Google Desktop Will Be Discontinued

One year ago, I wondered why Google Desktop is still available for download. Most operating systems include desktop search features and have support for gadgets, one of Google Desktop's built-in gadgets was broken and Google was supposed to encourage people to upload their files to online services like Google Drive Google Docs.



Probably the last post from Google Desktop's blog announces that the software will be discontinued.

Desktop has been used by tens of millions of people and we've been humbled by its usage and great user feedback. However, over the past seven years we've also witnessed some big changes in how users store and access their own data, with many moving to web-based applications. There has been a significant shift from local to cloud-based storage and computing, as well as integration of Google Desktop functionality (like local search) into most modern operating systems. This is a positive development for users and we’re excited that most people now have instant access to their personal information. As such, we'll be discontinuing support for Google Desktop, including all of the associated APIs, services, plugins and gadgets.



As of September 14, Google Desktop will no longer be available for download, and existing installations will not be updated to include new features or fixes.

Google Desktop showed that it's possible to merge two completely different search features: a Web search engine and a tool for searching the documents from your computer. Showing an OneBox with results from your own computer surprised many users, who wondered whether Google uploaded all their documents to index them. Obviously, this wasn't true, but the result was impressive. It's strange to see that Google doesn't offer an OneBox with search results from Google Docs, Picasa Web Albums, Gmail and other services that store your data.





Google Desktop's original codename was "Total Recall". Niniane Wang, a former Google engineer who worked on Google Desktop Search, has some great stories from the first year of developing the software. "Our team consisted of five engineers. We were a close-knit bunch. In the first 3 months, we hashed out what we would build, wrote 13 design docs, and implemented most of the features of the product. It was one of the most productive 3 months of my career."



Another Google product that will disappear is Google Pack, a collection of software recommended by Google. "Google Pack was introduced in 2005 to make it easy to download and install a package of Google and third-party applications that helped users get the most out of their computers. Google Pack was responsible for fueling 100s of millions of software downloads. A lot has changed in the last six years. Virtually all new applications and services are now on the web."



In fact, the list of products that will be closed is impressive: Aardvark, Fast Flip, Image Labeler, Google Notebook (all the notes will be exported to Google Docs), Sidewiki, Subscribed Link. There's a lot of cruft that needs to be removed and many of the things that made the old Google tick will disappear. It's the beginning of a new era for Google and the past has to be left behind to create a better future. Most likely, in a few months you'll realize that Google is a completely different company and Google+ is a lot more than just the name of a service. It's the new iGoogle, the new Google Labs, the new Google Desktop, the new Google Pack - the platform that will include Google's most interesting apps, will aggregate all your data and make it more useful with the help of your friends. It takes some getting used to.



{ Thanks, Stefan. }

Chrome's Spell Checker Gets Smarter

Just like Firefox, Chrome doesn't have a smart spell checker. It uses a dictionary and it shows spelling suggestions for the words that aren't included in the dictionary. Chrome's suggestions aren't always great because they ignore the context.





Google has an excellent spell checker that's used in Google Search, but Chrome's team avoided using it because of privacy concerns. It seems that Google changed its mind and some of Chrome's spelling suggestions will be obtained from Google's "did you mean" service.





A future update will "integrate the Spelling service (a.k.a. 'Did you mean') to a context-menu of Chrome so we can see the spell-check result retrieved from the Spelling service. This change sends a JSON-RPC request to the service in the background and updates a context-menu item." Even if the suggestions can't be displayed instantly, they're a lot better than the suggestions generated by Chrome. An even better idea would be to provide an option to spell check the entire text using Google's online service.

Offline Google Calendar

As previously announced, Google Calendar's offline mode started to be rolled out and some of you can already use it. Just like the offline Gmail, Google Calendar only works in Google Chrome and requires to install an app from the Chrome Web Store to enable an advanced permission for "unlimited" local storage (it's not really unlimited, but the app can use a lot more than 5 MB, the default limit). If you click the wrench icon and select "Offline", Google will ask you to install the app.





After installing the app, Google starts to save the events from your calendars to you computer. To customize the list of calendars that are available offline, click the wrench icon, select "Offline" and then "Offline settings".







When you are offline, most Google Calendar features are disabled, just like in the Gears implementation. You can't create new events, edit the existing events, search your calendars or print your calendars. You can only view some of the events from your calendars and RSVP to existing event invitations. Google Calendar doesn't even save all the events from your calendars. When trying to find older events, Google Calendar showed this message: "Your offline calendar only contains events from Jul 21, 2011 to Jan 5, 2012".





Google says that you can only use offline Google Calendar for one account, even if you use multiple sign-in. Google Apps users can try this feature, but only if the admins have switched to the new infrastructure. "To disable your offline access, click the gear icon and select Disable offline calendar from the drop-down menu. This will disable offline access and remove any data stored on your computer."



While it's nice that the offline Google Calendar is not a separate app, the offline mode is read-only and doesn't even sync all your events. Google should let you search, create and edit events and add support for other browsers.



{ Thanks, Scotty. }

New Features for the Google +1 Button

That was quick. After a few days of testing, the improvements to the Google +1 button are publicly available.



When you mouse over the button, Google shows a list of friends that +1'd the page. The same list is now displayed next to the button if you change the code and select inline annotations. This is the new default option when you generate the code, but not everyone will like it because it takes a lot of space. Google probably chose this option because you're more likely to +1 a page if some of your friends already did that.





The Google +1 button also lets you share a page to Google+. After clicking "+1", Google shows a box where you could enter your comments and choose one or more circles. Google shows a title, a thumbnail and a short snippet from the page. By default, they're automatically generated, but developers can explicitly annotate the page using the schema.org microdata or the Open Graph protocol, which is also used by Facebook. At the least, you should add a tag for the image that best represents the page.

Offline Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Docs

As promised, Google brought back the offline mode for Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Docs. The updated apps use HTML5 features and no longer require the Gears plugin.



For Gmail, Google chose the easy way out and tweaked the tablet interface. You can only use it in Google Chrome after installing this app from the Chrome Web Store. The app lets you archive and label email, compose new messages and read the messages you've received, but it doesn't have all the features from the standard version. The interface is more suitable for tablets, so this is more like a temporary workaround instead of a definitive solution.







Offline Google Calendar and offline Google Docs aren't yet available to everyone and will be rolled out in the coming days. Google says that the offline mode is built into the apps, just like the Gears version. "Google Calendar and Google Docs let you seamlessly transition between on- and offline modes. When you're offline in Google Calendar, you can view events from your calendars and RSVP to appointments. With Google Docs you can view documents and spreadsheets when you don't have a connection. Offline editing isn't ready yet, but we know it's important to many of you, and we're working hard to make it a reality. To get started using Google Calendar or Google Docs offline, just click the gear icon at the top right corner of the web app and select the option for offline access," explains Google.



I don't see the offline settings for Google Calendar and Google Docs in my account, but offline Gmail is disappointing. It only works in Chrome, it has a different URL (https://mail.google.com/mail/mu/), the interface is optimized for iPad and Android tablets and it's very limited. Hopefully, Google will add support for offline access to the regular interface.

Chrome's Most Important Feature

Ben Goodger, a former Mozilla developer who now works at Google on the Chrome team, thinks that autoupdate is one of the most important Chrome features.

Autoupdate is one of Chrome's killer features. It is magical because it continuously updates an entire development platform invisibly, frequently. Supporting it has driven how we structure our development processes. It was also one of Chrome's first features. Delving back into project history long before we launched publicly in 2008, the autoupdate project was one of the very first we started working on. The idea was to give people a blank window with an autoupdater. If they installed that, over time the blank window would grow into a browser. And today, some five years after our autoupdater started updating a mostly blank window that could barely load webpages, it is now an engine for delivering an incredibly sophisticated web technology platform onto our users' computers, which in turn allows web app developers to build amazing new online experiences. I have never seen such an effective platform update mechanism before.

Chrome automatically updates in the background and makes sure that it always has the latest features and bug fixes. You don't longer have to worry about version numbers, the list of features from the latest release and you can no longer decide that it's a bad idea to upgrade to the new version because of an annoying change. Extensions also update in the background and you're always using the most recent versions. That's a great thing for developers, who don't have to support legacy Chrome versions and spend so much time testing their sites and extensions. It's also a great thing for users, who can rely on a secure browser that has the latest security fixes and it's better protected against malware. They can also use the latest Web apps without having to worry about updating their browser.



Chrome's rapid release cycle works well because of the autoupdater. Annoying users with notifications about the new releases makes people delay updating their browser. Some of them will find ways to disable the updater and will continue to use an old version of the browser. Ben Goodger thinks that making the updater invisible is very important:

Chrome's autoupdate system is deceptively simple. I say "deceptively" because as a user it appears completely invisible, but really there are a lot of sophisticated technologies and processes that support it. The key point here is "completely invisible." We have made numerous improvements to the autoupdater over the course of Chrome's life, including one major change a while ago when we sped up the frequency of our releases from once per quarter to one every six weeks. But from a user perspective Chrome is still well.. Chrome.



I'll expand on invisible, because it's important:



The Chrome autoupdater works quietly in the background, never notifying you. If there's an update, it'll download it and prepare it so that the next time you start the browser it's the latest version. Sort of like how the next time you load GMail it's the latest version.

I think the autoupdater is the most important Chrome feature because it's the enabler for the other features. Ever since it was released back in 2008, Chrome has constantly improved, supporting new Web technologies, adding new features to the interface, new APIs for extensions and cutting-edge security features. Without a powerful autoupdater, many Chrome users would still have an outdated version and wouldn't be able to use them. Sometimes, removing choice can dramatically improve a software.



{ via François }

Google +1 Extension for Chrome

Now you no longer have to wait until your favorite site adds a Google +1 button. If you use Chrome, you can install an extension that lets you +1 any Web page. The extension is developed by Google and it acts just like a +1 button: it shows the number of +1's and it becomes blue if you've already +1'd a page.





An obvious privacy trade-off is that the extension sends the list of the pages you visit to Google's servers, but this information is not associated with your account. "Google doesn’t keep a persistent record of your browsing history as part of the process of showing you a +1 button or otherwise use the fact that you personally have visited a page with the +1 button. Google may keep some information about your visit, usually for about two weeks, to maintain and debug its systems," explains Google.



{ Thanks, Kristian. }

Google Trusted Stores

An unlisted video uploaded to Google's YouTube channel announces a new service for shoppers and sellers: Google Trusted Stores. The program "makes it easy for online shoppers to identify stores that provide an excellent online shopping experience," explains Google. The URL of the new service returns an error message: http://www.google.com/trustedstores, but that's because it wasn't officially launched.





It's likely that Google will show a Trusted Store badge next to the ads for the online stores that provide a great experience and have a good track record of shipping on time and providing excellent customer service.

Right now, Google shows an average rating and a link to user reviews:





Update: The video is now private.



{ Thanks, Ward. }

New Interface for Google Docs Apps

Consistency is great, but not when it makes an application more difficult to use. Google Docs tests new interfaces for the document editor and Google Spreadsheets. Inspired by Google+, the new interfaces remove all the colors from the icons and other UI elements, remove the Google Docs logo, add new scrollbars and a "Collaborate" menu that includes all the features from the "Share" drop-down.









The new grayscale buttons from the toolbar make it more difficult to find the right feature. They're are less intuitive, harder to distinguish and look like disabled buttons. Compare the two versions of the "paint format" button (the fifth button):





Unlike the new interfaces for Gmail and Google Calendar, the updated Google Docs apps don't use too much whitespace. You can switch to the new interfaces by clicking "Try now" in a small message that announces the changes when you open a Google Docs document or spreadsheet. To go back to the old UI, choose "Use the classic look" from the "Help" menu.



In other related news, Google Sites also tests a new UI:





{ Thanks, András, Louis, Thomas and Cougar. }

Google Indexes Images a Lot Faster

Google Image Search used to have an index that wasn't updated too often. At some point, Google started to include images from Google News articles, so you could find images from recent events.



Now Google Image Search's index updates in real-time for many pages, just like the Web Search index. A few minutes after publishing a post, I was really surprised to see that an image from the post was already indexed by Google.





A search for [cartoon] restricted to the past hour returns 41 images and not all of them are from news articles and blog posts. Google Image Search still doesn't index all the images as soon as the pages are indexed by Google, but the improvements are noticeable.

Slide's Apps to Be Discontinued

One year ago, Google acquired Slide, a company that developed third-party apps for Facebook and other social networks. At that time, Google mentioned that the goal was to "make Google services socially aware". Slide continued to operate as an independent start-up inside Google and developed photo sharing apps like Photovine and Pool Party. Slide's CEO, Max Levchin, became VP of engineering at Google.



New York Times reports that Max Levchin will leave Google and most of the Slide apps will be discontinued. A Slide blog post confirms that "in the coming months, a number of Slide's products and applications will be retired. This includes Slide's products such as Slideshow and SuperPoke! Pets, as well as more recent products such as Photovine, Video Inbox and Pool Party." Slide's team says that "many of these products are no longer as active or haven't caught on as we originally hoped".





A Google spokesperson informed the New York Times that most of the Slide team will continue to work at Google and many engineers will join YouTube. If Slide was a talent acquisition, then why Slide's team didn't work on Google+ and why popular games like SuperPoke weren't ported to Google+?



AllThingsD offers some answers: "Although Slide as an independent start-up had not matched its lofty expectations and valuations — at as much as $500 million in a 2008 funding round — its acquisition brought Google some key assets: Social Web expertise at a time when it was dearly needed, and Levchin, who famously founded PayPal. But that was last August. Since then, Google has entrusted its social efforts to two of its existing executives, Vic Gundotra and Bradley Horowitz, who led the team that created Google+. Levchin was left on the fringes with Slide as an autonomous subsidiary, reporting to Google co-founder Sergey Brin."

Google Calendar Grays Out Old Events

Google Calendar found a way to separate old events from upcoming events: old events are now grayed out. The interface also grays out future recurring events because it's likely that they're less important (this was an experimental feature in Google Calendar Labs).





If you don't like the new features, it's easy to disable them: go to the "Options" menu from Google Calendar's navigation bar, select "Calendar settings", go to the "Event dimming" section and disable these two options: "Dim past events" and "Dim recurring future events".





Google says that the brightness of these events is reduced "so you can focus on today", although you'll be able to better focus on the future, as well.



{ Thanks, Cougar. }