Redefining Technology » Tech News

Google Shuts Down 6 more Services Including Picnik & Sky Map

Pushpendra Pal — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:53:54 +0000

In the process of spring cleaning Google shuts down few more products. Some less popular products will be merged as a feature in other stabilized products and some goes open-sourced. Google acquired these startups by paying a lot of money and when these services failed to achieve the promise they hoped for, Google shuts them. There is a comprehensive list of this 2012 Google cleanup.

1. Picnik:

Google acquired Picnik, online photo editor tool in 2010. The goal of this purchase is to allow Picasa users to edit and save their photos online. Picnik will be retired on April 19, 2012 so the Picnik team can continue creating photo-editing magic across Google products. You can download a zip file of your creations through Picnik Takeout or copy them to Google+. Google made Picnik premium service is free to everyone until it shuttered. All the premium members will receive a full refund in the coming weeks.

2. Google Sky Map:

Sky Map was created by half a dozen Googlers at the Pittsburgh office in 2009. This product is initiated to show off the amazing capabilities of the sensors in the first-generation Android phones and offer a window into the sky. Google doesn’t going to shut it down but opens it for open-source community to make it more diverse.

3. Google Message Continuity (GMC):

GMC is an email disaster recovery product for enterprise customers that use Google’s cloud to back up emails originally sent or received in an on-premise, Microsoft Exchange system. This service was started in Dec, 2010. The aim to backup data over cloud is offered within cloud storage services using Google Apps hence there is no need to use another service with same features. Current GMC customers will be able to use GMC for the duration of their contract and are encouraged to consider using Google Apps as their primary messaging and collaboration platform.

4. Urchin:

Urchin, an online analytic product, was acquired by Google in 2005, that became the foundation for Google Analytics. Analytics helps businesses of all sizes measure their websites visits, stats, demographics and online marketing. Google now focus on this online analytics service rather then Urchin which was client side application. New Urchin Software licenses will no longer be available after March 2012.

5. Social Graph API:

Social Graph API is a developer side app which stores information about public connections between people on the web. This app failed to gain exposure and will be shuttered down on April, 2012.

6. Needlebase:

Needlebase is a less known Google product, even I haven’t heard its name before today. Needlebase is a data management platform which was acquired from ITA software. This technology is being evaluated for integration into Google’s other data-related initiatives.

Google acquires new initiatives that attracts Google’s mind as a high prices. Google tweaks these product and make them available within Google’s already existing services. Some services boost Google’s reputation and attracts mass but some failed to gain exposure. Time to time Google shut down less popular services or make them open-sourced.

View Real-time AdSense Earnings With AdSense Publisher Toolbar

Pushpendra Pal — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 08:54:13 +0000

Google always work for innovating new technologies that help its users to use advanced tools and services, save time, and better understand account performance. Google serves the best advertising network in the industry, as AdSense. It is the basic and only earning source for millions of web publishers. To give them easy access and real-time monitoring Google created a new Google Chrome browser extension called the AdSense Publisher Toolbar.

When viewing your website, this extension will show you a snapshot of your AdSense account performance as a widget in the corner of your browser window. It also includes ad overlays that describe the recent performance of specific ad units, and gives you the option to access AdSense directly. There are two ways to access your AdSense stats; 1) Pop-up account overview and 2) In-site ad overlay.

Pop-up account overview lets you view the following at a glance:

Account earnings summary (today, yesterday, this month, last month)
Top 5 custom channels
Top 5 URL channels
Lifetime revenue

In-site ad overlay gives you the following options right in your site:

Instant summary of each ad unit’s earnings (today, yesterday, last 7 days)
Links to go straight to your AdSense account

To start using this new toolbar you have to install AdSense Publisher Toolbar extension in your Google Chrome browser. This extension will only available to Chrome users only. Follow these steps to start with:

Visit the Chrome Web Store from your Chrome browser and download the AdSense Publisher Toolbar. This will add the toolbar icon to your browser.
You’ll then need to grant the toolbar access to your AdSense account. To do so, click the toolbar icon and then sign in to Google Accounts with your AdSense login and password.
Next, visit a website where you’ve implemented your ad code, and enable the toolbar by clicking on the toolbar icon again.

After successful following above steps the AdSense account overview widget will appear and show you an earnings summary, broken down by recent and all time performance as well as your top channels.

You can also enable ad overlays directly on top of your ad units, which will tell you how a particular ad unit has performed today, yesterday and in the past seven days. Clicking on the ad overlay will bring you to the “My ads” tab in your account, where you can edit this ad unit.

Don’t worry in you click your on ad overlay generated by the toolbar; because doing this won’t create invalid clicks.

Google Updates Search Algorithm to Get More Personal Results

Pushpendra Pal — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 09:58:38 +0000

Google periodically updates its search algorithm to deliver best search result for the search term. With the evolution of social media peoples also like to search within their social circle. To give more results from social web Google introduced ‘Search, plus your World’ update. This change will show your personal content or things shared with you by people you care about. This feature uses Google+ circle to find more social results.

The main feature introduction in this algorithm change are:

Personal Result: Enable you to find information just for you, such as Google+ photos and posts—both your own and those shared specifically with you, that only you will be able to see on your results page. To use this feature you must logged in to your Google account.
Personal result shows Google+ posts and Photos from Google+ and Picasa from your and your friends profile. This update will help you in a way that “let say you’re looking for a vacation destination. You can of course search the web, but what if you want to learn from the experiences your friends have had on their vacations?” Just as in real life, your friends’ experiences are often so much more meaningful to you than impersonal content on the web.
Profiles in Search: Enables you to immediately find people you’re close to or might be interested in following. This feature works for both in autocomplete and search results.
Every day, there are hundreds of millions of searches for people. Sometimes, it’s hard to find the person you’re looking for. Once you do find him or her, there’s no quick way for you to actually interact. Now you’ll have meaningful ways to connect with people instantly, right from the search results. Now, typing just the first few letters of your friend’s name brings up a personalized profile prediction in autocomplete. Selecting a predicted profile takes you to a results page for your friend, which includes information from their Google+ profile and relevant web results that may be related to them.
People and Pages: Help you find people profiles and Google+ pages related to a specific topic or area of interest, and enable you to follow them with just a few clicks. Because behind most every query is a community.
If you search for a topic like [Gadgets] or [movies], you might see prominent people who frequently discuss this topic on Google+ appearing on the right-hand side of the results page. You can connect with them on Google+, strike up meaningful conversations and discover entire communities in a way that simply wasn’t possible before.

The goal behind getting social is making a search engine that understands not only content, but also people and relationships.

Nokia Money Prepaid Mobile Wallet Launched in India

Pushpendra Pal — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 07:16:06 +0000

Nokia has launched its Nokia Money, a prepaid mobile wallet service in India. The service allows customers to use their mobile phones as a wallet that can be used to make payments, without actually requiring a bank account. This new service provides a secure and convenient option for money transactions via mobile phones.

As there are more Nokia dealers in country than Bankers and these dealers has greater reach in urban and rural areas, Nokia plans to make these dealers a Nokia Money agent. For activating this service, users will have to go to nearest Nokia retailer to set up service on their handset. Users have to make cash payment to dealer and than dealer transfer digital cash to users cell phone. Make sure that dealer transfer that money to your mobile phone, to make this easier Nokia send a confirmation SMS with details about payment and service.

Nokia users can make various type of financial payments such as mobile top-ups, train tickets, utility bills, insurance premiums through SMS. There is no need to have an Internet connection or GPRS enabled phone for using this service. This service is independent of network carriers and individual banking networks. The service is available for all handsets in India and works with almost all Nokia phones.

To make this service secure and hassle free Nokia tie-ups with banks like Yes Bank and Union Bank of India. All transactions will be handled by Nokia and these banks. This is just a start of mobile wallet service in India and if this service succeed to gain mass exposure than Nokia and other companies will launch more feature rich services.

Kindle Fire Released for Indian Markets, Tagged at Rs. 13,900

Pushpendra Pal — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:01:34 +0000

We have covered almost all the news events for Amazon’s latest tablet, Kindle Fire. Tradus.in, an Indian online store, announced the availability of Kindle fire at a price tag of Rs. 13,900 only. With this affordable price Kindle Fire became a potential thread to Apple’s iPad 2.

This all new Amazon Kindle Fire runs on Google’s Android OS and has a dual-core processor. This is fast enough to read e-Books, browse internet, listen music, watching TV shows, movies and stream YouTube videos. Device is small in size and low-weight so you can carry it where ever you go.

The tablet has a 7-inch display with IPS switching technology at a resolution of 1024 x 600 and works as both a media consumption device as well as a tablet. It supports movies, apps, games, music, and obviously reading along with Amazon’s new cloud-accelerated, Silk browser.

The Kindle Fire is currently selling at $199 in the U.S, so the pricing isn’t too far off, considering the tablet will be imported. Amazon also offers additional content in the form of free e-books, music and free file storage service over Amazon’s cloud service.

We have already covered highly recommended apps for Amazon Kindle Fire tablet. Kindle fire is also in our product recommendation list for this holiday season. So its time to order your Kindle tablet.

Kindle Fire Specs:

Android OS
Dual-Core processor
7” TFT display with 1024 x 600 resolution, Touchscreen
Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n enabled
MPEG4 video support
8 GB memory (6GB available for users content)
8hrs of continuous reading or 7.5hrs video playback time

Discover New Things To-Do with Schemer

Pushpendra Pal — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 14:20:28 +0000

Google has launched an invitation-only website called Schemer. The site’s goal seems to help users to discover new things, schedule them and share schemes with others using Google+. Schemers goal is help people do fun stuff in the real world.

Schemer is in Beta mode and testing its features with a limited number of users world wide. A scheme is any activity that can be done in the real world, whether it’s riding up the hills to watch the sunset or hanging out with friends at the evening. Schemer will track completed schemes, record them in a list of accomplishments, and will eventually recommend new schemes tailored to the user’s interests.

Schemer’s website lists a number content partners including National Geographic, Zagat, Bravo, Food Network, and Rolling Stone. These partner suggest their recommended activity to users to give them an idea about what Schemer can do for them.

If you are interested in doing fun stuff and have no clue about the act then you must try Schemer. Just go to Schemer home page and request for Schemer invitation.

No related posts.

Google Currents: Google’s News Reader

Pushpendra Pal — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 12:30:00 +0000

Google launched its new news reader app, like Flipboard for iPad, iPhone and Android devices. Users can add their favorite publishers to their library and Currents will immediately begin downloading the most recent articles from these sources, and you’ll also be prompted to add additional publications to your Library.

According to official Google Mobile Blog post “We strive to give you beautiful and simple ways to experience all the content the web has to offer, such as sharing photos on Google+, watching YouTube videos and discovering books, movies and music from Android Market. Today we’re expanding our content offering with the introduction of Google Currents, a new application for Android devices, iPads and iPhones that lets you explore online magazines and other content with the swipe of a finger.”

To get started, simply download the app on your iOS and Android device and choose the publications you want to subscribe to for free. Currently there are more then 150 publishing partners to offer full-length articles from more than 180 editions including CNET, AllThingsD, Forbes, Saveur, PBS, Huffington Post, Fast Company and more. You can also add RSS, video and photo feeds, public Google+ streams and Google Reader subscriptions you’re already following. Trending Topic tab offer you fastest update about your selected niche.

Google Currents website pages can only be seen from Google Chrome browser, so download and install Chrome for your computer if you haven’t installed yet. This is another example for Google’s monopoly to force users to use its products for using some Google services.

Google has also launched a self-service platform for publishers to design, brand and customize their content for Currents service as they like. Publishers can also associate their accounts with Google Analytics to see detailed analytical reports.

Google Currents Introductory Video:

Android 4.0 – Ice Cream Sandwich 25 New Features

Pushpendra Pal — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 07:34:18 +0000

Google announced Android 4.0 back in October with many new features. With a complete overhaul in user interface Android 4 also have native support to Near Field Communication (NFC) technology known as Android Beam. Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) unifies tablets and smartphones under a single OS for the first time. Last major release of Android i.e. Honeycomb, is build only for tablet PCs.

By not taking too much of your precious time I am going to explain you 25 new features of Ice Cream Sandwich. Here they are:

Complete redesign of User Interface (UI)
Virtual buttons in the UI, in place of capacitive or physical buttons
Newly-designed lock screen
Android 4 Lock Home Screen
Unlock phone by Face Recognition technology
Data usage chart to know which app eaten up your bandwidth. ICS also have the ability to shut down apps that are using data in the background.
Data Usage chart
Android Beam to support Near Field Communication (NFC)
Wi-Fi Direct support
Easier-to-create folders, with a drag-and-drop style
Improved notification bar, customizable notifications
Quick Response by a pressing a smiling speech bubble to send pre-written text.
Screen Shot by pressing hard buttons
More social contact by introducing collective contact feed
More camera features like panorama, still shots while recording, time-lapsed video, video zoom while recording etc.
Improved keyboard, in-line Spell checker and suggestion mode
Enhanced Google apps like Gmail, YouTube, Maps, Calendar, Google Music, Google+
Modern ‘Roboto’ font for Android
New browser that support Tabbed Internet browsing, syncs to chrome, save pages for offline reading
Tabbed apps/widgets drawer similar to Honeycomb
Hardware accelerated 2D drawing, Hardware acceleration of the UI
New Music player notification in tray controls player
Speech-to-Text feature improved and now has faster response
Improved visual voicemail with the ability to speed up or slow down voicemail messages
Automatic syncing of browser with users’ Chrome bookmarks
More live wallpapers
Photo editing tools in “edit” menu in the camera

Photo Editing tool

Google to Shutdown 7 Services including Gears and Wave

Pushpendra Pal — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 11:29:20 +0000

In the mid of this year Google announced that the search giant is planning to shutdown some of its products having less user base. Google named this procedure as ‘Spring Cleaning’ and now ready for third round of cleanup.

In third cleanup process Google’s senior vice president announces to end these product: Google Wave, Google Gears, Knol, Google Friend Connect, Google Search Timeline, Bookmarks List and Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal. All of these products are less famous online or offline and failed to gain exposure around globe.

Wave was advertised as e-mail killer but failed to get attention. After this clean up process Google Wave will become read-only on January 31, 2012 and will shut down on April 30. You’ll be able to continue exporting individual waves using the existing PDF export feature until the Google Wave service is turned off.

On December 1, 2011, Gears-based Gmail and Calendar offline will stop working across all browsers, and later in December Gears will no longer be available for download. Similarly Google Friend Connect, connecting blogs with visitors, will be shuttered after March, 2012. Bloggers can create Google+ pages for their blog or website and place Google+ badge to send followers to Google+ page.

Google is previously closed Buzz, Aardvark, Desktop, Fast Flip, Notebook and 10’s more. This reason behind this cleanup is growing user base of Google+. Google patch some features of these product into Google+ and make Plus bigger. So we can expect more cleanup with time as Google Plus continue to climb.

No related posts.

Free Video Call to Facebook Friends with Skype

Pushpendra Pal — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 07:40:09 +0000

Skype, your favorite application to make audio and video call and chat over internet, is came up with another interesting feature. Few weeks ago Skype gave you freedom to video chat with your Skype friends and now you can video chat with your Facebook friends too just from Skype. To use this feature you have to install latest version of Skype for your Windows or Mac system.

How-to start a video call with Facebook Friends:

Follow this step-by-step guide to make a video call with Facebook friends.

Log in to your Skype account.
Download and install latest beta version of Skype for your Windows and Mac system.
Click on Facebook tab just after the Contact tab. Now connect your Facebook account with Skype to show Facebook buddies on Skype application.
Go to Skype Home >> Facebook friends.
Hover over your Facebook friend you want to video chat, click on Video call option to start video chat.

Video Tutorial: Here’s also a video tutorial to do it.

Enjoy video call with your family, friends and Facebook buddies