Yesterday I talked about Google's fabulous gadget maker which helps you personalize your iGoogle page. I don't know about you, but I've become dependent on way too many Google products... all of which make me feel like I have a virtual assistant! Practically all of Google's nifty tools and services are free, and with such a wide variety, I wonder how some people aren't obsessed like me. What's your favorite Google application? Leave all your comments below!
image source
Google has just introduced a new search trend spotting tool: Google Insights for Search. Google Insights provides web analytics, advertisers and marketers new means to understand search behavior –
now free of charge.
Similar to Google Trends, users can insert a search term to see search volume patterns over time, as well as the top related and rising searches. Users will get the ability to compare search volume trends across multiple search terms, categories, geographic regions, or specific time ranges.
What can you gain from Google Insights for Search?
Offering a smart search analysis, one can compare
Coca Cola to Pepsi within the Food and Drink category, to find out exciting facts on the US search queries during 2008:
Note that you can click on each search term to find its specific popularity, and can download a csv file for your convenience.
Google search insights: Coca Cola 2008, USA, Drink and Food category
Google search insights: Pepsi 2008, USA, Drink and Food category
Google competes with leading web analytics providers:
Only recently, Google introduced Google Trends For Websites , a new tool that lets users observe the traffic data from sites around the web. As suggested by TechCrunch, “the new feature pits Google against a number of well-established players in the traffic data space, including Compete , Comscore , and Alexa ”.
Today, Google opens another competitive frontier against search analytics providers as Hitwise, Compete and ComScore. Google offers a free playground, but not one customized to companies specific tracking needs. Moreover, as in other Google trend tools, it displays only relative results.
The T-Mobile G1 (Google Phone) went on sale this morning, although without quite as much fanfare as an Apple launch. The phone is now available on a £40 per month contract with 800 minutes of voice calls, unlimited texts and unlimited internet access, with most, but not all, of the Google products available through the device.
One thing we will say; congratulations to T-Mobile; we’ve studied the small print attached to the unlimited texts, and it appears there’s no “Fair Use Policy”; it would appear to be truely unlimited. We can’t comment on the unlimited internet portion yet, as the T-Mobile website was not fully updated to reflect this at the time of writing.
If you want to save a little on the line rental, and don’t need to be the first with the phone, buying it online may result in a small saving in the monthly cost (we believe it will be down to £35 per month).
Google just rolled out a new feature in Gmail — Themes. This has been talked about for quite some time, and you can tell they have been working hard on it. The themes available to be installed on your account are truly beautiful, and I’m positive this have a significant impact on both user retention and even new users.
There are tons of themes to choose from — they range from a theme that looks like you are using a terminal application to ones that change throughout the day like some available for iGoogle.
There is currently no way to create your own themes (without using something like Greasemonkey), but since they are allowing people to create iGoogle themes now, I don’t see any reason why they can’t do the same with Gmail.
To add themes to your Gmail, click on “settings” in the top right corner, then select the “Themes” tab. From there, you can simply click the themes you want to try out, and you’re done.
What do you think of the new themes?
Blackberry Gmail users, rejoice!
I’ve been visiting T-Mobile stores for the past weeks trying to convince myself to upgrade to Google’s G1. The main reason? A growing independent lists of contacts in Gmail (my primary email) and Blackberry Contacts (my primary mobile phone.) Now, thank you Google, I don’t need to make that decision, especially when users like myself are tightening their belts.
Click here to get Google Sync for Blackberry.
Not a Blackberry user? Check out this page for a list of mobile phones with free Google products. Snapshot below.
Google Jobs board has some interesting opportunities for students wishing to become a Google Ambassador. Ambassadors plan and host a few events during the school year, introduce students to new Google products and features, and act as a campus contact for Google teams. This opportunity is open to students from any major: from CS and Engineering to Anthropology, Business and Zoology! Benefits include Adding Google CAP experience to your resume and loads of Google swag! Check it out at Google
YouTube Monetizes Videos With Click-to-Buy Links | |
So why does this matter to filmmakers? Well, Google is giving filmmakers the chance to monetize content on YouTube, which has proven difficult in the past. Soon, not only will filmmakers be able to spread awareness about their projects to fans on YouTube, they can also make money off of these fans with links to the appropriate distribution sources. Google is taking viral marketing to a new level. A YouTube video could generate millions of dollars with a click-to-buy link at the bottom of a catchy video (see: "The 3 Things that Make a Video Go Viral").
This new development is just one in a series from YouTube that has helped independent filmmakers. YouTube has begun experimenting with feature length movies on their site. Also, in June, YouTube launched The Screening Room, where users can watch and buy short movies online. Will the click-to-buy links help filmmakers in the long run too?
Google adds a new feature that will truly spice up the usability of Gmail further. In the ‘Whats New’ page in Gmail, you can see the latest addition to the features which is the ‘Voice and Video Chat’. It is a plug in that will enable you to chat via your Gmail. It incorporated the Vidyo technology. Vidyo offers high quality multi point video conferencing. Google Talk only provides for voice conversations from the time it started. And the web version of Gtallk in Gmail was always media free. This time it is very different. The new feature will enable the Gmail users talk and see each other with both Voice and Video capability. It is one step further from the Google Talk’s feature which is limited to voice capability.
List of Google products
This list of Google products includes all major desktop, mobile and online products released or acquired by Google Inc.. They are either a gold release, in beta development, or part of the Google Labs initiative. This list also includes previous products, that have eitherbeen merged, discarded or renamed. Features of products, such as WebSearch features, are not listed.
The latest evidence that Apple's iPhone is making significant waves in the mobile web is the sudden appearance of a complete suite of Google services designed for the iPhone.
The Google for iPhone homepage (at www.google.com) has all the main Google mobile functionality running across the top header, including Gmail, Calendar, Reader and more, and when you select each product the secondary navigation relates to the chosen section.
So, why is Google developing iPhone specific interfaces? Well, there's the obvious connection between Eric Schmidt being Google's CEO and also a sitting Apple board member.
However, Google would also be seeing Safari Mobile turning up in their stats more often than any other mobile web browser. This won't come as much of a surprise if you saw this report, which reveals that after less than six month of sales, mostly in the US, mobile Safari is closing in on 0.1% of browsers across the Internet' and 'all of the Windows mobile platform devices put together - only managed 66% of iPhones market share, and the 'Apple mobile platform is one out of every thousand pageviews'.
The article also notes that Windows Mobile devices have been on sale for over ten years. Additionally, another article on TechCrunch surfaced today that noted the iPhone was the 'fastest growing search term on Google this year.'
 Google on the iPhone. |
These numbers must fill mobile operators, and specifically the ones who have signed on to the iPhone program with glee. As the telcos get more aggressive on telephone call pricing the next obvious revenue stream will come from data.
When phones like the iPhone become more pervasive, everyone benefits. Telcos do because they'll earn more per customers and customers will because they get the added convenience of actually being able to use their phones to access the Internet.
The last quarter of 2007, gOS debut in the computer industry with the so called gPC from a computer manufacturer Everex. At Wal-Mart, you can purchase something good and productive at around $200. That is the gPC, good PC that is.
With gPC from Everex, you can have a productive and low-cost personal computer. Good OS LLC, the company pursuing the vision of having good technology without much headache. gPC is pre-installed with gOS, which is bundled with open-source or free softwares that can be used for personal and business purposes alike. gOS is running a technology from Ubuntu and Enlightenment.
The main features here are how they presented web software and desktop software in this operating system. For web software, it includes Google Products like Google Docs, Gmail, GMaps, GCalendar, Blogger, Wikipedia, Meebo, Youtube, Facebook, and many others. Desktop applications also includes the following: OpenOffice.org Office Suite, Music & Movie Player, Gimp, Skype, Thunderbird, Firefox, and many others.
That’s quite a nice package they have there. You can try gOS using virtual appliance before installing it to your PC. I already downloaded WMware Player and tested gOS. All I can say now is - “It is not just good enough, but very good enough”. Try it, too.
As further proof that I learn something everyday from my professional learning network on Twitter, today learned about the Google Apps interactive tutorials from a message sent by Angela Maiers. The Google Apps interactive tutorial provides clear audio and text directions and practice exercises for using six Google products; email, calendar, talk, docs, sites, and start page. While working through the tutorials users will learn about the various applications and benefits of each product.
Spencer Katt has an interesting (read funny) take on future Google products (and then there are mine). They are:
1. Google Schoolyard(beta) - Will supply home-schooled kids with timeless schoolyard myths.
2. Google Lube(beta) - Change your car engine oil through
your favorite search engine
3. Google Peek(beta) - Magically view unsuspecting Google users in real-time video
Seriously, I think Google's strategy is to move Microsoft office to the web for free. They acquired Writely, they have unveiled Google Spreadsheets. Google Base is a weak replacement of Microsoft Access (I think they will come up with a better offering soon). Next you can expect a presentation software like Microsoft Powerpoint.
Today was quite exciting with Google’s event in San Jose. I got to learn about the new Google APIs and developer tools that’ll be pushing forward web applications as well as to meet all sorts of people and see what they’re working on. I attended most of the main sessions except to participate in the Fireside Chat for Google Gears, but the nice thing is that many of the sessions were recorded and are now available on youtube [code.google.com].
Overall, the event was very Google. Colorful decorations with beanbag seats and exercise balls. Free drinks. Free food. Free swag. And plenty of Google products. (Tons of Dev Day photos [picasaweb.google.com].)
I found the performance improvements provided by Google Gears especially interesting because one doesn’t have to even be offline to see some benefits (of removing network latency). At the fireside chat, I asked a question about Javascript performance (relating to my research area) because Gears will facilitate building more complex web apps that do a lot more (distributed) processing on the client. The responses were valid in that bottlenecks do come from updating the DOM and disk I/O, but maybe I was just hoping to hear what Google has planned in pushing Javascript from interpreted to JIT and then adaptive optimizations.
Google Olympic Games Doodle on the Google Home page today
3D Birds Nest stadium on Google Earth with embedded additional information
Google OneBox for 'Tennis Olympics'
Screengrab of part of the list of iGoogle Olympic games gadgets
screengrab of Olympic Games medals table embedded into Google Maps
Screengrab of the Olympics YouTube channel
Product Description
This one-of-a-kind resource contains 500 pages of jaw-dropping hacks, mods, and customizations. These include creating mashups with data from other sources such as Flickr, building a space station tracker, hacking Maps with Firefox PiggyBank, and building a complete community site with Maps and Earth. Now you can map out locations, get driving directions, zoom into any point on the globe, display real time traffic, and much more.
From the Back Cover
Going somewhere? Or just getting back?
Great vacation photos—too bad you can’t remember where you took them. And wouldn’t it have been terrific to find a pizza joint when you bumped into your college buddy in that little ski town? Well, by making Google Maps and Google Earth do your bidding, you can find out not only where you’re going, but where you’ve been. Get an aerial view of the beach in that picture. Pinpoint every Thai takeout in your girlfriend’s zip code. Plan the Great International Rollercoaster Tour. Here’s how.
Get Going
Create applications that let you do all this and more
1. Make maps that reveal statistical data
2. Plot routes to include or avoid key factors
3. Build a community site
4. Create a realtor’s presentation
5. Calculate distances for routes
6. Show where your holiday photos were taken
7. Merge Flickr photos onto a map
8. Highlight archaeological information
Download Ebook Hacking Google Maps and Google Earth
Searching is fast and easy with Google's web browser. www.google.com/chrome
Downloads email from POP3 accounts and delivers it to Exchange users. www.exchangepop3.com
I am thankful to Google because it has made the Internet a better place for all of us by releasing a number of very useful utilities in the past few years. Almost all of us use Google.com for their every day search on the Internet, and also other Google services like Gmail, Gtalk, Orkut etc. But there are some Google products that you might have forgotten about or might not be aware of. Here is a list of those not-so-popular tools that can definitely make your life easier :-
- Google Hot Trends (May 2007)
I highly recommend this tool if you are a webmaster and looking for hot topics and keywords that people are searching for in their daily lives. This can even help you as a blogger to choose the most current topic in your niche to write on. The tool lists all the hot trends by date and its very easy to switch between dates as per the calendar. This Google product is still in the Labs (experimental phase), but I have been using it for a long time now.
- Google SketchUp (January 2007)
Google SketchUp is a 3D (3-dimensional) modeling program designed for professionals to use in their every day projects. SketchUp may also be used to design buildings to be displayed on Google Earth (another application from Google that allows you to view satellite maps of the earth). SketchUp has been developed to be more intuitive, flexible, and easier to use than other 3D modeling programs like 3D Studio Max, MAYA etc. which are often difficult to learn for an average user. Several features allow designers to play with their designs, unlike other 3D CAD programs.
The beta of Google’s new ‘Chrome’ browser was released a few days ago. I heard rumors of it a while back, but now that it’s out I have become very interested in it. I am using it right now.
The biggest draw for me is that each tab (tabbed browsing) is it’s own process and shows up individually in the computers process manager (ctrl-alt-delete). So if one window freezes up for any reason, the whole browser doesn’t need to be killed.
Also, it is extremely light weight. By which I mean it uses minimal system resources. Each tab I have open now is running about 18,000Kb of ram, less than half of what is used by a tab in Firefox, Opera, IE, or Safari. (BTW - does anyone else not like FireFox 3? I find it to be extremely slow, a resource hog, and I’ve had it crash regularly - no good.)
So far I am really liking Google Chrome, though I am a bit concerned with how it may be used to drive targeted advertising (like all other Google Products and Services). I haven’t seen anything advertising related yet, but I’m sure they have a comprehensive plan to monetize this product through ads.
add more google to your google with google chrome
One other feature I like is the hot-links on the dashboard. This feature has been standard on Opera browsers for a long time and is one of the best features. Google is somewhat kidnapping it but bases the thumbnails on your most frequent page visits rather than your bookmarks.
google chrome dashboard bookmark-icon-tab-thingies
After I do some more extensive testing through my daily routine I’ll report about Google Chrome’sreliable, rendering, and overall performance.
Something I hadn’t really noticed before was that Google added sponsored links to its Google Maps product.
This is a great way for businesses to even more visibility and, of course, another great resource for Google to generate more revenue.
Google Base appears to be a service to publish content directly to google and have them host it in a centralized way. If so, this would be going completely against the accelerating trend of decentralized publishing.
My prediction: when the dust settles, this will either be largely ignored or universally hated. Centralized content is boring…so much is going on at the edge of the web, why would anyone try to put it all back in the center?
Philipp Lenssen
The very popular Google Earth Extension for AutoCAD has been updated for AutoCAD 2009 so that it now runs on three AutoCAD versions. There have also been a few updates by the developer Thomas Inzinga:
The Google Earth Extension is a great way to get your designs into Google Earth or reference Google Earth in AutoCAD.
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Labels: Google Profiles, Social
Actually I like Google products over a lot of others. But there’s something out there makes me not a big fan of it. Eventually I cannot endure it anymore and decide to write something. I think Google, being considered as one of the leading software companies in the world, has the responsibility to make their product user experience not suck, not only in terms of usability, but of aesthetics.
If everybody is using Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Doc, we begin to lose our control over our choices of web applications, just as we have to use Windows OS. So welcome to a software modernism age. Welcome Google’s fast-food web apps. Keep Google Bauhaus design doctrine in mind: “Our Web Apps are so simple, secure and fast, that’s all you need for your Internet.”
As Doug talked about the other day, Google is counting down the days until January 01, 2009. They're doing so by providing tips for various Google products. Google Mobile has its own countdown providing a tip a day specifically for using it until the New Year as well.
So far tips have centered on:
- Comparison shoppingAs Doug noted, these tips are obviously a ploy to get people to use their products, but even still, you may pick up some valuable ones that you will find yourself using and making your life more convenient in the future. There's a good chance you're already using Google anyway, so it might be helpful to get yourself acquainted with more mobile features for the search engine.
- Voice search, and
- Live sports scores
Google’s products have always been terrific, but in recent months the internet juggernaut has made unbelievable progress in developing its offerings. Computer Courage strongly recommends many Google products such as Gmail, Search, Picasa, Calendar, and more. For businesses, we’ve been strong supporters (and users) of Google’s business-class mail/calendar/document system Google Apps (if you run a business, and you don’t know about Google Apps, call us immediately - there is a lot to learn!)
Google Street View may get a bad rap from some overzealous privacy watchdogs and conspiracy theorists, but it just helped police save a young girl who had been kidnapped over the weekend.
In the case, which involved a woman who allegedly kidnapped her granddaughter, Athol Police Officer Todd Neale managed to track down the missing girl by obtaining coordinates of her cell phone from the phone’s carrier. Neale contacted Deputy Fire Chief Thomas V. Lozier who worked with him in trying to figure out exactly where the missing girl was being held.
Tired of using Gmail? Or finding it inconvenient or time consuming to check emails at different services? You probably have a good reason to close and delete your Gmail account. But before we go through the steps, spend a little more time mulling on this because once deleted, you would not only lose that email address but also all the messages (unless you backup the emails).
FYI, if checking emails at different web based services is cumbersome; you can always have emails from Gmail forwarded to an account that you check more often. For example, all incoming messages at your Gmail account can easily be diverted to your Yahoo! Mail account. This has two benefits - (1) you retain the Gmail email account and (2) you save on time; learn know more about Gmail forwarding options. Also, you can download all Gmail emails to your computer through email programs such as Windows Live Mail or Outlook Express.
Though Gmail is a free service from Google, it's still regarded as a "product" by the company. Closing and deleting your account requires you to first log in at the service. Obviously, if you cannot log in successfully, you've lost your account and there is no need to spend time in knowing how to delete it - just forget about it - your account will automatically be removed after a few months of inactivity.
Anyway, once you've logged in at Gmail, click on the Settings link near the top right and go to the Accounts tab and then click on the Google Account settings link - refer image below.
A new web browser window or tab would open with your Google Account settings. Under the My Products section, you'll find all the Google products available to you. Click on the Edit link beside the heading - refer image below.
