The new interface looks weird because of the label that shows the number of results and separates the search box from the list of suggestions. Another issue is that Google Instant only shows 2 suggestions instead of 4.
{ Thanks, Bradley. }
Sabtu, 13 Agustus 2011
Google Tests a New Instant Interface
Google experiments with a new search interface for the desktop that borrows some ideas from the recently launched tablet interface. There's a big "Search" title below the Google logo and Google Instant predictions are displayed below the header.
The new interface looks weird because of the label that shows the number of results and separates the search box from the list of suggestions. Another issue is that Google Instant only shows 2 suggestions instead of 4.
{ Thanks, Bradley. }
The new interface looks weird because of the label that shows the number of results and separates the search box from the list of suggestions. Another issue is that Google Instant only shows 2 suggestions instead of 4.
{ Thanks, Bradley. }
Change Google's Search Domain in Google Chrome
Update (July 2013): There's a better trick that also works in Chrome for Android and iOS.
If you don't live in the US, Google likes to think that the localized version of the search engine for your country is the most useful. That's the reason why it redirects you from google.com to google.tld (google.co.uk, google.fr, google.co.jp etc.).
I prefer the google.com version because it has the latest features and search results are a lot better. To switch to google.com and bypass the redirect, you can click "Google.com in English" at the bottom of the homepage or just go to google.com/ncr. The early versions of Google Chrome used to respect my choice and adjusted the search domain after a restart. Now Google Chrome no longer checks the Google cookie to see if I changed the domain and only determines the right domain based on my IP.
One way to solve this issue is to create a custom search engine for google.com, but the downside is that you lose the search suggestions. A better way is to edit a settings file. Here's how to do that:
1. Close all Chrome windows.
2. Go to Chrome's user profile directory (for example, in Windows Vista and Windows 7 the path is: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\).
3. Click the Default directory and open the file Preferences in a text editor like Notepad, TextEdit or gedit.
4. Find the two lines that include "last_known_google_url" and "last_prompted_google_url" and change the Google URL from "http://www.google.tld/" (.tld=.co.uk, .fr, .co.jp etc.) to "http://www.google.com/" or any other Google domain.
5. Save the text file and restart Chrome.
6. If you see an infobar that asks if you want to switch to your local domain or keep google.com, choose the second option.
This should work even if you want to change Google's domain from google.es to google.pt, from google.be to google.fr or any other combination. If you live in Portugal, but you'd like to use Google Spain and don't know how to change the country in Google Chrome, this trick should be helpful.
If you don't live in the US, Google likes to think that the localized version of the search engine for your country is the most useful. That's the reason why it redirects you from google.com to google.tld (google.co.uk, google.fr, google.co.jp etc.).
I prefer the google.com version because it has the latest features and search results are a lot better. To switch to google.com and bypass the redirect, you can click "Google.com in English" at the bottom of the homepage or just go to google.com/ncr. The early versions of Google Chrome used to respect my choice and adjusted the search domain after a restart. Now Google Chrome no longer checks the Google cookie to see if I changed the domain and only determines the right domain based on my IP.
One way to solve this issue is to create a custom search engine for google.com, but the downside is that you lose the search suggestions. A better way is to edit a settings file. Here's how to do that:
1. Close all Chrome windows.
2. Go to Chrome's user profile directory (for example, in Windows Vista and Windows 7 the path is: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\).
3. Click the Default directory and open the file Preferences in a text editor like Notepad, TextEdit or gedit.
4. Find the two lines that include "last_known_google_url" and "last_prompted_google_url" and change the Google URL from "http://www.google.tld/" (.tld=.co.uk, .fr, .co.jp etc.) to "http://www.google.com/" or any other Google domain.
5. Save the text file and restart Chrome.
6. If you see an infobar that asks if you want to switch to your local domain or keep google.com, choose the second option.
This should work even if you want to change Google's domain from google.es to google.pt, from google.be to google.fr or any other combination. If you live in Portugal, but you'd like to use Google Spain and don't know how to change the country in Google Chrome, this trick should be helpful.
Google's Expanded Sitelinks
After a few months of testing bigger sitelinks, Google launched the new feature. Sitelinks are displayed below some of the results and they're usually related pages from the same site. "The links (...) are meant to help users navigate your site. Our systems analyze the link structure of your site to find shortcuts that will save users time and allow them to quickly find the information they're looking for," explains Google.
Until now, Google displayed up to 8 sitelinks and only included page titles. The updated sitelinks look like regular results, since Google also shows small snippets and their URLs. Google now shows up to 12 expanded sitelinks, but you'll still see the regular sitelinks for some of the results. I think that Google shows too many sitelinks, the snippets aren't useful because they're too short and the titles are good enough.
Google still shows compact sitelinks for YouTube and Amazon:
Barry Schwartz thinks that the new "jumbo" sitelinks "take up most of the Google's search results real estate. Good for online reputation management, but not too great for others who want to rank well for those brand names."
Unfortunately, they take up a lot of space without offering too much value. While it's useful to see links for Apple Support and iTunes when you search for [Apple], some people might want to read Apple news or Wikipedia's article about Apple and they have to scroll down to realize that there are results from other domains than apple.com. The new sitelinks partly address the problem created last year, when Google decided to show a large number of results from a domain "for queries that indicate a strong user interest in a particular domain". The expanded sitelinks combine the old sitelinks with the other results from the same site, while removing the overlapping results.
Until now, Google displayed up to 8 sitelinks and only included page titles. The updated sitelinks look like regular results, since Google also shows small snippets and their URLs. Google now shows up to 12 expanded sitelinks, but you'll still see the regular sitelinks for some of the results. I think that Google shows too many sitelinks, the snippets aren't useful because they're too short and the titles are good enough.
Google still shows compact sitelinks for YouTube and Amazon:
Barry Schwartz thinks that the new "jumbo" sitelinks "take up most of the Google's search results real estate. Good for online reputation management, but not too great for others who want to rank well for those brand names."
Unfortunately, they take up a lot of space without offering too much value. While it's useful to see links for Apple Support and iTunes when you search for [Apple], some people might want to read Apple news or Wikipedia's article about Apple and they have to scroll down to realize that there are results from other domains than apple.com. The new sitelinks partly address the problem created last year, when Google decided to show a large number of results from a domain "for queries that indicate a strong user interest in a particular domain". The expanded sitelinks combine the old sitelinks with the other results from the same site, while removing the overlapping results.
Google Highlights Pages that Include Search Results
Some think that search engines shouldn't index pages that include search results. Why clutter the results with pages that show another list of results when you could send users to the most relevant pages?
In some cases, search results pages are useful, but it's a good idea to know in advance that a page only includes search results. Google started to show a label like "Matches 1-50 of 100", "Results 1-24 of 56" or "33 results" next to the snippets. For example, an Amazon page that includes a list of Star Wars-related products shows this label.
Another example is a store that sells games:
In some cases, search results pages are useful, but it's a good idea to know in advance that a page only includes search results. Google started to show a label like "Matches 1-50 of 100", "Results 1-24 of 56" or "33 results" next to the snippets. For example, an Amazon page that includes a list of Star Wars-related products shows this label.
Another example is a store that sells games:
Jumat, 12 Agustus 2011
New Ways to Access Your Bookmarks in Google Chrome
The latest Chrome Dev Channel builds removed the bookmarks bar from the new tab page and updated the new tab page to include a bookmarks section. Right now, Chrome only shows a placeholder: "Bookmarks coming soon", but this should change in the upcoming releases. The updated new tab page now includes multiple screens for apps, most visited pages and bookmarks.
Until the bookmarks section is created, you can find your bookmarks in Chrome's menu.
There's also the bookmarks manager and the Omnibox, which suggests relevant bookmarks when you start typing a URL or some words from the title. You can still enable the bookmarks bar (Ctrl+Shift+B), but it will always be visible until you disable it.
Chrome's updated new tab page is inspired by mobile operating systems like iOS and Android. You can create multiple screens for apps and the most visited sites, remove sites and apps by dragging them to the trash and transform sites into apps using drag and drop. The new tab page uses dynamic icons that are resized to match the window's size.
{ Thanks, Cougar. }
Until the bookmarks section is created, you can find your bookmarks in Chrome's menu.
There's also the bookmarks manager and the Omnibox, which suggests relevant bookmarks when you start typing a URL or some words from the title. You can still enable the bookmarks bar (Ctrl+Shift+B), but it will always be visible until you disable it.
Chrome's updated new tab page is inspired by mobile operating systems like iOS and Android. You can create multiple screens for apps and the most visited sites, remove sites and apps by dragging them to the trash and transform sites into apps using drag and drop. The new tab page uses dynamic icons that are resized to match the window's size.
{ Thanks, Cougar. }
What's Next for Google Labs Projects?
There are three kinds of Google Labs projects: those that will continue to exist as standalone products, those that will become features and those that will be discontinued. Google Labs will no longer exist and it's sad to see so many useful services disappear.
Google Scribe will continue to exist as a Blogger feature, but you'll only find it in Blogger in Draft right now. Scribe will probably be added to Google Docs, Gmail and other Google services.
Google Squared will be discontinued next month, but the technology will continue to be used in Google Search. "As part of phasing out of Google Labs, Google Squared will be shut down on September 5, 2011. Any saved Squares will be deleted. We will continue to use Google Squared technology to improve search, as we have already done with question answering and related searches. We hope that you have enjoyed using Google Squared as much as we enjoyed building it," explains Google.
Another cool service that will be shut down is Image Swirl, a clever way to organize image search results and find related images. "We will continue research on innovative methods to organize and navigate images as part of Google Images," promises Google.
App Inventor, the service that allowed you to quickly build simple Android apps, will be discontinued as a Google product and will be open sourced. "Because of App Inventor's success in the education space, we are exploring opportunities to support the educational use of App Inventor on an open source platform. As a result of these changes App Inventor will be available through the end of the year but users should expect the current App Inventor URL, appinventor.googlelabs.com, to change sometime in the next 90 days."
Google will also close Script Converter ("a product that allows the user to read a web page in a script of their choice"), Google Talk Guru (a chat bot that answered simple questions), Breadcrumb ("an easy-to-use mobile learning application without any programming experience") and Sputnik ("a JavaScript conformance test suite").
Google still has to decide if Code Search, Google Mars, Google Sets, Google Moderator, Shared Spaces, Aardvark, Google Body, Google Correlate, Google Transliterate or City Tours will continue to exist. I suspect that most services will disappear or they'll be open sourced.
Google Labs was the place where you could find small tools that solved interesting problems. Google Sets will never be a full-fledged Google service, but it's a very useful tool for generating lists of words from a category. While the Google Sets technology will continue to be used in Google Search, it's likely that Google Sets will no longer exist.
"At Google, we believe in launching early and often and Labs takes that philosophy to the max. The projects in Labs are intended to showcase some of our cool and wacky ideas but are not intended to be full-blown Google products. Labs experiments may be unavailable or be even removed without notice and you may not be able to access any of your data. We recommend that you not use sensitive information in a Labs experiment. Google Labs is our playground. We try to keep it safe and orderly, but still keep it informal and, above all, fun." (Google Labs FAQ)
Google will continue to launch experimental features, like Hotel Finder, but they'll be integrated into bigger services instead of stagnating in Google Labs.
Google Scribe will continue to exist as a Blogger feature, but you'll only find it in Blogger in Draft right now. Scribe will probably be added to Google Docs, Gmail and other Google services.
Google Squared will be discontinued next month, but the technology will continue to be used in Google Search. "As part of phasing out of Google Labs, Google Squared will be shut down on September 5, 2011. Any saved Squares will be deleted. We will continue to use Google Squared technology to improve search, as we have already done with question answering and related searches. We hope that you have enjoyed using Google Squared as much as we enjoyed building it," explains Google.
Another cool service that will be shut down is Image Swirl, a clever way to organize image search results and find related images. "We will continue research on innovative methods to organize and navigate images as part of Google Images," promises Google.
App Inventor, the service that allowed you to quickly build simple Android apps, will be discontinued as a Google product and will be open sourced. "Because of App Inventor's success in the education space, we are exploring opportunities to support the educational use of App Inventor on an open source platform. As a result of these changes App Inventor will be available through the end of the year but users should expect the current App Inventor URL, appinventor.googlelabs.com, to change sometime in the next 90 days."
Google will also close Script Converter ("a product that allows the user to read a web page in a script of their choice"), Google Talk Guru (a chat bot that answered simple questions), Breadcrumb ("an easy-to-use mobile learning application without any programming experience") and Sputnik ("a JavaScript conformance test suite").
Google still has to decide if Code Search, Google Mars, Google Sets, Google Moderator, Shared Spaces, Aardvark, Google Body, Google Correlate, Google Transliterate or City Tours will continue to exist. I suspect that most services will disappear or they'll be open sourced.
Google Labs was the place where you could find small tools that solved interesting problems. Google Sets will never be a full-fledged Google service, but it's a very useful tool for generating lists of words from a category. While the Google Sets technology will continue to be used in Google Search, it's likely that Google Sets will no longer exist.
"At Google, we believe in launching early and often and Labs takes that philosophy to the max. The projects in Labs are intended to showcase some of our cool and wacky ideas but are not intended to be full-blown Google products. Labs experiments may be unavailable or be even removed without notice and you may not be able to access any of your data. We recommend that you not use sensitive information in a Labs experiment. Google Labs is our playground. We try to keep it safe and orderly, but still keep it informal and, above all, fun." (Google Labs FAQ)
Google will continue to launch experimental features, like Hotel Finder, but they'll be integrated into bigger services instead of stagnating in Google Labs.
Show Fewer Gmail Conversations
If you've ever wanted to see less than 25 conversations on a page in Gmail, you'll be glad to know that it's now possible to do that. Just go to Gmail's settings page and select 10, 15 or 20 from the drop-down "Show [x] conversations per page". Until now, the only options were 25, 50 and 100.
The new options are useful if you don't receive too many messages or if you want to improve Gmail's performance. Gmail loads a lot faster if it only has to fetch 10 conversations instead of 25.
{ Thanks, Herin. }
The new options are useful if you don't receive too many messages or if you want to improve Gmail's performance. Gmail loads a lot faster if it only has to fetch 10 conversations instead of 25.
{ Thanks, Herin. }
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