Less than a week before Google I/O, the conference where Google is expected to unveil Android 2.2 (FroYo), it's clear that Google's mobile operating system is no longer an experiment. Android is now a popular software that runs on millions of devices and it's part of a growing ecosystem.
Google's CEO, Eric Schmidt, said that "65,000 mobile phones powered by Google's Android operating system are being shipped every day" and that "Android is now being used on 34 mobile devices in 49 countries".
According to a NPD research, Android is the second most popular smartphone operating system in the US in terms of units sold in the first quarter of 2010 (28%), after Blackberry OS (36%). Apple's iPhone OS dropped to the third position (21%).
Cédric Beust, a former Google engineer who worked on the Android team, says that Android's growth is surprising:
"I don't know what's the most surprising: how ambitious that goal was four years ago or how far Android has come today. It's hard to believe that Android shipped its first device about a year and a half ago and at that time, Apple had already sold more than ten million iPhones. Who would have guessed that it would only take Android eighteen months to catch up and pass the iPhone in market share? In this short period of time, we've gone through four major releases (and many, many minor ones, some of which you probably never even heard of), and each new version has been a major milestone that got everyone on the team incredibly excited. FroYo is no exception, prepare to be blown away by what you will see very soon."
It's interesting to see that carrier distribution and promotion continues to be very important. The most popular Android phone, Motorola Droid, has been aggressively promoted by Verizon. Nexus One has been sold online by Google, but the results are underwhelming and Google plans to close the online store.
YouTube Shows the Number of Likes and Dislikes
When YouTube simplified the user interface and replaced ratings with two buttons for liking or disliking a video, the only information about the popularity of a video was the number of views. To see how many people liked or disliked a video, you had to click on one of the two buttons.
Now you can see if users enjoyed a video without having to rate it: YouTube shows two horizontal bars for the number of likes and dislikes. Some might be worried that visitors could be influenced by the existing ratings, but I think they're useful and YouTube should find a way to convert the old ratings to the new rating system.
The reason why YouTube dropped the 5 star rating system was that 5 stars dominated ratings. "Seems like when it comes to ratings it's pretty much all or nothing. Great videos prompt action; anything less prompts indifference. Thus, the ratings system is primarily being used as a seal of approval, not as an editorial indicator of what the community thinks about a video," mentioned a YouTube blog post from 2009.
Now you can see if users enjoyed a video without having to rate it: YouTube shows two horizontal bars for the number of likes and dislikes. Some might be worried that visitors could be influenced by the existing ratings, but I think they're useful and YouTube should find a way to convert the old ratings to the new rating system.
The reason why YouTube dropped the 5 star rating system was that 5 stars dominated ratings. "Seems like when it comes to ratings it's pretty much all or nothing. Great videos prompt action; anything less prompts indifference. Thus, the ratings system is primarily being used as a seal of approval, not as an editorial indicator of what the community thinks about a video," mentioned a YouTube blog post from 2009.
Google Collected Data Packets from Open WiFi Networks
Google's WiFi data collection using Street View cars turned out to be yet another privacy blunder. Alan Eustace, Senior VP at Google, admitted that the software which collected information about open WiFi networks didn't discard payload data. In a post from April, Google said that "networks also send information to other computers that are using the network, called payload data, but Google does not collect or store payload data".
Google will now have to find a way to destroy all this data, which might include personal information. "As soon as we became aware of this problem, we grounded our Street View cars and segregated the data on our network, which we then disconnected to make it inaccessible. We want to delete this data as soon as possible, and are currently reaching out to regulators in the relevant countries about how to quickly dispose of it," explains Google. The software used to collect data about WiFi networks was Kismet, "an [open-source] 802.11 layer2 wireless network detector, sniffer, and intrusion detection system".
Open WiFi networks aren't secure, so it's a bad idea to use them for sending confidential information, but Google should've discarded all the data packets. They weren't necessary and storing unencrypted traffic data is a big privacy problem.
The good news is that, starting next week, Google Search will have a SSL-encrypted version at https://www.google.com. Google will become the first important search engine that offers this option.
Update: San Francisco Chronicle says that "about 600 gigabytes of data was taken off of the Wi-Fi networks in more than 30 countries" and that "Google has been vacuuming up fragments of people's online activities broadcast over public Wi-Fi networks for the past four years".
Google will now have to find a way to destroy all this data, which might include personal information. "As soon as we became aware of this problem, we grounded our Street View cars and segregated the data on our network, which we then disconnected to make it inaccessible. We want to delete this data as soon as possible, and are currently reaching out to regulators in the relevant countries about how to quickly dispose of it," explains Google. The software used to collect data about WiFi networks was Kismet, "an [open-source] 802.11 layer2 wireless network detector, sniffer, and intrusion detection system".
Open WiFi networks aren't secure, so it's a bad idea to use them for sending confidential information, but Google should've discarded all the data packets. They weren't necessary and storing unencrypted traffic data is a big privacy problem.
The good news is that, starting next week, Google Search will have a SSL-encrypted version at https://www.google.com. Google will become the first important search engine that offers this option.
Update: San Francisco Chronicle says that "about 600 gigabytes of data was taken off of the Wi-Fi networks in more than 30 countries" and that "Google has been vacuuming up fragments of people's online activities broadcast over public Wi-Fi networks for the past four years".
Sejarah Perkembangan Bahasa Pemrograman Java
"Om Swastiastu"
Setelah seminggu sibuk mempersiapkan Hari Raya Galungan yang membuat waktu blogging jadi terhambat, kali ini saya akan memulai post lagi. Nah, untuk hari ini saya akan memberikan artikel mengenai sejarah bahasa pemrograman java.
Java adalah bahasa pemrograman yang dikembangkan oleh Sun Microsystems dan diterbitkan pada tahun 1995. Bahasa pemrograman java pada awalnya lahir dari The Green Project. Proyek ini dimotori oleh Patrick Naughton, Mike Sheridan, James Gosling dan Bill Boy beserta sembilan programmer lainnya dari Sun Microsystems. Untuk menjalankan proyek tersebut Sun merencanakan untuk membuat sebuah sistem operasi yang dibangun dengan bahasa C++. Akan tetapi James Gosling merasa tidak puas dengan bahasa pemrograman C++ dan akhirnya ia memutuskan untuk membuat bahasa pemrograman sendiri yang diberi nama Oak. Nama tersebut diambil dari nama pohon yang terlihat dari jendela kantornya.
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Java adalah bahasa pemrograman yang dikembangkan oleh Sun Microsystems dan diterbitkan pada tahun 1995. Bahasa pemrograman java pada awalnya lahir dari The Green Project. Proyek ini dimotori oleh Patrick Naughton, Mike Sheridan, James Gosling dan Bill Boy beserta sembilan programmer lainnya dari Sun Microsystems. Untuk menjalankan proyek tersebut Sun merencanakan untuk membuat sebuah sistem operasi yang dibangun dengan bahasa C++. Akan tetapi James Gosling merasa tidak puas dengan bahasa pemrograman C++ dan akhirnya ia memutuskan untuk membuat bahasa pemrograman sendiri yang diberi nama Oak. Nama tersebut diambil dari nama pohon yang terlihat dari jendela kantornya.
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5 New Languages in Google Translate
Google Translate added 5 new languages: Armenian (6.7 million speakers), Azerbaijani (20-30 million speakers), Basque (about 660,000 speakers), Georgian (4 million speakers) and Urdu (70 million speakers), but don't expect to read high-quality translations because the language models are still in alpha. "Translation to and from ALPHA languages may not work as well as other languages, as these systems are still in early stages of development," explains Google Translate's FAQ.
In a recent article from Spiegel, Google's Franz Och said that "the databases for 296 other languages are in development". Right now, Google Translate supports 57 languages, while Microsoft's Bing Translator has support for 30 languages.
In a recent article from Spiegel, Google's Franz Och said that "the databases for 296 other languages are in development". Right now, Google Translate supports 57 languages, while Microsoft's Bing Translator has support for 30 languages.
Media Sekolah dalam Pengembangan Kreasi Jurnalistik
"Om Swastiastu"
Media merupakan sarana yang digunakan untuk menghubungkan satu hal dengan yang lainnya. Misalnya saja, seorang guru yang sedang mengajar di dalam kelas mempergunakan beragam media untuk menerangkan materi , baik yang berbentuk audio maupun visual, agar siswa dapat lebih cepat menyerap pelajaran. Media dalam tulisan ini berarti sarana yang dipergunakan oleh seluruh warga sekolah dalam mengkomunikasikan segala yang ada di sekolah. Dengan media tersebut, berbagai permasalahan yang menyangkut kegiatan sekolah dapat disampaikan dan diselesaikan secara efektif. Artinya, bahwa media sekolah ini mampu melayani informasi secara terbuka kepada sekolah dengan cepat, baik menyangkut program dan hal-hal baru yang patut diketahui oleh segenap pihak keluarga sekolah.
Media ini juga mampu mengembangkan potensi siswa dalam pembelajaran literasi, yaitu membaca dan menulis. Untuk itu, sekolah yang disebut sebagai pencetak generasi penerus yang berwawasan dan berbudi pekerti luhur sudah sepatutnyalah mengembangkan dan melengkapi media-media untuk kelancaran proses kegiatan sekolah.
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Media ini juga mampu mengembangkan potensi siswa dalam pembelajaran literasi, yaitu membaca dan menulis. Untuk itu, sekolah yang disebut sebagai pencetak generasi penerus yang berwawasan dan berbudi pekerti luhur sudah sepatutnyalah mengembangkan dan melengkapi media-media untuk kelancaran proses kegiatan sekolah.
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Ekstrakurikuler Jurnalistik Sekolah
"Om Swastiastu"
Dunia tulis menulis telah memasyarakat di berbagai kalangan, tanpa terkecuali. Kegiatan menulis mulai dari hal kecil, misalnya seperti menulis buku harian pribadi, artikel untuk tugas sekolah, cerpen, puisi, karya tulis sampai skripsi hingga thesis, semua membutuhkan keterampilan untuk menyusun kalimat demi kalimat agar menjadi sebuah karya yang bermakna. Jurnalistik adalah salah satu wadah untuk mengembangkan kreativitas menulis di kalangan pelajar. Secara langsung saat ini sudah ada sekolah yang dengan intens telah membekali siswanya dengan ilmu jurnalistik ini. Hal itu bisa dilihat dari telah diterbitkannya media tulis di sekolah itu, baik berupa majalah dinding atau yang biasa disebut mading, majalah sekolah, hingga blog yang memuat esai dengan beragam topik.
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Menulis Itu Gampang!
"Om Swastiastu"
Menulis mungkin menjadi hal yang paling mendasar dan hampir dilakukan oleh setiap orang yang melek aksara. Tentu saja, menulis tak bisa dianggap remeh, meski terdengar gampang. Anak TK pun bisa menulis bukan? Tetapi, anak TK juga terkadang mengalami kesulitan dalam menulis. Kesulitan itu terletak pada bagaimana anak TK menghafal keduapuluh enam abjad dan sepuluh jenis model angka, lalu mengguratkannya pada kertas lengkap dengan bentuk yang tepat sehingga dapat terbaca. Nah, sama halnya dengan orang yang telah mempunyai lebih banyak pengetahuan tentang menulis—lebih dari menghafal bentuk huruf dan angka. Permasalahan banyak dijumpai saat seseorang menulis sebuah karangan, esai, cerpen, dan semacamnya. Ketika seseorang terbentur masalah kehabisan ide dan ngadat hingga di kalimat ke sekian, karangan tersebut juga terancam tak terselesaikan.
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Google Translate Annoyance
One of the most annoying issues with Google Translate is that it's very difficult to copy the translated version of a web page. Translate a web page, copy some text, paste it in a text editor and you'll notice that, before each translated phrase, there's the original version of the phrase.
Fortunately, you can properly copy some text from a translated page if you use the translation feature from Google Toolbar or from Google Chrome. Microsoft's translation service has a more flexible interface and it doesn't mix the translated text with the original text.
Fortunately, you can properly copy some text from a translated page if you use the translation feature from Google Toolbar or from Google Chrome. Microsoft's translation service has a more flexible interface and it doesn't mix the translated text with the original text.
Unlisted YouTube Videos
YouTube added a very useful feature for those who want to upload videos, but only share them with a limited number of people. Until now, you could make a video private and share it with up to 25 YouTube users.
The new access level is called "unlisted", which means that only people who know the address of the video can view it. "The video will not appear in any of YouTube's public spaces, such as search results, your channel, or the Browse page, but the link can be shared with anyone."
To watch an unlisted video, you don't need a YouTube account and there's no limit for the number of people that can watch your videos. Anyone can link to the video, but it won't be indexed by search engines.
"Even though your video will not appear in any of YouTube's public spaces, links to the video could still appear elsewhere on the web if anyone who knows the video's URL shares it. It is therefore up to you to maintain the privacy of your video and the unlisted URL. You can further restrict the video at any time by returning to your account and marking the video as Private," explains YouTube's help center.
{ via YouTube Blog }
The new access level is called "unlisted", which means that only people who know the address of the video can view it. "The video will not appear in any of YouTube's public spaces, such as search results, your channel, or the Browse page, but the link can be shared with anyone."
To watch an unlisted video, you don't need a YouTube account and there's no limit for the number of people that can watch your videos. Anyone can link to the video, but it won't be indexed by search engines.
"Even though your video will not appear in any of YouTube's public spaces, links to the video could still appear elsewhere on the web if anyone who knows the video's URL shares it. It is therefore up to you to maintain the privacy of your video and the unlisted URL. You can further restrict the video at any time by returning to your account and marking the video as Private," explains YouTube's help center.
{ via YouTube Blog }
Insert Images into a Gmail Messages Using Drag and Drop
Gmail extended the feature that lets you add attachments using drag and drop, so you can also insert images into a message. The new functionality only works in Google Chrome, but it will probably be added to Firefox, as well. (Is this the first Gmail feature that only works in Google's browser?)
To try it, make sure you use Google Chrome and Gmail's rich text mode. Compose a new message, open your favorite file manager, find a photo and drag it to the Gmail message. For some reason, I was only able to drag one photo at a time. After inserting the image, you can resize it and adjust its position.
Gmail has a Labs feature for inserting images, which works in all browsers, but it's less convenient.
{ via Gmail Blog }
To try it, make sure you use Google Chrome and Gmail's rich text mode. Compose a new message, open your favorite file manager, find a photo and drag it to the Gmail message. For some reason, I was only able to drag one photo at a time. After inserting the image, you can resize it and adjust its position.
Gmail has a Labs feature for inserting images, which works in all browsers, but it's less convenient.
{ via Gmail Blog }
Google's Sidebar for Internet Explorer
Many years ago, when browsers didn't have search boxes, Google launched a sidebar for Internet Explorer 4 and 5. The sidebar was available at google.com/ie and it was later used for all kinds of purposes: sidebar for Opera or Firefox, iGoogle gadget, mobile interface or as a simple interface for scraping Google results.
Scroogle, a proxy for Google search that doesn't use cookies and doesn't store search records, used this interface until yesterday, when Google decided to redirect it to a page that promoted a Google-optimized version of Internet Explorer 8.
"We regret to announce that our Google scraper may have to be permanently retired, thanks to a change at Google. That interface was at www.google.com/ie but on May 10, 2010 they took it down and inserted a redirect to /toolbar/ie8/sidebar.html. It used to have a search box, and the results it showed were generic during that entire time. Now that interface is gone. It is not possible to continue Scroogle unless we have a simple interface that is stable. Google's main consumer-oriented interface that they want everyone to use is too complex, and changes too frequently, to make our scraping operation possible."
When you create a service that scrapes web pages, you should know that a minor change to a page can break your service. Asking Google to keep an old interface, while breaking Google's terms of service that prevent you from accessing services "through any automated means", is ironic.
Fortunately for Scroogle and for all the users of google.com/ie, the simple interface is still available at http://www.google.com/search?output=ie, but it's not clear for how long.
It's interesting to know that "ie" is not the only value allowed for the "output" parameter. You can also use: "linux", "bsd", "microsoft", "mac", "unclesam" to see other old templates for Google search.
{ Thanks, George R. }
Scroogle, a proxy for Google search that doesn't use cookies and doesn't store search records, used this interface until yesterday, when Google decided to redirect it to a page that promoted a Google-optimized version of Internet Explorer 8.
"We regret to announce that our Google scraper may have to be permanently retired, thanks to a change at Google. That interface was at www.google.com/ie but on May 10, 2010 they took it down and inserted a redirect to /toolbar/ie8/sidebar.html. It used to have a search box, and the results it showed were generic during that entire time. Now that interface is gone. It is not possible to continue Scroogle unless we have a simple interface that is stable. Google's main consumer-oriented interface that they want everyone to use is too complex, and changes too frequently, to make our scraping operation possible."
When you create a service that scrapes web pages, you should know that a minor change to a page can break your service. Asking Google to keep an old interface, while breaking Google's terms of service that prevent you from accessing services "through any automated means", is ironic.
Fortunately for Scroogle and for all the users of google.com/ie, the simple interface is still available at http://www.google.com/search?output=ie, but it's not clear for how long.
It's interesting to know that "ie" is not the only value allowed for the "output" parameter. You can also use: "linux", "bsd", "microsoft", "mac", "unclesam" to see other old templates for Google search.
{ Thanks, George R. }
Google Translate Adds Text-to-Speech for More Languages
Google Translate has made the text-to-speech feature more useful by adding 27 new languages: Afrikaans, Albanian, Catalan, Chinese (Mandarin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Latvian, Macedonian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Swahili, Swedish, Turkish, Vietnamese and Welsh.
Google used the open-source speech synthesizer eSpeak, but I'm sure that this is just a placeholder until Google manages to obtain better results. "You may notice that the audio quality of these languages isn’t at the same level as the previously released languages. Clear and accurate speech technology is difficult to perfect, but we will continue to improve the performance and number of languages that are supported," says Google's Fergus Henderson.
Initially, the feature was only available for English, but 4 other languages have been added in the past two months: Haitian Creole, French, Italian and German.
To try Google's TTS service, go to Google Translate, type some text, translate it and click on the audio icon to listen to the translation.
Google used the open-source speech synthesizer eSpeak, but I'm sure that this is just a placeholder until Google manages to obtain better results. "You may notice that the audio quality of these languages isn’t at the same level as the previously released languages. Clear and accurate speech technology is difficult to perfect, but we will continue to improve the performance and number of languages that are supported," says Google's Fergus Henderson.
Initially, the feature was only available for English, but 4 other languages have been added in the past two months: Haitian Creole, French, Italian and German.
To try Google's TTS service, go to Google Translate, type some text, translate it and click on the audio icon to listen to the translation.
Translate Microsoft Office Documents Using Google Translate
Google offers three services for translating Microsoft Office documents, but none of them works well. You can upload documents to Google Translate, but the output is an HTML file that can't be properly saved and that doesn't include images. There's also Google Translator Toolkit, which has a buggy document converter. Google Docs has a translation feature, but the document is first converted to HTML and the original formatting isn't always preserved.
DocTranslator is a service that translates Microsoft Office documents using Google Translate, but it manages to preserve the layout of the original file. Unlike Google Docs, DocTranslator is not limited to Microsoft Word documents that have less than 500 KB and it works for Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations, as well. DocTranslator uses a Java applet to upload the files and it translates them using Google Translate's API.
"Its benefits are that you can save the documents in their original file format and also maintain the original layout (fonts, tables, columns, spacing, etc.). It basically replaces the text of the file while keeping everything else," explained a user of the service.
The following screenshots show a document translated in Google Docs and the same document translated using DocTranslator and opened in Microsoft Word.
{ Thanks, Anonymous. }
DocTranslator is a service that translates Microsoft Office documents using Google Translate, but it manages to preserve the layout of the original file. Unlike Google Docs, DocTranslator is not limited to Microsoft Word documents that have less than 500 KB and it works for Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations, as well. DocTranslator uses a Java applet to upload the files and it translates them using Google Translate's API.
"Its benefits are that you can save the documents in their original file format and also maintain the original layout (fonts, tables, columns, spacing, etc.). It basically replaces the text of the file while keeping everything else," explained a user of the service.
The following screenshots show a document translated in Google Docs and the same document translated using DocTranslator and opened in Microsoft Word.
{ Thanks, Anonymous. }
Email Alerts for Google Scholar
Google Scholar added the option to get email alerts when new articles related to your interests are published. For some reason, this feature is not available in Google Alerts and Google Scholar still doesn't offer feeds for search results.
Google Scholar's email alerts feature is special because Google changes your to get better results (for example, [statistical speech recognition] has been changed to [statistical intitle:"speech recognition"]), Google shows a list of sample results and you can manage the alerts only in Google Scholar.
To try the new feature, go to Google Scholar, search for something you're interested in and click on the ugly email icon placed at the top of the search results pages. Even if it's extremely useful for students and researchers, Google Scholar has a cluttered interface with many options. It's the only Google service that uses a check box on the homepage.
{ Thanks, Bill. }
Google Scholar's email alerts feature is special because Google changes your to get better results (for example, [statistical speech recognition] has been changed to [statistical intitle:"speech recognition"]), Google shows a list of sample results and you can manage the alerts only in Google Scholar.
To try the new feature, go to Google Scholar, search for something you're interested in and click on the ugly email icon placed at the top of the search results pages. Even if it's extremely useful for students and researchers, Google Scholar has a cluttered interface with many options. It's the only Google service that uses a check box on the homepage.
{ Thanks, Bill. }
Disadvantage of Database Processing
"Om Swastiastu"
After I posted the advantage of database processing, today I want to give you the opposite one. Disadvantage of the database processing. There are 4 disadvantage of database processing I can tell to you:
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After I posted the advantage of database processing, today I want to give you the opposite one. Disadvantage of the database processing. There are 4 disadvantage of database processing I can tell to you:
- Larger file size
- Increased complexity
- Greater impact of failure
- More difficult recovery
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Alternatives to Google's Dictionary Links
Google Search used to have a handy feature that linked to the definitions of your keywords. Google initially linked to Dictionary.com, then it switched to Answers.com and to Google's dictionary service.
The latest redesign removed this feature, but you can use some workarounds:
1. Use the Merriam-Webster subscribed link, which adds the definition of your query after the third Google search result.
2. Type [your-keyword definition] in the search box and Google Suggest will show the definition without opening a new page:
3. Use the define: operator to show definitions automatically extracted from web pages:
4. Install the Google Dictionary extension for Google Chrome, which shows definitions by double clicking on a word. For Firefox, there's a great Answers.com extension, which shows definitions when you alt-click on a word.
5. Add Google Dictionary as a search engine for your browser. There's a search add-on for Firefox, but you need to manually add it to Internet Explorer by entering: http://www.google.com/dictionary?langpair=en|en&q=TEST in the URL field.
In Google Chrome and Opera, create a new search engine, type: http://www.google.com/dictionary?langpair=en|en&q=%s in the URL field and add a keyword like dict. Next time you type dict moist in the address bar, you'll see the definitions from Google Dictionary.
6. Install a Greasemonkey script which adds links to answers.com and dictionary.com.
"Google announced on May 5, 2010 it was rolling out a new layout for search results in which the major change was a new left navigation bar - however, along with those changes they decided to drop the "Definition" link that was originally on the upper right of the results page. They obviously dropped it because it wasn't being used that much, but I was one of the few users who used it all the time to quickly search Answers.com. In this script I've added in two links to the results page - one is simply taking over text that wasn't a link before and making it useful, and the other adds a link in the new left column navigation bar that takes you to Dictionary.com," explains the author.
I tested the script in Firefox, but I think that the link from the sidebar is unnecessary. Fortunately, you can edit the code and remove it.
The latest redesign removed this feature, but you can use some workarounds:
1. Use the Merriam-Webster subscribed link, which adds the definition of your query after the third Google search result.
2. Type [your-keyword definition] in the search box and Google Suggest will show the definition without opening a new page:
3. Use the define: operator to show definitions automatically extracted from web pages:
4. Install the Google Dictionary extension for Google Chrome, which shows definitions by double clicking on a word. For Firefox, there's a great Answers.com extension, which shows definitions when you alt-click on a word.
5. Add Google Dictionary as a search engine for your browser. There's a search add-on for Firefox, but you need to manually add it to Internet Explorer by entering: http://www.google.com/dictionary?langpair=en|en&q=TEST in the URL field.
In Google Chrome and Opera, create a new search engine, type: http://www.google.com/dictionary?langpair=en|en&q=%s in the URL field and add a keyword like dict. Next time you type dict moist in the address bar, you'll see the definitions from Google Dictionary.
6. Install a Greasemonkey script which adds links to answers.com and dictionary.com.
"Google announced on May 5, 2010 it was rolling out a new layout for search results in which the major change was a new left navigation bar - however, along with those changes they decided to drop the "Definition" link that was originally on the upper right of the results page. They obviously dropped it because it wasn't being used that much, but I was one of the few users who used it all the time to quickly search Answers.com. In this script I've added in two links to the results page - one is simply taking over text that wasn't a link before and making it useful, and the other adds a link in the new left column navigation bar that takes you to Dictionary.com," explains the author.
I tested the script in Firefox, but I think that the link from the sidebar is unnecessary. Fortunately, you can edit the code and remove it.
Top 10 Google Services that Use Google Translate
Google Translate has come a long way since Google switched to its own machine translation service, back in 2007. Google now supports 52 language pairs and "the databases for 296 other languages are in development," according to a Spiegel article.
Google Translate is more useful, now that it's integrated with many Google services. Here's a list of the best uses of Google Translate in other Google services:
1. Translate web pages dynamically using Google Chrome or Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer and Firefox. Browsers can now detect web pages in foreign languages and automatically translate the text, without opening a new page.
2. Google Translate for Android is a free application that uses voice input and a text-to-speech engine that reads the translation.
3. Google Goggles for Android is a free visual search application, which is now able to extract text from photos and translate it. "On a recent trip to Japan, Franz Och [Google's head of translation services], who doesn't speak Japanese, was able to decipher restaurant menus and even read local news -- using his mobile phone, which provided him with the translations within seconds," reports Spiegel.
4. Cross-language search is a feature of Google Search that lets you find web pages written in other languages. When you click on "translated search" in Google's left sidebar, Google finds the most appropriate languages for your query, translates your query and shows the results translated into your language.
5. Google Translator Toolkit is a great way to translate documents using Google's machine translation service as a starting point.
6. Gmail Translate is a Labs feature that lets you translate messages written in foreign languages.
7. YouTube lets you translate captions, which is quite useful for videos that have closed captions in one language.
8. Google Talk's translation bots help you translate messages from a conversation. "Google Talk can help you with quick translations, or even translate your chats in real-time. All you need to do is chat with one of the Translation Bots. You can also get your conversation translated by inviting a bot to a group chat with a friend."
9. Picasa Web Albums has a great feature that translates comments into your language.
10. Google Translate OneBox shows the translation of a text if you start your query with "translate". The OneBox is displayed at the top of Google's search results page,
Google Translate is also used to translate feeds in Google Reader, documents in Google Docs, reviews in Google Maps and YouTube's search results.
Google Translate is more useful, now that it's integrated with many Google services. Here's a list of the best uses of Google Translate in other Google services:
1. Translate web pages dynamically using Google Chrome or Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer and Firefox. Browsers can now detect web pages in foreign languages and automatically translate the text, without opening a new page.
2. Google Translate for Android is a free application that uses voice input and a text-to-speech engine that reads the translation.
3. Google Goggles for Android is a free visual search application, which is now able to extract text from photos and translate it. "On a recent trip to Japan, Franz Och [Google's head of translation services], who doesn't speak Japanese, was able to decipher restaurant menus and even read local news -- using his mobile phone, which provided him with the translations within seconds," reports Spiegel.
4. Cross-language search is a feature of Google Search that lets you find web pages written in other languages. When you click on "translated search" in Google's left sidebar, Google finds the most appropriate languages for your query, translates your query and shows the results translated into your language.
5. Google Translator Toolkit is a great way to translate documents using Google's machine translation service as a starting point.
6. Gmail Translate is a Labs feature that lets you translate messages written in foreign languages.
7. YouTube lets you translate captions, which is quite useful for videos that have closed captions in one language.
8. Google Talk's translation bots help you translate messages from a conversation. "Google Talk can help you with quick translations, or even translate your chats in real-time. All you need to do is chat with one of the Translation Bots. You can also get your conversation translated by inviting a bot to a group chat with a friend."
9. Picasa Web Albums has a great feature that translates comments into your language.
10. Google Translate OneBox shows the translation of a text if you start your query with "translate". The OneBox is displayed at the top of Google's search results page,
Google Translate is also used to translate feeds in Google Reader, documents in Google Docs, reviews in Google Maps and YouTube's search results.
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