Google Page Creator Migration Info

As previously announced, Google Page Creator will be closed and all the web pages will be migrated to Google Sites. Here's the migration plan:

"Google Page Creator will be shut down in June, 2009. To make the transition to Sites as smooth and easy as possible for Page Creator users, we will be doing an automatic import of Page Creator pages to Google Sites, which will include moving pages to Google Sites and redirecting visits to googlepages.com URLs to their new location on Google Sites. From now until this import begins June 1, Page Creator users who don't want to be moved to Google Sites have the option to download their content, host it on another service, and redirect their existing URL. Please note that Google Sites does not support JavaScript, some forms of HTML, or web hosting."

To find more details about the migration and choose if you want to download your sites, visit Google Pages.


What is Google Page Creator?

Launched in 2006 as an experimental service, Page Creator was a testbed for a rich-text editor that will later be added to other Google services. "Google Page Creator is a free tool that lets you create web pages right in your browser and publish them to the web with one click. There's no software to download and no web designer to hire," Google described the service at launch. For each Page Creator site, Google offered 100 MB of file storage, 41 predefined themes, a basic image editor and the option to insert Google Gadgets.

The service has been released two weeks before Google acquired Writely, which later became a part of Google Docs.



Should you migrate to Google Sites?

It seems that Google doesn't plan to add file hosting and custom JavaScript/CSS support in Google Sites, so many of the pages built using Google Page Creator will only be partially moved to Google Sites and the files uploaded to Page Creator will be removed.

"Google Sites is an online application that makes creating a team web site as easy as editing a document. With Google Sites, people can quickly gather a variety of information in one place -- including videos, calendars, presentations, attachments, and text -- and easily share it for viewing or editing with a small group, their entire organization, or the world," according to the help center.

"Google Sites does not support custom JavaScript or CSS at this time for security reasons. Many embeddings are available on Google Sites through Google Gadgets (insert -> More Gadgets...), but arbitrary JavaScript and CSS will not work once the content is migrated to Google Sites. If this is a critical part of your site, we recommend exporting your content to another service," explains the FAQ page.

It's unfortunate that Google decided to discontinue the service without providing a good replacement. Page Creator was a simple rich-text editor for HTML pages and a basic file hosting service, while Google Sites is better suited for wikis and collaborative sites.

Finding an alternative

A decent alternative to Page Creator is Weebly, but if you know a better service, post a link in the comments. You can export the files from Page Creator as a ZIP archive, then create a Weebly site and upload the files by dragging the File element. All the files uploaded to Weebly will have URLs like:

http://www.weebly.com/uploads/1/2/3/4/1234/report.pdf

Now you can go to Google Page Creator's migration page, click on "opt out" and enter Weebly's address:

http://www.weebly.com/uploads/1/2/3/4/1234/
(use the address corresponding to your Weebly account).

All the files and pages hosted by Page Creator will be redirected to the new locations (Google uses permanent redirects).

YouTube Tests New Design for Channels

YouTube experiments with a new format for channels and some users have received a link to the page that lets you migrate to the new version. If you haven't been lucky to get the link, here's the "super seekrit" page.

The new channel editor is more simple to use and you can preview the page after you make some changes. "Rather than take you off to a separate page, we figured it'd be nice if you can edit your channel... in your channel! So, take a peek up top, you know, near that big grey bar. Just below it, you'll see some extra buttons, "Settings", "Themes", "Modules". Check those out! Also, in the upper-right corner of each section of the page, you should see a little "edit" button. Those let you customize the part of the page you're looking at. Some sections can be customized more than others, of course."

Besides the visual refresh, the new channels include a player that helps you view recently uploaded videos, favorites, playlists without leaving the page. You can choose between 10 predefined themes or create your own theme.


YouTube created a blog where you can find more information about the updated channels. And here are some upgraded YouTube channels: mnathanielc, Slyth66, missxrojas.

{ Thanks, Pascal. }

Gmail Suggests Contacts when Sending Mail

Gmail Labs has a new feature that will appeal to those who frequently send messages to multiple people at a time. "Suggest more recipients" only works when you type at least two address in the "To" field and it suggests other contacts you should probably add, based on your previous usage.

"Gmail will suggest people you might want to include based on the groups of people you email most often. So if you always email your mom, dad, and sister together, and you start composing a message to your mom and dad, Gmail will suggest adding your sister," explains Gmail's blog.


While this feature is useful, Gmail could make it easier to add contacts when composing a message by linking to a contact picker, like the one that is included in many other Google services.

YouTube Emphasizes Long-Form Video

YouTube added a new tab titled "Shows" that highlights TV shows. "Today we're excited to announce a new destination for television shows and an improved destination for movies on YouTube, where partners like Crackle, CBS, MGM, Lionsgate, Starz and many others have made thousands of television episodes and hundreds of movies available for you to watch, comment on, favorite and share," announces the YouTube blog.

The list of TV shows, which are mostly available in the US, includes: "Harper's Island", "The Addams Family", "Happy Tree Friends", "Married with Children", "Star Trek: The Original Series", "Mythbusters", "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", "The Tudors" and others. The list of movies is less impressive and it only includes some Bollywood movies, documentaries, MTV movies and a very small number of interesting movies (the classics "Heidi", "The Little Princess", "Animal Farm", "Fitzcarraldo").



YouTube's move towards long-form professional videos is another attempt to monetize the service, which costs more than 1 million dollars a day, according to some estimates. YouTube will use third-party players from services like Crackle and will even allow content providers to bring their own ads. "YouTube has agreed to display the films using a video player from Crackle, Sony Pictures' own video site. The studio will control all the advertising for the films and Crackle will also get credit for the traffic," according to CNet.

Sarah Lacy has a plausible explanation for these changes. "Smart entrepreneurs realize user generated content still matters, it just doesn't directly translate to revenues. UGC is the core of why so many people are on these sites and without the eyeballs, the tech platforms don't have as much negotiating leverage with Hollywood. Without Hollywood, it seems, they may not get revenues anytime soon."

I'm not convinced that YouTube will be able to repeat Hulu's success, but hopefully the latest efforts won't alienate YouTube's community and YouTube will continue to find the right balance between professional and amateur content. After all, YouTube's goal was to "empower people to become the broadcasters of tomorrow".

Webcams Layer in Google Maps

Google Maps added a layer that shows webcams from all over the world. You can enable it by clicking on "More..." and selecting "Webcams".

Google displays webcams from the aggregator webcams.travel, a site that lists more than 9000 webcams. "All the webcams from Webcams.travel are now available on the integrated layer of Google Maps. This was made possible within the cooperation of Webcams.travel with Google," explains Webcams.travel's blog.

If you click on a thumbnail, Google will show "a snapshot of the camera that has been taken in the last 15 minutes". You'll need to click on the snapshot twice (first at Google Maps and then at webcams.travel) to get to the source and see the live webcam.

Google Earth has a similar layer for geo-located webcams and there's an alternative interface at webcams.travel.

Caption Editor for YouTube Videos

CaptionTube is a site that lets create captions for YouTube videos. For example, you can include a transcript of the video in one or more languages and YouTube's search engine will bring more viewers.

The site lets you caption any YouTube video, not just the ones that you've uploaded, and the captions can be exported as an XML file that will be later imported at YouTube.



YouTube's blog mentions that the site has been built by John Skidgel, a user experience designer that works at Google. Another online captioning service created for YouTube is YouTube subtitler, but it's less user-friendly.

PLYMedia's research showed that subtitles increase the amount of time that users spend watching videos by about 40%. "As more and more online video is consumed in an increasing variety of settings—from office environments to noisy bars to mobile phones—it makes sense to add closed-captioning and subtitling features to digital video files. These enhancements expand opportunities for viewers to enjoy online video, even when it's impractical for them to have the sound turned on."

Google Is Like...

A snapshot of what Twitter users think about Google (in 140 characters or less).

mishxx: Using Google is like ctrl+f'ing the world.

Psqrd: Google is like the internet dial tone. It is always there.

mcpont: Google is like the Disney of the internet!

justjody: Surfing the Internet without Google is like driving without a steering wheel.

Ideaity: Ranking in Google is like playing a game designed by a 3 year old -- the rules keep changing and rarely make sense.

granholm: Quote: "Google is like Coca-Cola. Only two people know how it's made, and they're not telling".

JodaThongnopnua: Google is like Virgil from the divine comedy, [it] leads you to some strange places.

catlionv: "Google is like the Roman Empire that continues to expand its territory into every market and niche."

csuspect: "Google is like a public toilet, they're always there when you need them" - Danny Sullivan

marymetcalf: colleague says: Google is like santa 2.0

hitzarekin: Google is like walking on a giant's shoulders.

{ Post inspired by CSS is like... }

Google Search Prepares for Switching to Ajax

In February, many people noticed that Google tested a new interface for search results. The test didn't include any new feature and Google even loaded the standard search results page to display the results. An unfortunate side-effect of the new format was that Google didn't load a new page to display the results and browsers didn't send proper referrals when clicking on search results.

"A major update that Google is testing has completely broken the ability for any external analytics service like Clicky to determine the search query used by a visitor arriving at your web site. (...) If this update goes live for everyone, it effectively means that 2/3 of all searches leading to the average web site will be a complete mystery," explained Clicky's blog.

Here's Google's explanation from March: the Ajax-enhanced pages were tested on a small number of users and this change could make Google's SERPS faster and smoother.



To solve the problem, Google will use a gateway URL for all search results.

Starting this week, you may start seeing a new referring URL format for visitors coming from Google search result pages. Up to now, the usual referrer for clicks on search results for the term "flowers", for example, would be something like this:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=flowers&btnG=Google+Search

Now you will start seeing some referrer strings that look like this:

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=7&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.example.com%2Fmypage.htm&ei=0SjdSa-1N5O8M_qW8dQN&rct=j&q=flowers&usg=AFQjCNHJXSUh7Vw7oubPaO3tZOzz-F-u_w&sig2=X8uCFh6IoPtnwmvGMULQfw

Niall Kennedy suggests that "Google is likely making this change to better track search actions and shield URL parameters from sites downstream", but I think this is a solution for the lack of referral information in a future Ajax interface.

Google is already using gateway URLs for users that are logged in: just copy the address of a Google search result and you'll notice that it's just a redirect which sends Google some details about your actions.

Featured on Picasa Web Albums

There's a new page that archives all the photos that have been featured on Picasa Web Albums. The page has a Media RSS feed, which can be added to any feed reader or it can be used as a source for Picasa's screensaver. If you don't have Picasa, you can view the images in a slideshow.


A great way to check the latest featured photos without visiting Picasa Web Albums is to add the image slideshow gadget to iGoogle. The gadget lets you view albums and search results from Flickr and Picasa Web, Google Image Search results and any Media RSS feed.

Friendlier Google Profile Addresses

Google Profiles have cryptic web addresses that include 21-digit IDs to make them impossible to guess. One option to make the profile more accessible is to check "Display my full name so I can be found in search", an option that makes the profile searchable.

Another option is to change the profile's URL to http://www.google.com/profiles/username, where "username" is the name of your Gmail account or an alias for those who use regular Google accounts. For example, the address http://www.google.com/profiles/117377434815709898403 becomes http://www.google.com/profiles/dclinton.

"To make it easier for people to find your profile, you can customize your URL with your Google email username. (Note this can make your Google email address publicly discoverable.) This unique name will also be used in other links to your content on Google," explains Google.

You can always change your mind and go back to the default URL, but it's important to realize that the profile is public and anyone who finds the URL can access it. And once you know the URL of a Google profile, you can find other things: Google Maps reviews and edits, Google forum questions, Google Books collections and probably other activity pages.

Update: Google's algorithm for selecting the username is unnecessarily complicated. "If you use Gmail, and decide to customize your profile URL, your Gmail username, not your Picasa username, will be displayed in your URL. If you don't use Gmail and have a Picasa username, you'll have the option to display your Picasa username in your profile URL. You won't be able, however, to create a new username. If you have more than one Picasa username, we'll select the active username for your profile. If you later switch to a different Picasa username, your profile username won't change."

{ via DeWitt }

Translate Google Groups Threads

Google Groups added an option to translate the messages from a thread. The new feature uses Google Translate API, so it doesn't involve reloading the page.


The translation API is being used by many Google services and other sites. Here's a list of my favorite applications:

8. Picasa Web Albums translates comments automatically.

7. Google Maps reviews can be translated to find some information about businesses from other countries.

6. Translate YouTube's search results by clicking on a checkbox at the top of the page.

5. Twitter's search results can be translated into English and you can filter the results by language.

4. Google Reader translates entire feeds if you enable an option from the feed settings menu.

3. Translate the captions of a YouTube video.

2. Hab.la translates IM conversations. "Say someone visits your site and greets you in a foreign language. As soon as a particular language can be detected, seamless translation between your chosen language (English in our case) and that of your website visitor begins."

1. Real-time translation in an experimental version of Google Toolbar.

{ Thanks, z x. }

YouTube Korea Respects Privacy

YouTube's Korean site no longer allows users to create accounts, upload videos and post comments, after a local law started to require popular web sites to ask for the real names of their users.

"In a surprise decision Thursday, Google blocked South Korean users from uploading videos and posting comments on YouTube's Korean-language site in order to avoid government requirements for the real-name registration of users. Korean Internet users now have to submit their resident registration codes, the Korean equivalent of social security numbers, and names, before posting files or commenting on Web sites with more than 100,000 daily visitors, including YouTube. The new rules kicked in April 1, but Google had been refusing to enforce real-name verification for YouTube users, reluctant to bend its rules only for Korea," reports KoreaTimes.

Apparently, one of the reasons for enforcing this law was to discourage the anonymous comments that make personal attacks to public figures. "The purpose of this mandate could be pretty noble - to discourage those dangerous evil trollings. But what if the government starts to use this feature to hunt down whoever makes anti-government-ish comments (whose definition can sometimes be blurry)? Or use this mandate as a way to deter people from making any criticism on the current government," asks Web 2.0 Asia.

YouTube suggests users that want to upload videos and post comments to change their country setting.

"Google Korea has ... always (taken) the stance that Google respects local law/regulation but at the same time we continue trying to promote freedom of speech on the Internet," Google spokeswoman Lois Kim said last month. Of course, it's easier for Google to protect the freedom of speech in Korea, where its services aren't very popular, than in countries like China or Germany.

Further reading:
Google Korea's blog post
YouTube Korea's blog post

{ via Blogoscoped Forum }

Google Update, Open Sourced

It doesn't have an interface, it's always running in the background, ready to silently update your Google software: Google Update is the service that makes Google's desktop applications behave more like the constantly updated web applications. Unfortunately, the service has many bugs, it can't be disabled unless you uninstall all the applications that use it and there are some privacy issues:

"When GoogleUpdate communicates with Google servers, it sends IDs of GoogleUpdate-managed applications on your computer and general usage information for these applications. GoogleUpdate also uses its own, randomly-generated unique ID number to accurately count total users. This information includes version numbers, languages, operating system, and other install or update-related details, such as whether or not the applications have been run."

Some people are concerned that Google collects even more information. To show that these worries are misguided, Google decided to open source the updater, code-named Omaha.

Since Google Update is always running on your system, there's no simple way to stop it, and since it's a fundamental part of the Google software that needs it, it's not explicitly installed. Some users can be surprised to find this program running, and at Google, we don't like disappointing our users. We've been working hard to address these concerns, and releasing the source code for Omaha is our attempt to make the purpose of Google Update totally transparent. Obviously, we understand that not everyone is both willing and able to read through our code, but we hope that those of you who do will confirm for the rest that Google Update's functionality serves well to keep your software up to date.

A software that's always up-to-date prevents malware from exploiting the already solved security issues, makes it easier to report bugs and it's constantly improving, but Google should provide an interface that lets you control how often the service checks for updates and even disable it. Some power users think that the always-running updater is "a violation of my control as a user, a potential security threat, and an unwanted burden on my system and network resources, which are already stretched."

Google Chrome and the Original Google

There are many interesting questions in the Chrome help forum, but some of the requests are quite unusual. Here are some strange questions from users who can't distinguish a browser from a search engine or a mail client.

"I want the old Google search engine, not Google Chrome. How do I go back to regular old Google? I want to change my default search engine from Chrome to Google. The tools don't help me," asks Orville.

"If I change from Outlook Express to Chrome browser does my E Mail address have to be changed to a G Mail address?" wants to know Haljoan.

"I don't like the design of the Google Chrome.page. All of the toolbars I'm familiar with are missing, and I don't even know how i got it. If I uninstall it, will I be able to get just plain Google?" wonders Stellar.

"Should I remove my original Google now that I have installed Google Chrome?" That's a very difficult question and I don't think that Chrome's developers anticipated how difficult is to launch an alternative browser. Maybe Google should first explain users what's a browser.

"The biggest challenge all [browsers] face is that most people don't even know what a browser is or that there's choice," told Wired.com Brian Rakowski, director of product management at Google.