Google Operating System

Google Checkout Discontinued

2013-05-21T07:02:00.000-07:00

Google likes to discontinue products without waiting until it launches some proper replacements. Lately, Google closed products that were used by millions of people. There's a race to destroy everything that was built by the old Google and build new products that are aligned with the most important features of the new Google: social and mobile.

Google Checkout is one of those old products. It was launched in 2006 as an effort to improve online shopping and to offer more value to AdWords advertisers. "One cool feature of Google Checkout is that you can buy from stores with a single Google login – no more entering the same info each time you buy, and no more having to remember different usernames and passwords for each store. To help you find places to shop, you'll see a little icon on the Google.com ads of stores offering Google Checkout," explained Google at that time. Google Checkout was free for merchants until 2008, then Google started to increase fees until it moved to PayPal's tiered pricing. Then Google Checkout became less attractive.

Back in 2011, Google launched Wallet, a new product focused on mobile payments. It started as an Android app available for Sprint Nexus S phones that used the NFC chip to make credit card payments at physical stores in the US. Since then, the app started to support a few other phones, mostly from Sprint. Google Checkout merged with Google Wallet, but it still remained a distinct product focused on online shopping and available internationally.

Now Google announces that Checkout will be discontinued. "Merchants can continue to accept payments using Google Checkout until November 20, 2013. If you don't have your own payment processing, you will need to transition to a different solution within six months. To make things easier, we've partnered with Braintree, Shopify and Freshbooks to offer you discounted migration options. If you are a U.S. merchant that does have payment processing, you can apply for Google Wallet Instant Buy, which offers a fast buying experience to Google Wallet shoppers."

Instant Buy is a simplified version of Google Checkout that has no fees because Google no longer processes payments. Instead, Google "passes a Virtual OneTime Card, a MasterCard-branded virtual prepaid debit card product that can only be used for the specific purchase for which it was issued. Using this card, merchants can process payments with their existing payment processor." Instant Buy is tied to Google Accounts and it's faster to use than the regular checkout experience, especially on mobile devices. Right now, Instant Buy is only available in the US.

Since Google Wallet is mostly a US-only service, users outside US will be limited to Google Play, other Google services and some web apps. Google has recently announced that Gmail users in the US will be able to send money using a new button from the Gmail interface. There's also Wallet for Digital Goods, an API for in-app payments limited to web apps, and it works outside US.

For now, Wallet remains a product with limited availability and many disjointed features. The virtual wallet that stores information about your credit cards, coupons, loyalty cards, gift cards, tickets and makes payments frictionless is still a work in progress. Google has a huge opportunity to create a successful product for payments: it owns Google Play, it can integrate it with Android and Chrome, not to mention Google Shopping and Google+. Google now has the most popular search engine, online video service, ad network, analytics service, webmail site, the most popular browser and the #1 mobile operating system.

Google+ Hangouts and Phone Numbers

2013-05-20T11:22:00.000-07:00

There's an interesting Google Settings page for phone numbers. By default, the page only includes a message that says: "No phone numbers associated with this setting."

A help center page explains that this feature will help your friends find your phone number.

"Help people who have your phone number find you on Google services and connect with you. For example, your friends will be able to start a Hangout with you by typing in your phone number. When this setting is checked, it makes it easier for people who have your phone number to find you on Google services. When this setting is unchecked, people may not be able to look up your name, photo and public Google profile (and other profile information you have shared with them) via that phone number."

It's related to the new Google+ Hangouts service, which asks users to verify their phone numbers so that the people who have their numbers could find them. Google tries to compete with services like iMessage and WhatsApp that replace text messaging.

If you confirm one or more phone numbers, the settings page will include them and you can uncheck some of them.

{ Thanks, Herin. }

Understanding Google+ Hangouts

2013-05-17T16:59:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to understand Google+ Hangouts. It's supposed to replace products and features like Google Talk, Google Chat, Google+ Messenger and to become Google's unified messaging service.

Let's start with the name. It includes "Google+", so it looks like a Google+ feature. The product actually borrows the name of Google+'s group video chat feature.

How can you use this product? There are 5 ways: inside Google+ (replaces the Google Chat box), inside Gmail (optionally replaces the Gmail Chat box), using a Chrome extension (has already replaced the Google Chat extension and it requires Google+), an Android app (gradually replacing the built-in Google Talk app) and an iOS app (entirely new, requires Google+).

As you can see, 3 of the 5 ways to use it require Google+. You can refuse to upgrade to Hangouts in Gmail, but the Gmail Chat feature will eventually be discontinued. Probably most Android users will upgrade from Google Talk to Google+ Hangouts. The only other Google Chat clients are the Google Talk app for Windows and the chat boxes from iGoogle and orkut.

Google+ Hangouts doesn't require Google+, but most Google+ Hangouts clients require Google+. Actually there are 2 features that are somehow tied to Google+: sharing photos (they're uploaded to Google+ photos) and group chat. Here's what happens when you try to use them in Gmail, without joining Google+:

Google+ Hangouts has little in common with Google Chat/Talk, it's actually an upgraded Google+ Messenger. Hangouts focuses on conversations, not people, that's why you won't see a long list of buddies. Ideally, Hangouts lets you communicate with anyone you've added to a Google+ circle or anyone else, if you know his email address or phone number. When you open mobile clients for the first time, Google asks you to verify your phone number and that's optional.

Many people complain that Hangouts doesn't show if someone is online. Google's new service does away with busy/away/invisible/offline and has a different way to show if some is "connected": a green bar under the photo if someone can reply immediately. It only shows up if someone actually uses the application.

Hangout's tagline is "conversations come to life". Maybe because there are hundreds of emojis you can add to your messages, maybe because there's video chat, maybe because of the presence signals. "Hangouts inserts tiny little square avatars into the chat history, called 'watermarks.' These watermarks show when somebody else is typing, but they also indicate how far others have read in the conversation," reports The Verge.

Google+ Hangouts lacks many features from Google Chat: voice chat, phone calls, sending SMS, formatting tricks. You can now use keyboard shortcuts, but only for the desktop clients. Hangouts has its own Easter Eggs and they're really funny. Unfortunately, Hangouts drops support for server-to-server XMPP, it can't interact with other XMPP apps/services. It still works with Gmail Chat and Google Talk, though.

So what's Google+ Hangouts, after all? "The single communication app that we want our users to rely on," says Nikhyl Singhal, from Google. "We don't see Hangouts as a messaging product, we see it as a communication product," says product manager Kate Cushing.

Hangouts lets you decide for each Google+ circle if you want to be added to a hangout by its members or if you want them to send a request. Notifications are supposed to be synchronized for all your devices, so you only see them once, but I got multiple notifications.

Google+ is about real-life sharing, so Hangouts is built on top of the original Hangouts and Messenger features. The initial name of Google+ Messenger was Huddle, which means "draw together for an informal, private conversation".

The Talk era was about openness, the Chat era was about ubiquity, the Hangouts era is about Google+, the new Google that's all about social and mobile. From OpenSocial to ClosedSocial, from OpenMessaging to ClosedMessaging, from idealism to realism.

Google+ Hangouts SMS

2013-05-17T12:39:00.001-07:00

Google Accounts settings page has a new feature called "SMS for Hangouts". You can "add your phone number to receive messages from Google+ Hangouts as SMS, when you are idle." Google goes on to explain that "SMS is less secure and may be less reliable than web-based communication. All messages sent by SMS are sent via your mobile carrier network, without encryption."

This features works for most of the countries where Gmail SMS is supported, but not the US. It works for India, Pakistan, Israel, Turkey, Ukraine, Congo and many other countries from Africa and Asia.

{ Thanks, Herin and Camilo. }

The New Google Maps, Now Available

2013-05-17T09:11:00.001-07:00

By now, you've probably received the invitation to try the new Google Maps. It's not available without an invitation and it's likely that it won't replace the classic Google Maps very soon.

The new interface is the most radical change to Google Maps since 2005, when Google's online mapping service was launched. Here's Google Maps in 2005 (screenshot from this page):

Depending on your computer and the browser you're using, you may not see the Google Earth view and other 3D features. WebGL features require Windows Vista/7/8, Mac OS 10.8.3+, Chrome OS, the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox and up-to-date graphics drivers. This page explains what's the lite mode and provides links for the lite mode and the full 3D mode.

Probably the most impressive feature in the new interface is the Google Earth integration that doesn't require a plugin. It looks great, even if it doesn't includes all the features of the desktop software. Earth view replaces the old satellite view, which is only available in the lite mode.

If you want to find "how Google Maps went from a flat map where Greenland looks bigger than Africa to a beautifully realistic 3D globe", Evan Parker from Google shares the story. From the Google Earth plugin to MapsGL and the new Earth view, it took almost 7 years to make Google Earth work smoothly in your browser.

Another impressive feature is the "Explore" box at the bottom of the page that combines Street View, panoramas and static photos. It's the best way to find interesting places and explore them from your armchair. Unfortunately, Street View keyboard shortcuts don't work well.

Standard maps look better, colors are softer, labels are easier to read. Google Maps finally has permalinks that automatically update in the address bar, so it's easier to share pages and bookmark them (permalinks only work in the new Google Maps, but you can also use the URLs generated by the old Google Maps).

You can no longer find a contextual menu when you right-click, so features like "directions to/from here", "zoom in/out", "center map here" are missing. Now you can click any place on the map and you'll get a small info pane below the search box that shows the address and lets you get directions and go to Street View. Double click to zoom in, use the mouse wheel or the "+"/"-" buttons.

The new Google Maps simplified navigation and removed many useful features like the zoom level bar, panning, "show my location" and the Street View Pegman. Layers like Wikipedia, weather, webcams, photos, videos, previous searches are no longer available, while transit, traffic and bicycling can be found in the "getting around" box.

"My Places" is not part of the new Google Maps interface. Click the "options" icon in the black navigation bar, select "My Places" and you'll go back to the old interface. It's a trick that lets you temporarily switch to the old interface. You can also click "classic maps".

The new full-screen interface places all the navigation controls on top of the map and invites you to explore the map. To get directions, mouse over the search box and click "directions". To find a place, use the search box. The transitions are smooth and Google Maps uses a simplified version of Google Instant: you're automatically sent to the place you've selected without having to press Enter. You can even find your contacts on the map.

You can restrict the results to places from top reviewers or your Google+ circles. Google emphasizes the reviews from your Google+ circles, so search results are personalized. Results are placed on the map and this is disconcerting: you don't know which one to click. Mouse over the results to get some information, click them to get even more information. It's a strange way to display search results, since you don't know which one is better. Google used to rank the results and ranking was an important component of local search. You can click "go to list of top results", but you're sent to a different page that includes other results and the list isn't comprehensive.

I don't like the new interface for directions because the step-by-step directions are no longer displayed automatically. You need to click "step-by-step" and you're sent to a different page. Switching between the suggested routes is more intuitive because all of them are displayed on them map and you can compare them. Google also includes transit directions, which have a simplified interface that summarizes information. There's also a new button for flight search, but it's limited to a few countries (United States, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands). Printing directions requires an additional click and you can no longer hide the map or include maps for all steps.

The new Google Maps requires a lot more resources, especially more RAM, so it's not a great idea to use it if you have an old computer. Earth View and Street View use a lot of memory, so don't be surprised if you see this:

The new Google Maps builds on the MapGL experiment, does away with plugins and has a cleaner interface that's better suited for mobile devices. Unfortunately, it's a memory hog and basic features like local search and directions are cumbersome. It's still a work in progress.

Google Search Evolution

2013-05-16T12:08:00.000-07:00

I found a great paragraph in a Google page about Gmail actions:

"Google Search is evolving from surfacing search results to answering questions. With Voice Search and Natural language queries, users can speak or type questions they have and see highly structured information cards in Search."

That changes how people interact with Google Search, how Google Search pages look, how queries are processed and what people expect from Google. When Google will be able to answer complex questions, to summarize long pages, use inferences to find new information and truly understand human language, you'll no longer need a browser for most searches. A Google search button can be embedded in any smart device from watches, fridges to smart glasses and cars.

In a recent video, Matt Cutts tries to predict the future of Google search: "It ought to be able to go out and take multiple sources of information and figure out how to combine those together and fuse or synthesize that information. And it should really be able to handle difficult syntax. So moving up the chain towards not just data or knowledge, but analysis, towards wisdom."

Gmail Actions

2013-05-16T11:42:00.000-07:00

Wouldn't it be nice to deal with an email message without having to read it? Sure, you can read the subject line and archive the message, delete it or flag it as spam, but what happens when you receive notifications for online orders, flights, hotel reservations, reviews?

Gmail introduced quick action buttons that are placed next to the subject line in a list of messages. "These buttons appear next to certain types of messages in your inbox and let you take action on an email without ever having to open it. For example, you can RSVP to your friend's party invitation or rate that restaurant you went to last night all right from the inbox. You'll be checking things off that to-do list in no time."

For flight notifications, Gmail has a special card displayed above the message that includes real-time information about the flight and a "check-in" button.

Google detects the type of message and tries to extract the most important action, but you can help Google by adding schema.org markup to the mail you're sending. Right now, Gmail support 4 quick actions (invitations, reviews, one-click actions and links to other pages) and one interactive card (flights). Now that Google includes Gmail results in Google search (Field Trial) and uses Gmail data to show Google Now notifications, the structured markup is even more useful.

Gmail actions "will roll out over the next few weeks" and I'm sure this will be a very useful addition to Google Apps for Business. What kind of quick actions and interactive cards would you like to see?

Galaxy S4, Nexus Edition

2013-05-16T10:36:00.001-07:00

Google didn't announce a new Nexus device at Google I/O, but you'll still get something close to a Nexus phone: Samsung Galaxy S4, unlocked, with LTE support for T-Mobile and AT&T, Google software and quick updates. It will be available on June 26 from Google Play US for $649.

"This is a Samsung Galaxy S4 with the same software experience we ship on our Nexus devices. It's Google's take on Android and it feels awesome on the S4," said Google VP Hugo Barra.

It's good news for everyone. Google can sell a powerful LTE phone that doesn't compete with Nexus 4 because it's more expensive. Samsung has access to Google's software updates, so there's less work to keep up with the new Android versions. Developers can buy a Nexus version of the most popular Android phone and can even use a MicroSD card, replace the battery, use a physical home button and two other capacitive buttons. People who want to buy a Galaxy S4, but don't like Samsung's TouchWiz software, no longer have to rely on custom ROMs. Projects like CyanogenMod will do a better job of supporting Galaxy S4. Even if you buy the regular Galaxy S4, you'll get better software, whether you stick with Samsung's software or you install a custom ROM.

Samsung manufactured 2 other Nexus phones (Nexus S - 2010, Galaxy Nexus - 2011) and a Nexus tablet (Nexus 10 - 2012).

Preview the New Google Maps

2013-05-16T05:39:00.001-07:00

Until Google sends invites that let you preview the new Google Maps interface, check the MoreThanAMap site to see the new maps. It's a site that shows demos for various Google Maps API features, but the "base maps" demos are the most interesting because you can see the new map tiles.

"For the last decade, we've obsessed over building great maps—maps that are comprehensive, accurate, and easy to use," says Google.

You can also check the new colors, the new icons for local business and the corresponding cards.

The new Street View powered by WebGL:

Old vs new:

{ Thanks, Florian K. }

Google Play Apps and Services, the New Android Updates

2013-05-16T01:25:00.000-07:00

Many people expected to hear some information about a new Android version at the Google I/O keynote. Google decided to focus on new development tools, Google Play Store, Google Play Music and new APIs for Google Play Services.

Actually Google focused on the things it can control and quickly update. Google Play Services is automatically installed by Google Play Store and it adds new APIs that Android apps can use, regardless of the Android version (Play Services requires Android 2.2+). That's a great way to deal with Android fragmentation and it allows Google to announce APIs that can be used by any app and that can reach almost any Android device.

"Devices running Android 2.2 and newer and that have the Google Play Store app automatically receive updates to Google Play services. Enhance your app with the most recent version of Google Play services without worrying about your users' Android version," suggests Google.

For example, Google Play Games services can be used by any Android game to provide features like saving state, leaderboards, achievements, auto-matched players, real-time multiplayer. These services can also be used on iOS and for web apps, so they're even more useful. If Google added these features in Android 4.3, few people could use them and few developers would update their games to support them. Most likely, only Nexus devices would be updated to Android 4.3 shortly after the announcement, while other devices would be updated in 6 months or later or maybe never. Android 4.2 was launched 6 months ago and only 2% of the Android devices run it.

New Android versions are still important, but Google has some other meaningful ways to make Android better. Most Google apps are available in the Play Store and can be updated without waiting for a new Android version. Chrome, Google Search (with Voice Search and Google Now), Google Maps, Google Hangouts, Google Calendar, Google Play Music and the other Play apps can be improved and change the way you use your Android device. Play Services can improve entire categories of apps, add features that improve battery life, make notifications more useful, improve Google+ and Google Maps integration.

Android's flexibility is a double-edged sword. In this case, detaching system apps and APIs from the operating system is a huge advantage and makes new Android versions less important.

Chrome, the Most Popular Web Browser

2013-05-15T15:52:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it's a good idea to question browser stats. While some companies claim that Chrome loses market share, Google says that the number of active Chrome users increased from 310 million (June 2012) to 750 million. According to Google, Chrome is now the most popular browser in the world.

"With over 750 million active users on Chrome, we're now focused on bringing to mobile the speed, simplicity and security improvements that we've seen on the desktop," says Google.

Sure, this number includes Android users and iOS users. The Android app has less than 100 million downloads, but the number of active users should be lower than the number of downloads.

But what if Google's stats are wrong? After all, Google is the most popular site in the world and owns the most popular analytics service. Not to mention YouTube and Blogger, two other very popular sites.

Google Play Music All Access

2013-05-15T15:30:00.000-07:00

That's a long name. It's actually a music subscription service available in the US that's part of Google Play Music.

"Google Play Music All Access is a new monthly music subscription service that lets you listen to millions of songs across your devices. You can create a radio station from any song or artist you love, browse recommendations from our expert music team or explore by genre. (...) It's $9.99 a month, and you can try it free for the first month. Or better yet, start your trial by June 30 and you'll pay only $7.99 a month."

Instead of buying music, you can listen to the entire Google Play catalog. It's not free like Pandora, but you can listen to any song you like, as long as it's available.

New Google+ and Google Hangouts

2013-05-15T15:16:00.001-07:00

Google+ has received a major update. There's a new multi-column desktop interface, a new messaging platform and Google+ Photos is a lot smarter.

The desktop Google+ looks different. You can see more content thanks to the new interface that shows up to 3 columns, depending on the window size. "Photos and videos can fill the entire width of the stream, making it easier to scan, and nicer to look at. The sharebox bounces, the menus slide, and the cards flip and fade."

Google+ can now automatically generate hashtags for your posts, so other people can find related content. "Hashtags appearing at the top of a post are related to the post's content. Clicking on a hashtag will let you explore related posts. Hashtags with gray coloring are those used by the author of the post while hashtags with blue coloring are added by Google based on the content of the post. Related hashtags help posts get discovered and build conversations around the content of that post."

If you don't like this feature, you can disable it from the settings.

The unified chat service is not called Babel, the name is Google Hangouts. It replaces the Google Chat sidebar in Google+ and the Gmail Chat box and there are apps for Android, iOS and a Chrome extension. Google Hangouts combines Google+ Messenger, Google Talk/Chat and the old Hangouts feature, so you can use text chat, video chat, photo sharing and group conversations on the most popular platforms. You only see notifications once, no matter if you're using the desktop sites or the mobile apps. The built-in chat history lets you go back in time and read old conversations.

Google+ Photos is smarter. It can now find your best photos and use Auto Enhance to combine various effects that make your photos look better. "Auto Enhance makes instant adjustments to brightness, saturation and more. Auto Enhance is on by default so every photo you upload will look its best." There's also Auto Awesome, which creates new images from your photos: collages, motion images, HDR photos, panoramic images, improved group photos. Both Auto Enhance and Auto Awesome can be disabled in the settings.

Conversational Voice Search for Desktop

2013-05-15T14:38:00.000-07:00

Amit Singhal announced at Google I/O that this is "the end of search as we know it". The future of search goes beyond search results and it has more to do with answering questions, conversations and anticipating user's intentions.

Google has 3 products with similar goals: Knowledge Graph, Voice Search and Google Now. They go hand in hand to deliver the future of search today.

Voice Search has been available on the desktop if you're using Chrome, but now it's much better: it has been upgraded to the conversational voice search released last year for Android and iOS. Just click the microphone icon from the Google search box, ask questions and you'll get a spoken answer. Soon you'll be to just say "OK Google" to trigger voice search.

Google Search for Android added some new Google Now cards: reminders, last train home (Japan only), real time public transit updates and recommendations for books, games and music albums. Google Now can understand things like "remind me to call Susan tomorrow at 10", "when I go to Rome, remind me to buy a new suit" or "remind me to meet Dan when I get to work". You can create both time-based reminders and location-based reminders.

Voice Search is getting more sophisticated, the Knowledge Graph has more facts and connections between concepts, while Google Now gets smarter and tries to anticipate your searches.

{ via Inside Search blog }

Reinventing Google Maps

2013-05-15T13:40:00.000-07:00

As anticipated, Google announced a new Google Maps interface for the desktop. It's not publicly available, but you can get an invite here.

The new Google Maps has three goals: creating personalized maps, making maps immersive and building the interface around maps. Just like Google Chrome removed unnecessary interface elements, Google developed a completely new Google Maps service without sidebars, buttons, search results boxes. It's a simplified experience that focuses on the maps.

"The entire map is now interactive. Clicking anywhere will focus the map on that location and show you helpful things, like related places and the best ways to get there."

Directions are easier to use because they integrate flight search and they compare multiple modes on transportation, so you can find the best one. Search results are directly placed on the map: icons and brief descriptions help you determine if they're useful.

Google Maps highlights the places that are important to you and it shows recommendations from experts and your Google+ circles. This way, you get a customized map that emphasizes the things that are relevant to you.

The new interface is powered by WebGL and it brings the Google Earth imagery to the browser without having to use plugins. Google has a different way to show some of the map layers like photos and satellite view, while other layers are missing.

Google will also update the mobile Google Maps apps for Android and iOS this summer and you'll finally get Google Maps for iPad.

Google OKRs

2013-05-14T16:41:00.000-07:00

Rick Klau, who is now a partner at Google Ventures, gave an interesting talk about Google OKRs. "Objectives and Key Results" (OKRs) have been used by Google since 1999 and they're a great way to set ambitious goals and to measure how much you've achieved. Each Google employee has his own OKRs, each Google team has a few OKRs and there are some Google-wide OKRs that reflect the most important priorities of the company. All OKRs are public inside the company, so each employee knows what's going on.

There are yearly OKRs and there are quarterly OKRs. Usually there are no more than 5 objectives and each objective has a few key results that help you determine the progress. Key results have to be measurable. An example of objective is improving Gmail revenue and a key result could be adding a new ad format that doubles the CTR (click-through rate). At the end of the quarter, you can grade each key result and attribute a value from 0 to 1.0. Apparently, it's best when your average grade is somewhere between 0.6 and 0.7. If your grades are higher, the goals aren't ambitious enough.

"To make sure our products work seamlessly together across Google, we're focusing more on broader OKRs – big company goals that can only be achieved if everyone works together. For example, a recent OKR objective for our search team was to improve the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful, which restates and reiterates the company's mission statement. The key results underneath that objective included metrics and projects for the quarter, many of which span a number of teams, ensuring a well-coordinated push toward a shared goal. Having these shared goals also has the benefit of helping prevent the formation of silos – always a concern as companies grow," explains a Google Think Insights article.

Rick Klau joined Google from the FeedBurner acquisition and he worked on products like Blogger, Google Profiles and YouTube. The talk includes some examples of OKRs for Blogger. Back in 2008, the most important objective for Blogger was to improve revenue.

Add Images to Google Forms

2013-05-14T16:01:00.001-07:00

You can now add images to Google Forms. Just click the "Insert" menu, select "Image" and upload the image you want to add. You can also select an image from Google Drive, Google+ Photos, take a snapshot, enter the URL or use Google Image Search to find the right image.

"Photos can be resized, centered, or swapped out for another photo with just a few simple clicks," informs Google. You can also enter an image title and a hover text.

It's another feature that makes Google Forms more useful, just like the new question types for date and time. Next up: rich-text editing.

Google's Atari Breakout Easter Egg

2013-05-13T15:44:00.000-07:00

Is this the first Google Image Search Easter Egg? Search for [atari breakout] and you can play Atari's Breakout game. It's an arcade game introduced in April 1976. The game has an interesting story that involves Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak and it influenced Steve Wozniak's design for the Apple II computer.

"In the game, a layer of bricks lines the top third of the screen. A ball travels across the screen, bouncing off the top and side walls of the screen. When a brick is hit, the ball bounces away and the brick is destroyed. The player loses a turn when the ball touches the bottom of the screen. To prevent this from happening, the player has a movable paddle to bounce the ball upward, keeping it in play."

Google uses image search results for [atari breakout] instead of bricks, so the game is self-referential.

{ via TechCrunch, thanks Florian K. }

Black Menu: All-in-One Google

2013-05-13T15:05:00.000-07:00

If you've ever wanted a Chrome extension that combines the most important Google services and lets you quickly switch between them, check Black Menu. It's based on the short-lived vertical menu launched by Google in 2011, but it offers more features than Google's menu.

Mouse over each menu item and you'll get a gadget-like interface for a Google service. You can check your mail, compose new messages, create calendar events, add tasks, check your Google+ notifications, share pages to Google+, read the latest news, use Google Translate and Google Search, upload files to Google Drive, quickly search Google Drive and more.

Mouse over the links section and you'll see some useful links for the Google service you've selected. It's great for quickly checking your favorite YouTube videos or creating a Google contact.

You can rearrange menu items and add new ones from the "more" section. For example, you can add the URL shortener option to quickly create a short URL for the current page. Add the Chrome Apps menu item to get a Chrome launcher that includes the apps you've installed in Chrome.

Black Menu is like a simplified iGoogle for Google services. Actually, the extension uses some iGoogle gadgets, but they'll need to be replaced before iGoogle is gone.

Shared Storage for Gmail, Google Drive and Google+ Photos

2013-05-13T12:49:00.000-07:00

Until now, Gmail offered 10GB of free storage and Google Drive/Google+ Photos only 5GB of free storage. Offering more storage for email than for storing files doesn't make a lot of sense. That's probably the reason why Google decided to share the storage for Gmail and Google Drive, so that you have a single free storage limit: 15 GB. Google Apps for Business/Education offers 30GB of free storage.

"With this new combined storage space, you won't have to worry about how much you're storing and where. For example, maybe you're a heavy Gmail user but light on photos, or perhaps you were bumping up against your Drive storage limit but were only using 2 GB in Gmail. Now it doesn't matter, because you can use your storage the way you want," explains Google.

There's also a new interface for the Google Storage page:

But what if you've purchased additional Drive storage? That storage is now shared between Google Drive, Google+ Photos and Gmail, but it's not clear what happens to the bonus Gmail storage. Google says "you're no longer limited to a 25 GB upgrade in Gmail — any additional storage you purchase now applies there, too". Does this mean there's no longer extra Gmail storage when you buy Drive storage?

Apparently, Google dropped the 25GB upgrade option for $2.49/month and "plans start at $4.99/month for 100 GB". If you still see the old Google Storage page and you intend to use this option, upgrade now.

And here's an idea: why not store all Gmail attachments in Google Drive and offer free storage for Gmail messages (text-only)?

{ Thanks, Herin. }