July 1st, 2009
Gmail adds drag and drop
One of the things people who don’t use Gmail have complained about since the beginning of the service was the fact that you can’t drag and drop messages. Gmail just added a new feature that lets you do that!
Now you can use your labels just like you would use folders — dragging messages onto one will move it there. You can also go the other way by dragging a label onto messages — effectively labeling that message, but not moving it.
I don’t currently have it in my Gmail yet — let’s hear if you have it and what you think in the Talk Back!
June 30th, 2009
Google fixes Outlook plugin for Google Apps
Google worked with Microsoft to patch up some serious issues with the first version of the Outlook plugin for Google Apps. Among other things, the first version of this plugin disabled windows desktop search, which probably made Microsoft as angry as most users.
The new version finally plays nice with things like Windows Desktop Search, and some other Outlook plugins that the first version conflicted with. This quick fix is surely appreciated by people who were affected by some of the problems in the first one.
Your Outlook plugin will update automatically with the new version — but if you dont’ have it already, you can find it here.
June 27th, 2009
HTC can't push out SenseUI to older Android handsets
SenseUI is basically a skinned version of Android that looks pretty amazing. It’s too bad the HTC Hero, HTC’s third Android phone, is the only device it can be installed on (almost).
HTC CEO Peter Chou said that Sense UI will be available even on older devices, but it turns out that exciting statement wasn’t quite what it seems.
Due to contractual obligations, HTC cannot push out this new UI on phones that have Google branding on them — that pretty much rules out all the existing phones in the US. Canadians, on the other hand, may be able to use the new UI, as there is no Google branding on their Rogers handsets — but I wouldn’t hold my breath for this either.
To make users happy, it would be nice if Google removed the restrictions that make it impossible for HTC to distribute their new UI to handsets.
There are other ways to get a better interface though — home replacements. aHome is one of the most popular, but there are several available in the Android Marketplace including Sweeter Home (lots of potential here!), dxTop, and Open Home. From what I can tell, these apps are currently only available in the US market.
June 24th, 2009
AdSense for Mobile Apps being tested
Google just announced a new beta AdSense program that allows developers of mobile applications for iPhone and Android. Now, approved applications can make on-going revenue with advertisements through AdSense.
Currently, it’s not open to just any developer — you have to have an application that gets over 100,000 page views per day. In addition to that, the new program is available only for free applications — thankfully double dipping isn’t allowed.
Applications accepted into the program are also locked into a 3 month contract, and must be implemented withing 4 weeks.
June 22nd, 2009
Google Street View images can now be "deleted"
Privacy has been a hot topic regarding Google Street View these days — especially in places like Germany, and Canada. The Canadian government has been balking at the acceptance of Street View — making sure all the bases are covered before giving a nod of approval.
On that front, Google has announced that in Germany they will obey requests to delete images from their server if requested. Previously, Google had said that maintaining an original copy of images was necessary, even it if was blocked on Google Maps.
This type of flexibility should help ease the privacy concerns, but it definitely will not completely eliminate them. What do you think?
June 21st, 2009
Google prepares to open up Google Voice
It appears that Google has reserved a million phone numbers from Level 3 for use with Google Voice. This is a very good indication that the company will be opening up its doors for business in the near future.
Google Voice will change the way you send/receive phone calls, listen to voicemail, read text messages, etc. When you subscribe to Google Voice, the only phone number that matters is your Google Number — it will forward calls/texts to the phones of your choosing by following certain rules around time of day and contact groups. In addition, it also has a wealth of powerful features that let you do things like listen in on messages and “pick up the line” on a different phone or device without dropping the call.
Google Numbers are currently only available for American area codes. There’s not much stopping you from setting up an account if you want one though — however, forwarding to foreign phone numbers simply doesn’t work anymore (it used to).
This extremely powerful service is free — even though it seems like a pricey venture that is almost certainly going to be losing a ton of money out of the gate. Calls to american numbers from your Google number are free — international calls do have a per-minute rate which you can buy credits for.
Do you have a Google Voice account yet? What do you think of it?
June 18th, 2009
Google Flipper on the way?
It sounds like Google is getting close to making a service called “Google Flipper” public in Google Labs. The service is still under lock and key — only people from inside the corporate network have access to it.
The service appears to be a new way to view news data — instead of seeing headlines and descriptions, you basically see a screenshot of the actual news article. Check out a screenshot of the new service at TechCrunch.
Personally, I would much rather use Google News at it exists today than something like this. What do you think?
June 16th, 2009
Bing posing a serious threat to Google?
Over the last week, we’ve seen a lot of buzz around Bing. More precisely, we’re seeing that Google is worried about Bing, and that they Sergey Brin has assembled a group of his finest Googlers to analyze Bing and figure out what makes it tick.
Is Bing really posing that serious of a threat? It’s impossible to say right now, but as Chris Matyszczyk puts it, Google may actually want us to think Bing has them worried. The story could have been propagated by Google itself, rather than from a leak.
If that’s what has happened, it actually makes a lot of sense. Google could be simply looking to change their appearance to regulators who are taking aim at the company, just waiting for the right time to declare them a monopoly. If Bing can make Google squirm, then is Google really that impenetrable?
What do you think? Make your comments in the Talk Back!
June 13th, 2009
Coming soon: Google's micro-blogging search engine
It’s been talked about before, but now there is solid evidence that Google is building their own meta search engine for Twitter and other micro blogging sites. Micro-blogging is emerging as an extremely popular way for people to share real-time information with the world.
For example, as you can see on my Twitter, I just got the HTC Magic — but do random people really care? I’m not convinced yet that searching through tweets like “going to watch drag me to hell!” (which are the vast majority of tweets) is really useful — though I don’t argue there are certain times when it’s possible to bring back interesting real-time results.
Hints of this new search service are popping up in Google’s translation console, which is where Google harvests voluntary human translation services they use to make their products multilingual. The phrase they want translators to do their magic on was the following:
Recent updates about QUERY. This is the MicroBlogsearch Universal result group header text. A Microblog is a blog with very short entries. Twitter is the popular service associated with this format.
If you look at the screenshot posted by Ionut, this appears to be a part of the main Google search engine rather than a service by itself. Let’s hear what you think in the TalkBack!
June 10th, 2009
Google makes an Outlook plugin to replace Exchange
So your organization uses Exchange currently? Your users are used to using Outlook to manage their mail, calendar and contacts, and they really like it. It’s simply not an option to tell your users to stop using a desktop client and embrace the web.
Yesterday, Google announced a new plugin for Outlook that seamlessly integrates it with your Google Apps account. Everything you would normally get with Exchange through Outlook can now be served up from a Google Apps back-end.
Google’s Enterprise strategy so far hasn’t produced much traction — and I’m pretty sure this new plugin isn’t a silver bullet either. If businesses find out about it, this new plugin may be enough to get some companies to switch from Exchange to Google Apps, but there are several larger issues that need to be addressed before there is any kind of mass adoption.
The main issue with using Google as a replacement for Microsoft Exchange is that you are at the mercy of Google’s uptime, and when it goes down, you have no control, and nobody to talk to — unacceptable when you have users calling to ask why their email isn’t working.
What do you think of the new plugin? Let’s hear what you have to say in the TalkBack!
Garett Rogers is employed as a programmer for iQmetrix, which specializes in retail management software for the wireless industry.
See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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