Google's Video Duration Experiment

This is a strange experiment: Google tests adding the duration of a video to the search result title. I've noticed this experiment by searching for [zero 7 in the waiting line]. Google seems to change the title only for YouTube videos, but not for all of them.

The duration of the video is already displayed on top of the thumbnail, so this is redundant.

Read More

New Google Sheets: faster, more powerful, and works offline

(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog)

Whether you’re crunching big data or tracking your family budget, you don’t want to waste time waiting for files to load or re-doing edits that were lost because your Internet connection dropped. You can now get more done by switching to the new version of Google Sheets. It’s faster, supports larger spreadsheets, has a number of new features, and works offline.

Bigger, faster spreadsheets
The new Sheets supports millions of cells and kicks many of the old size and complexity limits to the curb. Scrolling, loading and calculation are all snappier, even in more complex spreadsheets.

New features based on your feedback and requests 

Filter views is a new feature unique to Google Sheets that lets you quickly name, save and share different views of your data. This comes in handy when you’re collaborating so you can sort a spreadsheet without affecting how others see it.

Whether you’re new to formulas or a whiz at running complex functions, it’s now easier to set up and perform calculations. New function help and examples guide you as you type, and error highlighting and coloring make it easy to spot and fix mistakes.

As another time-saving improvement, text now automatically flows into empty adjacent cells—no manual merge needed.

With the improved conditional formatting, you can add rules to change the colors and styles of cells in your spreadsheet based on custom formulas.

No internet connection? Work offline with Chrome 
You shouldn’t have to think about whether you have a WiFi connection when you want to work. So just like Google Docs and Slides, you can now make edits to Sheets offline. When you reconnect to the Internet, your edits will automatically sync. If you've edited Docs or Slides offline in the past, then you’re already set up to edit Sheets offline. If not, follow these one-time instructions for setting up offline in Chrome.

Ready to try it out? 
Turn on the new Sheets by checking the “Try the new Google Sheets” box in Google Drive settings. From then on, all new spreadsheets you create will work offline and include these new features. We’ll be adding a small list of missing features in the coming months, so if you rely on any of them, you may want to wait a little longer before opting in.

We hope you enjoy these and the many other updates that come along with the new Google Sheets, including colored sheet tabs, custom number formatting, paste transpose and more. Let us know what you think on our Google+ page!

Posted by: Zach Lloyd, Software Engineer

Read More

9 New Languages in Google Translate

Google Translate supports 9 new languages: Hausa (Nigeria, 35 million speakers), Igbo (Nigeria, 25 million speakers), Yoruba (Nigeria, 28 million speakers), Somali (Somalia, 17 million speakers), Zulu (South Africa, 10 million speakers), Mongolian (Mongolia, China, 6 million speakers), Nepali (Nepal, India, Bhutan 17 million speakers), Punjabi (India, Pakistan, 100 million speakers), Maori (New Zealand, 160,000 speakers). Google Translate now supports 80 languages and that's impressive.

According to Ethnologue, there are 80 languages with more than 10 million native speakers, 200 languages with at least 3 million speakers and 1,300 languages with at least 100,000 speakers. Google Translate supports all the languages with more than 100 million native speakers, 13 of the 16 languages that have between 50 and 100 million speakers, 4 of the 13 languages that have between 30 and 50 million speakers and 15 of the 47 languages that have between 10 and 30 million speakers.

Read More

10 New Chromecast Apps

The number of apps that support Chromecast has increased: there are 10 new apps and most of them are free. Here's the list:

* VEVO (Android, iOS) - music videos app, available in a few countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Spain, UK and US.

* Red Bull.TV (Android, iOS) - videos and shows

* Songza (Android) - music streaming, online radio (there's an iOS app, but it doesn't support Chromecast yet)

* PostTV (Android) - news from Washington Post

* Viki (Android, iOS) - "Korean dramas, Taiwanese, Chinese and Filipino dramas, Telenovelas, Japanese dramas and anime, American cartoons, NBC Universal, History Channel, A&E, E! TV shows, as well as movies from Indonesia, Hong Kong"

* Revision3 (Android, iOS) - shows

* BeyondPod (Android) - podcast manager

* Plex (Android) - media player, Chromecast support only for videos, the app costs $5 (there's an iOS app, but it doesn't support Chromecast yet)

* Avia (Android) - media player, Chromecast support for local videos, music and photos, requires an in-app purchase that costs $3. I tried the app and it works well for local files, but the Google Cast API supports a small number of file formats

* RealPlayer Cloud (Android, iOS) - movie player that stores your videos online, US and Canada only

"There's no need to huddle around small screens when you can share your own photos and videos using your phone, tablet, or laptop," mentions Google.

From what I tried, the most interesting apps seem to be Songza (for playing online music) and Avia (for playing local files).

Read More

Google Settings Page for Phone Numbers

Google's account settings page has an updated section for phone numbers that groups some features that were already available elsewhere. If you click "edit" next to "phone numbers", Google will show the phone numbers associated with your account.

You'll probably see a phone number associated with Hangouts. You can enable or disable this setting: "Help people who have your phone number find and connect with you on Google services, like Hangouts and caller ID by Google." You can edit the phone number, change the way it's verified or remove the number.

There's also a phone number that's used for account recovery. Google encourages users to enable this feature, but it's optional. For now, the account recovery page is not integrated with the account settings page, so it looks different and has a long URL. "We'll use your phone to do things like challenge hijackers or send you a text message to help you access your account if you forget your password," informs Google.

The phone number management page was added back in May, but now it's more functional.

{ Thanks, Herin. }

Read More

Connect Google Photo Spheres

Google Maps Views has a new feature that lets you connect your photo spheres and create constellations. "By connecting your photo spheres you can create even more immersive, 360° views called constellations. You can choose to add your 'constellations' to Google Maps, so people can explore your favorite places on Maps. Keep your constellations private or share them with others on Google Maps or Views," informs Google.

Just go to your profile in Google Maps Views, select the photo spheres and click "connect images". You can create something like this:

This article has more information about changing photo sphere locations, rotating photo spheres in the right direction and connecting them. You can use multiple photo spheres to create your own Street View imagery.

Here are some examples: Google Boulder, Android Building, Carrick-A-Reed, Dunluce Castle, Asilomar Beach. Press the arrow icons to move between photo spheres.

{ via Google LatLong Blog }

Read More

Google Open Gallery

If you expand the list of services from Google's support page, you'll find an interesting service: Open Gallery. Clicking the link redirects you to the main Google support site.

I tried to find this service and searched for [open gallery]. Most of the results are about art galleries. Google actually has a service that brings museums online: Google Cultural Institute's Art Project. "Museums large and small, classic and modern, world-renowned and community-based from over 40 countries have contributed more than 40,000 high-resolution images of works ranging from oil on canvas to sculpture and furniture. Some paintings are available in 'gigapixel' format, allowing you to zoom in at brushstroke level to examine incredible detail," explains Google.

I've checked the source code of some Art Project pages and found this: "New! Artists, museums, galleries, archives: discover Google Open Gallery, powerful free tools to bring your content online." Google Open Gallery pointed to google.com/opengallery.

Update: Google Open Gallery is now available. "Google Open Gallery makes the technologies behind Google's cultural projects (Art Project, Historic Moments, World Wonders), plus additional tools, freely available to everyone to publish their artwork, archives, and other cultural content. Anyone, including individual artists and collectors, galleries and museums, and any organisation with an archive they want to share, can use Google Open Gallery." You only need to request an invitation.

{ Thanks, TomHTML and Artem. }

Read More