Continue reading »]]> If you’re under the age of 18 and have been wondering why Google+ isn’t available to you – it’s because Google insisted they wanted to implement specific privacy features before it went live to minors.

Now, it’s been done – and anyone 13 years of age or older can open an account. Google say that specific privacy rules will be preset until you’re 18, but at least Google might finally get the audience I feel they should be targeting!

Continue reading »]]> Google Chrome was recently updated to it’s latest version – version 6.0. The new version includes a few minor updates.

The interface has been cleaned up a little since 5.0, with the main navigation controls looking slightly more seamless. In addition, the address bar no longer shows the “http://” part of the URL. At first I thought this would be annoying, but there are exceptions to this rule which make it more practical.

• If you copy and paste a link from the address bar, Chrome automatically replaces the “http://” in the URL. This avoids any problems with using URLs in social networks or placing them in IM conversations.
• If you go to a secure site, Chrome replaces the “https://” in the URL. This avoids any user confusion when purchasing products online.

With exception to those minor new features, there isn’t much to know. There is a new form feature which allows you to save personal details into the browser, so that you can sign up and pay for products with ease.

In addition, Google claims that there are javascript improvements with the new version together with extension sync (similar to bookmark sync but for extensions).

It is also worth noting that Chrome is now 2 years old. Happy Birthday Chrome. It was actually launched on September 2nd, 2008. I can remember trying the first Chrome beta and immediately switching from Firefox.  I haven’t gone back since!

You can grab the version by going to google.com/chrome or heading to “About Google Chrome” from within the browser.

Continue reading »]]> Google today released their latest version of the growing web browser, Chrome. The new version includes a large range of new features.

I’m very pleased to know that Chrome now synchronises browser settings, as well as bookmarks, to the syncing server. This means that when you use Chrome on multiple computers, you take your whole browser with you. Nice touch.

There’s also a really nice selection of HTML functions - including drag and drop (ie you can drag your Gmail attachments to your Documents folder).

In addition, great news for Mac and Linux users – Chrome 5.0 is a stable version! It’s about time!

Oh and finally, Google have set that from the next release of Adobe Flash (10.1), they are planning to automatically include a full compatible version of Flash with Chrome every time it is installed. That way, if you don’t already have it, Google will automatically install it for you when you install Chrome.

Head to google.com/chrome for the new version, or upgrade automatically from your browser!

Continue reading »]]> Good for them!

I’m really glad to hear that Google, the biggest search engine on the planet, is to start phasing out support for Internet Explorer 6, after years of it causing problems for the company.

From March 1st, Google says that some Google applications will stop working. This means that users will be forced to either move to IE7/8 or choose a different web browser.

Internet Explorer 6 has been the cause of many web hacks that have caused damage to Google’s varied reputation.

The ending of support will start with only a few web apps at first, but I suspect as the year moves on Google will try to phase out support for most of it’s online software.

The only downside to the ending of support will be that Windows 98 and ME users will, eventually, loose access to Google. However, I think it’s about time people moved away from the older systems.

I think that it’s about time Google did something about the older browsers. The trouble is that people don’t realise that they’re stuck with an older browser.

Continue reading »]]> A couple of days ago I was just trundling through my day-to-day tasks on my computer, and then I noticed that I ought to organise and backup my photos on my computer. I do actually have rather a lot of photos – believe it or not, I do manage to get outside and have some great times that need to be captured and saved for later.

So, thinking that this could take a while manually using Windows Explorer, I decided to download Picasa. And when I installed, I was gobsmacked at what this free software was capable of.

Immediately when Picasa starts it will ask to search for any pictures on your hard drive, which I told it to do. Picasa very quickly scans your drive for any photos and then archives them in date order.

After about 5 minutes I had a whole archive of photos ready to sort out. Within Picasa I could easily delete photos I didn’t want, and create my own photo albums for pictures I do want.

The brilliant thing is I can get Picasa to back up all my photos to my Network Drive right away, and if I want to share my photos with friends and family it is even easier! I can upload my photos to Picasa Web Albums in minutes and I can either choose whether I want my photos public or just open to specific friends.

It works so seamlessly and effectively, I love it. I would probably pay for it if I had to, but it is even better that Picasa is free – as with most Google software.

Continue reading »]]> It has been announced that Google will be releasing a brand new operating system, called the Google Chrome OS. The operating system will be very simple according to many sources, as it will be initially aimed at netbook users.

There hasn’t really been a confirmed release date, but guesses start from as early as tomorrow. However, Google has mentioned on their blog to stay tuned for more updates in the Autumn.

Google has said that they will be launching various web-based apps for the system, which will be great for computers short of hard drive space and RAM. Also, Google wants the apps to run on Windows and Mac too, so their audience should expand even further.

Google already has some brilliant online apps such as Google Docs, so having these available on other operating systems should be easy.

I think having another OS in the collection could have consequences to some other Linux versions such as Ubuntu. Linux version such as Ubuntu have had a big part in the netbook world, but Windows XP has also had increased popularity.

I think Google will have think about the fact that if it was my decision, I’d just install XP. And I think a lot of other people would think the same. Google is going to have one hell of a job to win people other.

But on the other hand, with the success of the Google Chrome web browser (now being regularly used by over 30 million users – according to Google), maybe they have a chance. We’ll have to wait and see.

Continue reading »]]> Google has today released the development build of Google Chrome available for Mac and Linux.

Google has posted a blog post about this here.

It’s not even a beta build so I wouldn’t recommend testing it unless you are absolutely desperate. Google has said the features are very limited – there isn’t a print feature yet. It really is very limited. You’ll be nagged with warnings that the program is not for general use as well, so consider whether you really want to use it.

If you are dieing to have a play with it, use the link above and download it from the Chromium blog. Have a go and see what you think, but if I were you I’d wait for a beta build rather than a development build.

Continue reading »]]> If you’re the kind of person who has tonnes of RSS feeds lurking around in your bookmarks, it can be a real pain trying to keep up to date with all the sites you know and love.

If you have this problem, Google Reader might be the answer to your problems. It’s a free service that you can dump all your RSS feeds in and it will look after them for you. To get the latest on all your feeds, you just go to the Google Reader site, log in, and all your feeds are together and ready for you to catch up on whenever you want to.

It remembers what feeds you’ve already read so you don’t waste time reading feeds you already know about. Also, another handy feature is being able to “star” posts that you particularly like so they’re easily accessible in the future.

It’s a really simple but handy idea. Best of all, it’s accessible anywhere in the world on any computer since it’s online.

I’ve known about it for ages, but I thought I’d talk about it since I find it so handy and use it daily. Check out Google Reader now – it’s free and so great to use.

Continue reading »]]> I love Chrome, it’s a fantastic browser that’s super-quick and very reliable. However, there are two things I really want Google to fix.

1. RSS: Why doesn’t Google Chrome support RSS? It seems a little dim, but can prove really annoying after a little while. Firefox shows an icon when an RSS feed is available on a website (see below) and even has a built in feed subscriber (see below), but Chrome has neither. Google need to sort this in my opinion. 

Above: Firefox

Above: Chrome

2. Downloads: I have a real issue with Chrome when you download something. When I download a file, I often ask it to download and then get into the habit of closing the web browser and forgetting something was downloading. In Firefox, this is no problem as a ‘Downloads’ window appears when you download a file and if you close the browser window by mistake, the file continues to download. However, in Chrome downloads run more internally and it doesn’t have a separate window for downloads. So if you close the browser, Chrome cancels the download! No problem if the file is 1MB or something as small as that, but if you’re in the middle of a 100MB file this is a pain. Even Internet Explorer (dare I say it) handles downloads better than Chrome. 

Those are my two rants with Chrome. Google, fix the RSS and the downloads. The problems aren’t big enough to put me off (Chrome is still my default browser) but they do get really annoying after a while. If Google would fix this in a later version, it would definately be to my benefit, and to many others.

Continue reading »]]> Google has recently launched the brand new version 5 of the popular Google Earth.

New features include a brand new oceanic view, which means you can dive into the oceans as wel as use the land view. On top of that, you can go “back in time” and see the historical changes of places over time.

A lot of new content has been added, including useful resources from companies like National Geograhpic and the BBC.

You can even record yourself touring around the world of Google Earth.

Sadly, I can’t install it at the moment becuase the Google Updater/installer refuses to cooperate and running the actual Google Earth installer just brings up an error, so that’s not a great kick off for me. I’ll try and get it running in XP or on another PC sometime so I can write a quick review.

While you’re waiting, head over to http://earth.google.com to grab a copy for yourself.