Know what should be read in Google Reader with PageRank for Chrome

We subscribe to many RSS feeds and Google Reader is one of the best RSS reader used widely. We tend to subscribe to multiple RSS feeds getting lots of material to be read. PostRank Extension for Google Chrome helps you find which topic matters and should be read first. It aggregates engagement activity from social networks, ranks stories based on how much engagement each has received and marks their priority.

Download and Install PageRank extension for Google Chrome

After installation you will find a dropdown for PageRank on Google Reader from where you can select the Rank of posts to be listed and read them. By doing this you are sure about reading the articles which are being discussed the most by people over internet.

You can also enable PostRank for Google Search Results, Digg, Reddit, Hacker News etc from Extension settings.

Conclusion
PageRank is a good extension to save your time reading only the articles which are most popular and relevant.

Now explore and listen to Hindi Songs using Google

Google Labs has come up with Google Music using which you can listen to thousands of full hindi songs. Google has partnered with In.com, Saregama and Saavn which holds rights to thousands of Indian tracks ranging from old and new Bollywood hits to Indian Classical Music.

Users can search for a particular song, album or artists.

Clicking the results opens up a pop-up in which the song gets played.
Now there's no more search needed to listen to Hindi songs online. Google does it great way for us.

Visit Google Music at http://www.google.co.in/music

Go directly to images in Google Image Search

Google Image Search is the best place to look for images whenever needed. But the way it works is irritating because you need to go through 2 pages to check the image you click. It first takes you to the website on which the image is posted and then shows the full image after clicking the link.

Using clickGOOGLEview extension for Google Chrome you can bypass the website where the image is posted and directly see the full size image after clicking it in Google Image Search.

See how it works

Before installing the extension

Open Google Image Search and search for image

Click on the image you are interested in

Click See full size image

After installing the extension

Open Google Image Search and search for image

Click the image you are interested in

Notice that the image opened in the new tab and was directly opened without going to the website from where the image comes.

To conclude, this is a great extension to fasten your image search.

Download clickGOOGLEview for Google Chrome

Related Posts 

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Visualize the tabs using thumbnails in Google Chrome
Google Similar Pages
Take advantages of Google URL Shortener
IE Tab extension for Google Chrome
Google launches 300 extensions for Google Chrome Browser

Read Popular Articles in Style - Google Reader Play

Google has released a new Product named Google Reader Play using which you can read Popular articles in an interesting interface. Google displays the contents over the web depending on the what you starred, liked or shared in your Google Reader articles to improve the recommendations.

Getting started with Google Reader Play

Go to http://www.google.com/reader/play in your web browser and click Get Started button

If you use Google Reader click Sign In and login using your Google credentials to get recommendations related to your likes, shares and starred items in Google Reader. If you don't use Google Reader you can still use Google Reader Play. Click the next arrow to move to the next recommendation or click any item on the filmstrip below to directly move to a specific recommendation.

You can click the title of the article to visit the homepage where the article comes from.

Google Reader Play by default does not show your subscribed articles in Google Reader, but you can check them using the URL http://www.google.com/reader/play/#stream

To conclude, Google Reader Play is a fun way to read articles and get recommendations.

What do you Suggest - Google Suggest

I've already spent hours exploring on whatdoyousuggest.net. For some reason I just keep wanting to come back to have another play.

Lets see it working

When you load up the site it tells you to Start Here - or - choose from one of word, letter or question. Lets take "Strange" as the seed. Just type Strange in the text box and hit enter. From there, it takes whatever you've given it and gives back Google's suggestions for the next word in your sentence.

The suggested words appear in the order in which Google suggests them and are each connected by a line of varying thickness representing the number of search results you could expect if you did a Google search on the phrases which that word, its predecessors and ancestors in the tree would create.

The suggestions provided by Google Suggest represent real searches which in all likelihood have been performed millions of times each by people from all around the world. 

Lets click Facts and see what it returns

Lets click Of and see what it returns

In the end lets click Life to get the search results

To conclude this site is real fun and uses Google Suggest very well to give you the next keyword suggested by Google.

Visualize the tabs using thumbnails in Google Chrome

Earlier I had written about 3D effects to Firefox Tabs with FoxTab which gives Firefox tabs a totally refreshing and 3D look.

Google Chrome has come up with a similar extension named Visual Tabs which can make navigating though tabs easier and fun. Its not as powerful as Firefox Tabs for Firefox but a good add-on to have for Google Chrome if you love 3D thumbnails.

Using Visual Tabs for Google Chrome you can:

1. Navigate through the tabs easily with the help of thumbnails

2. Navigate through the tabs by scrolling your mouse

3. Change the background color of the window which displays the thumbnails

Start using Visual Tabs for Google Chrome

Start Google Chrome and Install Visual Tabs extension for Google Chrome

As soon as the extension is installed you are ready to start using it. Just click the icon for Visual Tabs next to the Address Bar in Google Chrome to start.

You can switch between the background colors by clicking the color you want of the available six colors. Lets see how White and Yellow looks in the background.

To conclude, as said before this add-on is a real treat for people who love their tabs in 3D views.

Desktop Notifier for Google Services - Google Calendar

Google Code has come up with a piece of software which notifies you about updates of your Google Services. For now it supports Google Calendar and would soon be supporting Google Reader updates too. Click here for an alternative for Google Reader as of now.

Google Services Notifier is a simple .NET utility which uses Google's API to notify you about updates. Google Calendar is the supported application from various Google Services as of now.

How to use Google Services Notifier

Download Google Services Notifier and install it on your machine.

Once installed start Google Services Notifier from the Start Menu. It silently sits in the System Tray. Right click Google Services Notifier icon and select "Change user name/password".

Specify your login credentials for Google Services in the Credentials window

That's It!!! You are done configuring Google Services Notifier and now its time to enjoy it.

Whenever an appointment on your Google Calendar comes up it notifies you about it with a small pop-up in the System Tray.

Other than notifying for next events you can also get a list of today's/tomorrow's/week's events. It also takes you to your Google Calendar by clicking Go To My Google Calendar.

To conclude Google Services Notifier is a nice application if you use Google Calendar for all your appointments. It will gain more importance once development on Google Reader notifications is complete.

Get notified for new Google Reader items

Google Reader is a good RSS companion but lacks notifications. It does not alert the user when a new item arrives like we have Gmail notifier or email notifier with Gtalk.

There are 2 ways to get notified about new items on Google Reader.

Google Reader Notifier

Google Reader Notifier is a tiny Windows application which sits calmly in your system tray and informs you at a set interval incase there are new items in Google Reader.

Google Reader Notifier is customizable as per your needs. Using preferences you can setup the items for which you should be notified, refresh interval and specify your Google Reader account details.

The notifier displays the number of new items in the popup window clicking on which opens up your browser pointing to Google Reader. 

Download Google Reader Notifier for Windows

Google Reader Watcher - Firefox Add-on

This add-on adds the functionality provided by Google Reader Notifier plus some additional features to Firefox. It adds an icon to Firefox Status Bar displaying the count of new Google Reader items. The add-on is customizable as per your needs using its preferences. You can set up the frequency at which it should check for new items, specify the feeds to be filtered using labels etc. under General tab.

Under Account Information tab you need to specify your Google Reader logon credentials.

Under Tooltip settings tab you can customize the way tooltips are displayed. Under Window opening settings you can select the action which would open Google Reader window.

Hovering over the icon in status bar displays you the list of feeds and the count of unread items under each feed.

Google Reader Watcher is a great add-on to have if you are a big user of Google Reader.

Download Google Reader Watcher for Firefox

Google Similar Pages

Ealier I had written about finding sites similar to the one you are browsing using Firefox add-of named Similar Sites.

It happens that we enjoy the site and are interested in more similar pages  on the web. The first thing we do is Google it but not always lucky with the query to get the perfect results. Google Similar Sites extension for Google Chrome helps you here. Using Google Similar Sites you can preview and explore the sites which are similar to the one you are browsing.

How to use Google Similar Sites

• Open up Google Chrome and Download and install Google Similar Sites extension 
• Once you have installed Google Similar Sites you will see an icon for the same next to the Address Bar in Google Chrome.

• Start browsing the site you are interested in and click the Google Similar Sites button to get recommendations from Google on similar sites. For testing lets use www.addictinggames.com a site dedicated for online flash games.

Google Similar Sites is still in its beta. For some sites which are new to the internet you might get result "No similar Sites found".

To conclude Google Similar Sites is a great extension if you want recommendations on sites similar to your interests.

Google Buzz - Hide whom you follow and your followers from others

By default Google Buzz shows your friends whom you follow and who follow you on Buzz. You may not want your friends to know your followers and whom you follow. To hide your followers and people you follow from your friends you need to change a setting under your Google Profile.

Steps to hide followers from friends

• Login to your Google Account
• Open your Google profile by tying http://google.com/profiles/me in the Address bar
• Click on Edit Profile link in the top right side of the screen

•  Uncheck the checkbox which says "Display the list of people I'm following and people following me" and scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Save Changes.

Once you are done with this none of your friends would be able to see the links about whom you follow and your followers. To be assured about this you can check your profile page after saving the changes which displays those links but mentions they are only visible to you.

Block Google Buzz Notifications in Inbox

Google Buzz is good to be in touch with people but gets annoying if you end up starting or commenting a post which is updated continuously as all the updates are sent right to your Inbox. Well, incase you are looking for a way to skip getting updates in your Inbox you can use Filters in Gmail to achieve this. Using filters you can decide whether you want to Label, mark as read, delete etc. the notifications.

To do so follow the simple steps as below.

• Login to Gmail account and click the link to create a filter

 

•  In the Subject field enter "Buzz From" and click Test Search to see the Test Results. Once you are satisfied with the results click Next Step.

•  Select what you would want to do with the Buzz Notifications and click Create Filter. In this case the Buzz Notifications will  be marked as read and skipped from Inbox and labelled as BuzzNotify.

You can choose whatever you want to do with your notifications. Click here to read how to turn off Google Buzz.

Turn off Google Buzz

Google Buzz is good to keep in touch with your friends and family. But incase you don't like Google Buzz and want to turn it off for your Gmail account you can do it. To disable Google Buzz just login to your Gmail account, scroll to the bottom of the page and click "turn off buzz"

Google Buzz Review

Google Buzz has launched recently and has got a overwhelming response. Google made a smart move by integrating Buzz within Gmail to compete Facebook. By integrating it into Gmail, Google made sure that people will use Buzz as they do check their emails for sure.  This is something they lacked with their highly hyped product Wave.

Google's previous attempts into Social Networking have been Orkut which went well in some countries but could not compete the leader Facebook and headed downwards. Wave was over hyped and articles were spread all over internet with tips and tricks. Invites were being sold online to get hands on Google Wave. It lasted for a few weeks and died out of the news.

Now it's Google Buzz with some smarter moves from Google. Buzz has some advantages as well as disadvantages. Let's check things one by one.

No Setup needed 
As soon as Google Buzz gets enabled for your Gmail account you automatically start following the people whom you chat and email the most. Similarly those people start following you.
Good: You don't need to start from scratch. Google does something for you so that you can start using it easily.
Bad: Why on earth would one want to follow everyone he email's or chat's the most? Isn't there thing called privacy? By doing this Google shares the information about my contacts,  share details about  whom I chat or email to my other followers till I don't setup my account properly.

Click here to read how to hide whom you follow and your followers from others.

Inbox integration
Whenever a new comment is posted to on your post or anyone else's post where you have commented they are sent right in your Inbox.
Good: Great to be updated with the conversation and keep the conversation moving.
Bad: If you comment on a Post with lots of comments your Inbox gets flooded with emails.

Click to read How to block Buzz Notifications.

Share publicly or privately
Buzz gives you an option to share your ideas with the entire world on a selected few people when posting.  Nice to have feature.

Connect sites you already use
You can connect to the sites you are already using to import the stuff. Sites supported are Twitter, Picasa, Flickr, Blogger and Google Reader.
Good: Allows importing your stuff, feeds etc.
Bad: Could not see Facebook integration. People use FB heavily. Tried setting up Twitter and god knows why but Google never asked me for login details for my Twitter account.

Google says NO to IE6 from 1st March 2010

After the recent attacks by China on Google it was traced that the problem was with IE6. IE6 was introduced long back when Netscape used to lead the browser market. Entrance of IE6 which was distributed for free with Windows killed Netscape's market and Netscape nearly vanished from the browser market. There was no competition to IE6 as it shared almost 99% of the market share. I feel this was the reason why Microsoft let it as it was and never improved it further. It was only when Mozilla jumped in the browser market smartly working on the security part of the browser which challenged Microsoft to enhance Internet Explorer's security.

Microsoft came up with newer version of Internet Explorer viz. IE7 and IE8 totally leaving IE6 buggy and full of flaws. Microsoft is still providing support for IE6 on the base that it still holds up around 20% of browser market share. I think Microsoft still wants people to use Windows 95 if they are not ready to upgrade whereas they should always ask their customers to upgrade. Atleast when the product is totally buggy.

After whatever happened with China, Google has decided not to provide any support for Google products on IE6 and want people to upgrade to latest browsers.

Google has decided to phase out support for IE6 on the Google Docs suite and the Google Sites editor from March 1, 2010. According to Google after 1st March 2010 certain functionalities within these applications may have higher latency and may not work correctly in IE6. Later in 2010, Google will start to phase out support for IE6 for Google Mail and Google Calendar.

Google has already started displaying message in Google Products for these old browsers explaining the change and asking users to upgrade their browser.

Google Wave Notifier

Google Wave has had a great hype these days. Many people are having access to Google Wave accounts now as Google has started distributing the invitations to try out Wave. Google Wave has all good features but I feel it is not that useful unless you have some tool which notifies you when you get a new Wave.

Google Wave Notifier does this for you. It is a neat application, low on resources which informs you whenever you receive a new wave. It is simple to use and configure as it just needs you Google Wave account details to login.

It gives you options to select the browser in which it should open your new waves.
Plays sound when a new Wave is received.
Setup Proxy server.










Click here to download Google Wave Notifier

How a website would look on different resolutions

Google Labs has launched yet another application to ease our life. This time it has come up with Browser Size using which one can get an idea about his websites usability. It is a visualization of browser window sizes for people who visit Google. For example, the "90%" contour means that 90% of people visiting Google have their browser window open to at least this size or larger.

This is useful for ensuring that important parts of a page's user interface are visible by a wide audience. Once you land up on the home page an example page opens. On the example page that you see when you first visit this site, there is a "donate now" button which falls within the 80% contour, meaning that 20% of users cannot see this button when they first visit the page. 20% is a significant number; knowing this fact would encourage the designer to move the button much higher in the page so it can be seen without scrolling.

To view your own Web site with this same visualization overlaid on it, simply type its URL into the "Enter URL here" textbox at the top of the window and click Go. 

Take advantages of Google URL Shortener

I had previously written about Google URL Shortener which can only be used with Google Toolbar and Feedburner.
Interestingly there is a new extension for Google Chrome with which you can use Google Shortener URL to reduce the length of your current URL.

Click here to download Google URL Shortener for Google Chrome

If you do not use Google Chrome then you can use Google URL Shortener using the following link:

http://gaigalas.net/lab/googl

Google Toolbar 6.4 Released for Firefox and IE

Google released its new version of Google Toolbar 6.4 for IE and Firefox.

The new toolbar as expected adds some cool new features like:

Share Web Pages
It is a feature that lets you share web pages using social networking sites, mail services, bookmarking services and other sites. You can select your favorite services from the settings page.
Google URL Shortener
If you share links using Twitter, you'll notice a new URL shortening service: goo.gl which shortens the URL's. Read more about Google URL Shortener.

Geolocation
Another new Google Toolbar feature implements W3C's geolocation API

, which allows web pages to access detailed information about the locations of their visitors. This feature is already available in Firefox 3.5 so Google only added it to the IE version of Google Toolbar.

Google URL Shortener

Google URL Shortener at goo.gl is a service that takes long URLs and squeezes them into fewer characters to make a link that is easier to share, tweet, or email to friends. The core goals of this service are: stability, security and speed."

• Stability – ensuring that the service has very good uptime
• Security – protecting users from malware and phishing pages
• Speed – fast resolution of short URLs

The service is only used by Google Toolbar and FeedBurner, so there's no web interface or API for goo.gl for now.

Google Video adds Cartoons and Slideshows Search

Google has added new feature to its video search to restrict the search results to cartoons and slideshows. To restrict the search you need to search for the content you are looking for, click "Show Options" and select "Cartoons" or Slideshows" from the options in the left panel.
Google claims that it uses video recognition technology to classify the videos and give you better search results. Not sure if this is that useful feature but Google ended up ruining a great feature "TV view" using which you could play the videos without opening a new page. YouTube videos are no longer played in the embedded player while the other videos are played on the search results page only if you click on "Play Video".