Technology The 'Everything Google that isn't Android' thread

[THEV1LL4N]

So i just installed Google Desktop, and replaced the Windows Gagdets with the new desktop look.

I have the Slideshow, News, Scratchpad and Search widgets. It's really good, but there's only one annoying thing with the slideshow widget. It cuts off landscape pictures because they're zoomed in. Unlike the Windows sidebar version of the slideshow widget, it doesn't show a portrait inside the landscape frame.

 

[THEV1LL4N]

They should release Google Music to various media players such as the ability to incorporate it with Windows Media Player and others.... Windows Marketplace hasnt had a push to even compete with iTunes who have gone all out. They should implement Google Music onto a number of platforms. It would be nice to see it on gaming consoles too.

 

[THEV1LL4N]

Does anyone else use 2-step verification?

 

[THEV1LL4N]

One thing I hate about 2-step verification is that Google Chrome Sync always wants a new application-specific password, so I have to revoke it's access and generate a new one every time I use chrome on my PC. It should be remembered until I manually revoke it.

Apart from that I'm happy with 2-step verification.

 

[dilla]

Developers are already abandoning Google Plus. All those people fighting for invites and obsessing over open invitations on Facebook must feel so dumb.

Is anyone having issues with Voice Search on Chrome? Hasn't been working for me for almost a year, ever since I switched to the Canary Builds. But even friends with Stable releases couldn't get it to work.

 

[S O F I]

some game developers have left because it wasn't paying off to dedicate resources. When it comes to G+'s target market and who is generally using it the most, I don't see gamers as being in that group, so it's not a surprise.

 

[Pittsey]

Google + is still in it's infancy. I am bored of all social networking sites though.

 

[dilla]

"Check us out on *********" is starting to get old. Facebook is do diluted, G+ is too niche....Twitter seems to be the only thing going that hasn't gotten too ridiculous. I never thought I'd be saying this because the idea of Twitter in its infancy was just absurd to me. When it became a second, more reliable source of news and info. than the internet itself, then it changed big time. People got creative with it with novelty accounts and journalists use it pretty well too. And athletes too.

I wonder how users will get creative with G+. Or if they can. I don't want a social discussion forum about things. Shithop is more than enough for me.

 

[Casey]

Certain communities are finding G+ a very rich environment for what they do. Photographers being a good example.

I'm not worried about G+ because:

A) My stream is always full of interesting stuff and good discussions.

and

B) I was on Twitter in 2007. It was pretty much exclusively techies and social media fans throughout 2007 and most of 2008. I remember telling fellow musicians about it and getting them to sign up. It wasn't until 2009 when the rest of the world largely caught on and usage skyrocketed. People I knew began following me, people who I'd told about Twitter as much as 18 months before that.

 

[THEV1LL4N]

Google+ uses the #Hashtag that has become so popular on Twitter. People will have no problem understanding and using that aspect of G+ and it will appeal to them if they have been using Twitter.

G+ is kind of like a hybrid of Twitter and Facebook, though it's not really a microblogging site like twitter.

 

[Casey]

Google+ uses the #Hashtag that has become so popular on Twitter. People will have no problem understanding and using that aspect of G+ and it will appeal to them if they have been using Twitter.

G+ is kind of like a hybrid of Twitter and Facebook, though it's not really a microblogging site like twitter.

Hashtags are rapidly becoming a standard across the internet. I predict Facebook will implement them sooner or later. Even Instagram relies heavily on hashtags.

 

[THEV1LL4N]

They're nice to use when needing to simplify and summarise posts.

 

[masta247]

I still use iGoogle as my starting page and I have a "top searches' app there and.. the top search in the world today was.. "Miley Cyrus new haircut". Most searches from the US and Canada. What the fuck, I'm seriously considering moving to Mars.
http://mars-one.com/

 

[Pittsey]

I still use iGoogle as my starting page and I have a "top searches' app there and.. the top search in the world today was.. "Miley Cyrus new haircut". Most searches from the US and Canada. What the fuck, I'm seriously considering moving to Mars.
http://mars-one.com/

Man.... I will be gutted when igoogle goes if they don't give me something before hand that is just as good or better. I use it for gmail, all my news and a shortcut to wikipedia.


Speaking of which. Do you remember when everyone was anti-wikipedia and schools discouraged it's use.

 

[THEV1LL4N]

Someone recommend some good Google+ pages. These are some of the ones I have:

+IMDb +Top Gear +***** +Cadbury UK +Bruce Lee +Did You Know ? +Interesting Engineering ► +Richard Branson +Ferrari +Porsche +Jackie Chan +Wikipedia +Useless Facts +ILLUSION +Google Play +Google+ +***** +Epicurious +BBC Good Food

 

[Pittsey]

I never logon to Google+.

I still think it has potential to be massive. But it needs to move away from attracting facebook users and get businesses on board. Having a page for every shop/business/restaurant etc is the way forward. Especially if people can then drop reviews, which they can. If I want to buy something I look at how well received it is on Amazon, first. I could do this with life on G+.

 

[THEV1LL4N]

I agree with the bit about shops and businesses. Businesses are beginning to list Pinterest alongside their Facebook and Twitter buttons on the 'contact us' page.

Another good page is the Formula 1 page.

 

[masta247]

I always look up reviews on Google maps and they are tied with Google+ reviews now.
It worked better without Google + however. Now you need a Google + account to add a review to a place you're in, and I don't want a Google+ account.

 

[THEV1LL4N]

So, I like to have a few photo albums on Google+ for Funny pictures (memes and stuff) and put them into separate categories - that way I can share categories that certain types of people will find funny; so they don't come across lots of ones that they don't understand.

The way I do it is, see the picture I want, save it to my computer manually, and then manually upload the new pictures to the respective category/photo album on G+. Sometimes it can be a headache - but I wish they would sync into those albums. I don't want to use Google Drive for that because then I'd end up with loads of pictures in my Cloud Storage that I don't want there.

Is there an automated way to sync these photos from my PC straight to Google+ without having to use Google Drive?



One feature I would like to see in Google Drive is to sync any folder without it having to be in your Google Drive folder. If there is a way to have a 'Sync with Google Drive' option from the right-click menu anywhere in Windows Explorer - I'd like to see it.

 

[THEV1LL4N]

Or does anyone know of a Chrome extension that will do the above for me?

For instance, is there anything that will take a picture from the web and put it into a Google+ album of my choice? (I figure that the 'Save to Google Drive' extension works in a similar way). However, I do not want to save the photos in Drive.