It is easy to activate it by tapping your phone's Home button, selecting the Google Now Launcher from the list that appears, and selecting "Always" to make it the default launcher. And of course, you can easily add your favorite apps, widgets and wallpaper. Also you can switch back to the old launcher using the Home panel in the Settings, or you can uninstall the launcher completely , if you decide you don't like it later.When you open it for first time Google Now Launcher will offer to import your icons and widgets from your existing home screen, and it will prompt you to opt into Google Now if you haven't already.
Key features:
To see the Google Now Launcher in action or to give it a try, check it out on Google Play
- 1.Google Now on your home screen – it's easier than ever to get just the right information at just the right time.
- 2.Just say "OK, Google" – when you're on your home screen, just say OK, Google to trigger voice input. Then say your search query. Or tell your phone what to do, like send a text message, get directions or play a song.
- 3.Faster search – tap the search box and you can enter your query immediately.
- 4.Easy access to your favourite Google products and services, like Gmail, YouTube and Maps.
- 5.Larger viewing area – the status and navigation bars are now translucent, so your wallpaper pops from every pixel, and is even visible when you expand your apps drawer (when supported by device).
- 6.Intuitive wallpaper picker – select any image that is stored on your device, or in the Cloud. Position and preview your wallpaper before you set it.
Most of the people don't realise that browser extensions might be dangerous .But why they download & installing it?.May be they are too lazy to download and install a software with the same functions as the extension, or it may save some time or it is a faster way to explore lots of features in a short time.After installation, the malicious extension can gain complete control of the victim’s profile and may have access to your data.By installing these extensions, you give your browser additional functionality unknowingly . So don’t install an app or extension unless you trust its creator.
ExtShield (formerly Chrome Protector)tells you that you need to download Google Chrome in order to run it. It keeps a more than 100s of blacklisted browser extensions known to contain adware, spyware or malware.It will scan your browser and alert you if any of these are installed.
ExtShield extension is a freeware available at Chrome webstore. Once installed, you can access the shield located at the right hand top corner of your webpage to know the status about your other installed extensions.
✔ Stops over 100 adware, spyware or malware extensions that are currently available in chrome web store and used by millions
✔ Monitors extensions and websites behavior to detect malicious patterns
✔ Shield code is protected to avoid bypassing by malware creators
WordStream created a pretty cool infographic shows various prominent Google products now in the “Google Graveyard,” which you’ll find below:
Visit :: A Google Projects Resting Ground: The Google Graveyard.
To provide better maps for India , Google India has announced Mapathon 2013, India's first mapping competition.Just sign up for the competition and update the maps via Google Map Maker. Once an entry has been submitted to Google, it will be verified and then added to Google Maps. Apart from adding new locations, you can also simply update sites that are already listed on Google Maps You can newly add those places you consider important — such as College, Office , Park or a nearby hospital.
Registrations for the competition, which commences on February 12 and concludes on March 25, 2013, have begun. The top 1000 mappers stand a chance to win 10 Samsung Galaxy Note, 800 Android Tablets , 40 Samsung Galaxy S II GT I9100 Android Phones , 50 Flipkart gift coupons worth Rs. 5000 each , 1000 Google Mapathon 2013 t-shirts and certificates (includes the top 100 above and another 900 people)
Google services like GMail, Reader and Docs have received huge popularity, there are some services that haven't yet got the attention they deserve. Here's a look at 3 such services from Google
Google Account Activity Reports give you a monthly summary of your account activity across many Google products.It contains how many emails you have sent and received, how often you have searched on Google, from which countries you have logged in and how often your YouTube videos have been viewed.
- Designed to offer you transparency and control
- Summarises the data associated with each product you use when signed in to your account
- Provides links to control your personal settings
If you use the following products, you should see them in your Account Activity Report:
- Gmail
- Latitude
- Picasa Web Albums
- Web History
- YouTube
Google Takeout is another service from Google which allows you to easily download the data from a variety of different Google web services.Google Takeout is a Data Liberation platform that lets you take your data out of multiple Google products in one fell swoop.
Google Takeout supports the following services at this time:
If you want to leave Google for another product, with Google Takeout you can export your information from Google products and store a copy of your information on your own computer and take that to the new service,
Gmail Meter Report contains Volume Traffic ,Daily Traffic, Traffic Pattern,Email Categories, Word count and Time Before first Response .Gmail Meter FAQ here
The Internet search giant Google never misses a chance to feature doodles on its homepage on important days. The doodles were creatively designed to celebrate important holidays, anniversaries and the lives of famous artists, pioneers and scientists.
On our 64th Republic Day, India's national animal the tiger glares at you from Google India's home page and India Gate as the symbol of the Republic, is seen in the left corner of Google's doodle. The Google logo appears as stripes on the tiger's body. India's national flower,Lotus appears in the jungle-like motif surrounding the tiger.
In 2012 the Google doodle commemorating India's 63rd Republic showed National Bravery Award winning children riding on the backs of decorated elephants, quite like the actual parade on Rajpath, New Delhi. The Google logo appeared in rangoli-style in the background
Google has revamped its image search feature to be faster and more effective.In the next few days changes will be rolled out .Google allow users to flip through a set of images by using their keyboard and view metadata without being redirected to a separate landing page.
The images will be displayed in an inline panel and will be accompanied by the associated metadata and key information.If you want to go back to browsing other search results, just scroll down and pick up right where you left off.Google also added a new button to visit the page the image is hosted on. This means that there are now four clickable targets to the source page instead of just two.The revamped Google Images page will be faster and more reliable than the current version, claims the post
A new malware called FakeLookout.A which steals personal information from devices is still finding its way to the store.It has hidden itself within app called, “Updates” by developer Good Byte Labs and is designed to look like an update to the Lookout mobile security app. It steals user SMS/MMS messages and video files, as well as all the files on the user’s SD card and transmits them to a remote FTP server operated by the nasty malware maker.The owner of the FTP server has not been identified yet.
It hides its presence on the infected user’s device by removing itself from the device’s full Application List, leaving only a false and misleading icon in the Downloaded Apps list that uses the familiar logo of Lookout, and the name, “Updates.”
According to TrustGo Security Labs, the app was "designed to look like an update to the Lookout mobile security application". The virus was discovered by TrustGo.It was first spotted on October 15, 2012.TrustGo immediately notified Google and the infected app has been removed from Google Play, limiting the infection to a small number of users.
For the removal of this malware, users can use anti virus applications such as Lookout by TrustGo labs to remove this Trojan form their devices, if the anti virus program fails to remove then a hard reset of the device is advised for the removal of the Trojan, but remember to take a backup of the data before resetting the device to avoid losing important data.Recently, Google had started rolling out an update for Google Play.
Safety Tips
- Check the security of every app before downloading with TrustGo Secure App Finder Engine (SAFE) . TrustGo is one of the most robust Android security apps we've seen, and it's completely free
- Ensure that new apps you’re downloading are not malware, for that scan malware in real time
Google recently announced Google Instant, a new search enhancement that shows results as you type.With Google Instant you will get the right content much faster than before because you don’t have to finish typing your full search term, or even press “search.” Another shift is that seeing results as you type helps you formulate a better search term by providing instant feedback.
Features
- Faster Searches: By predicting your search and showing results before you finish typing, Google Instant can save 2-5 seconds per search.
- Smarter Predictions: Even when you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, predictions help guide your search. The top prediction is shown in grey text directly in the search box, so you can stop typing as soon as you see what you need.
- Instant Results: Start typing and results appear right before your eyes. Until now, you had to type a full search term, hit return, and hope for the right results. Now results appear instantly as you type, helping you see where you’re headed, every step of the way
- Dynamic Results -- Google dynamically displays relevant search results as you type so you can quickly interact and click through to the web content you need.
Native browser integration is also available in near future, means when you search through your address bar, results will start flooding in before you've even finished asking the question.Google Instant will first be rolled out in the U.S., UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Russia .The first supported browsers are Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer 8 .If you type the letter “w,” Google will instantly display what it thinks you’re most likely to be searching for: the weather for your area.
If you don’t yet see it, you can try enabling it via this special URL here .To disable the Google Instant navigate to “Instant is on” link to the right of the search box on a search results page. There you can toggle it between “on” and “off.”
Google’s Blogger platform has recently added a new real-time stats systems for their bloggers.It is similar to Google Analytics, but it is in real-time.There is no need to configure or install this feature ,but you’ll have to visit the Blogger site through drafts.blogger.com to access it.
This real time web analytic provide you the basic information about your site visitors such as from which countries they are coming , what browser they are using, your most popular posts, the traffic during various times of the day and so on.At present in Google Web analytics service only updates every few hours, but here it is every minutes.
With this analytical tool bloggers can closely monitor the popularity of postings as the day progresses. They can also track usage by day, week, month and longer time periods.
There are thousands of classic books available online in Google Book Search . But only few books are available with full preview as Google limits the usage of these books to read-only pages and cannot be downloaded for offline use.
But with Google Books Downloader you can download any Google book as PDF.Once the book has been checked in Google Book Downloader, by clicking 'Save entire book as...' will convert the file to PDF format.In order to download, first open the "add book" dialog in the file menu ,then copy an paste the book code, link, or ISBN number, click search, and then select the book that shows up. Right click a title and hit "start."for downloading, and to export a file as a PDF, right-click and hit "export.".The application requires Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
Download : GoogleBookDownloader Or From Softpedia
Firefox Add-on:Google Book Downloader 2.2.1| Google Books
All of you are familiar with the amazing background images on bing.com.Now you can add and change the beautiful background images on Google.com. By adding this feature Google just made your Google starting page more interesting.You can choose an image from your Picasa Web photos, your computer or a Google public gallery.For this you have to sign in to your Google Account in the top right corner of the Google homepage.Then check for a link “Change Background Image” can be found in bottom left corner.
You can remove your background image at any time by clicking Remove background image in the bottom left corner of the homepage.
Google has recently launched secure search on feature on Google which allows you do a secret search .With Google search over SSL, you can have an end-to-end encrypted search solution between your computer and Google. This will l helps you protect your search terms and your search results pages from being intercepted by a third party. If your computer is infected with malware or a key logger, a third party might still be able to see the queries that you typed.So Google with SSL enables more secure and private search experience
In secured search Google Images and Google Maps are not currently available.You will need to install some plug-ins in Google Chrome or Firefox to use Google secure search. You can install KB SSL Enforce extension for Google Chrome and Google SSL Plugin for Firefox
Check : https://www.google.com/
Today you may have noticed that something feels slightly different when you Using Google .Google added contextually relevant, left-hand navigation to the page. This new side panel highlights the most relevant search tools and refinements for your query.
Universal Search helps you find the most relevant types of results for your search.The new design refreshes and streamlines the look, feel and functionality of Google, making it easier to pinpoint what you’re looking for. Google had updated its color palette and logo.
According to Google
"Universal Search helps you find the most relevant types of results for your search. The top section of the new left-hand panel builds on Universal Search by suggesting the most relevant genres of results for your query and letting you seamlessly switch to these different types of results. The 'Everything' option remains our essential search experience with different types of results integrated into the main results, but now you can also easily switch to just the particular type of results you are looking for."
"These changes are slight, keeping our page minimalist and whimsical, but make our overall look more modern. The new design refreshes and streamlines the look, feel and functionality of Google, making it easier to pinpoint what you're looking for. It's powerful, yet simple,"
Google Chrome released its new version with the integration of Adobe Flash into the open source browser.It combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the Web faster, safer, and easier.The obvious advantages sought involve seamless rendering and scripting, but also increased security and stability. Use one box for everything--type in the address bar and get suggestions for both search and Web pages. Thumbnails of your top sites let you access your favorite pages instantly with lightning speed from any new tab. Desktop shortcuts allow you to launch your favorite Web apps straight from your desktop.
Features
- An address bar that served for everything: web search, web history, writing tips
- Tabs interactive, with all the information you need at the time of opening one of them: most visited sites, most used search engines, recent closed tabs
- Ability to create shortcuts to your favorite web applications, so that you can start without opening your browser.
- Ability to handle the tabs to your liking: move them, group them, create new windows from the browser tabs, etc.
- Addition of an "Incognito mode" to browse without being stored in the history of pages you visit.
- Safe Browsing that lets you know when you go to visit suspected phishing scam sites.
- Generation of markers at once with a single click.
- Controls the entire process of your downloads without having to install any other software.
- It matters if you want your bookmarks, your browsing history or your passwords
Download Google Chrome 5.0.375.3
Google Docs and Spreadsheets is very useful for sharing and collaborating between two parties or within a group. You can just upload a Word document, Excel spreadsheet or PowerPoint presentation, and share it with your friends.You can actually have two or more users editing the same single document at the same time without the need to open other local applications like MS Office Word, Excel or PowerPoint.
Google recently announced its new versions of Google document and spreadsheet editors and a new standalone drawings editor, all built with an even greater focus on speed and collaboration.The spreadsheet editor is faster now .The documents editor received additions such as a margin ruler, tab stops, comments, a re-worked system for placing and maintaining bullets and numbers and support for real-time collaboration of up to 50 people. Spreadsheets now allows for cells to be edited from the formula bar, the use of auto-fill and the dragging and dropping of columns.These changes allowed you to take more control of the way documents are rendered and formatted in Google Docs
The updates will be rolled out to users over the next couple of days, but switching over will be optional. To try out new editor, visit Editing tab in Google docs list settings. Check the box next next to “New version of Google documents,” and all new and uploaded documents will be created in new editor.
Google recently added a new way to catch up on Twitter's never-ending conversation: a timeline view through which you can replay old updates.It searches updates on Twitter, Facebook, Buzz, and MySpace. It is an attempt to recreate the conversation which occurred at a specific point in time about any topic.Tweets will be grouped by topic, and the format will allow users to see when tweet activity was highest for their search query. When a certain date is selected, the messages will pop up in the form of a scrolling list. The timeline looks something like a stock graph, showing spikes signifying moments of high Twitter activity on a particular topic.
Twitter has its own search page , the results are often grouped around trending topics, or simply lack any form of organization.If you have more tweets to your name, you can’t get to them all even though your are a registered Twitter user. But the Google program will work as a practical archive. For now, Google says that it will offer tweets going back to February 11, 2010 but will soon extend back to March 21, 2006.
You can try it now by selecting ‘options’ on the search page and selecting ‘updates’, You should then see the timeline updates for your chosen topic.In this example below Google shows us how it will look like when you search for your chosen topic. You can test drive the new function on this special link.
Google has recently announced new feature in Gmail, which enables third-party apps to access your email securely using the OAuth authorization protocol.OAuth is the emerging protocol for authorizing data access for third parties, users won't have to disclose their passwords.
Usually when a user authorises a third party developer to see their contacts list, he has to give-out password which is a very insecure way of doing things especially when the 3rd part app is not as trustworthy.OAuth which enables the user to give their consent for specific access without sharing their password. Most Google APIs support this OAuth standard, and it is also available for the IMAP/SMTP feature of Gmail.Gmail Drive is a popular application that uses your Gmail account to store files.Every time it asks your username and password to send data to your Gmail account.When applications like Gmail Drive switch to OAuth authentication, you'll no longer have to enter your credentials. Instead, the application will open a Google web page and you'll only have to authorize the request.Twitter added OAuth support back in April of last year, and currently there are too many third-party apps.
One of the first companies using this feature is Syphir, in their SmartPush application for the iPhone, as shown in the screenshots below. Unlike other push apps, Sypher's SmartPush application never sees or stores the user’s Gmail password thanks to this new OAuth support.
With OAuth your GMail account could now be backed up by third party sites without ever saving your username and password ,for example online cloud backup services like Backupify .Google added that it was working with Yahoo! and Mozilla on a formal Internet standard for using OAuth with IMAP/SMTP.
Suggested Reading
- Google Tightens Gmail Security
- GMail Labs 'Got the Wrong Bob'
- Google Adds Robust Task Management to Gmail
- GMail Garner
- Gmail Adds Video and Voice Chat
- How To Tell If Your Gmail Account Has Been Hacked.
- How to Add Location in Gmail email Signatures
- Gmail Drive & Gspace
- GMail Labs Lets Users Insert Images into GMail
- Using GMail as an Online Hard Drive
Google launched a new service recently - Google Reader Play - that plays a slideshow of cool items from around the 
To begin, visit http://www.google.com/reader/play and click "Get Started." Access more items by clicking the arrow on the right, or simply use the right and left arrow keys to browse. You can also click on any item in the thumbnail preview below to jump straight to that item.It is a fast, fun way to browse interesting stuff on the web.
Users can also browser their current subscriptions in Google Reader Play, by clicking on the arrow appearing next to the folder or RSS feed in the sidebar and selecting "View in Reader Play"
Many of us are using GoogleTalk . While you are working on some important thing in office and if you are online, the incoming messages from your friends may cause disturbance . Here is a small tool called Gtalk Autoreply which is helpful in this situation . This will also helpful when you are away from your PC .This free tool allows you to set a custom reply message which will be replied to all incoming chat messages.You will need to enter the username and password for your GMail account.
Download Gtalk Autoreply | 960 KB |Windows XP / Vista
