Google publicly announced episode filters to the Video search sidebar for television content this past week. Google's indexing Hulu, YouTube, and a lot of other video sites, so it's a good place to mount an expedition to find that episode you're looking to stream over lunch.
Now you can navigate the world's terrain, great cities' buildings, and your neighborhood's restaurants in 3D, without having to install a hefty separate application. Google Earth has arrived in Maps in a new "Earth" view, and its pretty great.
Using Earth View requires the installation of a browser plug-in that is, at the moment, available for Windows and Mac. Chrome users may not need to install the plug-in, but I seemed to require it in Windows.
Earthly pleasures come to Maps [Official Google Blog]
View Thru is a neat extension for Google Chrome that lets you instantly see what's hiding behind a shortened link. You simply hover over the link (say, http://is.gd/bJoc7) and get an instant tooltip showing you where it's leading.
The shortened URL must be an active link, though -- it doesn't work when it's just text on the page. View Thru has earned a five-star rating in the Chrome extension gallery.
Microsoft and Facebook just launched Docs.com, a document creation and sharing web site that integrates with Microsoft Office and Facebook.
You log into Docs using your Facebook account. Once there, you can view shared documents.
Facebook just announced via its Facebook profile that the ultra-lightweight version of its website, Facebook Lite, is no more
YouTube has launched a new feature that allows channel owners to send text messages and links to videos to the front page of their subscribers' YouTube accounts. It's a cool feature to offer and one that could make visiting YouTube a lot more fun, Called Channel Bulletins.
It would be nice if YouTube allowed channel owners to pipe in RSS feeds, maybe Twitter messages. If you aren't subscribed to any channels on YouTube, you're missing out on one of the best ways to experience the site.
Everyone knows you can use Google as a way of correcting your bad spelling. Just put in a word that you're not sure about, and it will give you the familiar "Did you mean?" result. There's no need to be embarrassed, just click through and find what you meant to search for.
Well, now Google's going one step further with improved spelling correction. If it's absolutely sure you've miss typed the word, it'll skip "Did you mean?" and send you right to the correct search. This new auto-correct feature works in 31 languages!
Google has made some other search improvements too, such as using your location to add context to your search. For example, when someone in San Francisco searches for BART, Google will assume they mean Bay Area Rapid Transit, not someone named Bart.
If you really are searching for a name, Google has also gotten smarter about that. It corrects spelling based on the common words that people add to name searches. So, for example, if you searched for "Pritam Nayak blogger," Google would know that it's actually spelled "Pritam Nayak."
Drag-and-drop attachments is much cooler than browsing and uploading. Select a few files, click, drag, and drop them onto a Gmail message pane. The drop zone will automatically appear when you get close to the message body and Gmail will begin processing the upload when you release your mouse button.
Not all browsers are supported right now. You'll need to be using Google Chrome or Firefox 3.6+ to make use of the new feature.
On May 3rd, Google will be temporarily disabling offline access in Google Docs and paving the way for something new. They will bring a new and improved HTML5-based offline option back to Google Docs,". Google has the opportunity to move to a standard and away from 3rd-party plug-in status. HTML5 will provide restriction-free access to any offline functionality.
WebKit, the rendering engine used by both Chrome and Safari, is currently undergoing major redevelopment in order to support per-tab processes and out-of-process plug-ins by default. In one smooth move, Apple will be able to bring Chrome-like speed and security to its Safari browser.
This is more of an update than an upgrade. Basically, WebKit is being split into UI Processes and Web Processes. Each tab will become a UI Process, and presumably, so will add-ons and extensions. This change will bring the usual benefits of stability, security, and speed-ups from multi-core processors.
It's packed with slick additional functionality. Two new features have been made available that are definitely worth enabling:
With Sneak Peek turned on, you can right-click a message in your inbox and a snapshot will appear above your inbox. The message remains unread, and you can page back and forth between other messages, archive, and delete from within the window.
Nested Labels is a dream come true for the organizational fiend. Set up new labels like so:
...and your labels pane will display them in a hierarchical tree. You can then click the plus sign to expand and the minus sign to hide. It's an excellent way to get more labels placed into the limited amount of space provided by default.Home
Home/Bills
Home/Bills/Hush Money
Apple's iPhone OS 4.0 announcement delivered plenty of features we expected, and some we didn't. It adds 100 new features in total, and they'll all be in users' pockets. Developers get 1500 new APIs that provide access to parts of the phone they've never been able to use before.
So, what's being added?
1. Multitasking
2. Folders
3. iBooks
4. iAd
5. Other new features
Mozilla has been working on a little Chrome-style crash proofing through the use of out-of-process plug-ins. Doing so will mean that Firefox users too, can endure crashes by things like Flash Player, Adobe Reader, and Java, without their entire browser crash.
The change will arrive in the upcoming Firefox 3.6.4 update. The public beta announcement will be made in the next few days. By the beginning of next month the update should be available in-browser for existing Mozilla users.
Microsoft whitepaper:
"Add-ons cause most browser crashes, accounting for over 70 percent of Internet Explorer 8's crashes. Slowdowns in Internet Explorer 8 are very often caused by add-ons-especially when you open a new browser window or tab."
A large segment of users don't pay attention to what's being installed on their computers. The end result: Every app they install ends up leaving on another clumsy piece of garbage code to Internet Explorer.
So there's more toolbar than browser -- and all those add-ons fighting for control over searches and trying to load "valuable" contextual data Causing IE Crash.
Google doesn't often fix search results, but they're making an exception when it comes to suicide. Search results for terms that indicate someone may be at risk of taking his or her own life now include the phone number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, prominently displayed above other results and at a larger size than ads. It includes "ways to commit suicide," and similar searches, but not "end my own life".
At a time when many people turn to Google before even calling a friend for help, it's nice to see the search giant taking steps to save lives. This is the second time Google has modified the search results to help with possible emergency situations. The first was adding the poison control hotline number to searches for poison emergencies.
Now that Kevin Rose has stepped up as Digg's CEO, you're going to start seeing some changes around that place.Digg will use the iFrame as a way to encourage voting, Digg will focus on improving its browser add-ons for IE, Firefox and Chrome.
Rose has also agreed to reinstate all domains previously banned from Digg. There will still be malware filters, but sites won't be restricted from Digg based on their content. It's (technically) his first week on the job, and Kevin is already on fire.
One day in the not-so-distant future, we'll all be playing plug-in free games thanks to technologies like HTML5 and WebGL.
WebGL is a cross-platform, royalty-free web standard for a low-level 3D graphics API based on OpenGL ES 2.0, exposed through the HTML5 Canvas element as Document Object Model interfaces.
WebGL brings plug-in-free 3D to the web, implemented right into the browser. WebGL is managed by the non-profit technology consortium Khronos Group. The WebGL Working Group includes Apple, Google, Mozilla, and Opera.
WebGL
 Original Author – Mozilla Foundation Developer - WebGL Working Group Preview Release – Working Draft / December 10, 2009 Operating System – Cross-Platform Type – API License – Various Website – www.khronos.org/webgl |
The principle behind the advertising products Google build is : ads are information. But the type
of information that ads provide is getting more wider and imaginative all the time, and as a result ads are getting more interesting, social and useful.
As advertising evolves, Google want to build the tools that make it possible for marketers to connect with customers in meaningful, creative ways. They found that the best way to do that is to focus on the user, test new approaches regularly and listen closely to the feedback of the advertisers using Google products. To work closely with advertisers on what comes next, They launched Google Ad Innovations, where they’ll show you some of latest ideas around advertising technologies and get user feedback.
One of the new features they’re showcasing is a set of AdWords reports, launched last week, called Search Funnels. These reports can help an advertiser understand whether there are keywords in their accounts that are helping to drive sales at a later date. At Google Ad Innovations, you can read more about this feature, watch a video walking you through how it works and send us your ideas on how to improve it.
If you’re interested in the future of advertising with Google, pay Ad Innovations a visit
You can claim a free copy of Office 2010 -- all you have to do is complete three training courses over at Microsoft Partner University. Once you've finished your sessions, you can fill in the blanks at OfficeExcitementKit.com to get your free copy.
This is fantastic opportunity to score 2010 without opening your wallet. Sign up fast, because there's a limited (and unspecified) number of free copies available.
Episodic has been acquired by Google.The Episodic team will join Google and continue its work to bring a great video experience to the Web, mobile phones and IPTV devices. There will be no interruption in service for existing Episodic customers.
What is Episodic?
Episodic is a comprehensive platform for broadcasting live and on-demand video to the web. The platform lets publishers and marketers host monetize video content.
The Episodic Blog
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Can I sign up for a new Episodic account?
What if I’m an existing Episodic customer?
What’s going to happen to the Episodic team?
Why is Episodic excited about joining Google? |
YouTube's been dealing with "piracy" on the music and television front since the service was first launched five years ago, but recently discovered while searching out software reviews on YouTube, it's also become a hotspot for software piracy
People have been sharing product keys, licenses, and cracked software on the internet. YouTube's high rank in Google search results has made it prime territory for software pirates. Looks like YouTube may need to find new ways to crack down.
Google is definitely on a buying spree. The company's latest acquisition is Episodic, an online video platform that Google will probably integrate into YouTube is some form. Neither Episodic nor Google shared any financial details about this acquisition. Episodic plans to keep its current service up and running for the time being.This is Google's second video-related acquisition this year.
While Episodic is probably not a household name for most, the company offers a wide range of video services for its customers. Episodic offers a free trial, it is really a paid video service for both live and on-demand videos.
Google just rolled out an excellent new two-pane Gmail interface for tablets like the iPad
Gmail Team : We look forward to using other Google Apps on the iPad, too. Sometimes little things like far more screen real estate and touchscreen interactivity aren't so little at all. We expect to see some fundamental interface and user experience innovations come out of this new way to use apps. Even subtle changes like Gmail's looks exciting.
The use of HTML5 by web apps, which supports local caching of data for fast access, will take the mobile web or native app debate to a whole new level on the iPad.
Google has made significant changes in the whole YouTube look and feel, and it's much slicker now.
“It looks like the beginning of a new UI for Google products”
