Tag: Google

Tips

Gmail’s 10 Latest Lab Features

Post author By Rahul Bansal
Post date September 19, 2008
6 Comments on Gmail’s 10 Latest Lab Features

Gmail introduced a lab edition in June with 13 features. Over the time they kept adding these features and here is post listing latest lab features.

But before exploring further, for those who missed these lab features completely, these can be activated selectively by going to Lab tab under Gmail Settings.

And here are some cool and latest features:

Right-side chat

Move the chat box to the right side of the inbox. This is good if you have longer chat list which pushes your labels box below. By the way there is a small “options” link below chat box, which let you resize it to 4 different sizes.

Right-side labels

Move the labels box to the right side of the inbox. This is good if you use labels a lot. You can move labels or chat or both boxes on right side.

Default ‘Reply to all’

Make ‘Reply to all’ your default option for responding to emails. Good for developers who collaborate on projects as you will never forget copying to someone in group.

Quote selected text

Quote the text you have selected when you reply to a message. This works best if you use keyboard shortcuts. This type of quoting replies is quite popular with people who spend lots of time on forums or mailing lists.

Navbar drag and drop

Allows you to reorder the items in your navbar using drag and drop. Some Lab features adds extra boxes to your navbar. Enabling this feature can save a lot of scrolling in some cases.

Forgotten Attachment Detector

Prevents you from accidentally sending messages without the relevant attachments. Prompts you if you mention attaching a file, but forgot to do so. There was a greasemonkey script to do this from long time.

Vacation Time!

Lets you specify starting and ending dates for the vacation autoresponder. This is good for guys who forget to setup vacation responder in last minute rush. Using this you can set a vacation responder as soon as you make reservations for your vacation.

Custom Label Colors

Lets you create your own combination of colors for labels. Instead of choosing one of the standard colors from the label dropdown menu, click on Add custom colors. Pick your combination of colors, hit Apply, and enjoy.

Mark as Read Button

Tired of spending all that effort to click on the more actions menu every time you want to mark messages as read without reading them? Now just enable this lab and that is just a button click away!

Go to label

Enable keyboard shortcuts and hit ‘g’ then ‘l’ to display a popup for selecting a label to go to. Quite useful for guys who use labels a lot. Personally I will use labels more often now.

Let us know which lab features you are enjoying and which one feature you are missing in Gmail. Personally, I miss to-do list a lot in Gmail.

Related: 13 More Gmail Lab Features

Tags Gmail, Google, Software

Tips

How I Made $332 From One Post!

Post author By Rahul Bansal
Post date September 16, 2008
13 Comments on How I Made $332 From One Post!

Yep, you got it right, its $332 I made from one single post! And now as I look back I feel I could have made at least twice more than that!

If you are a reader of this blog, then you may have came across my post titled – Get Unlimited Bandwidth & Storage with Dreamhost. It was about a very limited, once-in-a-lifetime kinda offer.

I not only host this and many other websites/blogs with Dreamhost but also actively use its affiliate program. But $332 with one single post was unthinkable. Well it happened with me and here is my analysis but first let me show you screenshot of my Dreamhost reward panel.

As you can see there are five $47 and one $97 reward entries in 7 days window i.e. from September 5 (when I made post) to September 10 (last day to fetch ‘unlimited’ offer). Now lets do some simple math : 5x$47 + $97 = $332.

Apart from this jackpot, I have been always successful with Dreamhost affiliate program because…

Dreamhost is really best webhosting service overall. Mind my use of word “overall” as its unfair to compare performance of Dreamhost with a dedicated server solutions.
Dreamhost is beyond a webhosting service. There is a large community of Dreamhosters, who runs dedicated forums, wikis, blogs where you will find lots of information as well how-to guide on every single topic related to webhosting.
They have nice affiliate program which not only pays your webhosting bills but also generate lots of hard-cash if used smartly. By the way I was not aware about this fact while signing up for Dreamhost. I was not aware about promo-codes either! It still hurts to loose those $97 in discount. 🙁
Above all is about Dreamhost’s greatness but what I think works best is the fact that I am promoting something which I use myself. 🙂

I was sure about nice response to that post about as it was really a great offer. But at the most I was expecting 1 or 2 signups. And now when it brought me $332 via 6 signups, I feel I underestimated it because…

I don’t use “Featured Post” like option as Darren Rowse use on Problogger. I am sure that in this special case, it would have helped me get at least 5 more signups.
I did not use service like Digg, Stumble Upon to promote that post.
I know some people who were thinking about switching to Dreamhost from long time. I guess I should have mailed them that article.
I could have written a follow up or reminder post on say September 9, with title like “Last Day to Grab Unlimited Webhosting” or something like that.
There are popular forum related to webhosting. I could have used them.

Well opportunities are countless. Next time, I may follow above 5 points only to discover more of them at the end of the party.

Anyway my purpose of posting this story is to tell you that affiliate programs do work if used smartly. Also there are more ways to monetize your blog beyond Google AdSense! 🙂

Link: Signup for Dreamhost (promo code included in link)

Tags Adsense, Blogging, Dreamhost, Google, Internet, Making Money, Web Hosting, Windows

Tips

Google Chrome for Mac and Linux

Post author By Rahul Bansal
Post date September 16, 2008

Google’s open source browser is now unofficially ported to Mac and Linux by geeks at CodeWeavers.

Officials ports for non-Windows OS are under-development and will take some time to hit your desktops. But those who are eager, can try Crossover Chromium.

On Mac, it will support Intel based OS X 10.4 or higher. PowerPC Macs are not supported. On Linux side you can run it on almost all distributions.

Crossover is a standard Mac app which allows you to install many popular Windows applications and games on your Intel OS X Mac.

I tested it on my Macbook Pro. It took a lot of time for first-time initialization. And Overall application performance is also bad. I hope Linux users find some better result. Personally, I will wait for official Port. I don’t like Chrome much but as a web-developer I have to check my designs and services in Chrome to as it is gaining large pie of browser market share.

Link: Crossover Chromium

Tags Chrome, Firefox, Google, Internet, plugin, Windows

Tips

Enable Right-Click On Any Website (Including Orkut)

Post author By Rahul Bansal
Post date September 14, 2008
11 Comments on Enable Right-Click On Any Website (Including Orkut)

There are many websites which prefer to disable right-clicking on web-pages specially images. To do this they normally use one of JavaScript ways.

The most popular way is to add following code to element tag on which you want to disable right-clicking.

oncontextmenu="return false;"

For example, say you have code for an image like below…

<img src=”something” />

Change it to…

<img src=”something” oncontextmenu="return false;"/>

Now reason I am posting about this is, popular social networking site Orkut, which I use quite often, started using code like above and disabled right-clicking on album images.

So as usual, we got to do something to get back our right to “right-click”!

GreaseMonkey Script: If you use Firefox and GreaseMonkey, then easiest way to enable right click on any website is to install right to “right-click” script.

JavaScript: If you are not fond of GreaseMonkey, then you can try following JavaScript.

javascript: var items = document.evaluate('//*[@oncontextmenu="return false;"]', document, null, 7 , null); for ( i = 0; i < items.snapshotLength; i++){items.snapshotItem(i).removeAttribute('oncontextmenu');};void(0);

Bookmarklet: You can also use this bookmarklet in Firefox and other standard-compliant browser.

Internet Explorer: If you are an IE user, specially IE 6 then paste following code in address bar and hit enter whenever you stuck. Please note code below is for Orkut only and most likely to break anytime.
javascript: document.getElementById('m').oncontextmenu="";void(0);

Important Note:

From above all solutions, I am planning to take GreaseMonkey solution further. I will add more anti right-clicks hacks soon. As of now this script takes care of most famous way so it should work on many sites.

We can not blindly set “oncontextmenu” attribute to null or “return true” as some sites provides useful functions by overriding browser context-menu. WordPress, Google docs are some popular examples.

If you find a site where right-click is disabled and this script is failing to work, please leave a comment below with page URL and element description where it failed to work. I will try to update this script ASAP.

Link: Install Right to “Right-Click” Script (How?)

Tags Bing, Firefox, Google, Internet, Javascript, Software, Wordpress

News

After Web-Browser Chrome, What’s Next from Google?

Post author By gr8bloggerman
Post date September 11, 2008
6 Comments on After Web-Browser Chrome, What’s Next from Google?

(Image Credit: Shalom Issenberg)

Google has been supplying us with various utilities, softwares and other web-products which have made working with the Internet very easy. Recently, Google launched its own Web-Browser Google Chrome. It appears that there is Google’s monopoly over the Internet. Also, if we observe, most of the Google services are free to use. With all this, there is a major question which strikes my mind- “What will Google launch next?”

There is quite a lot of speculation that Google is working over development of an Operating System. Also, There are rumors that this Operating System will be Internet based. We have never come across an Internet operating system, so it is going to be a wonder working with. But we never know when will it be launched and also will it really be launched or no.

As Google is such an Internet giant it will surely bring mailing and Online Messaging facility to Mobile phones. Internet enabled phones are flooding the markets but the trap lies that customers need to pay an extra amount to get Internet enabled on the Phones(in the form of GPRS/EDGE/3G). It will be welcomed if Google will bring emailing service by SMS messages because there is no extra subscription cost to be paid to avail the SMS service. Mobile phones market is among the fastest growing market in world and I don’t think there is any fault in Google opting for this option.

Google is already ruling the Web-world. But the time is not far when Google will move its interest towards the offline world. Google wont take much of time to launch itself as an ISP (Internet Service Provider). This will cause a major transition of the world from OFFLINE to ONLINE.

I have expressed my wishes for Google, and I hope they will fulfill in the Future. I sincerely wish that there will not come the time when I will curse Google’s monopoly. Although Google’s current motto is “Don’t be Evil”, we cannot imagine what might happen if all the power gets accumulated at one end.

Do share with us your ideas about the future of Google… 🙂

[Editor Note: This is first post by our new author gr8bloggerman aka Rohit Sane. Rohit blogs about technology at Tech-Freak Stuff. If you like to write for Devils Workshop, check this. We have transparent reveue sharing program here.]

Tags Blogger, Firefox, Google, Internet, plugin

Analysis

What Made Google Drop ‘O’ From Its Logo! [Answer]

Post author By Rahul Bansal
Post date September 10, 2008
19 Comments on What Made Google Drop ‘O’ From Its Logo! [Answer]

Form last few days a post by Brian Brown on SEOMoz about Dropping ‘O’ from Google logo on search result page is creating buzz. After investigating entire issue in detail, here I am posting my reasoning.

First and most important, if you have missed it, appending &num=100&start=990 to any search URL forces Google to drop second ‘o’ from logo they display on search result page.

To make difference clear, I am posting original and modified query around with relevant portion of Google search result pages…

Original Query: http://www.google.com/search?q=Rahul

Modified Query: http://www.google.com/search?q=Rahul&num=100&start=990

As you have might have noticed there is no yellow colored ‘o’ in modified search result page.

You can also obtain same modified search result page from appending &start=991 to original query. In fact any number equal to or greater than 991 after ‘start’ will force yellow ‘o’ to be dropped. Try This.

Lets move to reason part now…

Google is fooling us… 😉

If you have noticed, on modified query page, just below search box Google says, “Sorry, Google does not serve more than 1000 results for any query.”

First conclusion – Google is fooling us by saying it has few million results for popular search term like paris hilton. In fact they never had more than 1000 results for any search term! May be they had it in past, but today, even for sex, they says sorry… like above.

Mysterious yellow ‘o’…

On Google search result pages, Google logo we see is made of separate images. Yellow and red ‘o’ are rendered from different images. If there is only one search result page (check this), the Google logo at bottom of search result pages highlighted in below screenshots never shows up. For each extra search result page (upto 10, on each side), a yelllow ‘o’ image is inserted which link to relevant search result pages.

Check following logo captured from this query page…

or check this…

As you can see number of yellow ‘o’ changes for different query.

Conclusion – How many number of yellow ‘o’ will show up depends on number of search result pages. For ‘no result’ and ‘only one result page’ conditions, no Google logo showed at all.

Connecting the ‘o’s…

Its apparent that Google handled two exception conditions but forget to add a condition like, ‘if user request results beyond first 1000, do not show logo’ at all.

Google is smart enough to prevent user going to error page from navigation links. Check this query. This is last one, so do not loose your patience! 😉

The above one shows results #981-992, just before hitting limit of 1000. Above one does not have next link!

Google in fact, partially anticipated query modification via URL change and put error message “Sorry…” on search result pages beyond 1000. They just forgot to remove bottom logo generation logic from such pages.

As logo logic is there without any linkable result page, Google logo renders without any yellow ‘o’. NO result page means NO yellow ‘o’… !

Red ‘o’ in logo always stand for current page and is not hyperlinked. But depending on search query upto 9 yellow ‘o’ inserted.

In the end…

Revelation – You come to know how Google fooled us by showing some pseudo-count of millions of search results for popular queries. 😀

Apart form this, there is nothing else except fun! If you think you owe me something for the revelation (or fun), you can instantly clear your debts by donating some bucks for my baby Orkutfeed! 😛

Tags Bing, Google, Google Search

News

PHPCamp Pune – Lets Geek Up!

Post author By Rahul Bansal
Post date September 10, 2008
6 Comments on PHPCamp Pune – Lets Geek Up!

Those who are familiar with BarCamp can immediately guess that PHPCamp is unconference for PHP.

For rest, PHPCamp is event for all PHP programmers where you can show off your expertise in any area related to PHP. If you are new to PHP you can just attend this event to learn some great things about PHP.

You can register for event by adding your name here. Registration is free of course and you will get a free T-Shirt too. 😉

I am attending this event for sure. As of now, I haven’t decided about speaking yet. Actually I am into so many areas of PHP, choosing a topic is little confusing.

If I get time, I will most likely prepare a talk on wordpress plugin or facebook apps development, of course from PHP programmers perspective.

Rest, if you want to listen something, please let me know. If I find your suggestion interesting, I will try to prepare a talk on it myself or request any fellow PHP programmer to take initiative.

So lets geek-up at PHPCamp!

Link: PHPCamp | Registration

Date: 20th September 2008 (saturday) .

Time: 10:00am to 6:00pm (Whole day event) .

Venue:

Persistent Systems Pvt. Ltd.,
Plot No. 9A/12, CTS No. 12A/12,
Erandwana,
Near Padale Palace (Opp Sharda Center),
Pune – 411 004

Google Map:
View Larger Map

Tags BarCamp, contest, Developers, Events, Google, PHP, plugin, Polls, Wordpress

Tips

Free Rapidshare Premium Accounts for Bloggers

Post author By Rahul Bansal
Post date September 6, 2008
5 Comments on Free Rapidshare Premium Accounts for Bloggers

Vishal Gaikar who blogs at orkutting-tricks is giving away two free Rapidshare premium accounts for bloggers.

All you have to do is, subscribe to his blog feed via email and post about this event on your blog. This giveaway has deadline of September 20 and winner will be selected randomly.

Earlier Gagan gave two free Rapidshare premium accounts in similar event. This is very good-old tactic new bloggers use to promote their blog.

Anyway, if you are blogger and looking for free Rapidshare premium accounts you can check this event.

I use torrent to download all the stuff I need from Internet. If you like downloading via torrents too, you can check 5 best torrent search engines here.

Link: Free Rapidshare Premium Accounts Giveaway

Tags Bing, Blogging, Events, Polls, Contest, Google

Tips

Googles Chrome Browser – Features and alternative Firefox Plugins

Post author By Rahul Bansal
Post date September 4, 2008
18 Comments on Googles Chrome Browser – Features and alternative Firefox Plugins

Google launched their first public version of open source browser named Chrome. As of now available only for Windows, this browser will most probably eat into Microsoft’s Internet Explorer’s market share. Well this is good news for web developer guys as IE always made it hard to develop standard compliant websites.

Anyway here is our take on chrome…

Speed: As expected, Gmail, Google Reader and many Google services performed better in Chrome browser. If you use Google services heavily, you may consider switching to Chrome. Apart from that I haven’t felt much difference compared to Firefox. Anyway if you like to go by stats, here is speed test comparison for Chrome, Firefox & IE 8 beta by Kevin Purdy at Life Hacker.
Crash Control: Every tab you use is run independently in Google Chrome, so if one tab crashes, it won’t take the tab with your inbox down with it. This is something I really loved it. In Firefox, it happens many time that some a badly coded website crashed entire browser.
Incognito browsing: This is a browsing mode in Chrome which when enabled, stop recording your surfing history. You can use this mode for visiting porn sites from your dads laptop without ever getting caught! Firefox people can enjoy this feature via Stealther extension.
Task Manager for Tabs: Pressing Shift+Esc keys instantly open the task manager for tabs. You can find out which tab (aka site) is slowing your browser and kill it. This is possible in Chrome because of crash control feature mentioned above.
Domain-Highlighting: This feature highlight root domain of a website in address bar. This way one can have quick look at which site they are actually visiting. This is nice approach to prevent phishing. Again firefox users can have this feature using Locationbar2 extension.

There are plenty of features in Chrome which makes it quite attractive. Amit Agarwal posted Chrome features that are missing in other browsers , while Adam Pash posted how to enable Chrome’s best features in Firefox.

One question still remain unanswered. Why did Google need to create a web browser when something great like Firefox already exist. Below is quote from a page on Chrome site.

Since we spend so much time online, we began seriously thinking about what kind of browser could exist if you started from scratch and built on the best elements out there. We realized that the web had evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications and that we needed to completely rethink the browser. What we really needed was not just a browser, but also a modern platform for web pages and applications, and that’s what we set out to build.

Here is video story behind Google Chrome…

Overall, Chrome seems great in features although user interface is not quite appealing. And most of “new” features chrome is marketing on are already available for Firefox via its thousands of plugins. It would be great if Google Chrome somehow manage to support Firefox plugins. They will surely provide support for plugins soon. Atleast support for Google Toolbar is expected soon. Also Chrome versions for Mac and Linux are underdevelopment.

Link: Download Google Chrome Browser

Tags Chrome, Firefox, Google, Internet, plugin, Windows, YouTube