iGoogle has added a preferences page, letting you change your language, location, page layout, page theme, and click to share any Gadget on any tab of your iGoogle home page. The preferences don’t have anything that you can’t do from the page itself, though they do make things easier for users who may have trouble figuring out how to edit the page.
One obvious ommission from the preferences is the ability to remove a Gadget from iGoogle. Considering that it lists every single “installed” Gadget alongside a Share link, adding a Remove link should have been obvious. I’ve had tha experience of poorly written Gadgets breaking my iGoogle page and leaving it inaccessible, and an easily bookmarkable preferences page with the ability to fix my problems could have saved me months of frustration.
(hat-tip: Atul)
XKCD, one of my favorite comics (and so popular, a comic of its made Google Hot Trends) ran this a little while back:
Wei-Hwa Huang, Google’s resident award-winning puzzler, wrote a Google Gadget in about three hours that does exactly what the guy in the comic does. Here’s a screenshot:
And here’s the Gadget, live and in action:
I love how he’s implemented it, even implementing the punchline. Get the Gadget for iGoogle here, and add it to your webpage like I did over here.
As always, Google search is the big boy, with Google Images the only other vertical that performs spectacularly. However, strong growth in Google Maps and Gmail mean that the two have a shot of breaking out of the pack and joining those two.
In the third tier are Google News and Google Video, one growing slightly, one sinking slightly. Guess moving around Video and changing its focus every few months hurt Video, though not as much as you’d expect. The fourth tier has Books, Earth and Groups, which enjoyed moderate growth, Scholar, which sank 32% due to neglect, and iGoogle, which exploded and grew over 250%. iGoogle is Google’s success story for the year, which is great news for the struggling personalized homepage product category and Google’s Gadget developer ecosystem.
There are the also-rans at the bottom, including Blog Search, the Google Directory (shockingly still popular than many of the others), Google Talk (most neglected product of the year), Calendar and Finance. Google Product Search is Google’s biggest failure, losing 73% of its users from when it was Froogle. A year ago, Froogle had a good ten million unique visitors and a nice brand name, now it has maybe two million and two generic names. Google killed Froogle, and hurt itself badly with this one.
Missing from this list is another Google success story, Google Reader. This suggests that Reader, while disrupting the RSS market, is too small to make the list, or that comScore screwed up (since we know Reader had a ton of growth). Also: No Google Apps or Google Docs, no Blogger or YouTube or SketchUp or Desktop.
It’s important to note that, of the 17 Google products listed, the only ones being monetized are Web Search (#1), Gmail (#3), Google Maps (#4) and Product Search (to a very small extent). Not making any money are Images (#2), News (#5), Video (#6), Earth (for the most part), Groups, Books, iGoogle, Scholar, and any of the others. Google would love to monetize Images, News and Video, but the amount of content it doesn’t own in there makes it damn near impossible to do so and not get sued.
Here’s a crazy Gadget for your iGoogle personalized homepage (or the other places where such things can be added): Convert English to Yoda-Speak. Just enter anything in English, and it gets converted to backwards Yoda-language from the Star Wars movies. For instance, Lou Gehrig’s famous speech gets this line:
Today, myself, I consider myself, the luckiest man, of the earth on the face. Hmmmmmm.
And Dr. King apparently said:
Dream, I have, one day live in a nation, that my four little children will, be judged by the color of their skin where they will not, but of their character by the content. Herh herh herh.
Google and NORAD (the North American Aerospace Defense Command) are joining together to use Google Maps and Google Earth on Christmas to track Santa Claus as he goes around the world delivering gifts. YouTube is involved somehow too, plus there’s an iGoogle Gadget, and from now until then you can go to noradsanta.com to play a different Flash game every day. Today’s game involves playing Jingle Bells by hitting specific bells in order (pictured above).
Santa maintains a huge list of children who have been good throughout the year. The list even includes addresses, ZIP codes and postal codes. The list, of course, gets bigger each year by virtue of the world’s increasing population. This year’s population right now is 6,634,570,959!
Santa has had to adapt over the years to having less and less time to deliver his toys. If one were to assume he works in the realm of standard time, as we know it, clearly he would have perhaps two to three ten-thousandths of a second to deliver his toys to each child’s home he visits!
The fact that Santa Claus is more than 15 centuries old and does not appear to age is our biggest clue that he does not work within time, as we know it. His Christmas Eve trip may seem to take around 24 hours, but to Santa it could be that it lasts days, weeks or months in standard time. Santa would not want to rush the important job of bringing Christmas happiness to a child, so the only logical conclusion is that Santa somehow functions on a different time and space continuum.
Questions for Santa
As you know, this is Santa’s busiest time of the year. But if it’s really important, click here to send Santa an email. His elves, Chuckles and Buckley, will be sure he gets your mail!
Reads like a solid CIA dossier. There’s also a solid “Is He Real?” page.
Ionut Alex reports that Google Maps has added profile pages for users who create content for the service. The profile services are built on the same nameless platform Google Shared Stuff profiles are built on, and show reviews you’ve written and personalized MyMaps you’ve created. Check out his post for screenshots, or this video which explains it all:
Other new features I’ve neglected to cover:
Google Desktop 5.5 was released in beta, and it brings an improved Quick Search box, support for running multiple copies of a Gadget at once, and improved Outlook searching. It also brings a new ability: Google Desktop Gadgets can now run on iGoogle homepages. That means that the desktop Gadgets, with advanced functionality and the ability to access files on your computer (like playing music files) can run in a webpage and take advantage of iGoogle’s tabs.
If a regular iGoogle user tries to use a Desktop Gadget, they’ll be prompted to install Google Desktop in order to be able to use it. The version of Desktop they install will be a special, streamlined version that has only the Gadget functionality enabled, but none of the desktop search stuff. The advantage for Google is that all the rest of Desktop is right there and ready, should users decide to check it out.
Ionut Alex shows what a Google Online Desktop could look like, with a full desktop and windows showing your Gmail, Google Calendar, and other Google services.
Google Transit, a Labs service that showed public transportation on Google Maps, has been folded into Maps itself. Now, if you are in one of the five cities for which transit data is available (SF, Seattle, Portland, Dallas and Japan), you’ll get bus and train directions if you want.
And get this: YouTube videos are now available as a layer in Google Earth. Geotagged videos will appear as placemarks in Google Earth, and you can click them to watch them right there in the interface.
Oh, and Blogger Play, which shows a slideshow of photos from Blogger blogs, is now available as a Google Gadget, so you can install it on your iGoogle homepage.
Finally, Google Maps is now available as a program you can install on a phone running the Symbian operating system.
Google made two ad-related releases yesterday. First, it formally released Google AdSense for Mobile, letting publishers add ads to their mobile sites. The ads run off the server, not on client-side JavaScript (since most mobile browsers have trouble with JavaScript), and you get two ad units to choose from (one with a single ad, one with two ads).
As several blogs have noted, a problem is that the ads can only be shown on mobile sites, but not regular sites. If you have a completely seperate website for mobile devices, you can run the ads there, but if you just change your CSS for mobiles, that makes implementing these a lot harder. Expect to see them in a lot of iPhone “apps”, but not a lot of blog templates.
The other release was that of Google Gadget ads, which are a new ad format AdWords advertisers can take advantage of. It’s a rich media ad, that can contain anything a Google Gadget can, and thus have some very advanced functionality. Not only will these be used as ads, but they can be added to users iGoogle personalized homepages, monetizing iGoogle and expanding the reach of the ads beyond a display ad to something you keep and use continuously.
Google updated its webmaster tools console to show something completely unexpected, the number of subscribers your website’s feeds have in Google Reader, Orkut, and iGoogle RSS Gadgets. Google also added profiles for iGoogle Gadget developers, so you can see the top developers (in different regions, no less), and find other Gadgets written by developers you already like.
Google has put together a special tab for your iGoogle personalized homepage for the Rugby World Cup which started Friday in France. You can add this tab to your iGoogle page, merely by heading over here. The tabs let you follow live scores, see the scores in all games, hear cheers for your team, see fan videos from YouTube and see Google Maps satellite view of stadiums.
Google also ran this Doodle in a bunch of countries to commemorate the start of the Cup:
Google Labs now has an Indian version, which is showing off some iGoogle Gadgets that make it easier to search in other languages. The Gadgets let you type on your English keyboard phonetically, and have the Gadget translate your English sounds into letters in a completely different language. Read more about it here.
This is it, the second to last day of the Bourne Ultimatum Google challenge. Tonight, we will get the last clue and a chance to finish this long quest. Come by at midnight tonight to solve it here.
No sightings yesterday. Odd, but it doesn’t matter anymore.
Turns out Bourne was lying yesterday in his YouTube message. Shocker. You need to contact back Mustapha (IM: mouslelion, passphrase: Vive le Maroc) and run the Google search he gives you. Search on Google Images and you’ll find an image of a paper with a coffee stain (one that players have found earlier in the game).
The paper explains how to detect lies. You need to use it to determine which phrase Bourne used in the video that he was lying about. The clue is in the waveform analysis. When the waves spike, he’s lying. Watch it, find the phrase, and enter it in the message transmitter.
I’ve given up on the sightings, so I just chose Central Park, the U.N., and the spot in Brooklyn. Come back in eleven hours to solve the final puzzle together.
I’m in Atlantic City, so this is a few hours late, but I’m having a great time on my anniversary. Everything will be back to normal tomorrow. Also, I picked up another sighting on my camera in Madison Square Park yesterday. Problem is, I did the math, and if I get two sightings today, three tomorrow, and four the last day, that’s nine, and I have fifteen, so I’ll be one short. Looks like I’d better get out that envelops.
Today’s clue is contained in an altered version of the movie trailer, found under the deathly obvious name of “ALTERED TRAILER” in the video section of your control panel. There are two screens that flash for less than a second in middle of the trailer, one with a name that’s an anagram of Jason Bourne, another that’s a familiar saying from earlier in the game.
Bourne will give you a link to a YouTube video. Paste the link to the YouTube video into the Message Transmitter, and you’ve succeeded.
That’s it, just select your cameras. I used the same Madison Square Park one (he did say to stay put) plus the 5 West 37th camera, figuring he’d stay in the area.
I’m in Atlantic City with my wife, celebrating our one-year wedding anniversary, so here’s a post featuring a bunch of items I should have blogged weeks ago.
Google News Launches Image View
Google News launched a very cool image view, letting you track the news visually by looking at a page of images taken from the latest news stories. You see a block of twenty-five images, with headlines next to them, and an arrow to scroll through the list of headlines (you can navigate the list with your keyboard, even). A very cool way of browsing news stories, and a good alternative to the sea of text that is the regular Google News.
For the first time (of undoubtably many to come), a judge has cited a YouTube video in rendering his decision. The case is a strange one, with the judge so annoyed at perennial copyright abuser Leo Stoller, that in supporting Major League Baseball Hall-of-Famer George Brett, he invited participants in the trial to check out a complicated incident in Brett’s career.
As background, Evans included a description of what baseball fans remember as Brett’s famous Pine Tar Incident in a 1983 game against the New York Yankees over whether the bat was legal to be used. Brett’s home run was nullified by an umpire, the Yankees won, but on appeal to the American League his team got a second try and eventually beat the Yankees 5-4.
Evans wrote: “Baseball, like our legal system, has appellate review…It ended after 12 minutes when Royals’ closer Dan Quisenberry shut the door on the Yankees in their half of the ninth to seal the win. The whole colorful episode is preserved, in all its glory, on YouTube, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Cu1WXylkto (last visited June 6, 2007). See also Retrosheet Boxscore, Kansas City Royals 5, New York Yankees 4, at http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1983/B07240NYA1983.htm (last visited June 6, 2007).”
Ironically, Major League Baseball had the video removed by filing a copyright claim.
From Google Earth to Google Solar System
GEarthBlog points out a mod for Google Earth that turns the Earth into the Sun and adds scale 3D models of all the planets in the solar system, though not in their proper places. Watch this video to see it in action:
Google Docs Adds Readability Statistics
One of my favorite features I always turn on in Microsoft Word is to always show the readability statistics, which analyzes your document and tells you a bunch of things, like what grade level you write at (I’m not a third grader!). Now, Google Docs enjoys the same fun and useful feature, with maybe a little more depth. Click the Word Count button, and you get your Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, and Automated Readability Index scores. Then, you can spend hours criticizing your education!
Gadget Lets You Skin Your iGoogle
Not satisfied with the options for customizing the look of your iGoogle personalized homepage? This Gadget gives you a bunch more skinning options, including a built-in searchable directory of skins, a skin creator, and a way to submit your own skin to the directory. When it’s all said and done, you can wind up with a pretty cool look, like in the screenshot above.
Four days to go, and I picked up two more sightings. Can it actually happen? Probably not…
Anyway, today’s mission is the first in New York, the last city in the game. You’ll need to head back to Dater Notes, back to Nicky’s profile, and find one of her photos that holds the clue. Pretty much just copy the URL of each photo and plug it into the Image Filter until you get the answer.
Enter the location into the Message Transmitter, then place your camera. I’d say it’s pretty obvious that you should place the camera in the same place the location in the mission was.
The final week of Google’s Ultimate Search for Bourne is here! You’ve made it this far, time to close the deal. Day Eleven brings with it some nice news for me: Two more sightings, which means I’ve got 13 in the first ten days. I’ll need a major winning streak to get the requisite 25, but in theory, it could be possible.
The crossword puzzle found by several enterprising readers last week is now in play. My advice: Print it out and fill it out.
I’ve gotten everything but 10 DOWN (”To do each day”) and figured out what the Canada cross-out means. Comment below if you’ve got any ideas.
UPDATE: Oh for F’s sake! It can’t be that easy!
Jeez.
I went to the trouble of printing out the crossword puzzle, solving the clues, and the answer could have been solved by ignoring the clue alltogether!
Want to know how?
I hate doing this, but the answer’s too easy, and if you try thinking about it, you’ll definitely be wrong.
The end of the second week of the Bourne Ultimatum Google game is here, and I picked up two more sightings yesterday. Looks like my theories regarding the sightings are finally working out.
You need to retrace your steps from the previous two days to determine if Ross is a liar, and if so, present a more accurate rendevous. Considering that if he weren’t a liar, the answer would be the same as yesterday, you’d better assume he was lying, and work from there.
Damn, that was easy! Ross mentioned a location in London multiple times, and if you go to priceless.com, the name of that place is listed at least twice, and part of the URL! Three cameras to place today.
For my cameras, I chose Waterloo Station, the London Eye, and, on a hunch, St. Paul’s Cathedral, since it was mentioned in the Google Group.
Well, my hunch about the Priceless.com map paid off, and I’m one sighting closer to an iPhone.
Today, you have to contact Simon Ross again, using the username (CRUYFF74) and passphrase (don’t Silence the truth) from yesterday.
Simon leaves a message about a Tube station and a Google Group. The Google group has a map of the train lines, along with a major London tourist attraction that it right on that Tube line. Enter the name of that attraction in the Message Transmitter, and you’re done for the day, with another camera to place.
As for the cameras, I’m using the Tube map to place mine now. I chose Waterloo Station and the London Eye.
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Google is testing out a new un-personalized default design for its iGoogle home page in Taiwan and Hong Kong, hoping to attract users who have proven to be fans of the the Yahoo School of Home Page Design. This follows what Google did in South Korea a couple of months ago, adding animated icons there, yet another move to appeal to countries with sensibilities different from the U.S. and the sparse white space design.
The new design has five boxes in a neat minimalist (for this style) design, including one at the bottom in the center, featuring the same animated icons from South Korea. The five surrounding boxes are tabbed to include multiple features. One has Google Trends with seperate tabs for rising search terms, popular videos, popular images and some other set of popular terms. Another has Google News in five different categories. Another lets you access Gmail, Google Calendar and Picasa Web Albums accounts. The last has access to translation, currency conversion and a note-taking box.
Here’s a crazy Gadget for your iGoogle personalized homepage (or the other places where such things can be added): 
