Google Play from the cloud

somehow got posted twice... here is the original article...
http://webloggerdai.blogspot.com/2012/03/google-play-from-cloud.html

Google Play from the cloud

Google has introduced Google play.
This integrates the books, music, movies, apps and games into one: play!

Google can be regarded as a successful player in the apps via android market.
Given that one has amazon for books, itunes for music and netflix for movies, this has tough challenges ahead and nice future if it succeeds.

I think, if google can make platform independent items which runs on say chrome: for books, games, it should work out! (My dream tweet)


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Rewards for using Search

Bing search gives credit upto 10 a day [Link], for using their search engine.
For some of the search items, their results are not up to par with what google does (and there were rumors flying that bing was busted for stealing the results [Link, Link]). But, hey, they have reward for using it!

Anyways, on Feb 5th, I had an idea that Google should also reward people for using the search (Wrote it as a draft in evernote). In fact, it is not only people who benefits from the search, it is also Google who gets to learn about who is searching what and what is relevant. See the video


Well, today I learned that  Google is already planning to do so. They are planning to reward people for submitting their data of how they use the internet. $5 a month, upto $25. All one has to do is to install an add-on (or say a bug :P in their browser).

Follow the link:
http://www.google.com/landing/screenwisepanel/
 

Google+'s theme overhaul in Google system

Note how the google system has gone from nice sky-blue to "khaki-black" theme after arrival of plus.

 

I just can not keep myself comparing the red-blue versus black spider-man.

Watch how the black suit gives dark power to spidy.

It's probably me, let hope that there is no evil in going from blue to black (unlike in spiderman movie where spider man becomes evil-istic after going black).

Google Doodle celebrates Alex Calder

http://bit.ly/pRZKmD
In the wake the news of Oslo, I was trying to Google the foreign relation of Norway...
Usually I just press ctrl+T, ctrl+L and just type the search term I wanted... 

However, the google Doodle distracted me...

Usually, google's doodle mystery can be solved in a second by clicking the "feeling lucky" button with empty search. But not this time...  I had to poke around for few moments before the doodle would animate and flash what it was about:

I had not heard about him before http://www.calder.org/home/page/sitemap.html

However, I can definitely appreciate the creativity there!
I have to say this is one of the best doodle in Google search page... keep it up!
See the nice animated doodle in the video below:

Google + to eat Blogger after picasa

Well, in other word: the black nav-bar on the top is going to help Google integrate the google-services:  similar to what they did with picasa.

Google is going to rebrand the Blogger to Google-blogs.

SRC: http://digitizor.com/2011/07/06/google-bye-blogger-picasa/

This may be a good thing to do because picasa does not have the limit of xGB after being integrated into Google+ as a feature.
The best thing: everyone with google account will have blogs.

In the age of social media, the definition of blog has changed to status updates and micro-blogs. May be, that was what blogs were supposed to be, right?

Search everything and more ...

Google, where you can search for everything and more ...

Circlehack your Facebook Friends

One of the cool factor of the Google plus was the feature of circle.  Being able to group contacts in different circle was definitely a nice feature over the facebook (FB).

Few clever people thought of doing it the other way around.
Thus,  circlehack!
http://www.circlehack.com/

The app requires few permissions, looks fine.
Once you enable, you can add your FB friends in circle.
Although it is not the facebook product, circlehack provides one of the feature that facebook lacked in comparison to Google+.

Screenshot, click on the image to see bigger version.

There are few improvements yet to be done:

• One can add to the circle, but can not remove. Being able to modify the circle would be great.  
• Zooming into Circles (does Google+ have that feature?)
• Nice animation features of Google+ are missing. But is OK.

All of the comments above becomes irrelevant once I learn that it was an overnight project (phew!).

Informed via techcrunch
The source is available at:
https://github.com/voloko/facebook-circles

Google+ suggestion

I have a suggestion to Google+ (G+) developers.

I am sure that Google is listening to the community feedback.
The noise level must have been quite high with a lot of "great!" or "facebook killer" comments. Now that I have also seen few G+ related posts in hamrocircle. However, this post is not about great features of G+.

Idea:
The notification system of G+ is quite overwhelming (because it is new) and (a bit) annoying at the moment. The noisy notification was one of the thing which turned me off the Buzz. Currently, I have put a filter that filters every notifications from the G+.  There is an option to uncheck all the notification in the system. However, I recommend a solution that there should be an option to turn the daily digest for the notification.  This is not a new idea. Such option is available if Google Groups. I use that feature and is handy.

Abriged Email option in the Google Group.
Dai wonders if G+ team can copy that piece of the code into G+ system. 

Being able to turn on the daily digest in G+ setting will keep me updated, while not annoying me.  I would love that feature the best because I mostly like to read about the activities of my circles.

PS: I am sure that G+ is designed for lively interaction. There must be bunch of people waiting for a response to jump into it and go back and forth. I am suggesting the daily digest  for people who are interested in social interaction for educational purposes. Educating oneself about the good things the network brings. 

Google has not lost it yet!

Today's Online world seems to be dominated by the blue facebook button. Nearly all the pages seem to have the F button. Is Facebook going to be the ultimate name for internet?


Wait for it, google has not lost it yet.
Google has so many products it can combine and use. However, they are fragmented all over the place.

• Two years ago I stopped using picasa, as it was nearing the quota limit. Well, facebook has no limit I guess...
• Youtube is still the best video sharing site... it does have annoying advertisements at unexpected places. (I wonder the CTR for such video-ads.)
• "I signed up for Email in Gmail not for buzz"... that was my own feeling when I was surprised. Because myGmail was intended for Email. That scenario can be changed by promoting google account system.
• Google social toolbar for website can do so much more than like button of facebook... I suppose.
• Yahoo group will close down soon, Google group has to get the root before facebook group gets it.
• etc etc...

Now it seems that google is also trying to bring the products like picasa, buzz, gmail, search, youtube, and other google's services under one profile.
Let the Giants collide!!!

Inspired by:
http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/16/google-new-toolbar/
http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/17/google-social-search/

Google's Wave: came as tsunami... gone like ?

Google's much hyped wave has failed!
In the beginning, it was restricted to invited people... creating natural invitation pressure pool to pull people. Later, once people joined, people started to realize that it was not going to be anything like facebook killer or so. The projected height of the wave just proved to be a hype.
Finally,
In the recent blog post in Google Blog, they are saying that they will close it down by the end of the year.

Bye bye wave!
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/update-on-google-wave.html

Google Voice for Students ... faster invitation

Google has a fast lane for students.

To those who wants google voice and has student email address with .edu, get it faster.

http://www.google.com/googlevoice/students.html

I got one by not using .edu. It took more than two weeks. 24 hrs is fast, super duper fast.

Google street Map in 3D

Well, keep your 3D glass  handy. The day in which you will browse the web in 3D is not so far. I noticed that there is a new feature in google map, 3D view of the street.

Google Social with contacts: All your contacts are belong to us!

Log into google account and try this:
http://www.google.com/s2/search/social#sd

Here is a brief explanation...

Google Reader Play: A new stumbleupon

Google has a new Stumbleupon!

The name is Google Reader Play!

It is handy and makes you more lazy!

Try it!
http://www.google.com/reader/play/#stream

Related;
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2010/03/google-reader-play.html
http://www.pcworld.com/article/191284/hands_on_google_reader_play_a_beta_browsing_tool.html

Google bazziya

Google blinked?
My first impression of Google Buzz was already negative. Before I had barely started, I already had couple dozen people following me.  You know... cost/demand analysis. They made Google wave overly hyped and no one got it in the beginning. So, the demand went all over the place including Ebay. Later, not many used it.  Now not many people wants buzz. Why? Simple!!! many people felt that It was pushed to their inbox.
So, usual remark was that Buzz... a failed wave.

I believe, had they limited it to "invitation-only" for a month, the demand would have gotten high.
Many remarked that having buzz inside gmail was like sleeping in a transparent bedroom. It is not, but people felt insecure.  I believe, the same person who was die-hard seeker of Google wave had been turned off by that time. Tuning and tweaking the buzz came later.

Google, you came late this time!
People who had access to social networking site had already been engaged. Clinging is easy. Many people also felt lack of innovation in there... What was buzz all about? Google + twitter? Google + facebook?
Call it Gootter? Gwitter? twiggle? GoogleFace? or FaceGoogle?
Google, a leader in many respect, blinked and came late into this social play ground.

I tried it, before the end of 24th hour the network grew to more than my regular contacts.  I believe I am already connected to the people I wanted to connect. New connections are OK, However, to me it was just one more way to distraction. No! I already have enough distractions :)

Off the Buzz... not!
In anyways, I decided to go off the buzz.
I thought I had disabled Google Buzz... By writing last "Bye Bye" and disconnecting it.
But it was not!!!
Later, a friend in told me that I was still updating my status in Google buzz (But I was not, really). I looked into my public profile and found that was the case. This was because of the fact that it had pulled out stuffs from my twitter and connected sites.
It was like my ghost account. I am out of buzz... not!!!
Finally, after deleting all the updates (oh... they call it buzz) and disconnecting all the sites...
I am off the buzz.

Connecting Back will be easy... unless they close the back door
On the bright side... if I want to connect again, it will be quick. It will be like jumping at the middle of the party.

Google Pages Collapse into Google Sites

No kidding!
Googlepages are really going to go!!!

I am terrified by the fact that I had many things on googlepages being hosted as free place. They will all be gone soon!!!
Template components of bloggers and scripts... 
I liked it better than any other place.
:(
They are migrating it to googlesites
I have tried Gooogle sites.
Google Sites, for me,  is not very good as compared to googlepages. With the scripts disabled and fixed templates, I am not sure what is google doing with google sites.

Upload your files in Googleclouds thru' Google docs

I noticed that Google documents now allow a new feature of uploading the files into their cloud to access it later.
Moreover, it can also be converted into open-office format.

This feature is handy because I used to send the required documents to myself by Email in previous cases.  This way, I do not have to. Moreover, I can place them in folders. Easy!

http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2010/01/upload-and-store-your-files-in-cloud.html

Rings a bell?

This was invitation from Gmail team...

This was one of the exciting moment for me. The year was 2005.

Google URL shortner: http://goo.gl/

Yes, it is:
http://goo.gl/

More:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/making-urls-shorter-for-google-toolbar.html