Video chat in Gmail

Yet another BIG thing from Google - Video Chat in Gmail. Video chat was available with yahoo messenger since long and Skype's messenger also has this feature.

To access this feature go to the following link http://mail.google.com/videochat
cand install the plugin. Restart your browser and the plugin is ready to use..

Once the plugin is installed, using the new features is very simple. Just hover over any name in your Gmail chat list and select “Start video chat” or “Start voice chat.” There’s a full-screen view and you can also choose to pop out the chat into a new window.

The only downside is that even if you install the plug-in, you’ll have to wait for your friends and contacts to do likewise before you can video chat.




Its quiet surprising to know that Google developed this feature for its web mail rather than for Google Talk.

The GPhone is available now

Google's and HTC's baby, G1, is now out. Google has officially announced the first Android phone, G1, which will be released on T-Mobile some time in early October. Its said to be one of the closest threat to the iPhone.
The G1 is available with a two year contract with T-Mobile for $179 + taxes. G1 is based on Google's very ambitious mobile operating system Android.

Nonetheless the Android operating system that powers the device, and which was designed in part by Google, looks to be full of potential, and certainly compares favourably with anything the iPhone has to offer. The promise of an Android Market, from which users can download additional software and programs for their phone, acts as a warning shot across Apple’s bows.



The G1 has a slide-out Qwerty keyboard as well as a pleasingly responsive touchscreen. It has a 3MP camera but, like the iPhone, it doesn’t have a camcorder function. G1 is 3G compatible i.e. its capable of high-speed 3G network connection for surfing the Web or downloading information quickly and effortlessly. You can easily access Google Maps, Gmail, YouTube and other Google applications.




They should have called it GPhone instead of G1.

Upload photos by email in Picasa

If you dont want to install Picasa's uploader application and still like to add photos in your picasa account then there is an easier way.

Log on to your Picasa account and go into settings. Go down on the page and you will find a check box that says Allow me to upload photos by email  - check this box.

Enter a secret word and you will get your unique mail id. Now all you got to do is to send pics at this email id and thats it. This email id shouldn't be shared with others.

By default, Picasa uploads your pics to the built-in drop box albums, but you can choose your destination by entering the name of an existing album in the subject of your email.

You can attach photos upto a size of 20MB in jpg, gif and png format.

Google's new baby - Google Chrome

Google's new baby, Google Chrome, is here to download. So is it like any other browser? I guess not. There are quiet a few features that catches your attention right away

• I found chrome's looks as exciting new experiment that just shows you the tab and the address bar rather than all those old options of file, edit, history etc. Who need them anyway.
• The address bar apart from being an address bar also acts as a text box for google search .
• When you open a new tab, the window gives you options of most visted sites and your recent bookmarks.
• Create shorcuts for different applications/web pages on your desktop, start menu or quick launch bar. Click on the second last option on top right that says Current the Control Page and choose Create Application Shortcuts and follow the instructions.
• You can drag tabs out of the browser to create new windows or accumulate different windows into one.
• Each tab thats there in a window runs independently so if one is eating all memory then you can check the culprit by right clicking on the topmost bar of the browser and selectingTask Manager.
• If you are about to open a site that might contain a malware then Chrome will warn you.

I guess its enough of reading now. Just go and download Google Chrome and experience the difference yourself.

These simple but very powerful applications makes me a huge fan of Google.

Secure your Gmail with https

Hypertext Transfer Protocol over Secure Socket Layer or HTTPS is a URI scheme used to indicate a secure HTTP connection. Https keeps your mail encrypted as it travels between your web browser and mail servers, so if you are into a shared wifi network then nobody else can read your mail. Banks and credit cards applications always use this secure protocol.

Gmail is now the first free mail provider that has started using https, as google claims that Gmail was built with an idea that one could run a company on it. Previosly, anyone could hace accessed this secure link at https://mail.google.com but now google has provided an option in your gmail settings to run your mail on https by default.

Login to your gmail account and go to settings, check for a setting that says Browser Connection and choose your option according to your requirement.

Earn money and Write your experience through Google's Knol

Knol, yet another feather in Google's cap, is a new innovative and interesting service created for sharing knowledge.

Knol, as Google says is a unit of knowledge, is built with the idea that a user can write about any topic they want and can also share with the public. Its different from wikipedia though, as in wiki anybody can edit a topic whereas knols preserves ownership of one's topic.

A user can write about any topic or subject they feel like, although its subjected to Terms of Service and Content Policy defined by Google.

Every knol will have a profile of its author. Knol writers will also be able to make money through Google ads if they allow google to put relevant ads on their knol. Wikipedia already has an entry on knol(Googlepedia I must say).
I am yet to try putting in a video in a knol.

Here are some links to knols that may be helpful to you:

Basics of Writing Knols

• Creating and publishing a new knol
• Entering text into a new or existing knol
• Using the formatting bar
  

Managing Knols

• Listing all of your knols
• Managing your author profile
  
• Managing versions of your knol
• Specifying settings for your knols

Advanced Knol Techniques

• Inserting Images
• Creating and formatting tables
• Creating links and references
• Working with the HTML source
• Changing your bio/profile

Best Practices: Writing Good Knols

• Things to do
• Things to avoid
• Publishing tips for authors

Search query format to get better results in google

Do you often search for files in Google? Do you always have a tough luck searching for files? If yes then read on this post.
Just try the following query format to search any file in Google .

?intitle:index.of? <file name> <file extension>

I tried to search Bob Sinclair's World Hold On (Children of the sky) with the following search query
?intitle:index.of? world hold on .mp3 and I got the result in the first page itself.

What Google seeks in future young Nooglers.....

The new employees at Google are called Nooglers and Google has some suggestions for aspiring Nooglers. The top most thing that Google looks for in a candidate is their non-routine problem solving skills. According to Google "the non-routine problems offer the opportunity to create competitive advantage, and solving those problems requires creative thought and tenacity".

One example that google gives is designing a spell-checker for the Google search engine. The routine solution would be to run queries through a dictionary. The non-routine, creative solution is to use the query corrections and refinements that other users have made in the past to offer spelling suggestions for new queries.

The factors that Google considers while recruiting someone are:

• analytical reasoning
• communication skills
• a willingness to experiment
• team players
• passion and leadership

So all you wannabe Nooglers just dont hesitate in trying out something new and try to think out of the box. Read the full article here.

Google goes Lively

"Be who you want on the web pages you visit" thats what Google claims with the launch of its new application Lively. Lively is a 3D virtual experience wherein you can express yourself by creating a room and adding different stuff to it. You get to choose your avatar and of course you can customize it, then you can choose different room styles and also pick furniture for your room.
You can choose to show your room to others by making it public or if you are from that not so rare breed of shy guys you may want to keep a restricted access to your room.
The idea behind creating a room is that if anyone visits your webpage and sees your room then he/she can have an idea about your interests by looking at the furniture and environment you chose. You can chat with each other and you can also interact through animated actions like dance, cry, applaud, bow and many others. Check out my room :) Right click on the avatar and choose dance1.