Google Cloud Print has a new homepage with more information about the service, a helpful video and a list of products that work with Cloud Print.
"Using Google Cloud Print, you can make your home and work printers available to you and anyone you choose, from the applications you use every day. Google Cloud Print works on your phone, tablet, Chromebook, PC, and any other web-connected device you want to print from," explains Google.
It's interesting to notice that not many Google products integrate with Cloud Print. By default, you can only print documents and Web pages in Chrome using Cloud Print if you have a Chromebook. There's an unofficial extension that adds support for Cloud Print in Gmail, Google Docs and for some local documents. If you have an Android or iOS device, you can use Cloud Print in the Gmail and Google Docs mobile apps. For Android, there's an unofficial app that lets you print files from your phone using Cloud Print. For iOS, there's an advanced app that offers a lot of print-related features, including Cloud Print support, but it costs $9. Google needs to add native support for Cloud Print in Android and to develop an iPhone app for Cloud Print.
For more information about Cloud Print, watch this video:
{ Thanks, Herin. }
Google Tests a New Instant Interface
Google experiments with a new search interface for the desktop that borrows some ideas from the recently launched tablet interface. There's a big "Search" title below the Google logo and Google Instant predictions are displayed below the header.
The new interface looks weird because of the label that shows the number of results and separates the search box from the list of suggestions. Another issue is that Google Instant only shows 2 suggestions instead of 4.
{ Thanks, Bradley. }
The new interface looks weird because of the label that shows the number of results and separates the search box from the list of suggestions. Another issue is that Google Instant only shows 2 suggestions instead of 4.
{ Thanks, Bradley. }
Change Google's Search Domain in Google Chrome
If you don't live in the US, Google likes to think that the localized version of the search engine for your country is the most useful. That's the reason why it redirects you from google.com to google.tld (google.co.uk, google.fr, google.co.jp etc.).
I prefer the google.com version because it has the latest features and search results are a lot better. To switch to google.com and bypass the redirect, you can click "Google.com in English" at the bottom of the homepage or just go to google.com/ncr. The early versions of Google Chrome used to respect my choice and adjusted the search domain after a restart. Now Google Chrome no longer checks the Google cookie to see if I changed the domain and only determines the right domain based on my IP.
One way to solve this issue is to create a custom search engine for google.com, but the downside is that you lose the search suggestions. A better way is to edit a settings file. Here's how to do that:
1. Close all Chrome windows.
2. Go to Chrome's user profile directory (for example, in Windows Vista and Windows 7 the path is: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\).
3. Open the file Local State in a text editor like Notepad, TextEdit or gedit.
4. Find the two lines that include "last_known_google_url" and "last_prompted_google_url" and change the Google URL from "http://www.google.tld/" (.tld=.co.uk, .fr, .co.jp etc.) to "http://www.google.com/" or any other Google domain.
5. Save the text file and restart Chrome.
6. If you see an infobar that asks if you want to switch to your local domain or keep google.com, choose the second option.
This should works even if you want to change Google's domain from google.es to google.pt, from google.be to google.fr or any other combination. If you live in Portugal, but you'd like to use Google Spain and don't know how to change the country in Google Chrome, this trick should be helpful.
I prefer the google.com version because it has the latest features and search results are a lot better. To switch to google.com and bypass the redirect, you can click "Google.com in English" at the bottom of the homepage or just go to google.com/ncr. The early versions of Google Chrome used to respect my choice and adjusted the search domain after a restart. Now Google Chrome no longer checks the Google cookie to see if I changed the domain and only determines the right domain based on my IP.
One way to solve this issue is to create a custom search engine for google.com, but the downside is that you lose the search suggestions. A better way is to edit a settings file. Here's how to do that:
1. Close all Chrome windows.
2. Go to Chrome's user profile directory (for example, in Windows Vista and Windows 7 the path is: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\).
3. Open the file Local State in a text editor like Notepad, TextEdit or gedit.
4. Find the two lines that include "last_known_google_url" and "last_prompted_google_url" and change the Google URL from "http://www.google.tld/" (.tld=.co.uk, .fr, .co.jp etc.) to "http://www.google.com/" or any other Google domain.
5. Save the text file and restart Chrome.
6. If you see an infobar that asks if you want to switch to your local domain or keep google.com, choose the second option.
This should works even if you want to change Google's domain from google.es to google.pt, from google.be to google.fr or any other combination. If you live in Portugal, but you'd like to use Google Spain and don't know how to change the country in Google Chrome, this trick should be helpful.
Google's Expanded Sitelinks
After a few months of testing bigger sitelinks, Google launched the new feature. Sitelinks are displayed below some of the results and they're usually related pages from the same site. "The links (...) are meant to help users navigate your site. Our systems analyze the link structure of your site to find shortcuts that will save users time and allow them to quickly find the information they're looking for," explains Google.
Until now, Google displayed up to 8 sitelinks and only included page titles. The updated sitelinks look like regular results, since Google also shows small snippets and their URLs. Google now shows up to 12 expanded sitelinks, but you'll still see the regular sitelinks for some of the results. I think that Google shows too many sitelinks, the snippets aren't useful because they're too short and the titles are good enough.
Google still shows compact sitelinks for YouTube and Amazon:
Barry Schwartz thinks that the new "jumbo" sitelinks "take up most of the Google's search results real estate. Good for online reputation management, but not too great for others who want to rank well for those brand names."
Unfortunately, they take up a lot of space without offering too much value. While it's useful to see links for Apple Support and iTunes when you search for [Apple], some people might want to read Apple news or Wikipedia's article about Apple and they have to scroll down to realize that there are results from other domains than apple.com. The new sitelinks partly address the problem created last year, when Google decided to show a large number of results from a domain "for queries that indicate a strong user interest in a particular domain". The expanded sitelinks combine the old sitelinks with the other results from the same site, while removing the overlapping results.
Until now, Google displayed up to 8 sitelinks and only included page titles. The updated sitelinks look like regular results, since Google also shows small snippets and their URLs. Google now shows up to 12 expanded sitelinks, but you'll still see the regular sitelinks for some of the results. I think that Google shows too many sitelinks, the snippets aren't useful because they're too short and the titles are good enough.
Google still shows compact sitelinks for YouTube and Amazon:
Barry Schwartz thinks that the new "jumbo" sitelinks "take up most of the Google's search results real estate. Good for online reputation management, but not too great for others who want to rank well for those brand names."
Unfortunately, they take up a lot of space without offering too much value. While it's useful to see links for Apple Support and iTunes when you search for [Apple], some people might want to read Apple news or Wikipedia's article about Apple and they have to scroll down to realize that there are results from other domains than apple.com. The new sitelinks partly address the problem created last year, when Google decided to show a large number of results from a domain "for queries that indicate a strong user interest in a particular domain". The expanded sitelinks combine the old sitelinks with the other results from the same site, while removing the overlapping results.
Google Highlights Pages that Include Search Results
Some think that search engines shouldn't index pages that include search results. Why clutter the results with pages that show another list of results when you could send users to the most relevant pages?
In some cases, search results pages are useful, but it's a good idea to know in advance that a page only includes search results. Google started to show a label like "Matches 1-50 of 100", "Results 1-24 of 56" or "33 results" next to the snippets. For example, an Amazon page that includes a list of Star Wars-related products shows this label.
Another example is a store that sells games:
In some cases, search results pages are useful, but it's a good idea to know in advance that a page only includes search results. Google started to show a label like "Matches 1-50 of 100", "Results 1-24 of 56" or "33 results" next to the snippets. For example, an Amazon page that includes a list of Star Wars-related products shows this label.
Another example is a store that sells games:
New Ways to Access Your Bookmarks in Google Chrome
The latest Chrome Dev Channel builds removed the bookmarks bar from the new tab page and updated the new tab page to include a bookmarks section. Right now, Chrome only shows a placeholder: "Bookmarks coming soon", but this should change in the upcoming releases. The updated new tab page now includes multiple screens for apps, most visited pages and bookmarks.
Until the bookmarks section is created, you can find your bookmarks in Chrome's menu.
There's also the bookmarks manager and the Omnibox, which suggests relevant bookmarks when you start typing a URL or some words from the title. You can still enable the bookmarks bar (Ctrl+Shift+B), but it will always be visible until you disable it.
Chrome's updated new tab page is inspired by mobile operating systems like iOS and Android. You can create multiple screens for apps and the most visited sites, remove sites and apps by dragging them to the trash and transform sites into apps using drag and drop. The new tab page uses dynamic icons that are resized to match the window's size.
{ Thanks, Cougar. }
Until the bookmarks section is created, you can find your bookmarks in Chrome's menu.
There's also the bookmarks manager and the Omnibox, which suggests relevant bookmarks when you start typing a URL or some words from the title. You can still enable the bookmarks bar (Ctrl+Shift+B), but it will always be visible until you disable it.
Chrome's updated new tab page is inspired by mobile operating systems like iOS and Android. You can create multiple screens for apps and the most visited sites, remove sites and apps by dragging them to the trash and transform sites into apps using drag and drop. The new tab page uses dynamic icons that are resized to match the window's size.
{ Thanks, Cougar. }
What's Next for Google Labs Projects?
There are three kinds of Google Labs projects: those that will continue to exist as standalone products, those that will become features and those that will be discontinued. Google Labs will no longer exist and it's sad to see so many useful services disappear.
Google Scribe will continue to exist as a Blogger feature, but you'll only find it in Blogger in Draft right now. Scribe will probably be added to Google Docs, Gmail and other Google services.
Google Squared will be discontinued next month, but the technology will continue to be used in Google Search. "As part of phasing out of Google Labs, Google Squared will be shut down on September 5, 2011. Any saved Squares will be deleted. We will continue to use Google Squared technology to improve search, as we have already done with question answering and related searches. We hope that you have enjoyed using Google Squared as much as we enjoyed building it," explains Google.
Another cool service that will be shut down is Image Swirl, a clever way to organize image search results and find related images. "We will continue research on innovative methods to organize and navigate images as part of Google Images," promises Google.
App Inventor, the service that allowed you to quickly build simple Android apps, will be discontinued as a Google product and will be open sourced. "Because of App Inventor's success in the education space, we are exploring opportunities to support the educational use of App Inventor on an open source platform. As a result of these changes App Inventor will be available through the end of the year but users should expect the current App Inventor URL, appinventor.googlelabs.com, to change sometime in the next 90 days."
Google will also close Script Converter ("a product that allows the user to read a web page in a script of their choice"), Google Talk Guru (a chat bot that answered simple questions), Breadcrumb ("an easy-to-use mobile learning application without any programming experience") and Sputnik ("a JavaScript conformance test suite").
Google still has to decide if Code Search, Google Mars, Google Sets, Google Moderator, Shared Spaces, Aardvark, Google Body, Google Correlate, Google Transliterate or City Tours will continue to exist. I suspect that most services will disappear or they'll be open sourced.
Google Labs was the place where you could find small tools that solved interesting problems. Google Sets will never be a full-fledged Google service, but it's a very useful tool for generating lists of words from a category. While the Google Sets technology will continue to be used in Google Search, it's likely that Google Sets will no longer exist.
"At Google, we believe in launching early and often and Labs takes that philosophy to the max. The projects in Labs are intended to showcase some of our cool and wacky ideas but are not intended to be full-blown Google products. Labs experiments may be unavailable or be even removed without notice and you may not be able to access any of your data. We recommend that you not use sensitive information in a Labs experiment. Google Labs is our playground. We try to keep it safe and orderly, but still keep it informal and, above all, fun." (Google Labs FAQ)
Google will continue to launch experimental features, like Hotel Finder, but they'll be integrated into bigger services instead of stagnating in Google Labs.
Google Scribe will continue to exist as a Blogger feature, but you'll only find it in Blogger in Draft right now. Scribe will probably be added to Google Docs, Gmail and other Google services.
Google Squared will be discontinued next month, but the technology will continue to be used in Google Search. "As part of phasing out of Google Labs, Google Squared will be shut down on September 5, 2011. Any saved Squares will be deleted. We will continue to use Google Squared technology to improve search, as we have already done with question answering and related searches. We hope that you have enjoyed using Google Squared as much as we enjoyed building it," explains Google.
Another cool service that will be shut down is Image Swirl, a clever way to organize image search results and find related images. "We will continue research on innovative methods to organize and navigate images as part of Google Images," promises Google.
App Inventor, the service that allowed you to quickly build simple Android apps, will be discontinued as a Google product and will be open sourced. "Because of App Inventor's success in the education space, we are exploring opportunities to support the educational use of App Inventor on an open source platform. As a result of these changes App Inventor will be available through the end of the year but users should expect the current App Inventor URL, appinventor.googlelabs.com, to change sometime in the next 90 days."
Google will also close Script Converter ("a product that allows the user to read a web page in a script of their choice"), Google Talk Guru (a chat bot that answered simple questions), Breadcrumb ("an easy-to-use mobile learning application without any programming experience") and Sputnik ("a JavaScript conformance test suite").
Google still has to decide if Code Search, Google Mars, Google Sets, Google Moderator, Shared Spaces, Aardvark, Google Body, Google Correlate, Google Transliterate or City Tours will continue to exist. I suspect that most services will disappear or they'll be open sourced.
Google Labs was the place where you could find small tools that solved interesting problems. Google Sets will never be a full-fledged Google service, but it's a very useful tool for generating lists of words from a category. While the Google Sets technology will continue to be used in Google Search, it's likely that Google Sets will no longer exist.
"At Google, we believe in launching early and often and Labs takes that philosophy to the max. The projects in Labs are intended to showcase some of our cool and wacky ideas but are not intended to be full-blown Google products. Labs experiments may be unavailable or be even removed without notice and you may not be able to access any of your data. We recommend that you not use sensitive information in a Labs experiment. Google Labs is our playground. We try to keep it safe and orderly, but still keep it informal and, above all, fun." (Google Labs FAQ)
Google will continue to launch experimental features, like Hotel Finder, but they'll be integrated into bigger services instead of stagnating in Google Labs.
Show Fewer Gmail Conversations
If you've ever wanted to see less than 25 conversations on a page in Gmail, you'll be glad to know that it's now possible to do that. Just go to Gmail's settings page and select 10, 15 or 20 from the drop-down "Show [x] conversations per page". Until now, the only options were 25, 50 and 100.
The new options are useful if you don't receive too many messages or if you want to improve Gmail's performance. Gmail loads a lot faster if it only has to fetch 10 conversations instead of 25.
{ Thanks, Herin. }
The new options are useful if you don't receive too many messages or if you want to improve Gmail's performance. Gmail loads a lot faster if it only has to fetch 10 conversations instead of 25.
{ Thanks, Herin. }
Chromebooks Could Automatically Delete User Data
The latest Chrome for Chrome OS Dev Channel release (14.0.835.87) added a warning at the bottom of the file manager which informs users that "these files are temporary and may be automatically deleted to free up disk space".
The warning links to a page that provides more details: "Your browsing data is automatically deleted if your Chromebook is running low on space. If additional space is needed, non-owner profiles that have not been accessed for more than 3 months may be erased (including downloaded files)."
In Chrome OS, the owner is the first user who logged in using a Google account. He's the only user who can restrict sign-in access or switch to the beta/dev channels. Regular users don't have these permissions, but they can save files. Google's warning informs users that these files are temporary and they could be automatically deleted if the accounts are rarely used. Google recommends users to upload the files to Google Docs or another "web-based storage application", but it would be a much better idea to add a new feature that automatically saves files to Google Docs.
Chromebooks include a 16GB SSD that's mostly used to store system files and cached user files. User data is encrypted and some of the data is automatically synchronized (preferences, bookmarks, extensions, apps, passwords). To reclaim disk space, Chrome OS can always delete discardable data like browser cache, so it's unlikely that important user files are removed first.
{ Thanks, Cougar. }
The warning links to a page that provides more details: "Your browsing data is automatically deleted if your Chromebook is running low on space. If additional space is needed, non-owner profiles that have not been accessed for more than 3 months may be erased (including downloaded files)."
In Chrome OS, the owner is the first user who logged in using a Google account. He's the only user who can restrict sign-in access or switch to the beta/dev channels. Regular users don't have these permissions, but they can save files. Google's warning informs users that these files are temporary and they could be automatically deleted if the accounts are rarely used. Google recommends users to upload the files to Google Docs or another "web-based storage application", but it would be a much better idea to add a new feature that automatically saves files to Google Docs.
Chromebooks include a 16GB SSD that's mostly used to store system files and cached user files. User data is encrypted and some of the data is automatically synchronized (preferences, bookmarks, extensions, apps, passwords). To reclaim disk space, Chrome OS can always delete discardable data like browser cache, so it's unlikely that important user files are removed first.
{ Thanks, Cougar. }
Google's Experimental Sign-in Pages
It's probably the first time when Google tests a new sign-in page by asking users to try it. If you go to Gmail and you aren't logged in, you should see a message at the bottom of the page: "Coming soon: A new sign-in page! Preview it." When you click "Preview it", you'll see a new sign-in page that uses the Google+ design.
If you opt-in to the new interface, the sign-in pages for Google Docs, Google Reader and all the other Google services will also change. "For a limited time, you can switch back to the old version of the sign-in page by clicking the link at the bottom of the page. However, eventually this change will be permanent and you will not be able to switch to the old look," informs Google.
For reference, here's the soon-to-be-deprecated interface:
The new input boxes are a lot bigger: you can type 31 characters in the username box and they're still visible. In the old interface, only 20 characters from the username were visible at a time.
{ Thanks, Herin and Evan. }
If you opt-in to the new interface, the sign-in pages for Google Docs, Google Reader and all the other Google services will also change. "For a limited time, you can switch back to the old version of the sign-in page by clicking the link at the bottom of the page. However, eventually this change will be permanent and you will not be able to switch to the old look," informs Google.
For reference, here's the soon-to-be-deprecated interface:
The new input boxes are a lot bigger: you can type 31 characters in the username box and they're still visible. In the old interface, only 20 characters from the username were visible at a time.
{ Thanks, Herin and Evan. }
Google+ Games
6 weeks after the Google+ launch, the project received a major upgrade and added social games. "Games in Google+ are there when you want them and gone when you don't. When you're ready to play, the Games page is waiting — click the games button at the top of your stream. You can see the latest game updates from your circles, browse the invites you've received and check out games that people you know have played recently. The Games page is also where your game accomplishments will appear."
The nice thing is that game updates don't clutter your main stream, but this also means that the stream will no longer be comprehensive and it will be difficult for a game to become popular in a short amount of time.
For now, there's a small number of games from companies like Zynga, Rovio (Angry Birds), PopCap Games and it's interesting to see that the games APIs aren't publicly available. "We chose to start with a small number of partners so that we could experiment, get the kinks out of our APIs, and get real end-user feedback before opening up to the world. (...) Because we want to provide both a great user experience and a great developer experience, we're focusing on quality before quantity. We will continue to add new partners and new features in small steps, starting with today's release of the games APIs to a small number of developers," explains Google.
Games aren't available to all Google+ users because the feature is slowly rolled out. When you see a new tab at the top of the page, next to the search box, you should be able to play games.
Google+ games are social. When you play a game, you can share updates with your circles, buy virtual goods, send gifts, invite your friends. "Additionally, a game may involve multiple players in a single match (such as a poker table). In these situations, the other players in the room can see and interact with each other during gameplay. Some games allow you to partner up with (or work against) another player, such as a neighbor, ally, or an enemy/rival. These games use your circles to suggest people to interact with. You could show up as a suggestion to another player to become an ally or to challenge," mentions Google.
Forbes reports that Google charges a 5% fee to developers for virtual goods transactions. "With this much lower fee to attract developers, Google is going after Facebook, which takes a 30% cut from developers for using its required Facebook Credits virtual currency system."
The nice thing is that game updates don't clutter your main stream, but this also means that the stream will no longer be comprehensive and it will be difficult for a game to become popular in a short amount of time.
For now, there's a small number of games from companies like Zynga, Rovio (Angry Birds), PopCap Games and it's interesting to see that the games APIs aren't publicly available. "We chose to start with a small number of partners so that we could experiment, get the kinks out of our APIs, and get real end-user feedback before opening up to the world. (...) Because we want to provide both a great user experience and a great developer experience, we're focusing on quality before quantity. We will continue to add new partners and new features in small steps, starting with today's release of the games APIs to a small number of developers," explains Google.
Games aren't available to all Google+ users because the feature is slowly rolled out. When you see a new tab at the top of the page, next to the search box, you should be able to play games.
Google+ games are social. When you play a game, you can share updates with your circles, buy virtual goods, send gifts, invite your friends. "Additionally, a game may involve multiple players in a single match (such as a poker table). In these situations, the other players in the room can see and interact with each other during gameplay. Some games allow you to partner up with (or work against) another player, such as a neighbor, ally, or an enemy/rival. These games use your circles to suggest people to interact with. You could show up as a suggestion to another player to become an ally or to challenge," mentions Google.
Forbes reports that Google charges a 5% fee to developers for virtual goods transactions. "With this much lower fee to attract developers, Google is going after Facebook, which takes a 30% cut from developers for using its required Facebook Credits virtual currency system."
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