Now that YouTube uses Google Accounts, Google can easily integrate YouTube with other Google services. The latest YouTube redesign made the integration with social networks more prominent and the videos from Google+ are just one click away.

YouTube now tests the header that's already displayed in Google Search, Gmail, Google Docs and many other Google services. The header shows your Google+ notifications, a box that lets you share videos with other Google+ users and links related to your Google profile.

Right now, the Google+ header is only displayed if you haven't created a YouTube account and you log in using your Google account (so you don't have a YouTube username and channel). Obviously, you need to join Google+ to see the new features.

{ Thanks, Michael. }

Android.com hides a very simple game at the bottom of the page. Just click the Android logo next to the page's footer and you'll start the game: use your mouse to throw snowballs at the snowman.

The game works in Chrome and Firefox, but it doesn't seem to be optimized for mobile devices.

After hitting the snowman three times, you get a medal.


Here's a video that shows the game in action:


{ via WebSonic.nl }

If you search for [google chrome], you'll notice that Chrome's homepage is no longer the top search result.

The explanation is that a video ad for Chrome was used in a lot of blog posts that promoted Chrome and one of the posts linked to Chrome's homepage without using the nofollow attribute.

"Buying or selling links that pass PageRank is in violation of Google's Webmaster Guidelines and can negatively impact a site's ranking in search results," explains a Google article.

Even though Google didn't actually buy links, it's strange to see that a Google Chrome campaign generated a lot of low-quality posts. Danny Sullivan says that "the bigger issue in this has always been the garbage content that was produced by the campaign, 'thin' material that Google has fought to keep out of its own search results. I'm still trying to understand how Google failed to understand that the marketing companies it engaged with would produce this." Actually, the whole story is difficult to understand. "Google seems to have contracted with Essence Digital to have a video ad campaign be run across the web. Apparently, Google had no idea how Essence Digital was going to actually run the campaign or make the video ads appear across the web."


A Google spokesperson says that the campaign wasn't authorized by Google, but "Google should be held to a higher standard, so we have taken stricter action than we would against a typical site". That's the reason why Google "demoted www.google.com/chrome and lowered the site's PageRank for a period of at least 60 days". As Matt Cutts explains, "after that, someone on the Chrome side can submit a reconsideration request documenting their clean-up just like any other company would. During the 60 days, the PageRank of www.google.com/chrome will also be lowered to reflect the fact that we also won't trust outgoing links from that page."

Google already uses text ads for Chrome, sitelinks still point to the demoted page and the top result for [google chrome] is a Google page, so users will manage to find Chrome's homepage, but it's impressive to see that Google penalized one of the most important Google products because of a small mistake. After all, the videos used a DoubleClick redirect to link to Chrome's homepage and only one of the posts linked directly to the page. That post has been removed by the blog author, so Google could have claimed that there were no paid links.

In 2009, Google Japan hired an Internet marketing company to promote one of its features. The company used paid posts and Google dropped the PageRank for Google Japan's homepage from 9 to 5.

Last year's predictions weren't that great (the predictions for 2010 were better), but predicting the future is an addictive game, so I'll try again. Here are my predictions for 2012:

1. Oflline Google stores that will sell Chromebooks, Android phones, Google TV boxes, Google-branded shirts and more.

2. Google Music will become a subscription service.

3. Google will focus on improving the quality of Android apps. It will offer better tools for creating consistent user interfaces, it will review some of the new apps and applications will be able to request additional permissions after they've been installed.

4. Google Games - a new service for multiplayer games that will combine the best games for Chrome, Android and Google+, while syncing your data, ranking users and allowing you to challenge your friends.

5. A new music editing online service that will only work in Chrome (and probably other Chrome-only services).

6. ARM Chromebooks (notebooks and tablets) and ARM Google TV boxes will be cheaper and more successful.

7. Google+ will have at least 300 million users at the end of 2012 and will incorporate many existing Google apps. Google will aggressively promote the service and will even integrate it with Chrome.

8. Google Instant Answers - an improved OneBox that will offer some of the detailed answers that are available in Wolfram Alpha.

9. A virtual assistant for Android that will be more powerful than Siri and it will also be available in the desktop Google interface as an upgrade for voice search. Google will get better at supporting natural language queries.

10. Google's navigation menu will be customizable and the notification box will support new services.

11. The first Google-branded Motorola phones and tablets.

12. Google search results personalized based on information from your calendar, Google+ posts, the apps you install etc.

13. Google Doodle Creator - a service that lets you create a doodle and share it with your friends.

14. Image Search will be able to analyze images and recognize multiple objects and people.

15. Chrome Web Store apps and extensions for Android.

16. YouTube's HTML5 player will become the default player.

17. YouTube's new TV-like channels will combine some of the best videos that are available.

18. The largest fine in Google's history.

19. Blog commenting service powered by Google+.

20. Google+ Answers service replaces Aardvark.

21. An online Chrome dashboard will let you access your data (bookmarks, passwords, apps) even when you don't use Chrome.

22. Better Google Docs for tablets, Google Drive - a new name for the Google Docs list, apps for syncing files and more free storage.

If you liked Google's "let it snow" Easter egg, YouTube has some special effects for you. YouTube's player has a new button for snow, the progress bar includes a snowflake, while the search results page for queries like [snow] or [Christmas] use a simplified snow animation.

{ Thanks, Sterling, Venkat and Cookie Lee. }

When Google redesigned Google News and other services, the "Web Search" button seemed extraneous and it was removed.

If you've used Google eBooks for Android or iPhone, you probably noticed that the mobile apps had a clear advantage over the desktop app: you could download books to your device and read them offline. The same feature is now available in the desktop app, but only if you use Chrome.

Just like the apps for Gmail and Google Docs, Google eBooks requires some advanced features that can only be enabled by installing a Chrome Web Store app. Another shortcoming is that the offline version of Google eBooks can only be accessed by clicking the app icon or by bookmarking its special URL and not by visiting books.google.com.


To be able to read a book offline, you need to mouse over the book and click "Make available offline". Advanced features don't work offline, even if not all of them are disabled. You can't search inside a book, take notes or highlight some text.

Right now, the offline app is pretty flaky and buggy. Sometimes you need to wait a few seconds to load the list of books because the app tries to connect to the server. Some of the time, the books didn't even load. Offline Google eBooks looks like an experimental app, but it's nice that you can still try it and help Google improve it. Hopefully, the app will work in other browsers.

{ Thanks, Venkat. }

It's no longer a surprise, since it happens every year. Google shows a colorful bar above the search results when you search for [Christmas], [Xmas] and other Christmas-related queries. There's also a special bar for Hanukkah.

You can also check the decorations from 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, when Google also celebrated Kwanzaa and Festivus, the famous Seinfeld holiday.

{ Thanks, Venkat. }

After removing the lists feature, Google Bookmarks updated the interface to match all the other Google services. It's nice to see that Google Bookmarks still exists, but the service only integrates with Google Web History and Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer. The integration with Google search has been removed, now that Google focuses on Google+, and the Android ICS browser uses the bookmark sync service from Chrome.

Google will have to find a way to merge Google Bookmarks with Chrome's bookmark sync. Google Toolbar could show the bookmarks saved in Chrome, while Google Bookmarks could be a web interface for Chrome's bookmarks. Unfortunately, Chrome uses folders, while Google Bookmarks uses labels, so merging the bookmarks is not an easy task.

If you search for [let it snow] using Google, you'll have a hard time checking the search results. Google uses a JavaScript animation that adds some snowflakes and covers the entire page with snow.

Fortunately, Google added a "defrost" button that makes the search results reappear. You can also click anywhere on the page and move your mouse to "defrost" the page or draw something. Click the "+" button and you can share the Easter egg with other Google+ users.




{ Thanks, Venkat. }

Google Zeitgeist 2011, the list of the fastest rising queries in 2011, brings a great news for Google: the second most popular query this year was [Google+]. It's the first time in Google's history when a Google service makes the top 3. In 2005, [orkut] was the 5th gainer, while [youtube] was the 6th fastest rising query in 2007.

"Google+ became the fastest growing social network, acquiring more than 10 million users in three weeks. From July 3 - 17, Google+ and related keywords like Google Plus and Google + had more traffic than the keyword Sports," explains Google.

Here's the top 10:

1. Rebecca Black
2. Google+
3. Ryan Dunn
4. Casey Anthony
5. Battlefield 3
6. iPhone 5
7. Adele
8. 東京 電力 (Tokyo Electric Power Company)
9. Steve Jobs
10. iPad2

It's interesting to notice that 2011 is the first year since 2007 when Facebook is no longer included in the top 10 rising queries. Google+ is actually the only online service from the top 10, down from 6 services last year (Chatroulette, Friz, Myxer, Twitter, Gamezer, Facebook).

Here's the year in review:

While watching this ad for Galaxy Nexus...

"Calling all pretty faces, all visionaries, all the pass-it-alongers, all meeters and greeters, all wandering navigators, and mad scientists. All high-defers, all late-night poets and daylight dreamers. The possibilities are calling."

... I realized that there's a famous ad which uses a similar enumeration. It's Apple's "Crazy Ones" commercial from 1997. Here's the unaired version narrated by Steve Jobs (you can also watch the version that aired on TV):


"Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

Sometimes you need a great ad to show that your product stands out. Now that Galaxy Nexus is finally available in the US, Google uploaded some promotional videos. One of them is good enough to be a TV ad:

"With Hangouts, the unplanned meet-up comes to the web — and the phone. Let buddies know you're hanging out and see who drops by. Chat face to face with a group of up to ten people using your 1.3-MP front-facing camera, all on the go," explains Google.

When YouTube launched the new interface, it was obvious that Cosmic Panda was just an experiment and its purpose was to test some new features. Now Cosmic Panda is no longer available and users have been switched to the regular interface.

"Yesterday marked the last day of the channels and watch experiment, otherwise known as Cosmic Panda. Contrary to what some might have thought, Cosmic Panda was not the new version of YouTube to come, but just an experiment we used to test out some new and interesting ideas. Since launching the experiment in July, we learned a lot and incorporated many results of the experiment into our recent homepage and channels update, which you're using now. We're happy with what we found and are now bringing Cosmic Panda to a close," informed a Google employee.

Gmail's app for iOS and mobile Gmail added a cool feature that's not even available in the desktop interface: Gmail Scribbles. "You can now open up a canvas and scribble a message that will be attached to your email. It's perfect for sending a quick sketch that is hard to express in words or adding a fun graphic to make your email more personal. Scribbles support different colors, brush sizes, lines, erasers and spray paint." Maybe Scribbles is just a sneak peek at an upcoming mobile version of Google Drawings.

Gmail 1.1 for iOS also changed the notification sound, added better support for nested labels and Google+ Circles. The settings page that was available in the mobile web app, is now included in the iOS app, so you can add a custom signature and a vacation responder.

Chrome 16 is ready for primetime and it brings some new features:

1. The print preview page now integrates with Cloud Print. That means you can now print any webpage or PDF file using Cloud Print.

While Cloud Print makes more sense on a mobile phone or a tablet, you can also use it on your computer. The printer management page lets you share printers with your contacts just like you would share files in Google Docs. You're no longer limited to sharing a printer with other computers on the same network.

2. Chrome now has an interface for creating profiles. Go to Options > Personal Stuff and click "Add new user". After creating a new profile, Google asks you to log in using a Google Account and sync your settings and data, but this is optional. You can change the profile name and the icon that's always displayed in the top-left corner of the window. Profiles work just like the incognito mode, except that the data is saved and you can use multiple profiles at the same time. Just click the profile icon and you can open a new window in a different profile.

It's important to keep in mind that profiles can't be password-protected and they aren't intended to replace the user accounts from your operating system. Profiles are useful if you need different settings, bookmarks, apps at work, at school or in your past time. You can create a profile for games, install your favorite games from the Chrome Web Store, download a game-related theme and add some bookmarks.


3. YouTube, Gmail and Google Search are the apps that are automatically added when you install Chrome or create a new profile. The Search app was about to be removed because the icon was ugly.


{ Thanks, Abhishek. }

Changing the user agent of a browser is sometimes helpful if you're visiting a site that doesn't work well in your browser or if you're a developer and you want to test a site. Until recently, changing the user agent required installing an extension, opening about:config or adding a command-line parameter.

Now that browsers started to include powerful developer tools and even Internet Explorer has a built-in user agent editor, Chrome added a similar feature. It's only available in Chrome 17 (Dev Channel / Canary) right now.

Here's how to change the user agent:

1. open the Developer Tools (Ctrl+Shift+I on Windows/Linux, Command - Option - I on Mac OS X)
2. click the "settings" icon at the bottom of the window
3. check "override user agent" and select one of the options (Internet Explorer 7/8/9, Firefox 4/7 for Windows/Mac, iPhone, iPad and Nexus S running Android 2.3). You can also select "other" and enter a custom user agent.

{ via François. Thanks, Venkat. }

Google Mobile Search increased the text size for search results and reduced the number of words from the snippets. While this change made search results more legible, it also reduced the number of results that are displayed before you start scrolling.

On an iPhone, Google only displays two results in their entirety, instead of three results, and the snippets are way too short.

Old UI:

New UI:

+1 buttons no longer clutter Google's search results pages. They're now displayed when you mouse over the results for most of the pages. If you have +1'd a page, the button will be displayed by default to highlight the result.

In other search-related news, the preferences page has a new interface with custom controls, while the advanced search page switched back to the old interface. Maybe someone read this post and decided to fix the drop-down lists.

It looks like not only Google Contacts integrates with Google+. Gmail also added many features that make it easier to share files in Google+, add new people to your circles and find messages from these circles.

A lot of people complained that you can't find the messages sent or received by the members of a group. This feature is still not available, but you can restrict the messages to a circle. Gmail now displays the list of circles below the labels and you can use it to find mail from your family, friends, colleagues etc. It's obvious that groups are now less important than circles, even though I don't think they'll disappear.

"If you've spent time building your Google+ circles, you can now quickly use them to filter your mail, saving yourself from having to sift through that pile of daily deal emails and newsletters. You can see messages from all of your circles at once or from each individual circle. And if you want, you can show circle names on emails in your inbox. Contacts can also be filtered by circles, making it easier to view your social connections."

You can now add someone to a circle from the widget displayed in the right sidebar. There's also an easy way to share pictures from an email to Google+: just click "share" next to the attachment.


{ Thanks, Petros and Joost. }