Over a decade ago, when Google was winning hearts and minds of internet users but no one could guess that it would dominate the web, like it does today.
Google started with search but today it dominates email services (Gmail), video streaming (YouTube), mobile phones (Android) and a host of other useful features like Google Reader, Blogger, Google Earth, Google Maps etc.
But what if Google was not around? What would a world without Google be like? An infographic by SingleGrain shows you exactly what all we would be missing out, if there was no Google.
The infographic does omit Google+ but then I can safely say, Google+ has hardly had a major impact as yet on the internet.
What are your view on a internet without Google? Do drop in your comments.
I use a lot of Google services daily, so using Chrome makes sense, as it perfectly integrates with many of Google apps. The Google bar also links to many Google services making them a click away.
But if you want something more, give Black Menu a try. It’s like Google bar sitting in your browser.
Basically, it’s a Chrome extension that lets you access many of Google services like Google search, Gmail, Play, News, Drive, YouTube and many more without leaving the page you’re viewing. Links open in a new tab and the extension is neatly designed.
In fact, it looks like an official extension created by Google.
ADVERTISEMENT
Apart from links, you can use Google Translate to translate text, Google Maps to get location, Google News to read top news, and YouTube to watch videos, all this without opening a new tab.
Search function is built into many of Google services, especially useful for Gmail.
iGoogle provides a similar functionality by grouping up all Google services into one page, but now that it is going to be shutdown, Black menu can be a decent alternative.
Showing notifications for Gmail and a keyboard shortcut for opening can be interesting additions to the extension.
What Google services do you use? Will you find this plugin useful? Let’s hear that in the comments.
In many ways, Google+ has steadfastly built a sort of Facebook clone but with a much better design. It has consistently added features likes verified profiles and pages, pages for brands and businesses and Google+ Events. One place where Facebook rules is its ability to allow brands to interact with fans. Many companies so much as do not point to their official domain URLs but to their Facebook pages for better interaction.
Google+ has decided to start rolling out vanity URLs for some users. This will help users share vanity URLs like “google.com/+toyota” instead of long winding“plus.google.com/110937137992985950150/posts”.
In post by Google employee, Saurabh Sharma announced that the new vanity URLs will be rolled out to only verified users.
A big deal for brands!
ADVERTISEMENT
Brand managers who own Google+ pages will be very interested in getting their pages a vanity URL. Vanity URL might become crucial for brand managers, especially if these end up being search keywords for popular brands.
Verified users getting first crack at vanity URLs is a sensible idea from a Google perspective, as it means the really famous people and brands get first crack at it. It also means most fake profiles will not be able to get vanity URLs, like it has been the case on Twitter.
But wait, I am not a verified Google+ users but I have a real account nevertheless. Facebook had a better model, where a particular page required a certain number of “Likes” before being allowed to create a custom domain. For Facebook profiles too, users could create custom URLs, but verifying themselves via a text message from their mobile phone.
Facebook has been criticised for having the user-name and custom profile URL being the same, which allows potential hackers from easily guessing your Facebook’s Login ID. Hopefully Google+ is more sensible otherwise, email IDs might end up being leaked inadvertently.
Bonus Tip!
I found some clever (but not official) ways to have vanity URLs for Google plus accounts. One method is to use a customized URL shortener like GPlus to. If you own your own domain, you can also create customized URLs like plus.example.com or fb.example.com and re-direct these URLs to the respective social profiles.
What are your views on custom URLs for Google+ accounts? Do drop in your comments.
Google redirects their homepage to a country specific domain based on the user’s IP address. For example, if I am in India and type in Google.com, I am automatically redirected to Google.co.in.
While this is a very useful feature, especially while carrying out a local search, it is desirable to shift to Google.com page and carry out the search.
Restrict Google’s Redirection Page
You can also restrict Google from redirecting you to a country specific search or results page by appending the URL with “/ncr”.
So for example you can type in “google.com/ncr” in your browser and you will not be redirected to a local domain like say “Google.co.in”.
Hence no matter wherever you are in the world, it will restrict Google from redirecting you to a country specific page.
NCR is a abbrevation of No Country Restriction. Thanks to Gokul for the tip.
If you are a regular Gmail user, chances are you have more than one account. We can toggle between multiple Gmail accounts by using Google accounts manager. But recently as reported by The Next Web, Gmail is showing up a new login page to manage multiple sign-in in a more user friendly way. I managed to enable Gmail Multiple account login page for my browser and you can see the result below.
How to Enable Multiple Accounts on the Login Page
While you are log into your account, make sure you select “stay signed in” checkbox.
Google is testing out a new feature, which is going to attract a lot of criticism and attention form privacy pundits. The new search experiment will show Gmail results on the main Google search page.
See the image below, it is an example of the new experiment. The search results show up as usual, but a drop down on the right-hand side shows results from Gmail.
The idea has a few people getting anxious about it being a major privacy issues. If people perceive it in a negative way, it might end up being a bad idea for Google. But I think showing as much information on the search page is actually a great idea.
Why showing Gmail in Search Results is a Great Idea!
ADVERTISEMENT
Firstly, lets talk about privacy. The users have to be signed into their Gmail account while searching. Also I doubt, Gmail will show the results without giving users a choice.
Also the results will be shown in a toggle format, which will allow you to see the results only when you want them to be shown on the results page.
Google is basically trying to get all their products to work with their search page. It means being able to search the internet and your personal e-mail from a single source. I think it already shows results from maps and social (Google+) in the search page.
ADVERTISEMENT
If you are interested in trying out for the new experiment, you can visit their Gmail Field Trial landing page.
I have opted in but the feature is still not switched on for me. When it does, I will surely write a follow up post and then maybe write about privacy concerns if there are any. 😉
What are your views? Do you think showing email on the Google search page is a bad idea? Do drop in your comments.
One of the major upgrade announced to the Google Search app, with Android 4.1 (Jellybeans, was its enhanced voice search feature. It allows users to speak into the phone a search query and get results spoken back to them.
Yes! It was considered Google’s own version of SIRI, which is a voice assistant app introduced with iPhone 4S.
Today, Google uploaded a video that shows the voice search working with an iPhone.
Note: The video is up but the updated version for iOS will be available in the next couple of days.
Apple’s SIRI as competition to Google!
ADVERTISEMENT
I doubt Apple, realistically thought of SIRI as a competitor to replace Google. But a primary search feature, that is “NOT Google” on the iPhone, might have started ringing enough alarm bells at Google.
So now with enhanced voice search app, Google seems to have got SIRI covered. The only problem is how much will people actively use it instead of SIRI.
ADVERTISEMENT
Google has recently pushed the Chrome browser for iPhone /iPad users too, which could be an alternative to Apple’s own Safari browser. Apple too is introducing a new Maps feature with iOS6 update. It will replace, Google Maps as the default maps application.
As long as these two companies are competing with new features and innovations, instead of law suits, I guess the customer is winning. 😉
Have your used Google’s enhanced search feature on your phone? Do you think it is as good as SIRI or better? Do drop in your comments.
Last week, when Microsoft removed the covers of its new email service called Outlook, it has won many praises (including from yours truly) for it’s minimalist design. The service claims to have better spam fighting mechanism along with better controls for managing emails.
It seemed like Microsoft has a real winner on its hands and it could hurt Gmail badly. I thought a bit about the possibility of Outlook.com ever coming close to being a Gmail killer. These are five reasons why I think Outlook.com will not be a threat the Gmail.
#1. Email is not a Social Network
Five years ago, I had email addresses of my friends from my childhood. But we hardly connected as such via email and most of our interaction was done through Orkut, which was the most popular social network in India at that point of time. Most of us have simply stopped using Orkut and are now on Facebook. But guess what we have not changed, it is our email service providers.
ADVERTISEMENT
People do not dump their email service as easily as they might do with social networks.
#2. Better Design is not Better Service
Outlook.com does have a great design and UI. But that does not automatically mean better service. Gmail has “undo send”, “desktop notifications” and along with dozens of under the hood features, makes it a very powerful service to manage email.
ADVERTISEMENT
Outlook.com has some improved features like spam filters and newsletter management, but it is still not tired and tested. Some might argue that Hotmail has great anti-spam and email features, but if it did, why is Microsoft trying out a completely new approach to email?
#3. Microsoft did not create Hotmail
Microsoft did not create its email offerings with from the ground up. They bought into the business by get Hotmail for a price tag of $400 million. Microsoft has never really took the internet very seriously, it was still offering 2 MB free space when, Gmail came to the party with 1GB free space for email.
It also underestimated the importance of search on the web and possibly surrendered many advantages to Yahoo and Google subsequently. Microsoft just might not have it in their DNA to get web, sort of like how Google does not get social.
#4. Gmail is too important for Google
ADVERTISEMENT
Gmail is 8 years old and people who used Google, never did it by signing into their website. Today, most times when I am using search, I am logged into my Google account. Google can track your search queries and tally it to your Google account, allowing it to give you better results. Why does everyone have a Google account? It is because of everyone has a Gmail account..
#5. Email might be dying
Remember all those internet memes, jokes and funny photos that were circulated by your friends and family on email. Today, this part of the interaction and sharing is happening on social networks. Even companies are trying out various techniques to reduce the email workload, so their employees have more time to do the really important things. In other words, email might be dying and could become irrelevant in the next 5 or 10 years. Microsoft’s Outlook.com might be great but it might be arriving to the party so late, that it might be arriving after the party.
I left out technical comparisons between Outlook and Gmail for the main reason, that technical options usually do not prompt one to change their email service. Outlook.com is on the right track with social integration, which might attract users from the under-20 age group, who usually are more prone to adopt newer email services.
Google has many search tricks up its sleeve. For instance we use it as a calculator or even a unit converter. Google has recently updated both its calculator and unit converter to make it more interactive.
All you need to do to launch it is type in “2+2” on its search bar to fire up the new scientific calculator web app.
Considering how common scientific calculators are as free apps on almost all platforms, one could wonder what exactly was Google was trying to do.
But being a web based app on the search result page itself, the calculator can be used across platforms even on mobile phones and tablets.
ADVERTISEMENT
Also as most smart phones and even Chrome on desktops allow voice input, one could potentially use this app without the need to type in stuff.
Google’s Recently Upgraded Search Features
Google has recently introduced a lot of new and interesting search features. If you search for “1 kms = miles”, it shows up new interactive unit converter. It means users do not need to type in search queries for converting units over and over again.
Another useful search feature is “google.com/movies”. It will show up a list of movies playing in theaters from around your city.
Also you can check up on international flight arrivals and departures with its Flights search feature.
In recent past, there have been many discussions on various blogs about which platform is better; Android or iOS. In my opinion it does not matter which platform is better as both seem to be pretty close performance wise.
But revenues for Apple and Google will not come only from the sale of devices but from the apps purchased on it. One of the biggest money earners on both platforms are gaming apps.
So who is winning the Gaming market between iOS and Android? This infographic by App Annie, shows the differences between revenues and also the strengths of the two platforms.
It is interesting to note that iOS has 71% of the revenues compared to 29% by Android. This is probably due to Apple iPad being a market leader while Android has not really tasted success on the tablet front. Also tablets users seem to like playing games more than phone users on an average.
