Chrome Beta Gets Another Update; Start Page Now Gets A Cleaner, Refreshed Look

The last update to Chrome Beta brought a nifty undo feature that allowed users to reopen a previously closed tab. Moreover if you kept clicking on the floating notification, you could undo all the previously closed tabs in the session.

This time around Google has given Chrome Beta’s start page a refresh and it certainly looks good. If you ask us, it now looks a lot similar to the desktop version of the Chrome browser with a leaner look. That lean look comes from the new Google start page which seems to be flatter and minimal compared to the current non-beta Chrome browser.

"Unlock interesting data from your Gmail account with Gmail Meter"

I’ve been using Gmail for as long as I can remember, and unfortunately I have more unread emails than I care to admit. The service is my lifeblood, but one thing that’s missing is the ability to gain insight into how active I am in sending and receiving email. Is there a certain

"YouTube updates its Audio Editing interface, adds featured tracks and mixing options"

When you want to share a video with a lot of people, YouTube is the top destination for most people. The service continues to draw top-notch talent to the platform as well, and continues to add more features for content creators.

"Google Street View arrives in Israel a few days earlier than expected"

Just a few days ago we told you that Google was set to unleash its Street View service in the country of Israel on April 22nd, something it had been working on for quite some time. As we noted, there were quite a few problems with getting the project going:

Offending content: Case against Google India dropped

In a relief to Google India, its name was yesterday dropped from the suit for trial of various social networking websites for allegedly hosting offending content.

Reuters

The move came after it was pointed out to a Delhi court that Google was only a software developing firm.Google India had pleaded that it was only a subsidiary of Internet giant and should be removed from the suit, to which the judge agreed.

Google reports $2.89 billion profit, plans stock split

San Francisco: Google Inc announced a stock split designed to preserve the control of co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin over the No 1 Web search engine, as it posted revenue in line with estimates.

Investors welcomed the first quarter revenue, which excludes fees paid to partner websites, of $8.15 billion, after the company’s rare miss in the previous quarter.

Google+ Gets An FB-Style Makeover

Users can now access apps and customise their page layout with ease.

After Facebook decided to go the Timeline way, and met with reasonable amount of success with the new look,Google+ has decided to take a similar route as well. Despitegarnering several followers it hasn't really helped Googlethreaten any of the major players in the social networking arena. With a bid to change its fortunes, the service has gone through a much-needed makeover, albeit it's too glaringly similar to that of FB. Nevertheless, here's what is new, if you still use Google+ or plan to head back to it.

Google's Tablet Debut Pushed Backed To July

Efforts to reduce production costs touted as the main reason for the delay.

Google's much-anticipated debut tablet may be delayed till July, according to reports. The launch date of its first co-branded Android device has been pushed further from its original May deadline, because the company is trying to tweak the device. Apparently, it is trying to change the design to lower the cost from the current $250 (Rs 12,800). Built in association with Asustek Computer, this tablet will sport a 7" screen and will be powered by anNVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core CPU. With only Wi-Fi connectivity, the tab will run Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).

Google Gazes Into the Looking Glass

Google has confirmed that it's developing smart eyeglasses. The Google Glass project will display information about the world around you via a Web-connect pair of spectacles. The concept may sound intriguing, but the glasses Google's shown would tend to make a loud fashion statement, to put it nicely. Meanwhile, RIM scratches, Yahoo claws and Girls Around Me makes everyone very uncomfortable.

A while back we started hearing rumors about some kind of secret project Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) was working on involving eyeglasses -- smart eyeglasses.

"Wikipedia iOS And Android Apps Replace Google Maps For OpenStreetMaps"

Wikipedia has announced this week that a new update for its iOS and Android application will remove the Google Maps integration the apps both use, and replace it with OpenStreetMaps technology.

As well as adopting the OpenStreetMaps technology the new updates rolled out to both iOS

and Android applications brings a wealth of new features and tweaks which brings both app inline with each other.

Google’s web glasses: will they change our vision? (video)

San Fransisco: Google Inc is getting into the eyewear business with a pair of thin wraparound shades that puts the company’s Web services in your face.
CLICK HERE! 

Say goodbye to the Qwerty key pad with Gmail Tap(video)

As some of us make the painful switch from dumb phones, phones with a full Qwerty pad to a smartphone such an Android, we’ve been forced to adjust to typing on touchscreens. Yes, Samsung has the Swpye option, where you don’t have to painfully tap on each letter to spell out each word, but that doesn’t mean life has become easier.

Google’s first April Fool this year is brilliant: ‘Maps 8-bit’ for the NES

Google offers its Maps product on a huge variety of different systems, but the one that it has so far neglected is the hugely popular Nintendo Entertainment System.

Download: Google Chrome 18

New version brings hardware-accelerated canvas among several other updates and fixes.

Google has launched the latest version of its Chrome web browser. Version 18 includes hardware-accelerated rendering for HTML5 canvas element on Windows as well asMac OS X. This helps reduce the load on the CPU, which is offloaded on to the GPU. Interestingly, this feature has been available for some time in the browser, but it was disabled by default, and the new version will keep it enabled. It must be noted here that this feature will work only on systems with compatible graphics hadware. To find out whether your system is compatible, just type "chrome://gpu" in the Chrome browser.

Google Acknowledges Bug In Play Store

Move comes after users complain about losing paid apps.                                 

Google has recently renamed its Android Market to Play Store. Although we appreciate the change, we didn't see any useful addition in it. On the other hand, members ofthe XDA forum have been discussing a bug that delists all your purchased apps. Now, we aren't sure whether it's a new feature from the search giant's repository, but the users aren't really happy.

When’s the best time to post on Google+? This app will tell you

Have you ever wondered if there’s an ideal time you should share your posts on Google+ so that they have more impact? Developer Daniel Treadwell did, and instead of staying in the dark, he decided to build a tool that will do just that – the aptly named Google+Timing.

Announcing the new app, Daniel writes:

“To attempt to aid you (and myself!) in getting the most out of your posts I have created Google+Timing, a site which analyzes your post history (capped at 100 posts for now) that highlights the days and hours in which your posts have the highest impact.”

Google will now tell you why messages wound up in your Gmail spam folder

Overall, Google does a great job at separating the email wheat from the email chaff.

In fact, one of the reasons I’m a rabid Gmail fan is its ability to kick junk email straight to the spam folder where it belongs so I don’t have to waste time doing that. I still check the folder regularly, just to make sure I don’t miss any important messages, but it’s rare for me to find any emails from real people in there.

Google Books scanning errors turned into works of art

                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Andrew Norman Wilson got a lot of attention last year for his Workers Leaving the Googleplex video, which depicted a little-known group of contractors at Google’s HQ, charged with doing the scanning that feeds Google’s mission to digitize every book that it possibly can.

While Wilson lost his own contractor job in video production at Google as a result of the film, that hasn’t stopped his fascination with Google’s ‘ScanOps’, a supposedly marginalized group of workers who don’t get the same perks that many other workers in the Googleplex receive (although to be fair, they are contractors).

"Gmail Update Adds Extra Features For Outgoing Mail"

Google has this week rolled out a new update to its Gmail email service, which now brings with it a few new handy features for outgoing mail.

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One of the great new additions is a new star feature for out going mail that allows you to

Why Google+ Doesn’t Care If You Never Come Back

Ad targeting. Google+ is designed to power ad targeting, and for that it only needs you to sign up once. This lets it combine the biographical information you initially enter such as age, gender, education, employers, and places you’ve lived with your activity on Search, Gmail, Maps and all its other products to create an accurate identity profile. And this powers targeting of more relevant ads it can charge more for.

So despite comScore showing that the average Google+ user only spends 3 minutes per month on Google+, VP Bradley Horowitz wasn’t lying when he told the Wall Street Journal ”We’re growing by every metric we care about”.

Maybe when it first launched, Google+ had aspirations of stealing away some of your content feed reading time from Facebook and Twitter. While it needs a lot of work, the design and features Google+ have launched are solid, and I have the utmost respect for a team doing the best it can. The problem is that it doesn’t solve a problem. Facebook owns the social graph and the relevance-sorted news feed of your friends’ activity, and Twitter owns the interest graph and the firehose of news and real-time updates.