Category: Google

Fully integrated chat in orkut = GTalk + Orkut

One of our favorite features in GMail is its integrated Chat box. Now I have got another reason to stay logged into my Orkut account, whenever I am not blogging!
But with this integration, I think that the scrap books will become much like a testimonial page or spam book! Because most of the people will use the sophisticated Chat box instead of sending scraps to eachother and keep waiting and refreshing to see the new scraps!

And people may argue that, in offices and schools, the administrators will block the Chat box, so people will still be sending the scraps(as chat messages). But we think, if the administrator thinks that Chatbox in Orkut isn’t safe, then he is also likely to think that Orkut itself isn’t safe to be allowed to access!

Anyway, with this new feature we can:-
* Chat with your orkut friends in real time from directly within orkut.
* Control which of your orkut friends can chat with you.
* Chat with your Google Talk and Gmail chat contacts.
* Visit different orkut pages while keeping your chatboxes open.

My favorite thing would be, chating with GMail and Google Talk buddies using my Orkut account. Thats cool, isn’t it?
orkut-gmail-chat

You get full control of who can see you online, who can chat with you etc, in Orkut “Settings” page.
If you don’t see this feature enabled in your account yet, just be patient, Google will rollout this feature to all its users in a couple of days.
orkut-chat-settings

Till this feature is enabled to you, have a look at:



What do you think about the new features in Orkut? Do you think it will reach a state of facebook soon?

Auto Translate Now Available For Videos With Captions + Search Bar – YouTube

Ever got frustrated by watching your favorite celebrate interview video where they are speaking in some language that you don’t know and which is having captions too in some other language ?

Now Google has taken another step, where your videos can reach wider audience. Google Translate adds real-time machine translation to any caption tracks you upload. Now you can enjoy this video spoken in Italian, even if you don’t understand Italian.




To get a translation for your preferred language, move the mouse over the bottom-right arrow, and then over the small triangle next to the CC (or subtitle) icon, to see the captions menu. Click on the “Translate…” button and then you will be given a choice of many different languages.

When you add captions to your video in one language, it will be readable to almost everybody through auto translate. While machine translation is not perfect, but still this will help creators to offer a better understanding of their videos.

Search bar at the top of video:
As Google has started – “To help its video content partners earn more money, YouTube will
begin running overlay ads in YouTube partner videos embedded on other websites”.

So now youtube generates revenue whenever someone uses its content partners video, anywhere in the internet. So now youtube has added this search bar within the video player, and now we can search for any video from within the player and watch it wherever we are!

Voice and Video chat – right inside Gmail

Today Google released the Voice and Video chat feature to its Gmail. Switching from email to chat as needed, all within the same app, is really great for productivity.
video-voice-chat-gmail
From Gmail Blog:

All you have to do is download and install the voice and video plugin and you are ready. And in the spirit of open communications, Google has designed this feature using Internet standards such as XMPP, RTP, and H.264, which means that third-party applications and networks can choose to interoperate with Gmail voice and video chat.



Source: GmailBlog

This feature is available both in Gmail and Apps account. Seems like Google will soon steal the market share of Email Service. Presently Yahoo tops the list – Comscore figures.
The problem with Google not listing in the top might be, many people with a domain will be using Google Apps google.com/a/domain.com instead of the default gmail.com.

Feature Rich Google Analytics Gets Richer By Integrating Adsense ($)

Google has heard the voice of all people who wanted the Adsense and Analytics integration, and finally integrated them, as most of us had guessed.

Google is gradually rolling out this functionality to publishers, and you’ll see an invitation link at the top of your ‘Overview’ and ‘Advanced Reports’ pages when it’s been enabled for your account.
IntegrateLink_EN
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And Google is also rolling out some advance features to its analytics:
Overview
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With this integration, we can get huge benefits:
Actually, we need to find more use of these feature rich resource using our creativity.

  • Discover untapped markets. Use the geographies report to determine which regions are under-represented in your site’s user base. Optimize your site’s content to attract more of these under-represented users.
  • Drive high-earning traffic to your site. Use the ‘Referring sites’ report to determine where the users who are making you the most money are coming from. Focus your efforts on getting traffic from these sources.
  • Delve deeper into AdSense reports. Use the visualization feature to look at trends in your site’s AdSense performance over time, or by time of day.

Some advance features available is Google-Analytics also include:

Advanced Segmentation, Custom Reports, a data export API (private beta), integrated reporting for AdSense publishers (private beta), multi-dimensional data visualizations called “Motion Charts,” and an updated user and administrative interface.

Integrated Reporting with AdSense:
Analytics+AS
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Learn how to link your AdSense account with a Google Analytics account, and for a glimpse at the new reports, take a look at this video:



If this feature is not yet active in your account then be patent, Google is busy rolling out this feature to all of us.

Our myths:-[ Hope this was a pure coincidence. Don’t take this myth seriously, I just wanted to share the coincidence incident with you people 🙂 ]
Put your analytics code to your blog/website where you have put your adsense ads(after you link your adsense and analytics accounts), and Google will start trusting your blog/site more and your earnings will also increase, as Google can identify[almost all user activity in your blog] valid and invalid clicks on your blog more accurately, easily and faster. [Believe it or not, we could see a sudden raise in our Adsense earnings just 30 minutes after we put analytics codes into our blog. — Might be a coincidence.]
Its like surrendering almost all information of your blog to Google. Now Google Search algorithm will also improve a lot due to Google Adsense and Google Analytics Integration.

Build Adword Ads in Minutes

Google has released the AdWords display ad builder, which lets you create professional-looking display ads in AdWords without needing to hire a professional designer or start from scratch.
professional_welcome_signup

And the best part of this tool is, it converts your ad to fit all possible placements across the Google content network, including video and game placements.

To start creating your ads, click Display Ad Builder on the Create an ad page within a new or existing campaign in your AdWords account.

And the sad part asusual is, this feature is presently only available to all advertisers in the U.S. and Canada.

Hope Google rolls this feature to all its adword customers soon. Meanwhile watch this short video tutorial demonstrating how to create your first ad:




If you are new to AdWords and want to learn more about creating and running display ads, visit the new Display Ads 101 tutorial.

And watch above video even if the feature is not yet available to you, because we think that this feature will soon be available to everyone of us, as Adwords is bread and butter to Google, and I am sure Google won’t delay with releasing any feature to its adword customers.

With this improvements in Adwords, we are expecting more creative and interactive advertisements on blogs running Adsense ads.

And there is another thing to observe in the above video. Google is using its own browser while creating such video demos and tutorial, which will also motivate others to use it. So we need to be an idol for others when it comes to using our products efficiently.

Faster Access of Gmail Using keyboard Shortcuts

We had seen about Gmail keyboard shortcuts in Google Official Blog some times ago, and wanted to write about it after testing whether its worth using or not.

So we started using it from the day we saw it. At first it was just fun..after some time we thought that its a good exercises to our brain, and after using it extensively we feel that, this feature of Gmail is so awesome that, everyone must try using it as far as possible.

Some simple reasons to start using Gmail Keyboard shortcuts:

1. It saves lot of time.

2. People think you as a geek, when they see you using Gmail without touching mouse 🙂

3. And we have observed that, when we use the keyboard shortcut, it works faster when compared to that when we use mouse, to perform the same task.

4. Practicing these shortcuts will help you a lot, if you have purchased a laptop recently and you don’t have a mouse attached to it. Touchpad is quite irritating, until we get used to it.

Keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts help you save time by allowing you to never take your hands off the keyboard to use the mouse. You’ll need a Standard 101/102-Key or Natural PS/2 Keyboard to use the shortcuts. To turn these case-sensitive shortcuts on or off, click Settings,and see for “Keyboard shortcuts” in the General tab and select Keyboard shortcuts on, and click on Save Changes button.
enable-gmail-keyboard-shortcut
Here are the list of Default Gmail shortcut keys(which can also be found in your Settings –> Keyboard Shortcuts tab, of your Gmail account).

Shortcut Key Definition Action
c Compose Allows you to compose a new message. <Shift> + c allows you to compose a message in a new window.
/ Search Puts your cursor in the search box.
k Move to newer conversation Opens or moves your cursor to a more recent conversation. You can hit <Enter> to expand a conversation.
j Move to older conversation Opens or moves your cursor to the next oldest conversation. You can hit <Enter> to expand a conversation.
n Next message Moves your cursor to the next message. You can hit <Enter> to expand or collapse a message. (Only applicable in ‘Conversation View.’)
p Previous message Moves your cursor to the previous message. You can hit <Enter> to expand or collapse a message. (Only applicable in ‘Conversation View.’)
o or <Enter> Open Opens your conversation. Also expands or collapses a message if you are in ‘Conversation View.’
u Return to conversation list Refreshes your page and returns you to the inbox, or list of conversations.
e Archive Archive your conversation from any view.
m Mute Archives the conversation, and all future messages skip the Inbox unless sent or cc’d directly to you. Learn more.
x Select conversation Automatically checks and selects a conversation so that you can archive, apply a label, or choose an action from the drop-down menu to apply to that conversation.
s Star a message or conversation Adds or removes a star to a message or conversation. Stars allow you to give a message or conversation a special status.
! Report spam Marks a message as spam and removes it from your conversation list.
r Reply Replies to the message sender. <Shift> + r allows you to reply to a message in a new window. (Only applicable in ‘Conversation View.’)
a Reply all Replies to all message recipients. <Shift> +a allows you to reply to all message recipients in a new window. (Only applicable in ‘Conversation View.’)
f Forward Forwards a message. <Shift> + f allows you to forward a message in a new window. (Only applicable in ‘Conversation View.’)
<Esc> Escape from input field Removes the cursor from your current input field.
<Ctrl> + s Save draft Saves the current text as a draft when composing a message. Hold the <Ctrl> key while pressing s and make sure your cursor is in one of the text fields — either the composition pane, or any of the To, CC, BCC, or Subject fields — when using this shortcut.
# Delete Moves the conversation to Trash.
<Shift> + i Mark as read Marks your message as ‘read’ and skip to the next message.
<Shift> + u Mark as unread Marks your message as ‘unread’ so you can go back to it later.
[ Archive and previous Archives your conversation and moves to the previous one.
] Archive and next Archives your conversation and moves to the next one.
z Undo Undoes your previous action, if possible (works for actions with an ‘undo’ link).
<Shift> + n Update current conversation Updates your current conversation when there are new messages.
q Move cursor to chat search Moves your cursor directly to the chat search box.
y Remove from Current View*
 Automatically removes the message or conversation from your current view.

  • From ‘Inbox,’ ‘y’ means Archive
  • From ‘Starred,’ ‘y’ means Unstar
  • From ‘Trash,’ ‘y’ means Move to inbox
  • From any label, ‘y’ means Remove the label

* ‘y’ has no effect if you’re in ‘Spam,’ ‘Sent,’ or ‘All Mail.’

. Show more actions Displays the ‘More Actions’ drop-down menu.
? Show keyboard shortcuts help Displays the keyboard shortcuts help menu within any page you’re on.

Combo-keys – Use the following combination’s of keys to navigate through Gmail.

Shortcut Key Definition Action
<tab> then <Enter> Send message After composing your message, use this combination to send it automatically. (Supported in Internet Explorer and Firefox, on Windows.)
y then o Archive and next Archives your conversation and moves to the next one.
g then a Go to ‘All Mail’ Takes you to ‘All Mail,’ the storage site for all mail you’ve ever sent or received (and have not deleted).
g then s Go to ‘Starred’ Takes you to all conversations you have starred.
g then c Go to ‘Contacts’ Takes you to your Contacts list.
g then d Go to ‘Drafts’ Takes you to all drafts you have saved.
g then i Go to ‘Inbox’ Returns you to the inbox.
g then t Go to ‘Sent Mail’ Takes you to all mail you’ve sent.
* then a Select all Selects all mail.
* then n Select none Deselects all mail.
* then r Select read Selects all mail you’ve read.
* then u Select unread Selects all unread mail.
* then s Select starred Selects all starred mail.
* then t Select unstarred Selects all unstarred mail.

All these above keyboard shortcuts can be changed by changing the settings in your Gmail account(by going to Settings and Keyboard Shortcuts tab ).

Another small useful feature: If you often send messages, where the subject is the entire message (e.g. “Going to movie at 2:15?”), and Gmail would always prompt you to add in body text. Now, however, you can add “EOM” or “(EOM)” at the end of the subject line (short for End Of Message), and Gmail will silently send the message without the unnecessary prompt.

Google team know that these keyboard shortcuts are difficult to remember, so they have added another small feature, i.e., shortcut reference menu.
Gmail-shortcut-help-menu

You can call up this menu by holding “shift” and hitting the “?” (without cotes ofcourse) key while logged in. It’s easy to remember: just type “?” any time you have a question about a shortcut and need a reminder. This feature works in the latest version of Gmail, currently available for English IE7 and Firefox 2 users. And not a great surprise, these shortcuts also work in Google Browser Chrome.

Google SMS Channels: Group messaging System

SMSChannelsLabsLogoIts a great news for many people in India(2nd largest mobile users). Now we can publish and receive SMS messages from Google SMS Channels.
Google SMS is free for both content publishers as well as mobile phone users who subscribe to text updates via SMS.
We can create a group and send updates to all those who subscribe to our text updates, via SMS. Interestingly, we can integrate our blog using our feed and our SMS subscribers will receive the updates whenever we have a new article in our blog. And subscribers can choose when(time) and the number of SMS’s to be received through Google SMS service.

Presently there are a great variety of groups from most popular GoogleNews Channel to blogs and famous newspapers groups. We can subscribe to all these group’s updates.

We can post an update to our SMS group, using our mobile or directly from the web or automatically from our blog feeds(when there are new articles published).
We need to keep in mind that, our text updates won’t reach our SMS text update subscribers as soon as we publish something, it always arrives to their mobile inbox only at the time they have chosen to receive the updates.
google-sms-settings
If you are not getting SMS updates, then you need to look at the “settings“ in your Google SMS account.

Hope Google will extend this service to many more countries shortly.

For a complete explanation of this service and a self explanatory help center, click here.

If you are from some other country(other than India), and if this service is available in your country also, then please share some details with us.