Editing your Google Docs on the go

Cross posted on the Official Google Blog, Google Enterprise Blog and the Google Mobile Blog

With Google Docs, we’re always trying to make you more productive—and part of that means making it possible for you to get things done from anywhere, at anytime. That’s why we’re excited that the new documents editor now supports editing on your mobile browser. We’re rolling this out over the next few days.

That means that…

• You can work on that important memo…while on the bus or train to work.
• If you’re behind on a group proposal, but really want to make it to the ball game tonight, your whole team can work on it from the bleacher seats.
• You can take minute-by-minute notes at a concert so you’ll always remember the setlist. And your friends can jealously follow in real-time at home.
• …and the list goes on!

Take a look at this video to see mobile editing in action:

In the next few days, we’re rolling this out to English-language users around the world on Android with Froyo (version 2.2) and on iOS devices (version 3.0+) including the iPad. We’ll be adding support for other languages soon. And as before, we also support editing of spreadsheets from your mobile device’s browser.

We hope you enjoy editing your documents on the go—especially when you’re at the game with ahot dog in your other hand.

Google’s New Feature: Trap My Contacts Now

Want to import your Gmail address book into Facebook? Google is happy to let you do that (although it doesn’t want to make it easy). But first, it wants you to be aware of what you’re doing namely, that you are importing them into a place where you will never be able to get them back out again. Hence, the new message that greets anyone trying to use this feature, which has the sarcastic title: Trap my contacts now. In the serve-and-volley that has been going on between the two web giants over data portability in the past week, call this one a drop shot.

The Google message asks users: Are you super sure you want to import your contact information for your friends into a service that won’t let you get it out?’ and notes that the site the user was redirected from (Facebook’s name is never mentioned) ‘doesn’t allow you to re-export your data to other services, essentially locking up your contact data about your friends.’ Google says it ‘strongly disagrees’ with this kind of data protectionism, but is willing to let users export their information because it believes they should control what happens to it. The notice also contains a checkbox that allows a user to ‘register a complaint over data protectionism,’ although it’s not clear what exactly that does.

Just to recap what has been going on for the past few days, Google changed the terms of its contacts API, which third-party developers use to automatically import email address books from Gmail, so that users can find their friends on a network or service. The change required that anyone making use of this feature also allow users to export their data, including email addresses ‘ and this was a clear shot at Facebook, which doesn’t allow this (although you can download names, wall posts, photos, etc.) Facebook responded by linking directly to Google’s download feature, which is why the new warning appears.

In the only official comment that has emerged from Facebook, platform engineer Mike Vernal suggested that Google is being hypocritical about data portability, and is only concerned about it because Facebook is more popular and is a competitive threat. According to Vernal, allowing users to export email addresses is something Google should be required to do, but not something Facebook should have to do ‘ because users on Facebook control their own contact info, but not their friends.

As several sites have noted, however, Facebook happily allows users to bulk export the contact information for all their friends from the social network to partners such as Microsoft and Yahoo, but not to Google. So it appears that there is plenty of hypocrisy to go around ‘ and even more tangible signs that Google and Facebook are in the middle of a social war, and your contact information is one of the main weapons.

(via Gigaom)

Google search improved

Have you noticed that when you search anything with Google, no there is a little triangle on the left of the first result that you can move up and down with the arrow keys and wherever you are there is a little magnifying glass that when you mouse over you have a preview of the site?

Very very cool.

If you are a mac user you had glims doing something similar. Now (I just tested it with chrome) is a standard feature of Google. Great improvement I have to say.

New charts in Google Docs

Drag-and-Drop Your Images into Google Docs

Google has just added the ability to drag-and-drop images from the desktop into a Google Docs document.

The new feature works with the latest versions of Google Chrome, Firefox and Safari, and Google says it plans to add support for other browsers soon. The feature works exactly as you would expect. Rather than importing an image using the web uploader, entering in a URL or doing a Google Image Search, you just drag the item from your desktop into your Google Docs document.

Drag-and-drop uploading is actually a pretty big win for a web app like Google Docs. Competitor Zoho supports drag-and-drop for some of its apps, but dragging an image into a Zoho Writer file just ends up inserting a local file address into the document.

The process works pretty well and we had no problem taking images from our Mac desktop and putting them in a Google Doc using both Safari 5.0.2 and the latest release of Google Chrome.

In fact, if we had any complaint at all, it wasn’t with the feature itself, but with the fact that images still cannot be inserted with a float alignment, so that text fills the column to the left or right of an image, rather than starting a new line where the image ends. Again, this isn’t a criticism of the drag-and-drop feature, but a feature that’s lacking in Google Docs itself.

Thanks to HTML5, it’s getting easier and easier for developers to add features to web apps to make them behave more like desktop applications. We hope other online office suites take Google’s hint.

(from mashable)

Do you hate conversation threads in Gmail? You can switch them off now

Many of us have hated for ever that all the emails are clustered in conversations, and it is true that after a while you get use to it and in fact you see that it is good to bring back to focus a response on an email you have already archived.

Well, Google is rolling out this week the possibility to switch this off. Go to settings, and in General you will find the option to switch of conversation threads. I would love to see a switch in each email though, if in case I want to bring the whole conversation…

Google Is Making Your Account Vastly More Secure With Two-Step Authentication

“Two-factor authentication” may be the least sexy-sounding feature I’ve ever written about. But if you’ve ever worried about being phished or having your password hacked, it could be your best friend — because it makes it much, much harder for a hacker to break into your account. Today, Google is announcing that it’s bringing the security feature to its millions of users: the feature will be rolling out first for Google Apps Premiere, Education, and Government edition customers, with plans to bring it to all Google users (even those who aren’t using its Apps suite) in the next few months.

So what exactly is two-factor authentication? Most of the login systems you’ve probably used are only ‘one-factor’ — you enter one password and you’re in, but if that password gets compromised, you’re toast. More secure systems are common in large businesses, and often require both a password and a physical card or dongle to login — these are called ‘two-factor’ systems, because they require both your password and another key, and are far more secure because a hacker probably isn’t going to have that physical token. Unfortunately these security systems are generally quite expensive. But Google is bringing one to the masses.

Google’s system doesn’t require a physical keycard. Instead, it relies on your mobile phone. First, you need to activate the optional feature from your settings page (again, this is only available to certain Google Apps customers at first). Then, when you go to sign in to your Google account, you’ll first be asked to enter your password as usual. Next, you’ll be brought to a screen asking for a verification code (see the screenshot above).

The verification code comes from your mobile phone, which you’ve previously linked up to your Google Account. Google has built a ‘Google Authenticator’ application for Android, the iPhone, and Blackberry — fire up the application, and it will give you the six digit verification code that you enter back into your browser (the system can also send you a SMS message or give you the code via voice call).

That’s it. The entire process only takes a minute or so, but it’s much more secure because anyone wanting to access your account will also need access to your mobile phone. You can opt to require this two-factor authentication all the time, or you can elect to only require it one time per computer (in other words, you’ll only need to enter it once on your home PC and/or work computer).

Like I said, this may not sound sexy, but it’s a big deal. Given how much data users are storing on Google, and the fact that plenty of people still fall prey to phishing scams on a regular basis, this is a major step in helping keep users secure. This is all optional (unless your Apps administrator sets a policy requiring it), but I suspect Google will be making a push to urge users to take advantage of the new system as it begins rolling out more broadly.

The news will also make Google Apps an even more tempting proposition for security-conscious businesses (Google notes that prior to this release, it was also the first company to receive FISMA certification in the collaboration/document sharing space). To make this more appealing to businesses, Google is also open-sourcing its authentication apps, so businesses can create their own custom-branded versions.

(via techcrunch)

Gmail Priority Inbox to sort your messy inbox by priorities

Google is rolling out Priority Inbox for Gmail. For Google apps user it will be rolled out next week.

The idea is to handle messy inboxes, by applying rules. Take a look at the video:

Now Google Voice in your Gmail: Call US and Canada for free

Google is adding google voice into your gmail. Not in google apps, sure. If you have a gmail account, and you are in the US, then you can call for free to the US and Canada directly from your Gmail page.

Google voice is not available outside the US so it is not usefull for me. Instead, using your phone you can use Fring out, which is cheaper than Google voice.

Anyway, is Skype sleeping?

Check out the video from Google:

Bicycling Directions, Trails Come to Google Maps

There’s nothing worse for a bicyclist than finding yourself a mile in to a two-mile stretch of shoulder-less, busy, highway-speed traffic with no alternative route. Before today, this was a common occurrence if you went to trusty Google Maps to get bicycling directions, but starting today, that has all changed.

Google has added bicycling directions, lanes and routes to Google Maps, meaning you no longer have to drive, walk or bus to get directions. And we can tell you, bicyclists are excited.

Before now, the only option to cyclists to get even remotely appropriate directions, was to use the walking option, but this would still ignore bike trails. Google has heard the pleas of cyclists and, from first look, we have to say that the feature is well implemented.

We gave it a test to see if it would put us on some of Austin’s more bike unfriendly streets, but it managed to chose some good alternative routes and stick to the bike trails when it could. The directions got a little wonky when we threw it a few curve balls, but we expect this to happen with any mapping service, especially one still in beta. But, as we’ve learned, you can’t just gomindlessly follow directions, lest you end up in a lake.

The new feature also includes a “Bicycling Layer”, which shows bike paths and bike-friendly streets with or without lanes. Three different lanes appear in the layer.

• Dark green indicates a dedicated bike-only trail;
• Light green indicates a dedicated bike lane along a road;
• Dashed green indicates roads that are designated as preferred for bicycling, but without dedicated lanes

According to Google, it has also taken steps to avoid uphill and long downhill routes, busy roads and even busy intersections. Google says that it even takes hills and other factors into account when calculating your trip time. “Assuming typical values for mass and for wind resistance, we compute the effort you’ll require and the speed you’ll achieve while going uphill,” Google says in its Lat Long Blog.

Google worked with the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy to bring more than 12,000 miles of biking trails to its map, along with bike lanes and recommended streets for 150 cities across the country. Google makes sure to point out that the feature is still in beta, so feel free to tell Google the next time you find yourself on a crowded, shoulder-less highway because of Google Maps.

And for those of you headed to fair Austin this week, make sure to take a look at the new feature, because it includes all of Austin’s numerous bike trails and bike lanes. If you’ve never been to Austin for SXSW before, bicycling is the way to get around town and now you’ll know how to get there.

(from readwriteweb)

GrottoCenter: a comunity database for cavers

GrottoCenter is wiki-like website for cavers. The site allows cavers to share their knowledge and favourite caving locations with other cavers. GrottoCenter includes a Google Map that shows the locations of the submitted caves and the site’s members.

Currently the map shows the location 0f over 12,000 caves and 361 grottoes. As well as displaying the location of caves the map includes geological overlays for America, Australasia, Europe and the Poles.

If you click on any of the plotted caves on the map you can get further details and links to any relevant websites about the selected cave.

Google Images more like…. bing?

Have you recently looked for an image using google images? Well, it get getting better and better. Now it looks like bing ;-)

I tried looking for images of New York.

Now You Can Search For Google Docs From Within Gmail (And It Catches Typos, Too)

Google may be synonymous with search, but some of the search functionality in its Apps products is sadly lacking — if you want to search for something in Google Docs, Calendar, or Gmail, you’ve had to do it from within its respective app. Today, it’s getting a bit better: Gmail has just launched a feature that lets you search for Google Docs and Sites directly from within Gmail. You can activate the new feature under the Labs section of Gmail settings — it’s called ‘Apps Search’.

Apps Search also activates another cool feature: when you make a typo in a search query, you’ll get a “Did you mean” suggestion. I’m not entirely sure how typo correction is related to Apps Search, but I’ll take it.

Hopefully this is the start of a new trend — it would also be nice if you could search for Google Calendar events from within Gmail (and vice versa).  Google also recently released the headache-reducing multiple accounts feature, which lets you hop between multiple Google accounts without having to repeatedly log-out and back in.

(from techcrunch)

Using Google mail (apps or Gmail)? Try Rapportive to see you contacts activity in the net instead of ads

Rapportive shows you everything about your contacts right inside your inbox.

You can immediately see what people look like, where they’re based, and what they do. You can establish rapport by mentioning shared interests. You can grow your network by connecting on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and more. And you can record thoughts for later by leaving notes.

Imagine relationship management built into your email. For free.

I installed the plugin in Safari, Chrome and it works fine. The problem for me is that most of my contacts don’t have a social life… so the right column is empty, which is still better than to have it with ads.

I used it with google apps.

Give it a try, it is a good idea.

Use Character Tags to Remember Bookmark Keywords

We’ve sung the praises of the art of keyword bookmarking before, but the number of keywords in your setup can quickly get out of control. Reader Swc oxcart shows us an easy way to keep track of all your bookmark keywords.

Google Chrome’s auto-suggest will automatically narrow down your bookmarks for you by adding a simple character to your keywords:

If you have a lot of bookmarklets or are simply running out of short keywords and want to better leverage your browser’s auto-suggest, you can add a tag character to your keyword.

e.g—a script bookmarklet that sends the page link in Gmail can be keyword: \mail

This is easier to remember and does not cause potential search collisions in Chrome Omnibar or Cybersearch Mozilla add-ons. In addition, some browser configurations will see the rarer tag character and show your bookmarklets in the url bar as suggestions.

This is especially useful when you “drill down” into sites as described in ourkeyword bookmarking feature. The further you go into the hierarchy of a web site with your keywords (i.e. using “lw” for the Lifehacker wiki, using “lwf” for the feature section of the wiki, and so on), the more likely you are to forget what the keyword is. As you type it out with this method, the auto suggest will narrow down your selection to help you remember. It’s simple, but very effective when the number of keywords in your arsenal gets a bit overwhelming.

(from lifehacker)