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Currently viewing the tag: "Google"
As with pretty much anything that’s new, there’s always a learning curve. Google+ is no different and there are some fun and interesting features along with new and different ways to do things. With that in mind, I’ve thrown together a cheat sheet for anyone who’s interested in learning some of the basic ins and outs of G+.
| Post Formatting | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| *Text* | → | Text | You can mix and match any of the text formats to the left. | Mention other people in your posts by prefixing their name with either the + or @ symbols. |
| _Text_ | → | Text | ||
| -Text- | → |
Sharing |
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|---|---|---|
| You can add links, photos, or videos in your post by dragging and dropping them in to the share box. | Private messages aren’t an obvious feature, but you can do it by sharing with only one person and disabling reshare. | Clicking on the timestamp for any post will take you to a permalink for that post’s page. |
| To prevent someone from sharing your post, click on the arrow at the top-right of the post and select “Disable Reshare”. | ||
 Blue: Only people in the selected circle will see the post.
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 Green: People outside of your circles will see the post.
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| Circles and +1 | |
|---|---|
| Circles function kind of like a combination of groups on Facebook and following someone on Twitter. You are following anyone in your circle, but they do not necessarily have to approve you or have you in one of their circles. | Clicking +1 on Google+ or elsewhere on the web is similar to “Like” on Facebook. Clicking it once will +1 that post, clicking it again will remove it. Clicking it on a post will not show in your stream, clicking +1 elsewhere on the web will. |
| Hotkeys | ||
|---|---|---|
| Space | → | Scroll down Stream |
| Shift-Space | → | Scroll up Stream |
| J | → | Scroll down Single Post | K | → | Scroll up Single Post |
| Q | → | Jump to Chat |
| Return | → | Start a Comment |
| Tab, Return | → | Submit Comment |
If you’re aware of any errors above or anything that you think should be included here or has been added to Google+ since I posted this, please leave a comment and I’ll be sure to add it.
Dear Facebook,
Every time you release an update or tweak to your iPhone client, it becomes an even larger piece of shit while simultaneously not actually adding any worthwhile features from the standard site. From what I hear, you don’t even have a native iPad app yet. I can’t speak to your Android app, but knowing your iOS development cycle, I doubt it is any better. Frankly, this is pathetic. For a company that has it’s finger on the pulse of social networking more than any other, you seem to be neglecting an increasingly apparent future in mobile platforms. If you don’t want to get bitch-slapped by the likes of Google+ and Twitter, both of which embrace mobile usage at their very core, it might be time to pump some much-needed development in to native mobile applications. Your iOS and Android apps should mirror the features of today’s and tomorrow’s Facebook, not the Facebook of 2-3 years ago as it currently does. Until that happens, you’re just about begging something like Google+ to usurp your throne.
Sincerely,
Someone who likes your service, but will jump ship if you keep acting like you’re the only game in town.
Hello, this is the part where I kill you!
If you, like myself, have been a long-time Firefox user, then the following reasons I’m switching to Chrome may interest you.
- Speed
I haven’t bothered looking with any depth in to benchmarks or anything like that, but when I click that Chrome icon on my dock, it is instantly open. Firefox, however, takes several seconds to show up. Any defender of Firefox, my former self included, would brush this off as the fault of various installed plug-ins, but I’ve tracked down and installed all of the same or comparable Chrome extensions (plus one or two new ones that looked neat) and it still opens like lightning. Page loads seem faster as well, but they were still pretty fast in Firefox once it was open, so that one is a close call. - Extensions
Whether you call them plug-ins (Firefox) or extensions (Chrome), they are what makes a modern-day browser awesome. AdBlock is obviously a must-have (although I disable it on my favorite sites and/or sites that aren’t completely obnoxious about ads), but some of the other Firefox plugins that I’ve found Chrome counterparts for that are as good or better than those available for Firefox are Chrome SEO, StumbleUpon, and Ultimate Chrome Flag. A big part of what has held be back from switching to Chrome earlier was the lack or limited ability of a few of those. - Standards
Whether or not you are aware of what web standards are or how they make your web browsing experience better, they are important. Some browsers (I’m looking at you, IE) have long ignored this fact and it has hurt them in the long run. One of the very first things I do when I install a new browser or major update is run the latest Acid test. As seen below, Chrome currently ranks extremely well (Hint: 100/100 is perfect), whereas the latest version of Firefox “only” scores a 97. - PDF Support
If you, like me, view a lot of PDFs from various websites across the net, then you’d expect your web browser to natively be able to just view them inline without thinking twice. This works flawlessly in Chrome without any 3rd party extensions. In Firefox, however, you used to need a third party extension to get it to work and in the latest version that has stopped working and development on an update is all but abandoned because it would require a rewrite. Why Mozilla doesn’t just integrate this in to Firefox is beyond me, but thankfully Google felt it necessary for Chrome.
So there you have it. On both my home and work computers, Google Chrome is now the primary web browser. Between the speed with which they update it, the ever-growing selection of high quality extensions, and the features already built in, it will likely stay the default web browser on any computer I use for some time to come.
According to the NPD Group, a market research firm, Android has usurped Apple for the #2 spot in the US smartphone market. RIM still leads the pack with it’s Blackberrys (-ies?) commanding a 36% market share, with Google’s Android OS now at 28% and Apple’s iPhone at 21%. AT&T, amazingly still the only company to offer the iPhone in the US, is still the leader of the pack with a total 32% of the smartphone market with Verizon trailing closely behind at 30%.
With the release of the iPhone OS 4.0, the next generation iPhone (Potentially called the iPhone HD), and a rumored Verizon offering all coming this summer, one can likely expect the iPhone’s market share to climb back up by fall and potentially retake second place.
For the past week, I have changed by default browser on both my home and work computers (Apple iMacs running Mac OS X Snow Leopard
The Good
The absolute first thing I noticed when I opened it up is that if I had blinked, I would have missed it. When it comes to opening speed, Firefox is, well, slow. I had previously thought Safari was quick to load, but Chrome even makes Apple’s default browser seem sluggish. Beyond just opening, page loading is also speedy and smooth. Also a terrific feature is the ever-growing selection of extensions. This is something that I’ve always enjoyed about Firefox and is a great first step if Google wants me to switch over to their offering. Even the interface itself is clean, intuitive, and simple to use. Overall it is a very appealing browser and is constantly being updated with new features trying to stay ahead of the competition.
The Bad
I’m not a big fan of the search box and address bar merger. I have a ton of different search engines that I use regularly and the ability to rapidly toggle between them. Chrome, sadly, does not make this an easy task.
The Ugly
There were more than just a handful of sites with nagging visual errors that just simply are not there when using Firefox or Safari. I can overlook just about every other issue I have with Chrome, but incorrectly displaying pages that I frequent is a dealbreaker.
After a week, I will admit I am impressed. Although Google Chrome will not be usurping Firefox as my primary browser, it has earned a spot in my Applications folder and I will be continuing to use it as a secondary browser.
No one outside of Apple themselves likely knows exactly what is in store for the Maps app on the iPhone, but a new job posting at Apple is looking for someone to help “take Maps to the next level, rethink how users use Maps and change the way people find things.” From the sounds of this, it isn’t going to be a small undertaking and will likely not be a small release, instead coming with a future version of the iPhone OS. As part of a split from their long-time cooperation with Google, Apple has even recently acquired a company called Placebase which offered mapping services much different from those offered by Google. The former Placebase CEO is now part of Apple’s “Geo Team”, which is likely where this new job posting will be working as well.
There have been a lot of Google “Doodles” over the years for various different holidays, anniversaries, or events. The following depicts what, at least in my opinion, have been the best of the best based off the creativity and originality in the alteration of their standard logo.
- Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss! – March 2, 2009
- Frank Lloyd Wright’s Birthday – June 8, 2005
- First Day of Spring – Design by Eric Carle – March 20, 2009
- 50th anniversary of the LEGO brick – January 28, 2008
- VOTE – November 2, 2004
- Leap Year – February 29, 2004
- Happy Halloween! – October 31, 2003
- Earth Day – April 22, 2008
- Louis Braille’s Birthday – January 4, 2006
- Google’s 10th Birthday – September 27, 2008
They had this up all day yesterday in honor of the birthday of Theodor Seuss Geisel (March 2, 1904 – September 24, 1991), better known as Dr. Seuss.
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