Google +1 Buttons for Image Search Results

When you mouse over a Google image search result, you'll see a +1 button that lets you recommend the image to the people that follow in Google+.


At some point, Google removed the social features from the image search engine and now only relies on the +1 button to provide social recommendations. The nice thing is that Google annotates image results with the relevant people that +1'd the images.


The social layer is no longer a separate section, but it's less comprehensive: the previous version included "pictures that your friends and other contacts have published publicly to the web on photo-sharing sites like Picasa Web Albums and Flickr". The "results from your social circle" were probably less relevant since Google generated the social circles from your Gmail contacts, Google Talk buddies, the people you follow in Google Buzz and Twitter. It's likely that the social circles were just an approximation of the circles you can create in Google+ and Google will phase out this feature.

No More GoogleLookup in Google Spreadsheets

One of the most useful Google Spreadsheets features is the GoogleLookup function, which allows you to find simple facts and quickly create a spreadsheet using Google's data. Unfortunately, the function will be removed at the end of the month and this will break a lot of spreadsheets that use it.

"As of November 2011, the GoogleLookup function will no longer be supported. This function relies on technology from Google Squared, a Google Lab that's been deprioritized. To save your data, copy the selection that contains GoogleLookup functions. Then, go to the Edit menu, navigate to Paste special, and select Paste values only. When the function is no longer supported, cells containing GoogleLookup functions will return #NAME? errors," explains Google.


Well, GoogleLookup was released long before Google Squared (2006 vs 2009) and it relied on Google's Q&A feature, which is still available.

Here's a way to use the ImportXML function to extract facts from Google Search (the mobile interface):

=RegExExtract(ImportXML("http://www.google.com/m/search?q=sri+lanka+capital", "//span[@class='waa4kx']"), "-(.*)")

Can you find a better way?

{ Thanks, Jérôme. }

Google+ Pages

After a few months of testing, Google+ pages are available to everyone. You can create public pages for brands, products, local businesses and more.

"For businesses and brands, Google+ pages help you connect with the customers and fans who love you. Not only can they recommend you with a +1, or add you to a circle to listen long-term. They can actually spend time with your team, face-to-face-to-face. All you need to do is start sharing, and you'll soon find the super fans and loyal customers that want to say hello," says Google.


Google+ pages look like Google+ profiles, but there are some differences: pages can't +1 other pages, don't support notifications and "can't add people to circles until the page is added first or mentioned".

People can add pages to one of their circles and there's a new built-in circle called "Following" that can be used to follow pages. The circle is used to automatically follow pages if you enable this option.

If you've been wondering why the + operator no longer works in Google search, the answer is that you can now use it to find Google+ pages. Type +google in the regular Google search box, press Enter and you'll be sent to Google's Google+ page. This only works for a small number of pages and the search box is smart enough to autocomplete the page's name.


To test the new feature, I've created a Google+ page for this blog where you'll find more news and tips about Google.

Prevent Viewers from Downloading Google Docs Files

If you upload a PDF file to Google Docs and share it with other people, they can download it, print it and copy the file to their accounts. Now you can prevent other people from downloading the file from the Google Docs homepage: just right-click the file and select "Prevent viewers from downloading".


For videos, this option is also available in the File menu, where you can uncheck "Viewers can download this file".

While Google removes the download buttons and menu items from the user interface, there may be other ways to download the files.

{ Thanks, Bill. }

Google's Location-Based Social Annotations

You've probably noticed that Google annotates search results with social data, especially from Google+ and Google +1. You'll sometimes see that a page was mentioned in a Blogger post or a Twitter message by one of your Google+ friends. For other results, Google lists the Google+ friends that +1'd the pages.


If a page has a lot of +1's, Google occasionally shows the number of +1's bellow the snippet. To make the annotation more relevant, Google now shows the number of +1's from your location. For example, "763 people in New York, NY, USA +1'd" Google's Webmaster Tools page.


I'm not sure that it's useful to know the number of +1's for the top results of a navigational query, but this could be useful when you're trying to find a popular restaurant or an Android game.

{ Thanks, Nick. }

YouTube's Google+ Player

Google+ added a small YouTube icon that's always displayed next to the scrollbar. When you mouse over the icon, you'll see a search box that asks you "what would you like to play?". Type your query and Google+ opens a pop-up window with 20 search results. It's actually a playlist and videos start playing automatically.


You can +1 a video you like or share it with your circles. When you share a video, Google also adds a link to a playlist with related videos.

The nice thing is that you can minimize the pop-up window and still be able to pause a video or go to the next video directly from Google+. This is especially useful for music.



"It's no secret that YouTube is filled with tons of great content (from inspiring speeches to music videos to honey badgers). We wanted to bring YouTube directly into Google+ — as well as make it easier to watch and share your favorites — so we're launching a YouTube 'slider' in the stream," mentions Google's Vic Gundotra.

What about a Google Music player?

{ Thanks, Thomas, Benjamin and Herin. }

Chrome Extension for Google+ Notifications

If you miss Google+ notifications when you're not visiting a Google page, you can now install a Chrome extension and always get the latest updates.

"Whenever you have a new notification (for example, when someone adds you to a circle or shares a post with you), the extension button will turn red and show you how many updates are waiting for you. Once you click the button, a window will drop down showing you all of your most recent notifications. You can act on notifications right from the extension, whether you're replying to a comment or adding someone back to your circles. That way you can stay up-to-speed with your circles on Google+ no matter where you are on the web," informs Google.


There's also a +1 button for Chrome that lets you +1 a page and share it with your circles.

{ Thanks, Venkat. }