Jicola.com Blogs

I regularly read what Google does, and in the past few days, I have noticed that Google has released quite a few things or made announcements of what they are about to do. So I have put together this list of things that Google has accomplished over the past few months.

• Creative Common Images – You can now search for images based on licence types.
• Announced Google Chrome OS – Google now going into the desktop market. Will they compete against Microsoft? We’ll find out in the second half of 2010.
• Google Chrome Web Browser – Finally, more competition against Microsoft
• Removed the BETA tag from Gmail and other Google Apps – After being in BETA for over 5 years, its about time you removed the BETA label
• Evolution of Gmail Labels – Improvements of managing your emails
• Bloggers 10th Birthday – a few stats about Blogger
• New Google Books features – better ways to browse and share books. Read all the new features here.
• Google Translator Toolkit – improvements of Google Translator
• Google Suggestions – surf the web faster with search suggestions given
• Google Apps Education Edition – Google hitting the schools with educational lesson plans and more
• Google Voice – One number for all your phones. Plus it is free and coming soon
• Property Listing – now lists real estate on Google Maps
• Google Latitude – Find the location of all your friends

Going back a bit further, lets recap on some of the best things Google has given us

• Google Web Search – What will we do (and Google) if it didn’t have the web search?
• Google Apps – Including Gmail, Calender, Docs, Sites, Photo’s
• WebMaster Tools – Adsense, Adwords, Analytics, Webmaster Tools
• Google Reader
• Feedburner
• Youtube
• Knol
• Blog Search
• Google News
• Blogger
• Google Checkout – buy things online securely
• iGoogle
• Web History
• Google Talk
• Groups
• Translate
• Google Labs
• Google Maps, street view
• Google Trends – See what the world searches for (Michael Jackson)
• Google Ad Planer – Find sites to advertise on, their statistics, demographics and more about the people who visit the site.

So you can see Google has a lot of very handy web apps that we all use everyday. The internet will be completely different if it wasn’t for Google.

Have we missed something out on the list? Please let us know in comments.

Google has been on a role recently with revealing new projects such as Google Weave, Latitude for web browsers, Chrome OS, removing the BETA tag of Gmail, flew tracker, and PDF Viewer for search results, and Google Voice, Magazines in Google Book search just to name a few.

Google has now implemented a creative commons search for images on Google Image Search. To use this feature, just select “Advance Image Search, and choose the appropriate drop down box.

You can read more on the Google Blog.

If you have a new web browser that supports the W3C Geolocation API web standard, you will now see a My Location button on the left hand side under the street view button that will pin point your exact location on Google Maps. You will only notice this button if you have a Firefox 3.5 or a Google Chrome 2.0+ web browser.

So what does this do for me? It could worry you that their is now technology that can pin point your exact location from your very own home. On the positive side, if your travelling around and your a bit lost, you can now find where you are.

Once you click the button, you will be prompted to allow Google Maps to track your location. Google says that they take privacy very seriously.

Google takes privacy very seriously, so your location will never be used without your permission. The first time you use My Location on Google Maps, you’ll be asked to confirm that you’re happy to share your location with Google Maps, and you can always undo your decision.

So does this mean if you use the feature once, they can track you? You might want to read their privacy policy first.

You can read Google’s Article on the Google LatLong Blog.

Google has just announced that they will be creating a new operating system called Google Chrome Operating System. The new operating system that Google is developing will be an extension of the Chrome browser that will link the desktop market to the online world. Google has a lot of work to do and will think it will be ready for consumers by the second half of 2010.

I don’t know what you think, but this is one step closer for Google taking over the world. They already have access of information of what we search for, emails, documents, web history, website traffic stats, telecommunication, tracking system (latitude)  and now an operating system which I think will need broadband access and always be connected to the internet to get all the benefits.

What are your thoughts on Google developing an new operating system? Is it a good idea or are they going to far?

You can read the official Google Post here: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html

Today, Gmail finally removed its Beta tag after having it for more than 5 years now. As long with Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Talk also had the tag removed. The tag has been removed from both the Enterprise and consumers version so that is more than 1.75 million companies around the world out of Beta.

However, since you may miss the Beta label from Gmail, there is a lab feature that moves Gmail back to beta. If you feel a bit empty with the tag gone, bring it back and fulfil the emptiness.

You can read the official Google Blog post at Google Blog.

So have we found the edge of the Universe? I don’t think so, but Google Maps Street view might have.

Google Maps Street View has a few images that are not meant to be or can be taken in a way that could have different connotations.

This street view image was taken on Kulin Holt Rock Rd, Jilakin WA which is somewhere in the middle of Australia. I don’t know why I was looking in some weird place, maybe to look at the large mass of water nearby. So I am not quite sure of what the picture represents but I do believe if we go to that location, it will be completely different. Not a star a a colour spectrum in sight.

I do feel sorry for the Google employees who took all that time to drive out here to take these pictures, only to realise when they get back that their camera was broken.

You can find more weird and strange Google Street View images by a simple Google Search.

The location of the above image can be found at: http://go.jicola.com/4×1ho/

It’s pretty much industry standard to track your website visitors through Google Analytics, but there is an alternative, or possibility to make sure that Google Analytics is telling the truth.

Clicky Web Analytics is very similar to Google Analytics, and I have to say, I am quite impressed with Clicky’s Web Statistics. One advantage that Clicky has over Analytics is that it tells who who is only at that given time through the visitors log. It gives you the time, IP address where the visitor is from, the operating and browser that their using, including the site that they visit.

Clicky’s first impression astonished me. It has a clear layout, it’s easy to navigate and the results are excellent. I am going to continue using Click to get a better idea of who is visiting this blog in much greater detail then what Google Analytics provides.

To sign up to Clicky just go to http://getclicky.com

Clicky also has Contenture which when you sign up, your website will join a custom pool where paying Contenture users who access your site and others will get a share in the revenue.

You can easily find unprotected files by simply doing some Google Searches for web directories that do not have a default index file.

With these directories, you can find some interesting and unprotected files like videos, swf files and music. So here’s a few tips on how to find such files.

To find unprotected directories just Google Search

-inurl(html|htm|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory” +description +size

This will find most unprotected directories.

If your only looking for video’s, search for:

-inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory” +description +size +(wmv|avi)

And for music,

-inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory” +description +size +(wma|mp3)

If you want to find pictures of certain people, searches like this may be useful:

[-inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory” +description +size +(jpg|gif) "Bill Gates"]

You can spend hours of searching the net to find useful things. If you find anything interesting, let us know.

Have you done a simple Google search on DFO (Direct Factory Outlet) stores? Well it looks like Google hates them.

Just have a look for your self. Search for DFO in Google.

Want to know where your friends are? It’s not spying. Google has recently launched a new program called latitude which gives you a map of the location of your friends. Big Brother watch out - we are onto you.

So how does it work? Send a request to your friend, when they accept your invite, you can then see where the are located. Just have a look at the clip after the break or click here to read more.

So here is another tool to add to the list of Find People Online

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