Locking Google SafeSearch

Google tests a feature that will let you lock the SafeSearch settings on a computer. Currently, the SafeSearch settings can be easily changed from the preferences page, the advanced search page or by editing a Google search URL.

"Many users prefer not to have adult sites included in search results (especially if kids use the same computer). Google's SafeSearch screens for sites that contain explicit sexual content and deletes them from your search results. No filter is 100 percent accurate, but SafeSearch should eliminate most inappropriate material."

To lock SafeSearch settings, you'll need to log in using a Google account and select the locking option from the preferences page. "Use this page to lock the SafeSearch settings selected. The lock takes effect when you sign out. when locked, SafeSearch displays a distinctive image as the background of the search results pages," explains Google.

It's not very clear if the locking will be limited to the current browser and whether clearing Google's cookies will disable the lock. Here are some messages that might be used by Google:

Jump to the Relevant Section of a Google Search Result

What happens if you want to link to a paragraph from a web page or to a comment from a blog post? Some sites use fragments to link to certain sections from web pages. For example, each Wikipedia article includes a table of contents that links to all the sections of the article.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragment_identifier#Processing sends you directly to the section about processing fragments. If you search for [processing fragment identifiers] using Google, the top result includes an interesting option that lets you jump to the relevant section of the article. This is especially useful for long articles that include a lot of information.

The "jump to" feature is not limited to Wikipedia articles, so you may find other search results that have special snippets.

Last month, Google added sitelinks for internal navigation to help you find popular sections from a web page directly from the search results page. Google's goal is to send you directly to the right answer for your question, even if that means bypassing the homepage of a site, ignoring Flash intros or finding information from the snippets.

{ via Search Engine Roundtable }

Bring Back the Small Google Search Box

If you don't like Google's new search box and you think the font size is way too big, there's a Greasemonkey script that brings back the old interface. I've tested the script in Firefox and Google Chrome, so you should try it if you use one of these browsers.

In Firefox, you need to install the Greasemonkey extension, restart the browser and then install the script. If you use Google Chrome Dev Channel or a recent Chromium build, follow these instructions and copy the script to the User Scripts directory.

From:

... back to:

{ Thanks, Anon. }

Google Earth 5.1 Is Faster

Google's 3D Earth browser has been updated and the latest build, 5.1.3506.3999, loads faster and it's snappier.

"We've made a lot of adjustments under the hood, like improving memory utilization so we can show more buildings, layers, and user content. We improved our shaders (that's graphics-speak for small programs that run inside your graphics processor) to make the atmosphere draw faster. We also worked to reduce stuttering (known as frame drops) to provide an even smoother experience as you fly around the globe. When we draw imagery, we now use compression technology to use less memory and graphics resources. We know that waiting for a program to start-up can be really frustrating, so we improved our start-up time by 25%," mentions Google LatLong blog.

While the performance improvement is noticeable, Google Earth continues to use a lot of resources. In a small empirical test, I compared the latest release with an earlier version and the results are even better than Google's claims:

Google Earth version	Start-up time	Memory usage when searching for "Paris"
Google Earth 5.0.11337.1968	11.5 seconds	183 MB
Google Earth 5.0.11733.9347	10.4 seconds	164 MB
Google Earth 5.1.3506.3999	6.9 seconds	145 MB

Update: If you want to download Google Earth without installing Google Updater, here's the direct download link for Windows. This build includes the plug-in for IE/Firefox/Chrome that lets you use Google Earth inside a browser. That means you'll end up with three different Google Earth versions when you upgrade: the old version, which for some reason is not removed, the new version of Google Earth and the plug-in, which wastes 33 MB by including separate copies of the files used by Google Earth.

Google Internet Stats

Google launched a microsite that collects Internet stats for the UK. "This Google resource brings together the latest industry facts and insights together in one place. These have been collected from a number of third party vendors covering a range of topics from macroscopic economic and media trends to how consumer behaviour and technology are changing over time."

Here are some interesting stats:

"In May 2009, Google had over 4.0 billion search page views in the UK." (Nielsen Netview, May 2009)

"20 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute." (YouTube, May 2009)

"Users are 1.5x more attentive when browsing YouTube than when watching TV." (Motorola with Mindshare and GM, partnered with YouTube, December 2008)

"Worldwide mobile phone subscription penetration is 61%." (eMarketer, March 2009)

"There are 1.6 billion people online worldwide, representing nearly 24% of the world's population." (Internetworldstats.com, April 2009)

"60% of UK consumers would view ads to receive free content." (KPMG, April 2009)

{ via Steve Rubel }

Listen to Google Voice Messages in Gmail

Gmail Labs has a new feature, but it's only useful if you have a Google Voice account. When you receive a new voicemail, Google Voice sends an email notification that includes a transcription of the voicemail.


The problem is that you have to click on a link and open a new page to listen to the voicemail. If you enable "Google Voice player in mail" in Gmail Labs, you can play voicemails in Gmail.

"Best of all, your message status will stay synced: messages played from Gmail will appear as read in your Google Voice inbox and won't be played again when you check new messages via your phone," explains the Gmail blog.

A simple Google search lets you find some public voicemails and their transcriptions, but it's worth pointing out that sharing your voicemail is optional.

While this feature is useful, it's limited to Google Voice. Gmail should provide a scripting framework like Google Apps Scripts that lets you add features and handle repetitive tasks.

Google Emphasizes the Search Box

When your homepage is so simple that's almost invisible on a widescreen, you have to find a way to stand out. Google decided to supersize the search box:

"The new, larger Google search box features larger text when you type so you can see your query more clearly. It also uses a larger text size for the suggestions below the search box, making it easier to select one of the possible refinements. (...) Google has always been first and foremost about search, and we're committed to building and powering the best search on the web — now available through a supersized search box."

If you don't see the redesigned homepage, then the data center you hit hasn't updated it. For those that are curious, Google uses a 17-pixel font for the search box, up from 13 pixels.

Update: You can go back to the old interface using a Greasemonkey script.

Embeddable Google Document Viewer

Google Docs offers an undocumented feature that lets you embed PDF files and PowerPoint presentations in a web page. The files don't have to be uploaded to Google Docs, but they need to be available online.



Here's the code I used to embed the PDF file:

<iframe src="http://docs.google.com/gview?url=http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/papers/google.pdf&embedded=true" style="width:600px; height:500px;" frameborder="0"></iframe>

but you should replace the bold URL with your own address. As I mentioned, the document viewer works for PDF and PPT files.

Some other sites that offer similar features: Zoho Viewer, PdfMeNot.

Update (Sept. 25): The viewer is now available at https://docs.google.com/viewer. You can use it to embed PDF documents, PowerPoint presentations, and TIFF files.