Get a better idea of what you can do with Google sites with this video:

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Google Image Swirl is very similar in function to the similar images function, in the sense that it groups related images together. However, it does so in an image cloud, or as Google calls it, a swirl.

From this collection of images, you can select the group of related images you are interested in. You can then further refine your search, by selecting a new image from the swirl of images you selected at first, and so on, until you find the perfect picture.

I decided to, well, take this feature for a swirl, and tested it out searching for images that would hit home for me: the CN Tower in Toronto.

To search images and easily select the perfect one, follow these steps:

1. Surf to Google Image swirl and enter your query.
2. Hit enter, or search
3. A results page will show up with neatly sorted images, grouped by images related to each other:
4. Say that, for example, you could care less for the actual CN tower, but you are looking for images of the CN Tower’s famous glass floor. On the top right, a group of images of the view from the floor is stacked up together.
5. Clicking on the image will bring up a cloud of related images:
6. Then, you can proceed to click on other images within the cloud, to refine your search further. For example, I’ve selected the image on the top right to generate the following cloud:
7. After clicking on the picture, you can see a new cloud forming, and the previous ones are still visible but become smaller and are located to the right of the new image search results:
8. You can basically keep going until you find what you are looking for.

To develop image swirl, Google used similar concepts used for Picasa face recognition and similar images. Although I used the CN tower as an example, I’ve replicated the search for a term I use reasonably frequently, and was amazed! I managed to find a great image within seconds, where previously I’ve sorted through pages and pages of image results after a query.

Let me know what you think of Google image swirl, I’m really curious to see your comments!

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This new service is called the Google Flu Shot finder, and also uses Google Maps, and although it can give you information of flu vaccine clinics, it cannot yet say for sure whether or not the vaccines are still available at the clinics listed. Basically, Google does not know if a clinic runs out of the vaccines or not. It also does not have all vaccination locations listed yet, and is still compiling all the data for this. The new service is still in its beginning stages, but kudos to Google for already launching it, even though the information available is not yet complete. Surely, having whatever information is already there will help millions of people who are looking for the swine flu vaccine in their area.

How Google Flu Shot Finder can help you

If you are looking to get vaccinated for the swine flu, and you do not know where to go, then Google Flu Shot finder is a great place to get started with your search. Simply type in an area close to which you want to search. For example, I typed in “Denver” in the search box (randomly chosen).

After clicking “Go”, the following map popped up with locations in the central core of Denver:

The little syringe-shaped icons on the map denote the locations you can get a flu shot. On the left side of the map, there is a list with the addresses of the locations, phone numbers, and information on whether or not the location is out of stock. Because Google may not be able to get all information on flu shot availability in real time, it is worth calling your local flu shot location to make sure whether or not they truly are out of stock.

In Denver, it looks like the flu shot is out of stock in the locations listed in the map. However, if you are planning a trip to New York City, your chances are actually alot better:

The red syringes represent locations that deliver the regular flu shot, the blue ones show locations giving out the H1N1 flu shot. A syringe with both colors offers both.

Will you be getting the flu shot? I wish the flu shot locator was available for Canada, I would definitely use it!

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Google currently feels as though software development could use a new major leap.  Unfortunately, the have just hit a hurdle.

The language “go” was invented by somebody else.

That somebody is Francis McCabe who was startled to find out that Google had named its new programming language “go,” especially when he’d created one a few years ago and wrote a book about it. To rectify the issue, he went to the source – the Go helpdesk.

“Issue 9” is a fast-growing discussion and the majority of people seem to agree that Google should change the name of its language, based on the fact that there is already a published book and several articles about McCabe’s project.

Robert Greiner of Cube Antics addressed some more interesting reasons why Google should change the name of its coding language. Here’s a summary:

• Search-Engine-Optimization: Ironically, Google should understand that competing results for the word “go” number in the millions. Thus, finding support for the language would be difficult.
• Name Disputes: McCabe’s project has been around for years. Google should accept that they’ve been beaten to the punch for that particular name.
• It’s the Right Thing to Do: Google should let McCabe have his name, because he came up with it.

Google’s reaction remains to be seen. Whether or not the company will rename its language is unknown.

What Do You Think?

Should Google rename its coding language? If they did, what kind of name would the new language have? Share your thoughts and opinions below!

Mom will check your computer eventually. Clear your search history!

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For example, take Google Maps: with my maps you can create your own favorite spots, save them in a map, and use it later. Essentially, Google might not know for sure where you have been, but it certainly knows where you would like to go or potentially have gone in the past. The issue is altogether more serious with Google Latitude, which could literally follow your every move, if you let it.

Not surpringly, people might get concerned with their personal data and how Google stores it. In an attempt to address this, Google designed “Google Dashboard“, which is a simple interface showing all the different Google services you use (when logged into your account), and how you use them.

Google Dashboard seems only moderately useful to me, because it does not allow you to change your privacy settings for each application directly. Others have also noted that you still need to go deep into the privacy settings for each application separately, and if you do not already know where to find these settings, it is not a given that Google Dashboard is going to be very helpful. The one benefit of Google Dashboard is that it brings all links to each one of the application’s settings pages together in one spot. If you would like to do a complete overhaul of all your privacy settings for each Google application you use, then this would be a handy way of making sure you do not forget one.

However, I do not think Google Dashboard is all it promises to be: it gives the same amount of privacy control as each Google product already does. There is no centralized privacy control that changes the settings for all your Google applications, and it is definitely not telling me anything I did not already know about my usage. Frankly, knowing that I have 8000 messages in Gmail is not shocking to me, and I knowing how many pictures I store on Picasa tells me very little about how Google uses my data.

Nonetheless, it is a handy overview, particularly if you want to see clearly exactly how much you use Google, and how difficult it would be to go without all these great services and applications.

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I am sure I am not the only one who emails herself documents, pictures, and spreadsheets as an extra back-up precaution. Basically, using my Gmail account as an additional data storage device. Numerous people upload their pictures onto Picasa, documents to Google Docs, and save every single message they receive in Gmail. Some of us upload full resolution pictures to Picasa, not only to share them with friends and family, but to store a backup copy away from our own computers, or even away from our own home. In case of a fire, natural disaster, or computer breakdown this is a really good precaution to take with the images or documents that are important to us.

However, as we produce more data, and more images, our storage needs increase. When Gmail was launched, it offered a (no longer) astonishing amount of space: 1 GB. Nowadays the storage capacity of Gmail has increased sevenfold, and that translates to a lot of mail! I personally like to keep my inbox relatively small, compared to some others. Right now, I am packing away about 8000 emails, which I would love to bring down by about half once I have the time to go through them all and delete the ones that are no longer relevant or important. Ultimately, I feel my ability to find important data diminishes exponentially as a function of the increasing number of messages in my inbox. However, if you do want to keep all your messages, or have to, and are running out of space, Google also offers additional storage space for a relatively modest cost.

The storage you can buy from Google comes in different sizes. The storage space is also shared between Gmail and Picasa, and is in addition to your current free quota. Google has been dropping the prices of storage, as the cost of hardware and infrastructure required for the same amount of storage reduces as well. All in all, this is quite nice, but the question is whether the price paid is truly worth it.

First, let’s take a look at Google’s storage plans

You can buy extra storage here, and depending on your needs it comes in different sizes and there are different price tags associated with them:

• 20 GB costs $5 per year.
• 80 GB  costs $20.00 per year.
• 200 GB costs $50.00 per year.
• 400 GB costs $100.00 per year.
• 1 TB costs $256.00 per year.

Each plan comes to $0.25 per GB of storage, so there is no savings involved with purchasing a larger plan. As a result, it is smart to start with the smallest plan and work your way up if needed.

It is doubtful that Google is offering this service at cost though, so I was a bit dissappointed that each of the plans comes down to the same per GB cost. I would have expected that someone purchasing a TB of storage would deserve a little bit of a discount, based on just sheer volume. In fact, the 1TB plan seems marginally more expensive than any of the other ones, at an average cost of $0.256 per GB of storage.

The Benefits of Buying Google Storage

Why would you pay year in year out for storage, when you can just purchase an external hard drive once? This was my first instinct when I started thinking about this concept, but although buying storage real estate with Google seems more expensive than just buying a hard drive, there are some serious benefits involved in doing so:

• The virtual aspect: If your computer breaks down, is stolen, or your house burns down, Google will still have a copy of your documents and pictures stored safely on their servers.
• The portability aspect: wherever you go, your data travels with you. You can access and share pictures and documents from any other computer, anywhere in the world. You can download them directly to another machine, instead of having to send them. This can save time, and money. When you are traveling it can be particularly handy if you do not want to carry around an additional hard drive with data (few people can fit 1TB on their laptops), or you don’t want to bring your own computer altogether.
• Wear and tear on hardware: Although you pay a yearly fee, we can assume that the cost of storage will continue to decrease and become more affordable as time goes on. The same happens with hard drive prices. However, your external hard drive might break. It might do so at the worst possible time (all data is lost!), and the replacement cost of your hard drive also needs to be factored in. I have spend a few hundred dollars over the past few years in data storage costs, and 100% of that involved purchasing new hard drives. I did have a few hard drives break down on me (without doing anything to cause this, there was no dropping of the equipment and I also did not throw it against a wall…). If you take all these factors into account, virtual storage does not come at a much higher premium. I am also assuming (anyone can correct me if I am wrong) that Google backs up the data entrusted to them, meaning it is relatively safe to assume you will not suddenly lose everything. However, you still need to do your own due diligence and make some extra copies of the really important stuff if you want to be sure.

The one aspect that does concern me a little is privacy. Who can guarantee how private our data is when it is in the hands of a third party? I trust Google, but things could still go wrong. I think I would be very selective with what I store with Google, and might not entrust my most sensitive documents to them. Having said this, I haven’t heard of any privacy issues concerning Google, and it probably will not be an issue in the future. However, just the thought that someone could break into a server and steal my private data scares me enough to restrict myself from storing anything online that should not fall into the wrong hands. Aside from financial information and data concerning my personal identity, there are still many GB of documents and pictures that can find a safe haven in Google storage.

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Here’s a collection of the entire world-wide Sesame Street tribute:

An illustration of the cast of Sesame Street (USA) This is probably the picture you get when you think about Sesame Street (minus the Google logo in the middle, haha).

Abelardo Montoya – Mexico’s very own Big Bird. He appeared in Plaza Se’samo.

Kami – South Africa had its own HIV positive character on the show Takalni Sesame (Be Happy Sesame). Announced in 2002, Kami is an orphaned muppet girl with HIV and the sniffles. The character’s name derives from the word Kamogelo, which means acceptance.

Leniemienie – Netherlands and Belgium had a cute little six-year-old mouse on Sesamstraatwho started out as a simple mouse looking for cheese. When female emancipation fires died down, she became more child like.

Boombah and Chamki – India’s stars on Gali Gali Sim Sim, Boombah is a vegetarian lion who loves to dance and Chamki is an inquisitive schoolgirl who loves to learn. Chamki knows karate.

Abigail – Israel’s own Elmo, Abigail stars on Rechov Sumsum where she interacts with Israeli celebrities and speaks about herself in the third person.

I didn’t even know these characters existed until I saw the logos up on Google! It just goes to show how far spread this amazing show really is. For more information on Sesame Street, international or not, check out Muppet Wiki!

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Have you Googled anything today? If you have, and you used the regular Google homepage, you might have noticed some familiar looking big feet. Google is celebrating with Sesame Street, which is turning 40. The first Sesame Street episode was on November 10th, 1969, and it is the longest running kids program on national television.

Google, being a company that would not exist without the Internet, has a more direct connection than Sesame Street than you might suspect: the Internet is roughly as old as Sesame Street, and the two ‘matured’ together over the years.

Today’s Google Doodle, Big Bird’s legs, might very well be one of the most recognizable Google Doodles yet. Love the Google Doodles as much as we do? Here is an archive of the latest creative efforts from Google.

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For those lucky iPhone users out there, here are a few easy steps to access Gmail through a shortcut. No need to use your browser, if you follow these steps:

1. Open your Safari browser and surf to www.Gmail.com
2. Sign into your Gmail account.
3. At the bottom of the screen, you should see a “+” symbol.
4. Tap the +.
5. Now, select “add to Home Screen”.
6. Tap “Add” to confirm your choice.
7. Now, you will see a Gmail icon on your home screen, and you’re done!

Google made a video about Gmail for mobile, which includes adding the Gmail direct shortcut to your iPhone’s home screen. It is a nice visual guide through the Gmail for mobile application.

Got a question about Google? Ask me in the forums: http://www.googletutor.com/forums/

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The Data Liberation Front is a new project by Google to further strengthen its commitment to let users easily export their data from Google products.

The site has been developed by Google engineers from its Chicago office with a simple goal – teach end users how to move their data out of Google products in the easiest possible manner and also, how they can easily transfer stuff online to their Google accounts.

The website already lists a huge number of Google services like Adwords, Analytics, Calendar, Blogger, Docs, Gmail, Maps, Picasa and many more. As new Google products are introduced and export options are made available, the site is updated with the same.

There’s also a Google Moderator page for the site where users can add tips and suggestions on what more products should be added.

Overall it’s a simple but a very useful initiative which would bolster confidence of Google’s customers in the company. I’d also call it a useful site to bookmark. In case you are wondering how you would export your Analytics data or Docs presentations, this site could always come handy.

Got a question about Google? Ask me in the forums: http://www.googletutor.com/forums/

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