Chrome's App Launcher, Ready for Windows

Google has yet to officially launch the Chrome app launcher, but there's a simple way to get the launcher right now if you use Windows: go to this page and click "Get the launcher" (the link only works in Chrome for Windows). If you're not signed in to Chrome, you'll need to do that. Probably Google uses Chrome's sync feature to enable the launcher.

Chrome adds a new icon to the taskbar and a new desktop shortcut, at least in Windows. The launcher shows all the apps that are also displayed in Chrome's new tab page. It also shows a search box that lets you quickly launch an app.

Engadget reports that the app launcher has been automatically added for some users. "On our own PCs, the installation placed the launcher app on the start page, taskbar and desktop for Windows 8 and in Windows 7's menu bar."

Chrome's launcher is connected to the new-style Chrome apps. Google wants to move from the old apps that were mostly bookmarks to some new apps that work offline, use powerful APIs that integrate with web services and devices like USB drives and Bluetooth speakers.

Some examples of new-style Chrome apps: Google Keep and Google+ Photos. Both apps work offline, while Google+ Photos automatically uploads the photos from an SD card. More examples here.

It's interesting that Chrome's Web Store is now all about apps. Extensions and themes are still available, but you need to explicitly click "extensions" or "themes" to find them. They're no longer promoted on the homepage and search results show the apps first.

{ via Engadget. Thanks, Florian K. }

Try the New Google Maps (No Invitation Required)

You can now use the new Google Maps interface without requesting an invite. That's a great news, even though invitations weren't hard to get.

You first need to go to maps.google.com/preview and click "Try Now". Google explains that "the new Google Maps draws you a tailored map for every search and click you make. So whatever you're trying to find or wherever you're trying to go, you'll always have a map highlighting the things that matter most."

So what happens after clicking "Try Now"? You see this message: "Sign in with your Google Account to try the new Google Maps."

While search results are better if you are signed in and you also use Google+, it's strange to see that you need to sign in. After all, the mobile apps for Google Maps work even when you're not signed in.

After signing in, Google shows another message: "Almost there... During this preview, we may email you with product updates or to request your feedback. Please let us know what you think!"

Then you can finally use the new Google Maps.

You can sign out and Google Maps will continue to work.

I hope that the new Google Maps won't require a Google Account (or Google+) when it will replace the existing interface. Just like Google Search, Google Maps works well even when it doesn't return personalized results. Google found a way to personalize search results when you're not logged in, maybe Google Maps will do the same.

Full-screen Gmail Compose Box

There are plenty of shortcuts for opening Gmail's compose box in a new tab or a new window. Not many people use keyboard shortcuts and opening the box in a new page is awkward, so Google decided to add an inline full-screen option.

It's not exactly full-screen, it's more like a maximized box that still lets you see your labels and your chat contacts. You can manually enable the "full-screen" mode every time you want to use it or set is as the default option.

"When this option is enabled, the compose window is centered in your inbox and expands to fit on your screen. In addition, the formatting toolbar is on by default. You can click on the expand button in the top right to switch to full-screen or set full-screen as the default by selecting Default to full-screen in the more options menu in the bottom right," informs Google.

There's a help center article that provides more information:

"Compose messages in a window that's right for you. The default is a small compose window that's great for checking other emails as you type and getting things done quickly. If you prefer a larger window, you can switch to full-screen when you need it, or set full-screen as default."

It turns out that the new expand button for the full-screen mode replaces the pop-out button, which opened the compose box in a new window. To open the box in a new window, you now need to shift-click the expand button.

The full-screen mode also works when you reply to a message, but it's more cumbersome to use. "To compose in a larger window, click the Recipient arrow next to the recipient's name and select Pop out reply. Once you've popped out the reply, click the expand icon expand to compose in full-screen."

As usual, this feature is gradually rolling out to all Gmail accounts, so check back later if you don't see it right away. Obviously, this only works in the new compose interface.

Change Chrome's Search Engine to Google.com

Two years ago, I wrote a post that explained how to change the domain used by Chrome when performing a Google search from the omnibox. The trick still works (thanks, Peter Kasting!), but there's a much simpler way to change the Google domain used by Chrome's omnibox from google.tld (your local Google domain) to google.com.

This is only useful if you're not in the US and you'd like to use google.com to see the latest Google features. The nice thing is that it works in the desktop Chrome, in Chrome for Android and Chrome for iOS.

1. Type google.com/ncr in the address bar and search for something (use Google's search box, not the browser's omnibox).

2. Close Chrome. If you're using the desktop Chrome, close all Chrome windows or click Exit in the menu. If you're using the mobile Chrome, press the home button and use your operating system's multitasking feature to force close Chrome. Here are the instructions for iOS. Android instructions are different, depending on the device you use: some Android devices have a button that shows a list of recent apps, while others require to press and hold the home button or double-tap it. Swipe Chrome's thumbnail to force close it.

3. Launch Chrome again, open a new tab and search for something using Chrome's omnibox.

4. You should see an infobar that asks you: "would you like to search with google.com instead of [your local Google domain]?". Click or tap "switch to google.com" and that's all.

The screenshot is from a Nexus 7, but this should work in Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Android and iOS. Here's a similar screenshot from Chrome for Windows:

You'll also see google.com instead of your local Google domain in Chrome's settings (this feature is not available in Chrome for iOS).

To go back to your local Google domain, you can use similar instructions. Visit google.tld (replace this with your country's Google domain), search for something, restart the browser, search using Chrome's omnibox and click "switch to google.tld" in the infobar that should show up.

{ Thanks, Sushubh Mittal and Jérôme Flipo. }

YouTube Tests Center-Aligned Layout

Nedas Petravičius spotted a new YouTube experiment that changes the user interface: there's a bigger sidebar that's now overlaid, the Dashboard/Video Manager/Analytics menu has been moved to the right corner of the page and the Upload button is blue. YouTube now shows the same sidebar from the homepage on video pages, so you no longer see a list of suggested videos.

The biggest change is that the video page is now centered. YouTube's pages used to be centered, but they're now aligned to the left, ever since YouTube redesigned the pages and added the sidebar guide. There are many extensions and scripts that center the pages.

The new sidebar has a lot in common with the Google+ sidebar. There are some differences: you need to click the menu icon to display/hide the sidebar and the sidebar continues to be displayed when you click one of its options.

Since the sidebar is hidden by default, there's more room for your favorite videos:

This drop-down menu is placed next to the upload button in the regular interface:

Here's a video:

Here's how you can enable the experimental feature. If you use Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari or Internet Explorer 8+:

1. open youtube.com in a new tab

2. load your browser's developer console:

* Chrome/Opera 15 - press Ctrl+Shift+J for Windows/Linux/ChromeOS or Command-Option-J for Mac

* Firefox - press Ctrl+Shift+K for Windows/Linux or Command-Option-K for Mac

* Opera 12 - press Ctrl+Shift+I for Windows/Linux or Command-Option-I for Mac, then click "Console"

* Safari - check this article

* Internet Explorer - press F12 and select the "Console" tab.

3. paste the following code which changes a YouTube cookie:

document.cookie="VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=ULHzU8CeVLo; path=/; domain=.youtube.com";window.location.reload();

4. press Enter and close the console.

To go back to the regular interface, use the same instructions, but replace the code from step 3 with this one:

document.cookie="VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=; path=/; domain=.youtube.com";window.location.reload();

{ Thanks, Nedas. }

Google Maps for iPad

Almost one year after Google Maps was removed from iOS and 7 months after Google released a Maps app for iPhone, you can finally install the Google Maps app on an iPad and actually use it. Installing the iPhone app on an iPad wasn't a good idea, so the web app was a good alternative.

It's interesting to notice that the new Maps UI was first included in the Google Maps for iPhone. After that, Google used it in Google Maps Engine Lite, then in the new desktop Google Maps, in the updated app for Android and now the circle is closed.

The updated Google Maps app for iPhone and iPad looks just like the Android app and has almost the same features: incident reporting, dynamic rerouting, integration with Zagat and Google Offers, Google+ recommendations, the "explore" feature that lets you find great places without searching for them, biking directions and navigation, offline maps (type OK maps in the search box).

To open the "explore" section, tap the search box and select "explore". Then you can tap "eat", "drink", "shop", "play" or "sleep" and find a lot of useful suggestions. Many of them are influenced by the reviews of the people from your Google+ circles.

The full-screen map provides an immersive experience.

There's support for incident reports, although it's not clear if the new feature has anything to do with the Waze acquisition.

Google Maps still supports layers, but not all the layers from the old Android app. There are layers for traffic, public transit, bicycling and satellite maps.

When you first launch the app, Google Maps shows the following screen. The option to improve Google Maps by sharing anonymous location data is enabled by default. This means that Google no longer has to rely on Android devices to get traffic data. A similar option was displayed last year, when Google Maps for iOS was launched, so it's not new.

A year ago, things were very different: Google Maps for Android was a lot more powerful than the built-in Maps app for iOS powered by Google Maps data. Now Google Maps apps for Android and iOS have almost the same features. Can you find some features that are only available in the Android app?

One Password. All of Google

Google Australia continues to promote Google Accounts and now shows a short message and some icons below the search box: "One password. All of Google. Sign in." Google shows the icons for Search, Gmail, Chrome, YouTube, Maps, Play and Google+.

It's a simplified version of Google's sign-in page. "Want to enjoy the best of Google? Just stay signed in. One username and password is all you need to unlock more features from services you use every day, like Gmail, Maps, Google+, and YouTube."

While it's nice to use so many services using a single username and password, it's also dangerous. Using a single account to store your email, your calendar, your contacts, your documents, photos, videos and music, your search history, your bookmarks, your financial information, your location history, your Google+ posts and blogs, the apps you've installed using Google Play and much more? It sounds pretty scary. 2-step verification solves the "one password" issue, but makes things more complicated. Maybe it's time to think beyond passwords.

{ Thanks, Michel. }

Redesigned Google Play Store Site

The redesigned Google Play Store for the web is finally available. The interface is now consistent with the mobile app, the site now uses AJAX, there's the modern Roboto font, transitions are smoother, thumbnails are bigger and there's less content to see at a glance. You have to scroll more, click more, so you'll have plenty of time to enjoy the new navigation arrows.

There are also bugs. For example, in the Romanian version of the Google Play Store, section titles include some strange exclamation marks that separate the words, instead of spaces. There are a lot of localization issues, including a Kommunikation section (that's a German word).

Google Play now looks like a mobile site resized for the desktop. Instead of taking advantage of the space that's available, the site shows less content and a lot of empty spaces.

Android Apps and Staged Rollouts

Google Hangouts was probably the first Android app update that was gradually rolled out. Then Google officially added support for staged rollouts and any Android developer could use it.

"If you like, you can release your app via a staged rollout, starting with a small percentage of your userbase and then increasing it. You can set and modify the percentage for the staged rollout on the APK section of your Google Play Developer Console, on the Production tab, while keeping an eye on crash reports and user reviews, to make sure users like new functionality in your app. While a staged rollout is in progress, you won't be able to update your production configuration. You must publish the staged rollout to 100% of users first."

You've probably noticed that Google used it for the latest Maps and Chrome updates. Google announces the updates, but you can't install them because they're gradually rolled out. Even if you go to the app's Google Play page, you can't manually update the app. You need to find the APK files and install them from various sites, while hoping that they're legit.

While staged rollouts are useful for developers, they're annoying for the people who want to try the latest features. Google uses a similar approach for web apps like Gmail or Google Docs and for Chrome updates, but there's a trick to manually install the latest Chrome update: go to the about page.

Here's a similar idea for Google Play: limit staged rollouts to automatic updates and allow users who want to get the latest updates to do that by visiting Google Play's app pages and manually installing the updates.

Why Google No Longer Needs Google Toolbar

Google Toolbar is the first software released by Google. The first version of the add-on was released back in 2000, when Google's most important services were the search engine, Google Directory and AdWords. Here's Google's homepage from December 2000.

At that time, Google suggested to "get the Google Toolbar for your IE browser and take the power of Google with you anywhere on the web." Internet Explorer was the dominant browser and it didn't have a search box, so Google Toolbar was a great way to promote Google. It also made it easier to search the web.

Since then, Google Toolbar added many new features: pop-up blocker, online bookmarks, custom buttons, inline find-in-page, automatic translation, spell checking, suggestions on navigation errors and more. Some of these features were integrated in Internet Explorer. Google made a lot of business deals and many popular applications bundled Google Toolbar. Google also developed a version of the Toolbar for Firefox, but it was discontinued in 2011.

For many years, Google Toolbar was the most important Google software. Internet Explorer was the only popular browser that didn't use Google as the default search engine. "Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser, now accounts for less than 60% of the market, down from 95% at its peak in 2003," mentioned a BBC News article from 2010.

Internet Explorer's market share has decreased as Firefox and Google Chrome became more popular. Even though Microsoft started to update the software more often and Internet Explorer became faster and added support for many HTML5 features, the 5-year stagnation between IE6 (2001) and IE7 (2006), the 2-year gap between IE7 and IE8, IE9's lack of support for Windows XP, as well as the increased popularity of web apps like Gmail or Google Docs - all of these made Internet Explorer a distant memory for many users.

Google Chrome is now the most popular browser, according to Google. This means that Internet Explorer is no longer the dominant browser from the early 2000s. Google now focuses on promoting Chrome, which is a lot more important for Google: Chrome users are more likely to use Google's services and Google can improve the overall browsing experience, instead of only adding a few features.

Just like Google discontinued Chrome Frame, you can expect to see a similar announcement for Google Toolbar. Google Bookmarks will also disappear if Google Toolbar is discontinued, since Toolbar is the only product that uses it.

The last major Google Toolbar release was in 2011, so the Toolbar is probably in maintenance mode. If you visit the Toolbar site in Chrome, you'll see this message: "You're using Chrome, that's great. All of the features of Google Toolbar are already built into your browser." That's not quite true, but Google probably thinks that the missing features aren't very important or can be replaced by Chrome extensions.

Toolbars are no longer fashionable, they take up a lot of space and slow down browsers. Today's browsers have minimalist interface and use most of the space to display web pages. More reasons to discontinue Google Toolbar.

New Google Maps in Your Mobile Browser

The mobile web app for Google Maps now uses the new map styles from the updated Google Maps for desktop. The same map styles are also used by the latest version of Google Maps for Android.

While the mobile web app uses the new map styles, it still has the old interface, but that will probably change soon. There's also a strange "null" message below the map, which shows that there are still some bugs that need to be fixed.

If you've upgraded to Google Maps 7 for Android and you miss the My Maps feature, you can still find it in the mobile web app: click the arrow icon next to the search box, select "My Places" and then click "Maps".

Update the Google+ Notification Counter

Google updates the Google+ notification counter automatically, but there's a simple way to force a refresh: mouse over the bell icon. This works for Google+ and all Google services that show the notification icon in the navigation bar.

You can also click the bell icon to refresh the counter and see the latest notifications, but this should be obvious. Most likely, Google anticipates your actions and assumes that you are about to click the bell icon when you mouse over it and that's why it updates the counter.

Another tip: drag the bell icon to the address bar or right-click it and select "open link in new tab" to read the Google+ notifications in a new page.

The Updates Chart for Android Phones

I was trying to find if there's an Android phone that was officially updated for more than 2 years and came up with this list, mostly based on data from Wikipedia articles. Some of the phones have multiple versions and not all of them were updated, while some of the updates were delayed by carriers. I only included the date when the last update was released. Recent phones like Galaxy S4, HTC One, Nexus 4 aren't included.

Most phones from the list got 2 major updates and were supported for less than a year and a half, but these are the flagship devices. For now, it looks like Motorola Droid is the only phone with more than 2 years of official software updates. It's followed by HTC Thunderbolt, with 23 months of updates. Nexus S is close behind, but its updates were timely. Nexus S was updated to Android 4.1 in October 2012, while Thunderbolt was updated to Android 4.0 a few months ago because of Verizon's delays.



Note: Dates are in the dd/mm/yyyy format and dd is always 01. It's a workaround for Google Sheets, which doesn't support the mm/yyyy format.

Thanks, Luís Miguel Viterbo, JD Davison and everyone else who contributed to the spreadsheet.

Mute All Google+ Posts From a Person or Page

If you follow some people or pages that clutter your Google+ stream or if you'd like to read their posts when you click their circle, there's a very easy way to mute them.

1. Create a new circle. You can call it Muted.

2. Add the people and pages you want to mute.

3. Go to your Google+ stream, click "More" below the search box and select the circle you've created.

4. Click the wheel icon from the "In this circle" box and uncheck "Show posts in Home stream".

5. You can add other people later to the Muted circle. You can also mute other circles or just pick "Amount: Fewer" from the settings menu instead of hiding all the posts.

This works even if someone is in multiple circles. If you add someone to multiple circles and at least one of the circles has the "Show posts in Home stream" setting unchecked, you'll no longer see his posts in the Home stream.

Translate Multilingual Web Pages in Chrome

Google Translate usually detects the predominant language from a text. For example, an English text that includes a few sentences in German and French will be identified as an English text.

If you use the desktop Chrome in English and you visit an English page with a few comments in other languages, Chrome won't translate the page automatically and it won't show the translation bar. To translate the text that's not in English, right-click the page and select "Translate to English".

Here's an example from YouTube:

... and here's the translated page:

Chrome's translation bar says that the page has been translated from English to English. Amazingly, Google translated the comments in Dutch and Portuguese, while preserving the original English text.

If you use the Google Translate site and enter a multilingual text, Google will only translate the text in the predominant language. The same happens when you translate pages. So why is Chrome's translation smarter? Because it slices the text and translates each slice separately.

Please note that this is not limited to English. It's actually the language used by Chrome's interface, which can be changed in the settings, at least if you use Windows.

Here are some examples you can try in Chrome: a YouTube video with multilingual comments, a Google Groups thread with a short text translated in French and Spanish, a list of press releases in both English and French.

Chrome for Android Adds Page Translation

Chrome 28 for Android has a new feature that translates pages automatically. It uses Google Translate and it's similar to the desktop translation feature.

For some reason, Chrome for Android doesn't use the translation settings from the desktop Chrome. They're synced, but the mobile Chrome ignores them. Even if you've asked Chrome in the past to always translate French pages, you'll still see this message: "This page is in Fresch. Translate it to English?" The infobar is placed at the top of the page in the tablet interface and at the bottom of the page in the phone interface.

Google's language detection algorithm is not perfect. If Google didn't detect the language properly, you can tap the corresponding link and choose a different language. You can also pick another language for the translation. After the page is translated, you can check "Always translate [this language]".

After selecting "always translate" and visiting a different page written in the same language, the tablet interface shows an infobar and it quickly disappears. The phone interface shows a persistent infobar and you can tap "more" to disable "always translate". For tablets, you need to quickly tap the infobar and you can disable "always translate".

If you answer "no" two times in a row, you'll see an infobar that lets you choose between "never translate [this language]" and "never translate this site".

Translation settings are not synced in Chrome for Android, not even across mobile devices. If you want to disable the Google Translate integration, go to the Settings page, select "Content settings", then "Google Translate" and turn off this feature.

A YouTube Experiment Increases Text Size

This is not a bug, it's an YouTube experiment that increases the text size for suggestion links to 19 pixels. I think the text is way too big and distracting.

Here's the regular interface (13 pixels):

Here's how you can enable the experimental feature. If you use Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari or Internet Explorer 8+:

1. open youtube.com in a new tab

2. load your browser's developer console:

* Chrome - press Ctrl+Shift+J for Windows/Linux/ChromeOS or Command-Option-J for Mac

* Firefox - press Ctrl+Shift+K for Windows/Linux or Command-Option-K for Mac

* Opera - press Ctrl+Shift+I for Windows/Linux or Command-Option-I for Mac, then click "Console"

* Safari - check this article

* Internet Explorer - press F12 and select the "Console" tab.

3. paste the following code which changes a YouTube cookie:

document.cookie="VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=-fntp2HbKFI; path=/; domain=.youtube.com";window.location.reload();

4. press Enter and close the console.

To go back to the regular interface, use the same instructions, but replace the code from step 3 with this one:

document.cookie="VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=; path=/; domain=.youtube.com";window.location.reload();

Beyond Google Latitude

Joe LaPenna, from Google, wrote an interesting post on Google+ about Google Latitude and the future of location sharing. He worked on Google Latitude for 5 years and he'll take Latitude offline in one month.

"We're still working on location sharing and I'm still really happy with G+ Location. Its a rewrite of the Latitude stack but built for a world where social is a layer across all of the Google experience, not just deposited in a corner of Google Maps. In a month, when Latitude goes dark, we'll have G+ Location there, ready for us (Android is ready, iOS is on its way). And what's better is you can share your location with the people that you care about, they can see it on a map and they don't even have to do a single thing. No invites. No emails and links and websites and hooha. They just open G+ click on Location and see your happy face," says Joe.

After unfriending all the 140 people contacts from Google Latitude and switching to Google+ location sharing, Joe noticed something striking: "I don't see as many people on the map as I did before but the difference is quickly and steadily shrinking. I definitely see more people I care about now (three months after G+ Location launched) than I did right after Latitude launched. This whole process really made me aware and confident that building anew was the right thing."

I think it makes sense to move Google Latitude to Google+. Having a separate list of friends you have to manage made sense before Google+ was released, but now it's cumbersome and unnecessary. What doesn't make sense is Google's migration path: instead of adding Google Latitude's features to Google+ and providing a way to import your Google Latitude friends, Google discontinued Latitude and announced everyone that the list of friends will be deleted. Oh, and there's a Google+ location sharing feature, but it only shows a map in the Android app and you'll have to find a way to enable it and add your contacts. Why not automate my instructions from this post and why not discontinue Latitude when there's a decent replacement in all Google+ flavors?

{ via Search Engine Roundtable }