Google is currently testing a new Chrome feature called “Stars” that will let users take just about any piece of content from the web and save it to a personalized library. This unannounced tool was uncovered by by Florian Kiersch, a German software developer who was exploring some of Google’s code. Several messages within Stars source code suggests that this new feature is still being reviewed internally by Google.
Today being Earth Day, Google has placed the spotlight on Sabita Malla, a senior research officer at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) who spends her days in Nepal’s Chitwan National Park fighting to protect Bengal tigers and rhinos from poachers. Aided by Glass, Malla tracks and monitors these endangered creatures using Google’s famed wearable to take pictures, notes and measurements — something she originally did with a pencil and paper.
When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that’s amore.When you can order pizza from Domino’s using Google Wallet, that’s convenient! The world famous pizza chain recently updated its Android app with support for Google’s payment system, making it even easier to complete orders from your smartphone. In celebration of this new collaboration, Domino’s customers who place an online order of $10 or more using the company’s Android app and pay with Google Wallet will receive a free order of the pizzeria’s Specialty Chicken, now through June 15th.
Want to do something nice for mom on Mother’s Day, but flowers make her sneeze and candy goes against her strict diet? Then perhaps a few books and magazines from Google Play’s Mother’s Day sale will bring a smile to mom’s face on her special day.
If you’re looking to take your portfolio abroad, Google Finance is now tracking indices, trading volumes and stock prices in Spain, Poland, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and Argentina. This updated listing lets you pull financial information from 35 different exchanges worldwide. To keep an eye on one of your foreign investments, simply perform a search in Finance. Now, if it were only that easy to find a winning investment.
On the Google Cloud Platform blog, Google has announced that it has now publicly released its ‘Andromeda’ virtualization stack to all Platform users. Users on its US central and western European servers should see ‘major’ performance gains automatically. Google is rolling out the same changes to its other zones in the coming months, so all users will benefit from the same efficiency gains.
Andromeda’s goal is to expose the raw performance of the underlying network while simultaneously exposing network function virtualization (NFV). We expose the same in-network processing that enables our internal services to scale while remaining extensible and isolated to end users. This functionality includes distributed denial of service (DDoS) protection, transparent service load balancing, access control lists, and firewalls. We do this all while improving performance, with more enhancements coming.
Hence, Andromeda itself is not a Cloud Platform networking product; rather, it is the basis for delivering Cloud Platform networking services with high performance, availability, isolation, and security. For example, Cloud Platform firewalls, routing, and forwarding rules all leverage the underlying internal Andromeda APIs and infrastructure. Our site presents the details of these and other advanced network capabilities.
We’ve heard that Google Voice is getting dragged to the trash can and most of its functionality will be incorporated into the G+ Hangouts apps on both Android and iOS. This has already happened to an extent with the ability to phone friends on Hangouts, but we’re hearing the full shuttering and depreciation of the app is the next step.
What’s interesting here is that VoIP-to-phones is expected to be integrated into the Hangouts iOS and Android apps so that, just like with the Web version, you could be able to actually make (and receive) VoIP calls directly from your Google phone number. Whether the carriers and Apple are okay with this isn’t certain, and the thought is that it could be enabled by carrier like Apple’s FaceTime (or could be scrapped altogether) depending on the global market and the carrier. Expand Expanding Close
In a legal fight which has stretched over seven years, Google seems to have finally resolved their issues with Viacom over copyright violations of videos uploaded to YouTube. Information on the details of the settlement have not been publicly released.
Google and Viacom today jointly announced the resolution of the Viacom vs. YouTube copyright litigation. This settlement reflects the growing collaborative dialogue between our two companies on important opportunities, and we look forward to working more closely together.
Announced today, Google is introducing a new layer of features to its Google Docs and Google Sheets productivity web apps. The word processor and spreadsheet editor will now support additional features through user-installed add-ons developed by select partners.
The add-ons are accessible through a menu in the tool bar when editing a document or spreadsheet and include a number of partners like Mail Chimp and Avery. Once prompted from the tool bar, Docs and Sheets will present a store-like interface laying out the various supported add-ons allowing you to install them to your apps.
Google announced today on its Enterprise blog that it’s introducing a new Google apps referral program that will see the company payout $15 for each new customer referred through the program.
Many of the millions of Google Apps customers learned about tools like Hangouts, Drive and Gmail for business from their customers, friends and networks. To help continue the momentum, we’re launching the Google Apps Referral Program. The referral program makes it easy to share Google Apps with your network and show them how they too can use these tools at work. To show our appreciation, we’re offering a $15 referral bonus for each new Google Apps user you refer.
Those interested in joining the referral program will need a valid taxpayer ID number and bank account for direct deposits. Google also says it will provide email and website templates that can be used to send a unique referral link to potential customers.Google Apps users in the US and Canada that are interested in joining the referral program can do so here.
Update: We had a quick Q&A with Google pasted below:
Are you phasing out the $5/user/year you guys give to IT service providers or is that staying? This program does not impact the amount provided to Google Apps Resellers.
Is it an affilaite program? After joining the program, members will receive $15 for every user that signs up from their recommendations. In order to receive the incentive, referrals must be Google Apps customers for at least 4 months. Then we’ll make a direct deposit to the referee’s bank account every month for the amount they’ve earned.
How long do people have to stay in the program for a payout? I’m assuming the $15 comes with a year program signup. In order to receive the incentive, referrals must be Google Apps customers for at least 4 months. Then we’ll make a direct deposit to the referee’s bank account every month for the amount they’ve earned.
Will Google be expanding this to include $ on apps or Android apps or hardware/Nexus products? (Hope so!) We’re excited about today’s launch of the Google Apps Referral Program, but have nothing else to announce.
Planning to watch American Idol tonight and vote on your favorite performers? Google is making voting through its Search apps possible through a partnership with FOX. As the live finalist performance shows debut, American Idol is allowing viewers to vote through Google.com and Google’s Android and iOS Search apps.
Voting through Google allows you to cast up to 50 votes for each contestant as the new voting system is piloted. Simply search american idol or idol during voting hours and cast your votes!
Google Search for Android is available for free from the Google Play Store.
Google announced today on its Enterprise blog that the São Paulo Department of Education in Brazil is going Google and switching its more than four million students across 5k schools as well as 300k teachers and staff to Google Apps for free.
“We are so excited to be bringing Google Apps for Education to more than four million students of São Paulo,” said Geraldo Alckmin, Governor of São Paulo. “Finally, classes will go beyond the four walls of the school.” We are working to deploy Google Apps for Education to all 4 million students within the year.
Google is also partnering with a local organization to train the 300,000 staff members in using the Google Apps for Education suite of apps.
São Paulo joins a long list of governments and education departments that have recently switched to Google Apps from the city of Boston and the US Naval Academy to classrooms in Malaysia.
The Wall Street Journalpoints to a recent survey in which over 1,100 IT administrators and business users were asked about their use of Google Apps in the workplace. According to the report, over two-thirds of respondents said that they prefer Google’s services to the point that they would be willing to spend their own hard-earned money on Google Apps for use in the office.
The survey also indicates a strong correlation between businesses that allow workers to bring their own devices for use at work and support for Google’s software. Of those surveyed, 83% said they brought their own mobile devices to work. It seems that Google’s move to create software for everyday usage has created an path to the workplace through employees who want to make their work tasts as easy to manage as their personal tasks.
The Chromecast, Google’s streaming HDMI dongle came out last summer. It is compatible with any Android device running 2.3 or later, iOS devices with iOS 6 or 7, and any Mac or PC. Initially, users were able to stream Netflix or Youtube from an iOS device and Android device, Google Play on Android, or stream websites to a TV using the Chrome browser on a computer. The Chromecast works differently from Apple’s AirPlay system in that you can multitask and do other tasks on the device or you can let it go to sleep while streaming.
Very quickly after its release, Chromecast has received support for Hulu +, Pandora, and HBO GO. Last month a major update added ten new apps including Plex, Vevo, Songza, Red Bull TV, Post TV from the Washington Post, Viki, RealPlayer Cloud, Avia, Revision3 Internet Television, and BeyondPod. The most recent update the Chromecast received allowed users to stream Google Play movies and music directly from the Chrome browser on a computer.
In this How-to, we’ll discuss how to setup the Chromecast, use it with a Mac and Android device, and explore its gaming potentials.
A Gmail bug affecting mobile browsers, the offline version of Gmail and the iOS app may have resulted in users deleting or spam-marking the wrong emails, says Google.
The bug may have affected emails received between 15th and 22nd January. Google is encouraging users to check their spam and trash folders for email that does not belong there.
Over the last year Google has been signing up a lot of government agencies to make the switch to Google Apps for email and Google’s other cloud-based apps and services. Today Google and the state of Maryland announced in a blog post that all 54,000 state employees will be transitioning to the Google Apps for Government platform as a replacement for old Microsoft Exchange and Novell mail servers:
With Google Apps for Government, all state government data and emails remain in a secure cloud that is compliant with FISMA standards. With over 50 different CIOs working in different agencies, Google Apps allows Maryland to manage security from one central point. Instead of each agency buying and running its own security systems, now Google lets us secure data on a global, enterprise-wide scale. From a central IT point of view, Google Apps lets us execute mobile device management and data leak prevention across all agencies, as well as track every email and document. Previously, each individual IT department had to install appliances to manage these issues on their own.
Deputy CIO and CTO of the State of Maryland Gregory Urban explains that over 2,000 State Police officers have also adopted Google Apps and currently use Google Drive’s Docs, Forms, and Spreadsheets web apps to file reports for arrests and investigations. “A sergeant’s weekly reporting job that used to take 6-7 hours now takes less than an hour, freeing up officers to focus on more mission critical tasks.”
On its Inside AdSense blog, Google has announced a new plugin for WordPress users that will further ingrate Google’s publisher products with the service. The Publisher Plugin adds easy access to both Google Webmaster Tools and AdSense from within WordPress. Google hopes to add more services to the plugin soon, and as the product is still in beta, some final tweaks are still being made to it.
The Publisher Plugin allows webmasters to more easily place ads on their sites with AdSense, in addition to providing detailed reports about their sites with Webmaster Tools.
Google AdSense: Earn money by placing ads on your website. The plugin links your WordPress site to your AdSense account and makes it easier to place ads on your site — without needing to manually modify any HTML code.
Google Webmaster Tools: Webmaster Tools provides you with detailed reports about your pages’ visibility on Google. The plugin allows you to verify your site on Webmaster Tools with just one click.
Continuing its integration of Google+ into just about everyone of its other products, today Google announced a nice improvement to Gmail that will auto suggest Google+ contacts. Gmail already displayed Google+ information next to emails, allowed you to search for emails by Circles, and keep your contacts up to date using Google+ data, but up until now you couldn’t select a Google+ contact as a recipient when composing an email. While Gmail will now auto suggest Google+ contacts when composing a new email, it also has a new setting to control who can reach you and see your email address: Expand Expanding Close
In an announcement shared on Google’s Enterprise blog by Boston’s chief information officer, the city has announced it will officially migrate some 76,000 city employees, police officers, teachers, and students to using Google Apps and email services from a variety of alternative systems including Microsoft Exchange.
The Boston official noted the city’s success in adopting Google Apps, particularly for boston.gov email addresses for every city official, due to the minimal effort in maintaining the system thanks to Google’s existing and scaling infrastructure. Expand Expanding Close
Google has once again refreshed its free Google Play Music playlist for its December Deals offering with new music for you to grab. This week’s artist once again includes an interesting range of performers including Nine Inch Nails, Stevie Wonder, 2Pac, and Amy Winehouse.
What’s more is the playlist leads with Taylor Swift and follows with Kanye West, the two of which famously made headlines together following the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards when Kanye unapologetically interrupted Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech.
Google has announced the winners of the 2013 Players’ Choice awards for top Google Play apps and games. The awards are given based on user popularity, unlike the apps featured last week in the Play Store for a similar award, which were chosen by Google themselves. There were six categories spanning apps and games. The winners of each respective category are listed below, as chosen by the Android community.
Google is rolling out support to its take out service for exporting email and appointment data from its Gmail and Google Calendar services, the company announced today.
While Google often supports data exporting when sunsetting a service, the company says in this instance it’s simply allowing users the ability to better archive personal data and switch to other services with less friction. Expand Expanding Close
Google announced a couple of welcomed improvements to Google Calendar on the desktop today. Perhaps the most notable new feature is autocomplete for addresses powered by Google Maps:
Calendar will autocomplete addresses as you type so you can quickly and accurately add locations to your events. Your friends can then simply click on the “map” link to make sure you all end up at the right place.
The update also brings suggestions for instant relevant events as you type. Now, when searching Calendar you’ll see instant suggestions pop up for events and contacts relevant to your search query. Like the autocomplete feature, instant suggestions for events and contacts aim to make it easier to quickly input entries into your calendar.
Lastly, Google Calendar will now automatically update event guest lists for Google Groups as members leave or join the group: Expand Expanding Close
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