Toolbar for Firefox, but it doesn't admit that the product has been discontinued.

"Google Toolbar for Firefox is well-matched with Firefox version 4 or older. If you use Firefox version 5 or newer, you won't be talented to use Google Toolbar."

Google suggests a long list of add-ons that might replace Google Toolbar's features, but the suggestions are too generic. For example, Google links to the hunt results for [bookmarks sync] or [language translate] in the Firefox add-ons gallery.

A Google blog post offers an explanation: "many features that were once obtainable by Google Toolbar for Firefox are now already built right into the browser" and thanks the loyal users. That's also true for the IE toolbar, but there are many useful features that aren't built-in in the browser: auto-translation (a built-in Chrome feature), Google Bookmarks integration, using Google Docs to open documents, smart spell-checking using an online service, highlighting search terms, suggestions for navigation errors (another built-in Chrome feature), custom buttons and gadgets.

You almost certainly remember that Google Toolbar for Firefox was released in 2005, five years after the Internet Explorer version. At that time, Firefox users who wanted to put in a Google Toolbar with PageRank support could try an unofficial extension called Googlebar. Maybe that addition will be resurrected, now that Google Toolbar for Firefox is no longer available. Releasing some of the source code under an open-source license would be helpful.

For now, Google Toolbar still works in the latest Firefox releases if you put in the Add-on Compatibility Reporter first and restart the browser. Here's Google Toolbar in Firefox 7 Alpha 2 (Aurora):

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A New Look for Google Translate

2011-07-19T23:18:00.000-07:00

Google Translate is the newest Google service with a new plan based on Google+. Since Google Translate's interface is simple, there aren't many changes: a new grey header, updated buttons and drop-downs.

"We're working on a project to bring you a new and enhanced Google experience, and over the next few months, you'll carry on to see more updates to our look and feel. The way people use and experience the web is developing, and our goal is to give you a more seamless and reliable online experience—one that works no matter which Google product you're using or what device you're using it on," explained Google last month.

After launching a new border for Google Search, Google created two themes that preview Gmail's new design and ongoing to test Google Calendar's new UI and Blogger's new UI. Up next: Google Docs, Google Sites, Picasa Web Albums, Google Reader and almost certainly other services.

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Google Music Lyrics

2011-07-19T03:27:00.000-07:00

Google Music Lyrics is a Grease monkey script that adds a lyrics panel to Google Music. It only facility in Firefox and there's a single lyrics provider: SongLyrics.com.

The lyrics are cached so that they're displayed right away the next time you play the same song. You can also edit the lyrics and the changes are saved using HTML5 local storage. To hide the panel, click the title.

Chris Hendry, who urbanized the script, plans to add other lyrics providers, allow users to import and export lyrics and to make the script work in Google Chrome.

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Find latest Images in Google Image Search

2011-07-17T22:53:00.000-07:00

Google Image Search extra a filter that lets you restrict the results to the pages created in the past week. Just click "past week" in the left sidebar and you'll see a list of latest images that include labels like "20 hours ago" or "5 days ago" to show how recent they are. Google's image search engine shows the same labels even if you don't limit the results to recent images.

The interface doesn't let you modify the date range, but you can edit the URL and replace "qdr:w" with "qdr:h" (past hour), "qdr:h20" (past 20 hours), "qdr:d" (past 24 hours), "qdr:d2" (past 2 days), "qdr:w2" (past 2 weeks), "qdr:m" (past month), "qdr:y" (past year). Another trick you can try is to type your query in Google Web Search, use the date filters from the sidebar and then click "Images" in the upright menu. Custom date ranges don't work in Image Search yet.

Here are some examples: Beijing photos from the past year, wedding photos from the past month, Android-related images from the past 2 weeks, Tour de France photos from the past week. It's significant to keep in mind that the photos may not be so recent, but they're incorporated in recent articles, blog posts and other Web pages.

The nice thing about the "recent images" filter is that you can unite it with other advanced filters. You can sort the images by subject and limit the results to recent images, find images that have a certain size or a predominant color and they were uploaded in the past year, find new Creative Commons images or generate a list of current images from a site.

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What Do You Love?

2011-07-15T02:52:00.000-07:00

A while back, a few of us required to make a little tool that we could use to show just about anybody more of what Google makes. That led to some simple ideas, and then a few more ideas and eventually, to a challenge: how we could attach people to products they might not know about and may find useful, but make the discovery applicable to them and keep it fun.

Playing about with that challenge shaped a website—What Do You Love?—that we hope meets at least some of the challenge by demonstrating how dissimilar Google products can show you different things about any particular search query. Like always, you’re the judge, so give it a go. Type in something that you love—polar bears, space travel, pickup trucks, Lady Gaga, early Foghat—whatever strikes your fancy (for some reason, the results for cheese always crack us up, so try that if you’re briefly stumped). No matter what it is, we’ll give you back impressive that will let you get even more into what you love.

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I'm Feeling Lucky, the Book

2011-07-12T23:36:00.000-07:00

You should have seen this message when installing Google Toolbar in Internet Explorer: "Please read this with awareness. It's not the common Yada Yada."

If you've ever used orkut, you possibly remember the famous error message: "Bad, bad server. No donut for you."

Remember Mentalplex, Google's first April Fools' Day joke?

What about the "10 things Google has found to be true"?

All of these were printed by Doug Edwards, Google's director of consumer marketing and brand management from November 1999 to March 2005. Doug was "the voice of Google", the one who wrote the text for Google's communal pages and FAQs. He's now the author of the book "I'm Feeling Lucky" (Google Books, Amazon), which tells the story of the five years he used up at Google.

"Google was becoming my own individual publishing platform. (...) We had built a global bully pulpit and my voice rolled forth from it, My thoughts, my ideas, my imprecations would be seen by more people than read the New York Times or watched a network newscast. I was the man after the curtain giving voice to the all-knowing Oz, and I tried not to let it go to my head," remembers Doug.

He came up with the name "AdWords", a cross flanked by "AdsDirect" and "BuyWords", two other names suggested for Google's online ad service.

Doug was the marketing directer of a company whose founders didn't want to use too much money on marketing. "Efficiency. Frugality. Integrity." These were Google's most significant principles. "Growing by word of mouth suited Larry and Sergey's animosity just before advertising. They scoffed at extravagant startups and their Superbowl spots, because TV ads lacked accountability. (...) 'If we can't win on quality', [Larry] said quietly, 'we shouldn't win at all.' In his view, winning by marketing by yourself would be deceitful, because it would mean people had been tricked into using an substandard service against their own best interests."

Actually, Google shaped a marketing department because "a board member or a friend from Stanford had insisted the founders needed people to do staff that wasn't engineering."

Douglas shares a lot of interesting things concerning the early days of Google, when the company struggled to rewrite Google's original code, build a scalable infrastructure, induce major portals like Yahoo and AOL to use Google's search technology and find a way to monetize search. Google started with a great idea, but turning a research project into a victorious company wasn't easy. Hiring smart people and creating a flat organization that replaced bureaucracy with meritocracy helped a lot. "Great things would come from packing [engineers] tightly together so that thoughts bounced into one another, colliding and recombining in new, more patent ways," remembers Douglas.

Google has always been the anti-corporation, where you might question authority and where engineers were in the driving seat. That's almost certainly the reason why "don't be evil" became Google's mantra. As Google became a bigger company, "don't be evil" helped Google stay true to itself. Even when Google did evil things, like testing ads varied with search results, the mantra was always there to show the right path.

Douglas had an increasingly significant role: from a marketing director that tried to endorse Google without spending too much money to the voice of Google, the one who wrote or adjusted most of the text from Google's pages. He questioned many decisions of Google's co-founders, from adding daily doodles to creating an ad overhaul that didn't require moderation, but he later realized that they were great ideas. A former marketing manager at Mercury News, Douglas had to alter a lot of habits at Google, while learning a lot in the process.

His decision to leave the company came after he realized that a major Google reorganization made his role needless. "I had ongoing at a small startup as a big-company guy. Now I was leaving a big company as a small-startup guy." Douglas thinks that Google's main flaw is the "impatience with those not quick enough to grasp the clear truth of Google's vision." After leaving the company, he found himself "impatient with the way the world works" and exposed a lot of problems in everyday life. "Smart people, aggravated to make things better, can do almost anything."

That's one of the most important things about Google: the inspiration to make things better at a global scale. Creating a better browser, a better mail service, an ad service built approximately relevant ads, a translation service that continually improves shows that Google cares a lot about finding the right answers to the important problems.

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Tonight, watch the Google Science Fair ending event live

2011-07-11T23:59:00.000-07:00

The young scientists of the world have established themselves truly impressive people—inventing technologies to get better the accuracy of prosthetic devices, developing video-audio memory aids for dementia patients and improving switch designs to stop train derailments. These are just three of the top 15 projects competing for the grand prize in the opening Google Science Fair final tonight, which we’ll be live streaming at 7pm PDT at youtube.com/googlesciencefair.

Back in January, we launched the first Google Science Fair in partnership with CERN, LEGO, National Geographic and Scientific American. We asked youthful people from ages 13-18 all over the world to submit projects online that were creative, inspiring and groundbreaking. Ten thousand students from 91 countries submitted 7,500 projects, from which our international team of judges chosen the top 15 finalists.

Today, those finalists are at Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. where they’ll present their projects to a panel of science luminaries, inventors and Nobel laureates. The winners will obtain amazing prizes including $100,000 in scholarships, internships at Google or our partners and a National Geographic Expedition to the Galápagos Islands.

So pull up a chair in your home laboratory and tune in to a live stream of the first Google Science Fair to find out which promising young Einstein will take home the grand prize. The event begins tonight, Monday July 11, at 7pm PDT—watch at youtube.com/googlesciencefair.

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Try Blogger's New Interface

2011-07-10T22:05:00.000-07:00

Google promised a new Blogger interface back in March and started a imperfect test in April. "The new design is not only cleaner and more modern, but it also uses Google Web Toolkit, delivering the newest in web technology."

The new interface is now obtainable in Blogger in Draft, but it looks quite different. "Over the last couple of months, we've made important improvements to our new user interface. First and foremost, we've incorporated your feedback and made many fixes based on that feedback. Also, we've rationalized the look and feel of our new design, inspired by Google's newest design evolutions," explains Google. Blogger uses Ajax, so all the pages load a lot faster, including the post editor. Unfortunately, Blogger is still very slow when you carry out a search and try to display posts or comments.

Blogger's new UI is cleaner and it offers added information about your posts: the number of page views. Tabs have been replaced by a upright menu and the list of labels is now a drop-down. The post editor is much better, particularly if you use the default view. Blogger's new editor takes up most of the page and post settings are now incorporated in a sidebar.

There's a lot of white space in the new border, buttons aren't big enough to be legible and Blogger includes too much information that's not very useful: the total number of published comments and the total number of page views. The new interface is a mixed bag: it's modern, clean, faster and more powerful, but there are many belongings that need to be changed before replacing the accessible interface.

You can try the new UI at draft.blogger.com and you also have the alternative to make it the default interface.

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YouTube Cosmic Panda

2011-07-08T23:58:00.000-07:00

YouTube tests a new border code-named Cosmic Panda. There are many cosmetic changes: videos are centered, player's wheel are now black, video thumbnails are a lot bigger, suggestions are displayed below the video, profile photos are displayed next to the comments, channels and playlists have a totally new layout.

Probably the most attractive thing about the new interface is a Chrome-only feature that lets you play a video in the background while you visit a channel. YouTube is more fluid and I wait for to see a similar feature when you perform a search and when you click "view all comments".

The new border can be enabled and disabled at youtube.com/cosmicpanda.

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Quickly insert a YouTube Video to a Playlist

2011-07-07T04:06:00.000-07:00

YouTube's embeddable player additional a new feature that lets you quickly update your playlists with new videos. Click the arrow next to the "plus" button and you can add the video to one of your playlists. You can't make new playlists from the player and you can only see the first 10-15 playlists, depending on the player's height. I couldn't discover a way to scroll the list.

Here's a video you're almost certainly anxious to add to your playlists (there's no "remove" button in the player, sorry about that!):

It's surprising that the embeddable player doesn't have like/dislike buttons and you have to go to YouTube's video page for such a easy action. There's also a related menu that lets you copy the video's URL and the embedding code, but YouTube uses the old Flash-only code.

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Blogger and Picasa Web Could Be Rebranded

2011-07-06T04:08:00.000-07:00

Mashable reports that Blogger and Picasa Web Albums could change their names and become Google Blogs and Google Photos. "Google intends to leave several non-Google name brands and rename them as Google products. The move is part of a better effort to unify its brand for the public launch of Google+."

While Google Photos makes a lot sense, replacing Blogger with Google Blogs is not a great idea. When people say "Google Blogs", they refer to the long list of Google's business blogs. "Google Blogs" is previously used for Google Blog Search, but only on the homepage.

On the other hand, Blogger could be redesigned and use boundary elements from Google+, Blogger's profiles could be replaced by Google Profiles, the commenting system could be revamped and included with Google+.

One of the reasons why Picasa Web Albums didn't get improved too much is that it has always been perceived as Picasa's online extension. It wasn't a separate photo sharing service and many of its features required Picasa. You couldn't upload more than 5 photos, download albums or edit photos without installing Picasa. Google measured changing Picasa Web's name back in 2008.

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Google Real time Search, Temporarily engaged

2011-07-04T23:47:00.000-07:00

It's not the most accepted Google service, but Google Real time is useful as an alternative to Twitter's search engine. The service is no longer obtainable at the moment, the "Real time" option disappeared from Google's sidebar and google.com/real time returns a 404 error. Google says that this is just temporary. "We've temporarily disabled google.com/real time. We're exploring how to slot in our lately launched Google+ project into this functionality going forward, so stay tuned."

Google+ doesn't offer a search feature for messages yet, but it should be obtainable soon. It's strange to see that Google had to stop a service to add support for a new site.

Search Engine Land also reports that Google's Wonder Wheel feature is no longer obtainable. "[Google's] spokesperson said that the search tool was removed due to the 'initial stage' of the Google site redesign announced [last] week."

It's probable that both Google Real time and Wonder Wheel had to be redesigned, but Google didn't want to delay the launch of the new border until they're ready. When Google Instant was launched, many of the higher features were not obtainable, but some of them were extra after a few weeks.

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How Google+ Transformed Picasa Web

2011-07-04T00:39:00.000-07:00

Even though it's not obvious, after you facilitate Google+ in your Google account, Picasa Web turns into a completely new app with a dissimilar set of rules. Some of these rules make Google's photo sharing service not viable for many existing users and it's important to know them in advance.

Picasa Web's face recognition feature helped you systematize your photos. The integration between Picasa Web and Google Contacts made it easy to connect your photos with some of your contacts. By the default, the name tags from your public albums were hidden, but you might also hide the name tags from unlisted albums. When you join Google+, all of this changes. Adding a name tag to a photo is no longer a personal action: your contact will get a announcement that you tagged him. He will get access to your photo and to the entire album that includes the photo.

"You'll receive an email letting you know you've been tagged in a photo. By default, name tags by people in your circles are regularly approved. You can view or remove tags at any time on the photos homepage in Google+ as well as the Photos tab on your Google profile," informs Google. Name tags change their visibility too: if you have entrée to an album, you can see all the name tags from that album. You're not the only one who can add tags to your photos: anyone in your wide network at Google+ (friends and friends of friends) can add tags.

While these changes could get better Google's face recognition software and agree to Google to add new social features, transforming Picasa Web's private tagging into Facebook's photo tagging is a radical shift. Sharing an entire album with someone just because you've added a tag is something that might baffle a lot of Picasa Web users who don't comprehend that Picasa Web is now Google+ Photos.

The good news is that the existing name tags remain unchanged and your contacts won't be able to see your albums just because you've tagged them at some point. But that's true only for the name tags added before joining Google+.

Now when you share an album with your contacts, they're permissible to re share it with other people, so you can no longer firmly control the visibility of an album without continually monitoring the access list. Google Docs has a similar rule, but you can change the sharing settings so that "only the owner can change the permissions." Google has an explanation: "to give self-assurance the natural flow of conversation, once you sign up for Google+, all albums can be re shared by people that have way in to the album - those people on the album's 'Shared with' list in Picasa Web Albums."

It's worth pointing out that the new Picasa Web adds some benefits (unlimited free storage for photos up to 2048 x 2048 pixels, easier photo sharing) and that you can wander your photos to a different Google Account, but it's sad to see that Picasa Web is now a Google+ app which no longer works well standalone and that users can no longer use superior features without sharing their photos.

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Google Calendar's plan Refresh

2011-07-01T03:00:00.000-07:00

After Google Search and Google Maps, it's time for Google Calendar to toggle to a Google+ interface. The new design is a lot cleaner, even if no significant feature was removed. "Quick add" is now obtainable if you click the arrow next to the "Create button" (not very intuitive), "Print" and "Refresh" are now buttons instead of links, the month view below the "Create" button can be distorted, "Save" and "Discard" buttons are only displayed at the top of the page.

"Right now, the changes are just aesthetic and have not affected the way Calendar works. You can choose to turn off the new look by clicking the gear icon and choosing Use the classic look (you can turn it back on by going to the gear icon and choosing Try the new look)," explains Google. Perceptibly, at some point, Google Calendar will put together with Google+ and we'll see even more changes.

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The Google+ Bar

2011-06-28T23:48:00.000-07:00

A page from the Google+ help center explains the reason of the new Google navigation bar:

The Google+ bar, which appears at the top of Google products, is your connection to Google+. You can share what's on your mind, view your Google+ notifications, access your profile, or jump to a range of other Google products. For case, to get to Google+, all you have to do is click +[your first name].

When you're signed in and look at the Google+ bar, you'll see your full name or email address displayed with a photo or avatar next to it. This helps you recognize which account you're now signed in to. You can sign in to numerous accounts at once and switch between them using the Google+ bar.

One of the most attractive feature of the bar is notifications:

When you receive a notification, the notification area in the Google+ bar will turn red and show the figure of new notifications. If you click the notification area in the Google+ bar, you’ll see a synopsis of your recent notifications. When you click a notification, a preview of the event that generated the notification will emerge in the drop-down menu. You can take action on each notification right from the notifications menu, like commenting on a post or adding up someone to a circle.

The navigation bar has been morphed into the Google+ bar and it ought to be more useful. Maybe at some point the bar will take in notifications for Gmail, Calendar, Google Docs and other Google services.

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Gmail's New Inbox Styles

2011-06-27T23:59:00.000-07:00

Gmail's Priority Inbox is an superior version of the regular inbox, with customizable sections for power users. For some people, Priority Inbox looked threatening, so that's most likely the reason why Gmail tests a new version of the regular inbox that integrates Priority Inbox and three lightweight versions of the Priority Inbox.

"Try out all the new inbox styles to see what fits you best. You can always switch back if you change your mind," informs a Gmail promotional box. There are five inbox types: classic, important first, unread first, starred first and Priority Inbox. The three new inbox types could easily be obtained by customizing Priority Inbox, but it's much easier to switch flanked by them. It's the first time when Google uses tabs in Gmail interface if you keep out Gmail's settings page.

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A Chrome addition for Google Music

2011-06-24T04:24:00.000-07:00

While there's no official addition for Google Music and not even an app in the Chrome Web Store, you can install a really cool third-party addition called "Better Music Beta". The extension adds a button that shows in sequence about the currently playing song, lets you pause the song, go to the next song, add a thumbs up or a thumbs down. There's also a notification that shows up every time the song changes.

My favorite characteristic is the Last.fm integration: if you enable it, Better Music Beta scrobbles your songs and lets you openly show that you love a song by clicking the "heart" icon.

The downside is that you still have to open Google Music in a tab, since the music stops playing if you close the tab. Converting the addition into a "background app" would solve this problem.

Google Music requires an invitation and it's theoretical to be US-only, but it works even if you're not in the US. Google only checks your place when you request an invitation and you can always use a US proxy for this one-time action. Another attractive thing is that, even though Google Music lists Flash as a requirement, the service works pretty well on an iPad.

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Box.net Integrates with Google Docs

2011-06-23T04:47:00.000-07:00

Box.net, a popular online storage service, added an alternative that allows its users to create and edit documents and spreadsheets by Google Docs, but without leaving Box.net. The files are stored by Box.net, but they can be shortened using the regular Google Docs interface.

"Beginning today, Box's 6 million users can simply create and work together on Google Docs and Spreadsheets from within Box, as well as edit the existing 50M+ Word and Excel files previously stored on our platform. Google Docs allow entirely new forms of collaboration – like concurrent editing – that are not possible within desktop applications, and now these capabilities are easily obtainable to Box users. We believe that the mixture of Google Docs' collaborative restriction and Box's content management will transform the way people work," suggests Box's blog.

The addition has a lot of quirks: Google Docs still displays the navigational bar and some options that only makes intelligence for Google's services. When you edit a text from Box.net, the file is provisionally added to the Google Docs list, but it's quickly removed after the restriction window is closed. At some point, Google Docs will also add hold up for third-party apps, so it will be interesting to see if this feature will be better implemented.

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Google's New Currency Converter

2011-06-22T03:17:00.000-07:00

Google rationalized the One Box for currency conversion. Until recently, when you searched for [1 usd in eur] or [200 gbp to peso], Google displayed the consequence and that was it. The new OneBox includes a graph for historical switch rates and an interactive tool that lets you select a different currency from a long list or modify the value you want to covert and instantly get the result.

A similar tool is obtainable at Google Finance, but it's more suitable to access it from Google Search and you don't need to search for USDEUR to convert US dollars to euros. For some motive, when you search for [currency converter] from the US, Google tries to be helpful and shows that 1 US dollar = 0.6957 euros.

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Thousands of “hackers for good” build applications for humanity

2011-06-21T04:45:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month, thousands of “hackers for good” gathered in more than 19 dissimilar global locations—from Berlin to Nairobi, and Sydney to Sao Paulo—to contribute in Random Hacks of Kindness #3. These teams are now off and running, working with NGO and government advisors to end their applications for humanity.

In partnership with Microsoft, Yahoo!, NASA and the World Bank, we founded RHoK in 2009 to build and support a community creating open basis technology for crisis response. At RHoK #3, we prolonged the mandate to comprise climate change, and we also recently announced that we’re broadening the scope in the prospect to tackle any development challenges.

Of the more than 75 solutions submitted for judging at this year’s global events, many are already on their way to making a dissimilarity around the world. The UN, in partnership with the Colombia government, is allowing for adopting the shelter management system developed at RHoK Bogota to aid the 3 million victims of winter flooding in South America. Of the nine hacks submitted for judging at RHoK Sao Paulo, two are previously in use and two others may be further urbanized and incorporated into the restructuring of the National Weather Service. The winning application at RHoK Philadelphia, developed in reply to a problem proposed by the World Bank Water group, is set for further development at the WaterHackathon, RHoK's first community-sponsored occasion, later this year.

At the RHoK Silicon Valley event at Google’s Mountain View campus, we chosen three winners:

* SMS Person Finder enables anyone with a phone to interrelate with Person Finder, a software application that Google built to help people attach with their loved ones following a disaster. The Google Crisis Response team is working with this group to put together their application into future Google Person Finder deployments

* Hey Cycle makes it easier for people to reuse and recycle items by setting up email alerts when free items that they’re looking for are entered on freecycle.org

* FoodMovr connects people with overload food to others who need it through a simple live application

We’re proud to be one of the founding partners and continuing sponsors of Random Hacks of Kindness and look forward to seeing these application make a difference. Stay tuned for future RHoK events, and go after the progress of the community at RHoK.org.

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Google's Gay Rainbow

2011-06-20T00:00:00.000-07:00

It's not the first June when Google changes the hunt results interface when you search for [gay] and other related terms. While in 2009 and 2010 Google added a colorful bar under the search box, this year there's a rainbow next to the search box.

June is the "Gay and Lesbian Pride Month" and there are many smugness parades all over the world. Last year, Google's blog built-in an article about gay parades and the Google employees who participated.

"Google supports its LGBT employees in many ways: raising its voice in matters of policy, captivating a moment to remember the plight of transgender people around the world and going the extra mile to make sure that its employees are treated fairly."

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Google's Lists of Related Searches

2011-06-17T01:48:00.000-07:00

Google in progress to show a new universal search result with related queries. If you search for the name of a category, Google will list some of the most popular members of that category. For example, you can search for [German cars], [rock bands], [Indian food], [nuts], [clouds] and Google will show a list of items from that group. Google says that they are the top references for that question and it will also list three sources, without linking to the appropriate pages.

The feature is powered by Google Squared and it's not very new. Most of the results were available if you chosen "related searches" from the search options sidebar.

"Sometimes when you're searching, you're not just looking for one exact result, you may be looking for a list to start a series of searches. For example, if you search for [greek philosophers], many search results talk about well known philosophers like Plato or Aristotle. Typically, searches like these are the start of a research task, where you follow up by probing to learn more about each item in the list, in this case each philosopher," explains Google.

Just like the connected searches box, the "top references" box lets you try different queries without having to go back to the preceding page. If you click one of the connected searches, the box is moved at the top of the page and you can quickly sample the results for all the other items.

Google also in progress to show relevant lists for actors, movies, TV shows, music artists, writers, painters. For example, when you search for [Picasso], Google shows a list of famous Picasso paintings and small thumbnails. Searching for a movie or a TV shows brings a list of actors, searching for a singer shows a list of albums, while typing the name of a writer proceeds a list of popular books.

Google Squared, Google Q&A, "best guess" results and linked searches are just the tip of the iceberg. Google uses its huge index of pages from the Web to take out information, find facts and correlations, create lists and hierarchies, understand the meaning of a query and produce complex answers. At the recent Inside Search event, Alan Eustace said that his title distorted from "Senior VP of Search" to "Senior VP of Knowledge" because search is too limiting and Google's goals are much broader. They "go beyond the association of information to understanding and facilitating the formation of knowledge".

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Google Instant for Image Search

2011-06-15T23:13:00.000-07:00

Google Instant is now obtainable for image search results, but only as an experimental feature. After you allow "Instant on Images", Google will found to auto complete your queries and show image results before you finish entering the query. It's a great way to try dissimilar queries and see the results almost right away.

Unfortunately, there are some confines that make this feature less useful. "Search by Image will not work if you opt into this experiment. Also, Instant on Images is obtainable only if you already have Instant on Web. Finally, this experiment is enabled only for the Images search result page, not on the Google Images home page."

You can try this feature without joining Google's experiment: just append &esrch=ImagesInstant::PublicOptIn to an Image Search URL, like this or bookmark this page.

Google also additional an experiment for Voice Search, which allows you to try the feature before it's available for you. Voice Search only works in Google Chrome 11+.

Google says that you can't select multiple experiments at the same time, but I've managed to allow both Voice Search and Instant on Images. For some reason, you won't be able to use Search by Image when you allow Voice Search, even if Instant on Images is disabled.

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Google Adds Voice Search, Visual Search and Results Prerendering

2011-06-14T23:09:00.000-07:00

Two of the most significant Google mobile services: voice search and visual search will now be obtainable from your computer.

Voice search, a feature that's built into Android, also works in Google Chrome and allows you to search using your voice. Chrome additional support for the Speech Input API back in April and it's the only browser that implemented the API. Right now, Chrome's speech input feature is only accessible for English.

"We first offered speech credit on mobile search, but you should have that power no matter where you are. You should never have to stop and ask yourself, 'Can I speak for this?' — it should be ever-present and intuitive. So we've further speech recognition into search on desktop for Chrome users. If you're using Chrome, you'll start to see a little microphone in every Google search box. Simply click the microphone, and you can speak your search," explains Google. The feature is steadily rolled out, so you may not see it yet.

Google Goggles is a full-fledged visual search engine that's attentive in a mobile application. But why do you have to buy a smartphone to use Google Goggles when you could just upload an image to Google and find related pages and images on the Web? "Search by Image" does more than TinEye, the "reverse image search engine" that lets you find an image on the Web.

"Google uses computer visualization techniques to match your image to other images in the Google Images index and additional image collections. From those matches, we try to produce an accurate 'best guess' text description of your image, as well as find other images that have the same pleased as your search image. Your search results page can show results for that text description as well as linked images," mentions Google.

You can drag and drop an image to the search box, paste an image URL in the search box or click the camera icon and upload an image. Google generates a hybrid results page that shows both linked images and Web search results for the corresponding text query.

Google also a urbanized two extensions for Chrome and Firefox that let you right-click on an image and use it as a query. "With these extensions, you can begin a search on Google using pictures on the web. You can find out photos of places, learn more about art pieces, identify landmarks, and more."

While voice search and visual search are useful, the most inspiring search feature launched by Google today is Instant Pages. The new feature only works in Chrome 13+ (available in Canary/Dev Channel and soon in beta), but it will thoroughly improve your search experience. Chrome prerenders the top search result if it's likely that you will select it, so you no longer have to remain for the page to load. You might remember a feature called "prefetching" that was first supported by Firefox. Prerendering is a lot more influential than prefetching.

According to a Chrome developer, "prefetch is Firefox style prefetching of resources particular (just populating the cache). In Chrome, with prerender, we don't just download the URL specified, but render the whole page counting running all the JavaScript and downloading and rendering all the embedded resources."

For most users, Instant Pages will look like magic. They'll search for [nytimes] or [amazon], click the first result and be astonished to see that the page loads instantly. Google says that this feature saves 2-5 seconds on a characteristic search.

But Chrome's prerendering is not imperfect to Google searches. Any Web developer can use it by inserting a link element with a special value for the "rel" attribute. "Sometimes a site may be able to predict with sensible accuracy which link the user is most likely to click on next -- for example, the 'next page' link in a multi-page news article. In those cases, it would be faster and better for the user if the browser could get a head start loading the next page so that when the user clicks the page is already well on its way to being overloaded," suggests Google.

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Google Experiments with Removing URLs from look for Results Listings

2011-06-12T23:19:00.000-07:00

Google tests a new feature that replaces the URL with the site's name in search results snippets. David, who noticed this change, says that he searched for [madvertise] and "most of the results looked normal, with the website title, snippet and URL. However, two search results displayed the website name instead of the URL. In the close screenshot, the 6th and 7th results show 'LinkedIn' and 'Facebook' respectively, in the position where the URL should be."

Google has always tried to make search results listings more useful, but replacing the address with the site's name doesn't add value and draws unnecessary notice to the results from a list of hand-picked popular sites.

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Leading the charge in the direction of an electric vehicle fleet

2011-06-09T22:39:00.000-07:00

Over the last few years, several inventive electric vehicle (EV) technologies have emerged in the marketplace and we’ve been working to inform our green transportation infrastructure. As a result, we’ve now urbanized the largest corporate EV charging infrastructure in the country. We’re also counting the next generation of plug-in vehicles in Gfleet, our car-sharing program for Googlers.

When Google.org launched the RechargeIt plan in 2007, there were no commercially obtainable plug-in hybrid EVs on the market. So we bought several Toyota Priuses and had them retrofitted with A123 Hymotion batteries to create our own mini-fleet of plug-in hybrids to show the technology. It was the birth of Gfleet, which has since become a valued perk and makes it easier for Googlers to use our biodiesel shuttle system to commute to work by given that green transportation options for people after they arrive at the Googleplex. The new Gfleet will include more than 30 plug-ins, starting with Chevrolet Volts and Nissan LEAFs, several of which have already here and are obtainable for Googlers to use today. We’ll be addition models from other manufacturers as they become available.

To juice up our new cars and give more charging options for Googlers, we’ve been working with Coulomb Technologies’ ChargePoint® Network to carry on to expand our EV charging infrastructure. We’ve added 71 new and faster Level 2 chargers to the 150 Level 1 chargers we’ve installed over the last few years, bringing our total capacity to more than 200 chargers, with another 250 new ones on the way. The ChargePoint Network provides us the charging data necessary to path and report on the success of our green transportation initiative.

Overall, our goal is to electrify five percent of our parking spaces—all over campus and free of charge (pun intended) to Googlers. Our expanded charging system has before helped several Googlers choose to buy new EVs of their own, and we hope others will, too.

All told, Gfleet and our biodiesel shuttle system result in net yearly savings of more than 5,400 tonnes of CO2. That’s like taking over 2,000 cars off the road, or avoiding 14 million vehicle miles every year! But we’re only one company, so we hope other companies think about how they can slot in these new technologies into their own infrastructure. By supporting new, green transportation technologies, we’re enabling our employees to be green and liability our part to help spur growth in the industry.

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A doodle for an instrumental inventor

2011-06-08T22:50:00.000-07:00

The electric guitar brings back memories for me of exchanging riffs with friends and tiring out cassette tapes as I meticulously learned songs. Today, we’re attempting to restructure that experience with a doodle celebrating the birthday of musician and inventor Les Paul.

For the next 24 hours on the Google homepage, you’ll find an interactive, playable logo enthused by the guitar developed by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee that made the sound of rock and roll possible.

As well as his guitar work, Les Paul experimented in his garage with inventive recording techniques like multi tracking and tape delay. In keeping with this spirit of tinkering, those of you in the U.S. can click the black “compose” button to record your own 30-second track. Just strum the strings or trigger notes with the letters or numbers on your keyboards. Clicking the button again will exhibit a link to share the songs you’ve made. (For example, here’s a little tune I put together.)

If you’re curious, the doodle was made with a mixture of JavaScript, HTML5 Canvas (used in modern browsers to draw the guitar strings), CSS, Flash (for sound) and tools like the Google Font API, goo.gl and App Engine.

I hope you have as much fun playing with and division the doodle as we did making it (special thanks to engineers Kristopher Hom and Joey Hurst and doodle team lead Ryan Germick for their work). Crank up your computer volume and create some music!

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Chrome Shifts Into a New Gear

2011-06-08T04:00:00.000-07:00

Chrome 12 is now obtainable in the stable channel and all the Chrome users can try the new features.

1. App search in the address bar.

2. Clear Flash cookies (or Local Shared Objects) using the "Clear browsing data" dialog, in its place of visiting a webpage.

3. Chrome Sync no longer uses a modal dialog and it's now properly included with the tabbed settings page.

4. Safe Browsing borrowed a feature from Internet Explorer 8: checking downloaded files for malware. Right now, this characteristic only works for Windows executables and shows a small message in the download bar.

5. No more Gears in Google Chrome. You'll no longer be able to use any app that relies on Gears to give skin like offline storage or web workers. The only Google repair that still used Gears was Gmail.

6. Hardware accelerated 3D CSS (or 3D transforms). Chrome's blog suggests to try "Shaun the Sheep", an experiment that uses WebM video and 3D CSS to create an immersive app.

7. Chrome for Mac asks for substantiation when using Cmd+Q to quit the application. "When you press Cmd+Q, it brings up the floaty panel telling you to hold the key combo. When you do, it quits after 1.5 seconds." That sounds irritating.

8. Print and Save buttons in the PDF viewer.

9. A better border for adding start pages.

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YouTube's Pages for Blogs

2011-06-07T03:10:00.000-07:00

Philippe Lagane dotted a new YouTube feature: a special page that lists the most recent videos embedded by a blog. The page includes short scraps from the blog posts and allows you to play all the videos and add them to a playlist.

A Google search for [site:youtube.com/social/blog] returns about 40 results, but it's possible that all the blogs indexed by Google will be included. The new pages could become an option to channels for blogs that embed content from other publishers.

YouTube already has a part titled "popular around the Web" that includes the most viewed videos fixed on other websites and shows messages like "As seen on: engadget.com" after that to the videos.

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Google's IPv6 Test

2011-06-06T01:18:00.000-07:00

As promised in January, Google will test IPv6 on June 8. IPv6 is the new version of the Internet Protocol which allows a lot more strategy to connect to the Internet.

"Google has been supporting IPv6 since early 2008, when we first began offering search over IPv6. Since then we've brought IPv6 support to YouTube and have been helping ISPs allow Google over IPv6 by default for their users. On World IPv6 Day, we'll be taking the next big step. Together with major web companies such as Facebook and Yahoo!, we will allow IPv6 on our main websites for 24 hours. This is a crucial phase in the transition, because while IPv6 is broadly deployed in many networks, it's never been used at such a large scale before."

Google expects that less than 0.5% of the users will be unnatural by the test. There's even a page that tests your connection and detects IPv6 connectivity issues. Even if IPv6 will be enabled for 24 hours, IPv4 will continue to be accessible.

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Creative Commons Videos on YouTube

2011-06-02T23:44:00.000-07:00

YouTube added a new feature that lets you alter the standard video licensing and switch to the Creative Commons Attribution license, which allows other people to reuse your videos. "Others may copy, distribute and create unoriginal works from your video — but only if they give you credit."

The new feature is used in YouTube's video editor, which lets you search for Creative Commons videos and use them to create a new video. YouTube says that there are already more than 10,000 videos from organizations like C-SPAN and Al Jazeera, but that's just the beginning.

YouTube will surely become the largest library of Creative Commons videos, but it's strange to see that it took so long to add a license that encourages creativity. The first Google service that included with Creative Commons was Google Web Search (2005) and it was followed by Picasa Web Albums (2008) and Google Image Search (2009).

If you want to find Creative Commons videos on YouTube, click "Filter & Explore" after performing a search and choose "Creative Commons". You might also add ", creative commons" to your query and search for [paris, creativecommons].

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