Google has released version 3 of its Toolbar for Firefox, and this one comes with a lot of features IE users have been enjoying, as well as one pretty cool one of its own. The new Toolbar adds the cool custom buttons system, as well as providing access to bookmarks through Search History, the Send To feature that sends pages via email/SMS/blog, and lets you sign in to your Google account.
The new feature is an interesting one, tied into Google Docs & Spreadsheets. Now, if you have any file that you know Google D&S can read, you can just drag it into the browser window, and the Google service will open the file for you. This can also work when you click on a link to one of these files, or even when you double-click on a file in the filesystem. In essence, Google has made it possible to set a web-based program as the default for certain filetypes, making using D&S almost as natural as opening the same files in Word or Excel.
While I don’t use D&S, guaranteed there are plenty of users who do, and are going to love this feature, which basically divorces you from Microsoft Office’s programs entirely. I’m just hoping the same feature is being developed for the next version of the IE Toolbar.
(via the Google Blog and LifeHacker)
December 14th, 2006
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Toolbar, Tools, General |
no comments
Google has picked up another big ad partner: eBay. The deal will have Google run advertising on eBay’s non-U.S. sites, as well as introduce Google-powered click-to-call on all eBay sites. Yahoo will continue to provide ads in the U.S.. eBay will also start distributing the Google Toolbar with downloads of Skype, the Toolbar will add a Skype button, and the two companies will consider enabling Google Talk to Skype instant messaging.
August 28th, 2006
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Toolbar, Talk, Products, Tools, Advertising, General |
one comment
Google OS writes that Google and Mozilla have signed a deal with Real to distribute Firefox, the Google Toolbar and Google Desktop with RealPlayer, Rhapsody and RealArcade. Yeah, because Real isn’t bloated, and adding a web browser and desktop replacement / search indexer won’t make it an even more bloated download. Now, when people try to simply play a video in a format they wish they didn’t have to deal with, they wind up with a new web browser, the Google sidebar, a two-gig search index, Google widgets all over the desktop, and a new toolbar in Internet Explorer.
If you can’t stand RealPlayer, as many can’t (and this doesn’t help), your best bet it Real Alternative. It comes with Media Player Classic, a pretty good media player by itself, and runs the RealMedia codecs without Real’s bloatware.
August 14th, 2006
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Toolbar, Products, Desktop, Tools, General |
3 comments
Randy wrote a cute little utility that generates a sitemap for a website. He used the Yahoo! Explorer API to extract the URLs, so you have to be indexed by Yahoo! to benefit. But, if you are well indexed by Yahoo! and not well indexed by Google, then this is likely the utility you were always looking for. A limitation of Yahoo! Explorer API limits the sitemap to 1000 webpages.
Head over to his blog; click on the link, open the zip file and run the executable inside (requires .NET 2.0). Type the website address you want to create the sitemap for and click the Generate button. Either copy the generated XML or click the Save button to save the XML file to disk.
July 24th, 2006
Posted by
Coolz0r |
Yahoo, Tools, General |
no comments
From the Google Video Blog:
You’re watching this documentary on monkeys and then halfway through, this monkey does the funniest thing ever. So of course, you want nothing more than to share this hilarious monkey moment with your friends. Now, on Google Video, doing just that is easier than ever.
Now you can email links to specific points inside a video! All you have to do is add the time you’d like to share to the end of a video’s URL. We support hours (h), minutes (m), and seconds (s).
For example, Invisible Board is a 1 min 46 sec long video but I believe the coolest part is at 1 min 26 sec, so all I have to do is add #1m26s to the link I’m going to send to my friends! Just like this: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6396990712930217422#1m26s
Now that is a very cool feature. I’ve tested it myself and it’s really great! Two thumbs up!
July 24th, 2006
Posted by
Coolz0r |
Google Video, Services, Tools, General |
no comments
A blind developer at Google has built a search engine to prioritise results that are accessible to visually impaired web users. The Google Labs project, launched last week, has been welcomed by RNIB and its US counterpart, AFB.
From The Register:
Put a query into Google Accessible Search and a standard Google search begins. But before the results are presented, they are re-ordered to prioritise those pages identified as the most likely to be accessible to visually impaired users.
The identification and prioritising process was the work of recent recruit TV Raman, a computer scientist with a wealth of experience in accessible technologies whose stated objective is “to develop technologies that drive the future of the web toward eyes-free, ubiquitous information access.”
See it here: http://labs.google.com/accessible/
July 24th, 2006
Posted by
Coolz0r |
Culture, Services, Search, Tools, General |
no comments
Irvine Googleplex and AdSense Audio
Zachary Applegate of Plumber Surplus posted at SEOmoz a first-person account of his team’s recent visit to the Google offices in Irvine, California. Besides describing the office, which has the typical Google search ticker and a new Google Earth display, he also recounts their description of the in-development AdSense Audio system. Highlights:
- Most radio ad buys start at $20,000. AdSense Audio will let those with $200 to spend get in on audio advertising.
- Timing is everything. If a heat wave starts, AdSense Audio may switch ads from hot foods to colder foods, for example.
- AdSense Audio will target radio, IPTV and podcast markets.
Check out the interface they are currently using. It doesn’t look anything like a typical Google interface, and it looks great. Looks like a pretty cool visit. Digg it.
Google Analytics Gets Blog
There is now a Google Analytics blog, at analytics.blogspot.com (kinda surprised that wasn’t taken). The blog has a pretty cool look to it. Get the feed.
Google Toolbar Privacy Policy Updated
Barry Schwartz figured out that Google updated its toolbar privacy policy. The most significant change seems to be the removal of this section:
We do not associate any of the information that Toolbar sends with other personal information about you. However, it is possible that a URL or other page information sent to Google may itself contain personal information. For information about how some web sites embed personal information in web requests, click here.
That could be a pretty big deal. I’d like to know if things I do with the Google Toolbar are specifically associated with my Google Account, especially since Google lets you login to your Google Account with the more recent versions of the toolbar. This is the sort of thing a Scoble-type would probably try to answer for us…
Dell Using Google Earth For Tech Support
The Detroit News reports that Dell is enhancing its tech support service by integrating it with Google Earth. Customers will be able to see in Earth the status of their support requests, visualized as to their location on the globe. I hope Google has good imagery in India.
All kidding aside, Dell’s customer service has been crap for a while. First off, I don’t think Google would want to be associated with the next story of a Dell customer getting angry in a very public way. Second, I’m not sure Dell wants its customers to know the extent of their support outsourcing. Third, if Dell wants to improve its service, there are other areas they need to pay attention to first. This is purely a money deal, part of their deal with Google to promote Google products.
German Lawsuit Against Google Book Search Withdrawn
WBG, a German Publisher, dropped their lawsuit against Google Book Search last week, after being told by the judge that they were probably going to lose. The court said it was going to side with Google’s arguement that showing snippets from in-copyright books is no worse than showing snippets from websites in Google web search (an already accepted practice). Google would probably have been better off if the lawsuit had not been withdrawn, since that sort of ruling would have set a very useful legal precedent, one that they will have to prove all over again in the next lawsuit.
Google SketchUp: Now For Macs
Google just released the first Mac version of Google SketchUp. The Mac version is for the older PowerPC systems (no Universal Binary yet) and requires OS X 10.3 and an OpenGL graphics card. It also only works with the latest version of Google Earth (version 4). SketchUp is an excellent 3D modeling program, and will do a great job extending the capabilities of your Mac. Download it here.
Larry’s Pics Left Out There
Philipp found Larry Page’s Picasa Web Album. Turns out there are no real privacy settings for PicWeb, just “public” and “unlisted”, and unlisted just invites you to guess the URL. That’s not the best way of handling online photos, many of which people don’t want to share with the rest of the world.
Maybe I’ll be heading to a few people’s PicWeb collections and try seeing if there is a “xxx” or “nudity” album? Page’s photos were far more innocent, and have been removed, but hopefully this taught the Google founder that, in the future, don’t release products without some real privacy options.
July 2nd, 2006
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Googleplex, Toolbar, Blogs, Analytics, Google Book, SketchUp, Web Albums, Google Earth, AdSense, Tools, Advertising, Search, Picasa, Products, Services, General |
one comment
Wow, has it really been a week? I finally got an internet connection on my honeymoon, so I can finally blog for the first time in a week. Sorry, but I have been enjoying myself…
Two lessons about marriage: It is surprisingly happy, and surprisingly hard. You find these amazing moments where something fun or great happens, and you smile a little, and then you realize that the person that created that moment isn’t going anywhere, and you can always count on that. And there are moments were something difficult happens, and you realize you’ve commited to a lifetime of it.
It isn’t always easy, but, so far, it has been completely worth it.
Okay, so, how about some stories? I’ve got 12,000 Bloglines items, so time to get going…
Google And Baidu Split
Google has cut out of its 2.6% share in Chinese search engine Baidu. Last year, Google bought into Baidu as a way to ensure itself some sort of foothold in China, when there was no controversial Google China site and Google.com was getting blocked in that country. As Valleywag says, “Google finally realized that enemies don’t make the best bedfellows”. I’m not sure the investment was ever that good of an idea, and I hope Google at least made a few bucks on the deal.
Eric Schmidt’s Getting Married?
Valleywag also says that it is common gossip that Google CEO Eric Schmidt and his wife “are on the outs”, but they’ve also received a tip that Schmidt’s girlfriend Marcy Simon (a PR consultant) has been seen wearing a very fancy engagement ring. Not sure whether to feel sorry for one marriage, happy for the new one, but I do hope that, if it is true, Marcy talks some PR pillow talk to Eric. Google could use a wee bit more influence from PR.
Google News Now In Arabic
Aren’t you glad I didn’t devote an entire post to this? Yes, the entire story is in the headline. Oh, here’s a link to a news story, the Google Blog post, and a link to the service. See, I won’t waste your time trying to pretend there is more to say in this story.
Ah screw it: There are over 500 news sources. Ow, it burns!
Google AutoLink Patent
SEO By The Sea found a Google patent application filed in late 2004 for the AutoLink technology used in the Google Toolbar. If you like technical stuff, it explains how AutoLink works under the hood (it involves stripping out all the formatting and analyzing the content for words related to addresses, phone numbers flight information and other things).
Yahoo Sued For Google Ad Buy
The latest company getting sued for buying trademarked terms on Google is, surprisingly, Yahoo. Yahoo and three other companies have been sued by lovecity.com for buying keywords containing the term “lovecity”. The companies in the suit all bought ads on searches for lovecity, a dating site, in order to advertise their own sites. The case is clear-cut enough that all are likely to turn up losing.
Orkut Worm Steals Banking Credentials
A worm, targeted at Brazilian users of Google’s Orkut social networking service, was attempting to steal user’s banking credentials. The worm was aimed at gaining access to Brazilian bank accounts, since over 70% of Orkut’s users are Brazilian.
The worm, dubbed MW.Orc, primarily targets Brazilian users of Google’s Orkut Web site. It uses a message in Portuguese to entice people to click on a file that is disguised as a JPEG image, FaceTime Security Labs said in a statement.
The initial file, called “minhasfotos.exe,” creates two additional files on a user’s system, “winlogon_.jpg” and “wzip32.exe,” FaceTime said. When the user, after the initial compromise, clicks on the “My Computer” icon in Windows XP, an e-mail with his or her personal data is sent to the anonymous attacker, the security company said.
Additionally, the compromised computer may be added to a network of hijacked PCs, known as a botnet. The pest also tries to propagate by placing a malicious link on the profiles of people in the Orkut user’s network, FaceTime said.
Google reportedly had a fix within an hour, with work on more permanent solutions.
Marissa’s Notions Of Innovation
BusinessWeek printed Marissa Mayers’s nine notions of innovation. Naturally, Valleywag poked fun at all of them.
Can we please stop using “notion” anymore?
June 29th, 2006
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Orkut, Services, Google News, Culture, Controversy, Toolbar, Yahoo, Security, AdWords, Advertising, Tools, Humor, Search, General |
2 comments
In the latest Google Toolbar for IE, you can easily bookmark pages from the toolbar by starring it. Then when you write in the search box it will try to match up your terms with some of your bookmarks. It can also find matches from your search history. It seems to have a bit of trouble with partial matching, meaning matching what you write with part of a word. It can match the beginning of a word, and it can match part of a word that is a made up of a few words (like BlogNewsChannel). Results are marked with “Bookmarks” or “History” next to them, and separated from the suggestions below that use Google Suggest technology.
Your bookmarks are easily accessible from any computer and they can be accessed through your Google account here. I’ll be waiting for this to come to the Firefox toolbar. The feature makes finding bookmarks easier, though the word you are looking for must actually be in the bookmark. They don’t check for the theme of the bookmark. That seems like something Ask.com might be able to do one day.
June 3rd, 2006
Posted by
Jason Schramm |
History, Toolbar, Products, Search, Tools |
4 comments
The Google Calendar Data API has been around a bit, but it doesn’t seem to be well known. The API lets you interact with the calendar, querying it and updating events. If you already have an event database you can feed it to a Google Calendar using this API. The documentation seems a bit complex with all the features they detail, but it could make for a useful tool.
June 3rd, 2006
Posted by
Jason Schramm |
Calendar, Tools |
2 comments
Google has quietly updated their Internet Explorer Toolbar 4, announcing on the front page that it “Now supports IE7″. That’s right, ladies and gents of the early adopter world: You can now safely install the toolbar without having anything to worry about with Microsoft’s latest beta browser.
In addition, the toolbar has some bug fixes, and a slightly more polished look with some UI tweaks. Also, the toolbar’s bookmark feature can now import all your IE bookmarks, giving you a great way to get started building a Google Search History bookmark list, if you haven’t already.
To remind those who didn’t install the last beta, the big new features in this beta toolbar: You can add custom search buttons for basically any type of search that exists. You get a Google Suggest-type search box with deeper search suggestions, spell correction and search history. You can send pages to Blogger, Gmail or SMS.
The new Toolbar is 643 kb, 16k larger than the previous version of Toolbar 4, meaning they did some good fixes and additions, but pretty efficiently. The new version is 4.0.629.4924.
April 25th, 2006
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Toolbar, Microsoft, Tools, General |
no comments
Yeah, I’m clearing out some old tabs, don’t complain. A judge has allowed a lawsuit against Google complaining patent infringement in the Google Toolbar to proceed. Netjumper’s patent has something to do with retrieving information via a web browser, and I’d be interested in more details, especially why its Google’s, and not all the other search toolbars, that is being sued.
April 23rd, 2006
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Toolbar, Tools, General |
no comments
From C|Net:
An Internet Explorer update released earlier this week can interfere with some applications, including Google’s Toolbar, according to PatchLink, a maker of patch management software.
Other applications affected by the Web browser patch include business software from Oracle’s Siebel customer relationship management unit and certain Web applications that use specific versions of Java, PatchLink said Friday.
The problems arise because of changes Microsoft made to how the Web browser handles Web programs called ActiveX controls. The modifications are designed to shield Microsoft from liability in a high-profile patent dispute with Eolas Technologies and the University of California.
Read more…
April 16th, 2006
Posted by
Coolz0r |
Toolbar, Microsoft, Tools, General |
no comments
Perhaps sensing that IE7 is not so toolbar-friendly, Yahoo has issued an update to its IE5/6 toolbar that gives “Old Leaky” some tabbed browsing. There’s also a new version of the Firefox toolbar, as well as new “Add to del.icio.us” buttons. Gotta love that corporate synergy. Read more at the Yahoo search blog.
And yes, it’s “Old Leaky” for security reasons. Leave me alone. I’m not even really here.
April 14th, 2006
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Toolbar, Yahoo, Tools, General |
2 comments
It is a very easy thing for people to add custom buttons to their Google Toolbar (the Internet Explorer version). Well, it’s a totally different thing entirely to coerce your readers into adding your site to their toolbar. Thankfully, there’s a WordPress plugin that puts one of those neat triangles in the top right-hand corner of your blog that reads “Add My Blog! Google Toolbar”
With a come-on like that, who can resist!
Not me.
Dude, it was a rhetorical question.
Uh, sorry.
What is wrong with you?
Nothing.
That was rhetorical, too!
Well, I’m on vacation, but Scoble says I have to be part of “the conversation”, so I’m having one with myself.
Dude, you just totally ruined a perfectly good blog post.
Sorry.
I hate you.
(via Higher-Profits > Digg)
April 14th, 2006
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Toolbar, Blogs, Plugins, Tools, General |
5 comments
Who else but Philipp scoops you up with some screenshots and first hand thoughts?
- Seeing the big picture
With Google Calendar, you can see your friends’ and family’s schedules right next to your own; quickly add events mentioned in Gmail conversations or saved in other calendar applications; and add other interesting events that you find online.
- Sharing events and calendars
You decide who can see your calendar and which details they can view. Planning an event? You can create invitations, send reminders and keep track of RSVPs right inside Google Calendar. Organizations can promote events, too.
- Staying on schedule
You can set up automatic event reminders, including SMS notifications, and instantly bring up anything on your calendar with the built-in search tool.
Features
- Calendar Sharing: Set up a calendar for your company softball team, and share it with the whole roster. (Your shortstop will never forget about practice again.) Or share with friends and family so you can view each other’s schedules side by side.
- Invitations: Create event invitations, send them to friends, and keep track of people’s responses and comments, all in one place. Your friends can receive your invitation and post responses even if they don’t use Google Calendar themselves.
- Quick Add: Click anywhere on your calendar where an event belongs (or use the Quick Add link), and start typing. Google Calendar understands whole phrases like “Brunch with mom at Java Cafe 11am on Saturday,” and will pop new events right into your agenda.
- Gmail Integration: Add your friend’s Super Bowl party to your calendar without ever leaving your Gmail inbox. Gmail now recognizes events mentioned in emails.
- Search: Find the date of the Baxter family BBQ (you knew it was sometime this summer). Or, search public calendars to discover new events you’re interested in and add them to your own calendar.
- Mobile Access: Receive event reminders and notifications on your mobile phone.
- Event Publishing: Share your organization’s events with the world. Learn more with our Event Publisher Guide.
Check out Google’s Overview
Join The Fun
See Philipp’s review
C|Net has a video about it
April 13th, 2006
Posted by
Coolz0r |
Consumer Products, Services, Tools, General |
7 comments
Google has released the second version of its Firefox toolbar. New features are:
- Google Suggest-like auto-completing search box (previously available as an extension)
- You can now replace the Firefox search box with Google’s
- Phishing site detection, like IE’s Phishing Filter
- RSS feed autodetection, with the option to add feeds to your Google Personalized Homepage, Bloglines, Firefox Live Bookmarks, My Yahoo, Newsgator or Pluck
- Firefox’s mailto: links can open up a compose window in Gmail
Did I mention that I will always hate the way Firefox installs things?
I installed the toolbar, and it seems solid. Its good and customizable, and the layout options are a nice addition. The Google blog says:
As a dedicated Firefox user, I think that the latest version enhances an already innovative browser. Meanwhile, you IE Toolbar 4 fans may notice that the feature sets aren’t identical. That’s because Firefox and IE users have different needs. Rest assured that we’re working to get the most popular features in both versions.
Links:
Google Blogoscoped
Google blog
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
April 6th, 2006
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Toolbar, Tools, General |
3 comments
Gert told me Riya is open for signups. Riya will be unstable, s..l..o..w, buggy, inaccurate, and could lose some (or all) of your tags. It may also be unavailable from time to time and may slow down your machine while uploading your photos (they recommend you upload overnight). Riya is in beta phase, which means that they are all about learning from you to get better. Riya needs you to give them loads of feedback and give it often so they can improve over time. Riya is a Photo search engine that is best used on Personal photos of friends and family, not on public pictures you got from the internet somewhere.
Warning: Riya will only work if you
• Have high resolution JPEG’s with date and time from your camera
• Use digital photos of your family and friends not celebrity or web images
• Have many photos of the most common people in your photoset
• Don’t give it scanned photos, photos with bad lighting, or profile shots of faces
• They recommend you upload at least 1000 photos w/ full albums
Riya will take about a day to upload 4000 photos.
Requirements:
- 512 MB RAM
- Windows XP (Home/Professional/Media Center)
- Administrator Privileges
- Broadband Connection
- Pentium 4/Athlon/Centrino
- Internet Explorer 6 or Firefox 1.0.5+
Learn more about Riya
Read the Riya Blog
Use the backdoor signup and skip the invite-only. | Also on Marketing Thoughts
March 22nd, 2006
Posted by
Coolz0r |
Tools, General |
one comment
