Gmail X Bug

There's an annoying bug in Gmail's desktop interface: a close button displayed at the bottom of the page in the right corner. If you click the small "x" icon, nothing happens. It looks like the buttons used in Gmail's panels for tasks, chat and composing messages.

There is a way to fix this issue. Bookmark this URL: https://mail.google.com/mail/?labs=0 and use it to open Gmail. This URL is used to load Gmail without enabling labs. Surprisingly, if you manually disable all the Gmail labs experiments, the close button is still there.

If you use Greasemonkey, you can create a new user script using the code from this page.

Another way to fix this issue is to install AdBlock/Adblock Plus and manually add this rule in the preferences:

mail.google.com##DIV[class="w-asK w-atd"]

Google is working on a fix. Apparently, this is a leftover from the "about the new look" message that used to be displayed when Gmail launched a new interface back in 2011.

Update (March 21st): Fixed.

Camera Voice Commands for Android

The Google Search app for Android added voice commands for taking photos and recording videos. Just say: "take a photo", "take a picture", "record a video", "take a video", "shoot a video" and the camera app will launch in the proper mode.

"The first home run in T-ball, the surprise proposal, or just that gorgeous sunset... Sometimes the perfect photo passes you by as you fumble with your phone to open the camera app. Now with the Google Search App on Android, you can just tap the microphone or say 'Ok Google,' then 'take a photo' or 'take a video'," informs Google.

Google Shows Related Topics

Google's Knowledge Graph boxes now include a list of related topics and some excerpts from articles about them. The related topics are usually linked from the corresponding Wikipedia article.

For example, when you search for [equilateral triangle], Google shows these related topics: Equilateral polygon, Square, Regular polygon, Pythagorean theorem.

Here's another example for [Earth atmosphere]:

Google Geometry Calculator

Google has an interactive search widget that solves geometry problems. You can search for [solve triangle], [area of a circle], [volume of a sphere], [perimeter of a trapezoid], [area of a pentagon], [hypotenuse calculator], [triangular prism volume], [calculate the diagonal of a cube with 6mm edge], [volume of a cylinder with radius 4cm and height 8cm], [a^2+b^2=c^2 calc a=4 b=7 c=?] and more.

Click the arrow and Google will show you the solution. Click one of the input boxes and the value is highlighted.

"Supported shapes: 2 and 3 dimensional curved shapes, platonic solids, polygons, prisms, pyramids, quadrilaterals, and triangles. Supported formulas and equations: Area, circumference, law of sines and cosines, hypotenuse, perimeter, Pythagorean theorem, surface area, and volume."

{ Thanks, Jonah Langlieb. }

Restaurant Menus in Google Search

Google mentioned this feature a few weeks ago, but I think it's important enough to write a post about this. If you're in the US and you search for the name of a restaurant followed by "menu", Google will display the restaurant's menu above the list of results.

"Next time you're planning a brunch or a date night, check to make sure the menu has something to satisfy everyone in your group, without having to browse through several restaurants' websites. Just search Google to show you the menu for the eatery you're considering and you can see it right on the top of your search page — complete with tabs for different parts of the menu (like appetizers, brunch or dinner) and, often, prices — before you make your reservation. Menus are available in the U.S. only for now."

Google used to display short answers to simple questions and now it shows full restaurant menus, driving directions, animated widgets with details weather information, long lists of sport results, facts and more.

Google's goal used to be sending people to the most relevant results. Now Google wants to show the best answers and that's the reason why search results are less important. As more and more people use smartphones to search the web, Google has to provide answers, not just search results. Having to open multiple pages, scroll to the right section to find an answer is inconvenient, especially if you are on the go, your internet connection is slow and you don't have too much time.

Google Drive Add-ons

Google Docs and the new version of Google Sheets now support add-ons. Just click the new Add-ons menu, select "Get add-ons" and install some of them. They're not browser extensions, they're just ways to add new features to Google Docs and Sheets. Some of them are developed by Google, while others are developed by third-parties.

"Once you install an add-on it will become available across all of your documents or spreadsheets and you can start using it right away," informs Google. You can always find them in the Add-ons menu.

There are add-ons that translate the selected text, find synonyms, create a table of contents, insert maps, create charts from spreadsheets, generate bibliography, check your writing for consistency, add mail merge to Google Docs, print address labels, remove duplicates, import Google Analytics data and more.

Here's the Translate add-on in action. Select some text, go to the Add-ons menu, click Translate and Start. You can select the destination language in the sidebar that shows up. For some reason, only a few destination languages are supported.

A Google Experiment Makes Page Titles Bigger

Google tests a new search interface for desktop that removes underlines from links and increases text size for page titles.

Here's a screenshot that shows both the experimental UI for search results and the standard interface:

{ Thanks, Matt Cleinman. }