What's surprising is that Google Chrome for Google TV shows a button that lets you subscribe to feeds, while the desktop version of Google Chrome still doesn't have native support for feeds.
Google TV Queue
Google Queue is a feature of Google TV that lets you subscribe to podcasts, TV series, feeds or simply add web pages so you can read them later. It's an clever combination between a feed reader and a service like "Read It Later".
What's surprising is that Google Chrome for Google TV shows a button that lets you subscribe to feeds, while the desktop version of Google Chrome still doesn't have native support for feeds.
What's surprising is that Google Chrome for Google TV shows a button that lets you subscribe to feeds, while the desktop version of Google Chrome still doesn't have native support for feeds.
Download YouTube Captions
Let's say that you've watched Eric Schmidt's keynote from TechCrunch Disrupt and you want to share some interesting ideas from the video. Fortunately, the video has closed captions and there's also an interactive transcript, but there's no way to copy the text.
The good news is that you can download the captions file if you know the URL: http://video.google.com/timedtext?lang=en&v=VIDEO_ID, where you should replace VIDEO_ID with the ID of the YouTube video. Here's the captions file for Eric Schmidt's keynote.
It's an XML file and you can extract plain text by removing all the tags. Right-click on the page, select "view source", copy all the text and paste it on this page.
Now it's easy to copy an excerpt from the keynote:
The good news is that you can download the captions file if you know the URL: http://video.google.com/timedtext?lang=en&v=VIDEO_ID, where you should replace VIDEO_ID with the ID of the YouTube video. Here's the captions file for Eric Schmidt's keynote.
It's an XML file and you can extract plain text by removing all the tags. Right-click on the page, select "view source", copy all the text and paste it on this page.
Now it's easy to copy an excerpt from the keynote:
We have one of the largest databases of information in the world which we've engineered and which is very, very difficult technologically in order to house all that information and ready for more. So, where do we go next with search? Well, you've got personal contacts, personal emails, personal network of people and your relationships with them, and with your permission -- and I need to say that about 500 times -- with your permission, we can actually search and index that information and make all of these answers so much better. The next step after that is obviously autonomous search. This is searches that you're -- that are occurring while you're not even doing searching.
Gmail Auto-unsubscribe Search
Gmail has a feature that lets you unsubscribe from a newsletter or a mailing list when you report one of the messages as spam.
"You'll see the unsubscribe tool when you mark a message from particular types of mailing lists as spam. If the particular message is a misuse of a mailing list you like to receive, you can Report spam as usual. But if you never want to receive another message or newsletter from that list again, click Unsubscribe instead. We'll send a request to the sender that your email address be removed from the list."
Unfortunately, this feature doesn't work for all newsletters and mailing lists, so it's not easy to see it in action. I've noticed that "auto-unsubscribe" works for Google Groups messages and for Google's newsletters.
To find all the "auto-unsubscribe"-enabled messages, search for label:^unsub.
"You'll see the unsubscribe tool when you mark a message from particular types of mailing lists as spam. If the particular message is a misuse of a mailing list you like to receive, you can Report spam as usual. But if you never want to receive another message or newsletter from that list again, click Unsubscribe instead. We'll send a request to the sender that your email address be removed from the list."
Unfortunately, this feature doesn't work for all newsletters and mailing lists, so it's not easy to see it in action. I've noticed that "auto-unsubscribe" works for Google Groups messages and for Google's newsletters.
To find all the "auto-unsubscribe"-enabled messages, search for label:^unsub.
The World Is Full of Interesting Things
That's the name of a brilliant slideshow created by Google's Creative Labs. You'll find a lot of interesting HTML5 apps, iPhone apps, visualization tools, 3D projections, art projects, creative YouTube videos, crowdsourcing services and many other interesting things.
One of the sites featured in the presentation is Goollery, a collection of Google-related projects from people around the world. There's a keyboard just for Gmail users, the already-famous Newsmap, a beautiful stylesheet for Google Reader and more.
The presentation also highlights Google Chrome's ads, an interactive video for Arcade Fire's "We Used to Wait", a clever way to use YouTube's annotations, Google Street View art and IBM's "Internet of things" video.
Don't forget to check Google's slideshow. "This should keep you busy for the next 24 hours," as Jason Kottke says.
One of the sites featured in the presentation is Goollery, a collection of Google-related projects from people around the world. There's a keyboard just for Gmail users, the already-famous Newsmap, a beautiful stylesheet for Google Reader and more.
The presentation also highlights Google Chrome's ads, an interactive video for Arcade Fire's "We Used to Wait", a clever way to use YouTube's annotations, Google Street View art and IBM's "Internet of things" video.
Don't forget to check Google's slideshow. "This should keep you busy for the next 24 hours," as Jason Kottke says.
Does the World Need Another Mobile Platform?
Andy Rubin, Android architect and vice president of engineering at Google, says that the world doesn't need Windows Phone 7 or any other new mobile platform.
Does the world need a better phone? Does the world need a phone that boots faster, a phone based on a web application framework, a phone that has a consistent interface? Just because Windows Phone 7 doesn't use Android, it doesn't mean that it's reinventing the wheel. Android is flexible, but it can't be used to build any kind of mobile operating system.
Millions of people will buy Windows Phone 7 phones and they'll find a new way to experience the Web. They'll probably use Bing, a browser that doesn't support HTML5 and they'll run Silverlight apps, but that's great: more people will buy Internet-enabled devices and will make the Web a better place. Great ideas come from everywhere and competition can only make Android better.
The world doesn't need another platform. Android is free and open; I think the only reason you create another platform is for political reasons. Why doesn't the whole world run with [Android]? They don't like the people who developed, or "not invented here," but [Android] is a successful, complete, vertically integrated free platform. I encourage everybody to use it, but I'm also not under the impression that everybody will use it, which is a good thing, because competition is good for the consumer and if somebody has an an idea for a feature or a piece of functionality in their platform and Android doesn't do it, great. I think it's good to have the benefit of choice, but in the end I don't think the world needs another platform.
Does the world need a better phone? Does the world need a phone that boots faster, a phone based on a web application framework, a phone that has a consistent interface? Just because Windows Phone 7 doesn't use Android, it doesn't mean that it's reinventing the wheel. Android is flexible, but it can't be used to build any kind of mobile operating system.
Millions of people will buy Windows Phone 7 phones and they'll find a new way to experience the Web. They'll probably use Bing, a browser that doesn't support HTML5 and they'll run Silverlight apps, but that's great: more people will buy Internet-enabled devices and will make the Web a better place. Great ideas come from everywhere and competition can only make Android better.
Instant Search, an Optional Feature in Google Chrome
Last month, I mentioned that Google Chrome tested a feature that automatically loads web pages when you type in the address bar. Since then, the feature has been added to Chrome Labs in the Dev Channel and has already graduated from Chrome Labs.
A recent Chromium build added instant search to the Options dialog, but the feature is disabled by default. Here's the official description:
"Instant lets you view web pages and search results faster than ever. With Instant enabled, most web pages begin loading as soon as you type a URL in the Omnibox, before you hit Enter. In addition, if supported by your default search engine, search results appear instanly as you type queries in the Omnibox, and in-line predictions help guide your search. Becasuse new search results are requested each time you press a key, anything you type into the Omnibox may be logged as a search query by your default search engine."
While instant search is useful for frequently visited pages (for example, you only need to type "m" to load Gmail), the feature doesn't work well if you want to type a new web address or a query. If you frequently type Gmail's address, but now you want to go to http://mail.yahoo.com, Chrome will first load Gmail and then Yahoo Mail.
Chrome Labs includes many other experimental features that will be officially released in the coming months: side tabs, tabbed options, remoting support, disabling outdated plug-ins, XSS auditor, background web apps, proxy for Cloud Print and GPU accelerated Canvas 2D. Most of the features can be enabled in Chrome Dev Channel if you type about:labs in the address bar.
A recent Chromium build added instant search to the Options dialog, but the feature is disabled by default. Here's the official description:
"Instant lets you view web pages and search results faster than ever. With Instant enabled, most web pages begin loading as soon as you type a URL in the Omnibox, before you hit Enter. In addition, if supported by your default search engine, search results appear instanly as you type queries in the Omnibox, and in-line predictions help guide your search. Becasuse new search results are requested each time you press a key, anything you type into the Omnibox may be logged as a search query by your default search engine."
While instant search is useful for frequently visited pages (for example, you only need to type "m" to load Gmail), the feature doesn't work well if you want to type a new web address or a query. If you frequently type Gmail's address, but now you want to go to http://mail.yahoo.com, Chrome will first load Gmail and then Yahoo Mail.
Chrome Labs includes many other experimental features that will be officially released in the coming months: side tabs, tabbed options, remoting support, disabling outdated plug-ins, XSS auditor, background web apps, proxy for Cloud Print and GPU accelerated Canvas 2D. Most of the features can be enabled in Chrome Dev Channel if you type about:labs in the address bar.
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