Google Navigation Bar Switch

Google made a small change to the navigation bar used for its non-search services: the link to Google Reader was moved to the "more" drop-down, while the link to Picasa Web Albums was brought back to the main bar. At some point, both links were included in the main bar.


Google's Brian Rose said that the Picasa Web team is working on "some fun stuff" and we'll hopefully see some important changes in the near future. Meanwhile, Google Reader's team posted on Twitter that "the Reader link at the top of Gmail (and other sites) was accidentally removed. It's coming back soon, we promise."

It's still surprising to see that Google's navigation bar is not customizable and you can't add your favorite Google services. Google tested a customizable bar back in 2006, but this feature was quickly abandoned.

Update: A few days later, the link to Google Reader is back.


{ Thanks, Karol and Kristian. }

Google's New CEO: Larry Page

Eric Schmidt announced today that Larry Page will become Google's CEO.

Larry will now lead product development and technology strategy, his greatest strengths, and starting from April 4 he will take charge of our day-to-day operations as Google's Chief Executive Officer. In this new role I know he will merge Google's technology and business vision brilliantly. I am enormously proud of my last decade as CEO, and I am certain that the next 10 years under Larry will be even better! Larry, in my clear opinion, is ready to lead.

Sergey Brin's new title will be Co-Founder and he will work on strategic projects, while Eric Schmidt will be the Executive Chairman. "I will focus wherever I can add the greatest value: externally, on the deals, partnerships, customers and broader business relationships, government outreach and technology thought leadership that are increasingly important given Google's global reach; and internally as an advisor to Larry and Sergey," explains Eric Schmidt, who became Google's CEO in August 2001.


Here's an interesting excerpt from Google's 2004 SEC filling:
We run Google as a triumvirate. Sergey and I have worked closely together for the last eight years, five at Google. Eric, our CEO, joined Google three years ago. The three of us run the company collaboratively with Sergey and me as Presidents. The structure is unconventional, but we have worked successfully in this way.

To facilitate timely decisions, Eric, Sergey and I meet daily to update each other on the business and to focus our collaborative thinking on the most important and immediate issues. Decisions are often made by one of us, with the others being briefed later. This works because we have tremendous trust and respect for each other and we generally think alike. Because of our intense long term working relationship, we can often predict differences of opinion among the three of us. We know that when we disagree, the correct decision is far from obvious. For important decisions, we discuss the issue with a larger team appropriate to the task. Differences are resolved through discussion and analysis and by reaching consensus. Eric, Sergey and I run the company without any significant internal conflict, but with healthy debate. As different topics come up, we often delegate decision-making responsibility to one of us.

We hired Eric as a more experienced complement to Sergey and me to help us run the business. Eric was CTO of Sun Microsystems. He was also CEO of Novell and has a Ph.D. in computer science, a very unusual and important combination for Google given our scientific and technical culture. This partnership among the three of us has worked very well and we expect it to continue. The shared judgments and extra energy available from all three of us has significantly benefited Google.

Eric has the legal responsibilities of the CEO and focuses on management of our vice presidents and the sales organization. Sergey focuses on engineering and business deals. I focus on engineering and product management.

It's interesting to notice that today's announcement sends Google back in time. 10 years ago, Larry Page was Google's CEO and Eric Schmidt was the chairman. Now "day-to-day adult supervision [is] no longer needed."

More Compact Google Search Options

Google used to group the options from the search sidebar so you can quickly find the filters related to location, visited pages and the different ways to present search results. All these groups have been merged and Google only kept the group that lets you restrict the results to recent web pages. Google also removed the "related searches" view which showed a list of related searches at the top of the page and allowed you to compare the results for different searches.

"Based on your search and the Google property you've selected, you'll see a customized list of filtering tools. We'll automatically show you the tools that seem most relevant to your search, so you won't always see all of these tools," explains Google. To display all the filters, click "more search tools".


Here's a screenshot that shows some of the old sections:

Esc to the Rescue

Google's search engine is already fast, but what if you could save more time?

Let's say that you've typed a query and pressed Enter, but the results aren't great. How to quickly delete your query and type something else? Press Esc and start typing the new query. Another option is to click on the small "x" icon from the search box.


If you want to add some new keywords to your query, there's no need to scroll to the top of the page and find the search box. Just type the words you want to add. Google is smart enough to insert a space since this key is used for scrolling.

This only works if Google Instant is enabled, just like the other Google search shortcuts and Google Instant shortcuts.

New Google Maps Navigation Controls

After more than three months of testing, the new Google Maps navigation controls have replaced the classic tabs. By default, Google shows a small preview of the satellite imagery and a link to the traffic layer, but you'll get more options if you mouse over "satellite" or "traffic".


Google lists the layers that are available (terrain, webcams, the confusingly named Buzz, videos, Wikipedia, bicycling, real estate, transit, 45 degree imagery, labels), including a list of previous searches and driving directions.



"When we launched Google Maps, we had one layer -- the map. Since then, we've added more than ten different ways to explore the world around you, including photos, transit and traffic information, as well as satellite and terrain views. We've now updated the design so that you can more easily see and switch between the various viewing options that are available," explains Google.

I find the new interface more confusing, but I admit that it will better accommodate the new layers that will be released. Until now, if you wanted to switch to the satellite mode, you clicked the "satellite" button and that was it. Now Google shows a lot more options when you mouse over the button and you might even forget what you wanted to do.

Gmail Labs Search

There are so many Labs features in Gmail that's difficult to find one of them. There's always Ctrl+F to the rescue, but you shouldn't have to use a browser feature for this.

To solve this problem, Gmail added a search box that performs some simple text matching and it's not another Labs feature, so anyone can use it. Start typing docs, chat, labels and you'll see a list of Labs experiments that match your keywords.


My favorite feature is that you can now link to a Gmail Labs experiment by adding /keywords to the URL: http://mail.google.com/mail/#settings/labs/apps search.

{ via Gmail Blog }

Google Chrome and the Beginning of Time

A recent Chromium build updated the message used for the "clear browsing data" section. The most impressive option lets you "obliterate the following items from the beginning of time". It's less boring than "clear browsing data from this period: everything", but users may need to use a dictionary and to get a sense of humor.


In other news, the tabbed settings page is now the default option in Chromium and this feature will probably be enabled in Chrome 10. The new settings page comes with a search box that lets you quickly find an option (this feature would be much more useful in Firefox, Opera or Internet Explorer) and a default page zoom option.

New YouTube Homepage

Last month, YouTube tested a new homepage with many useful features. The new homepage is now available to everyone. The list of new features hasn't changed, even though some of them have been slightly tweaked:
* Combined list - Merges your subscriptions, friend activity, and recommendations into one easier-to-scan list
* Don't miss a video - If a channel uploads 4 videos in a day, you'll see all 4 - instead of just the latest video
* Delete anything - Hover over any video you don't want to watch and click 'x'
* Or just grey it out - Videos you've already watched will be greyed out - so even without deleting, you'll know where you left off
* Help me re-find stuff I just watched - Your homepage will include your recent likes and favorites so you can easily get back to them
* Easy inbox - Links to your inbox (personal messages & comments) are front and center
* Load much more - Watch older videos - all without leaving the homepage


If you don't like the combined view, click on "subscription uploads" at the top of the page to only see the latest videos from your favorite channels. Unfortunately, the homepage is no longer customizable, so you can't hide the sections you don't use.

Google Project Hosting Adds File Editing

Google's service for hosting open-source projects added a new feature that lets you edit your files from a browser. It might seem like a minor addition, but it could be the first step towards a full-fledged online IDE.



"Perhaps you were browsing the code online from your Cr-48, or perhaps you just didn't have Subversion or Mercurial handy. Today the Google Project Hosting team is announcing a new feature for you: the ability to edit your source code files directly in the browser, in our online editor powered by CodeMirror. Just look for the 'edit file' link on files in the online source browser: As you edit, you can preview the diff of your changes so you know exactly what you are committing," explains Google.

The nice thing is that you can edit a file even if you're not a member of a project. After making the changes, submit the new version of the file as a patch, along with a description. If your patch is approved, your changes improve an open-source project.

{ Thanks, Aaron. }

The Good News About Android's Version Distribution

When you develop a product and use liberal licensing terms, there's always the risk that someone else will use your code to create a poor product. Maybe it will include a lot of unnecessary features, it will be slow and have a lot of bugs or it will never use the latest version of your software.

Android's goal was to be a common baseline that enables innovation in the mobile space. Convincing other companies to use Android wasn't easy and that's one of the biggest Google accomplishments. Not many people believed in Android's success three years ago and its adoption rate is still surprising.

Convincing companies to update their Android-based firmware faster is much easier. If users only buy Android phones that have the latest version of the operating system and constantly request phone manufacturers and carriers to update the software, then they'll work harder to improve their products.

Google has recently released some information about the current distribution of the Android versions and the good news is that 87.4% of the Android phones use Android 2.x, up from about 55% in July. 51.8% of the phones use Froyo, a version released 7 months ago. In only one month (August 2010), Froyo's share grew from 5.5% to more than 28%, after Motorola and HTC updated phones like Droid, Droid Incredible, Evo 4G, and Desire.


ZDNet says that "almost 13% of Android users are still running versions of the mobile OS that are several generations old and these users will never see Android 2.1", but this percentage is constantly decreasing. Even if they're using Android 1.6, that's still a much better operating system than the one from a feature phone and it still lets them use many apps from the Android Market. A slower update rate is a small price to pay for creating an ecosystem of heterogeneous devices that run the same operating system which is not perfect, but it's "good enough".

{ image licensed as Creative Commons Attribution by Google }

Abandoned Knol

Knol's homepage says a lot about the current state of the project. There's a big empty section called "what's new", a single featured knol that has 1,000 views, while the "most discussed" section doesn't include any knol and the search feature no longer works properly.

Knol has been last updated in December 2009 and it's obvious that the service has been abandoned. Somebody needs to close Knol before it's too late.




If you want to find a list of abandoned Google products, check the copyright notice at the bottom of their homepage and see if it's been updated. Friend Connect, Google Desktop and Knol still show an old message: "©2009 Google".



Update (one day later): Knol is up and running again, but for how long?

Google Docs to Add Preview Pane, Music Player, Collections

Google Docs code includes references to some upcoming features that could make the service better suited for storing media content. There are many references to a preview pane that will allow you to view more information about your files and even check the content without actually opening the files.


There's even a player for audio files, much like the video player launched last week. The preview pane will probably allow you to play music files from the Google Docs homepage.


You'll also be able to create playlists (here's the icon for playlists):


Another new option lets you group files from multiple folders in collections.


At the moment, Google Docs includes a small list of applications, but that will change when you'll be able to add third-party apps. That's why Google will have to add a new option for selecting the application that will open a certain file.


It's likely that some of these features will be available in the new Google Docs interface that has been accidentally revealed in a YouTube video.

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