Tech-Freak Stuff » Google

Google wants YouTube to be Online TV

tirsina — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 09:13:37 +0000

In recent years, Internet has made its way into our living rooms too. Through Media Center PCs and Consoles that allow internet usage, the web has been making its presence stronger in a place where entertainment and relaxation are our only interests. With 3D TVs & Internet enabled TVs, it became easier to access the contents of the Internet through nothing but TVs.

The Wall Street Journal have confirmed that YouTube will be joining as a competitor with other major TV broadcasters as planned by Google in an attempt to make YouTube the next TV people will stare at. Well, actually it’s more like 20 channels that will be available to watch. General categories like Sports, Arts, News etc are going to be present just like any other cable channel.

Apparently, the search giant is planning to invest around $100 million on revamping YouTube to make it more suited to the living room environment. Executives at YouTube have also said that they want to make necessary changes to the site to make it more TV friendly. However, Google have yet to make an official statement about their future plans with YouTube.

Apart from Expansion, what else may be the reason for this plan? It is observed that users of other popular Online broadcasters like Netflix and Hulu spend more time watching videos than the average time on Youtube.

Although we have seen some changes recently to the site, the general experience has improved since the introduction of quality content. The facility to allow users select what kind of resolution they want to see could be a helping step as the low resolution videos would not have satisfied the users. If WSJ report is right, there will be some other technical changes in the coming days to the most popular video sharing site.

But, definitely they have to come up with something more than technical in order to challenge regular TV channels. In addition to categorizing videos in all those twenty channels, YouTube have also acquired some regular web video makers to ensure quality engaging videos that would attract regular TV viewers. We will have to wait till that happens but the past year was very successful for them which clearly indicates a promising future.

Google Search is filled with 38 bugs

Rohit Sane — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 11:12:32 +0000

I was casually surfing Google for different topics and I came across a weird problem. I was trying to search for different terms and some of them were showing a Buggy results page. Let me tell you, sometimes it showed a proper results page but sometimes it looked really weird.

The bug appeared near the Google logo on the Left hand Top position. I am sure it was not a Google Doodle, as I checked Google’s behavior for different search terms for a few days.

Now what exactly was I searching and how did the results page appear? Check the various Screenshots below.

Let me tell you, these bugs crop up occasionally and not always. Check the clean Bug-Free screenshot which I got 1 minute after the Buggy one.

Now what may be the reason for this weird things showing near the logo?
Frankly, I dont know! But, I did some checking with the W3C Validator and tried to validate the Google Homepage and show a Shocking 36 Errors and 2 Warnings (total 38 bugs). The CSS Validator also showed 2 Errors and 4 warnings.

Do you think this is the reason for the errors? Personally, I dont think so! Google wont leave such bugs unattended. Also, what else may be the reason for such bugs? Give your opinions..

Google Android Honeycomb (Android 3.0)

Rohit Sane — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 10:02:48 +0000

Motorola previewed a Tablet running Android Honeycomb OS at the D: Dive Into Mobile conference today. Google’s VP of Engineering, Andy Rubin gave a demo of the Honeycomb OS on a Motorola Tablet prototype (the Motorola Xoom). Also, just today itself, Google Nexus S was launched by Google with Android 2.3 – GingerBread (remember the Nexus S leaked Photos ?)

Google Android Honeycomb OS is said to be an optimized version of Android specially for Tablets. Andy Rubin was quoted saying, “Google is building a version of Android optimized for tablets, called Honeycomb. The OS brings new APIs that allow an application to split its functionality to multiple views. Apps will know when they’re on a tablet.”

Samsung Galaxy Tab faced some issues as Android Apps were not optimized for Tablets. In an attempt to overcome the issue and improve the user interface and interaction, Android Honeycomb seems to be built! (read: competition to Apple iPad)

Andy Rubin said that the Motorola Tablet which was used for the Demonstration is expected to launch early next year. So, we can see clear signs of Honeycomb being launched at the beginning of 2011. “Will the Motorola Tablet be the first device to carry it?”, is a question yet unanswered. (Yes! Motorola Xoom is the First Honeycomb Tablet to release)

But, still the one thing which I want an answer to is “Will Google Android Honeycomb be Android version 3.0 or just another 2.4?” It being specially created for Tablets makes it a tough contender for the Android 3.0 tag but we never know what Google would have planned for it.

Update: Google Honeycomb is Android 3.0

Schedule Emails in Gmail to be sent after a specific time

Rohit Sane — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 11:32:19 +0000

Everyone knows that it is not possible for us to Schedule the emails to be send to anyone through the Emailing services. We mostly need this service while sending Birthday/Special wishes to someone (we can’t afford to forget the dates) Sometime back, I covered a few services which help us sent Emails to the future. Now, there has been an Amazing Browser addon which adds this cool feature to our Gmail.

Boomerang has brought in a cool Browser addon for Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox 3.6 and above. Its basic feature is that it adds a new button with the functionality of Scheduling our Sent Emails inside the Gmail Window. So, if you want to send any email after sometime, then its possible even if you write the email at his moment.

Let me tell you that this is not a Gmail labs feature but a Browser addon. We talked about a labs feature earlier which helps to Stop Sent mails.

This feature is not available freely to everyone as it is under development. You may use our invite code techfreakstuff or b4gtweet for availing this feature by downloading the Plugins from the given Links

Why Google Adsense stopped serving Ads on my Blog

Rohit Sane — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 16:08:30 +0000

Most of you would have realized that Adsense Ads were not visible on this Blog for the last 2 days. Every Adsense publisher must be aware that Google has strict guidelines for this program and even crossing it in some-way-or-other may cause your Google Adsense Account to be banned. Now, How is this related to Ads not being showed on my blog, even though my Adsense Account is active? Did I cross my lines somewhere? Did I get banned from Google? What was the exact reason? Let me tell you what exactly happened….

One fine morning, (on 14th July 2010) I received a mail from the Google Adsense team saying that one of the pages in my blog are violating the Google Adsense terms, and for this sole reason, they had stopped serving Ads on my website.
They clearly mentioned that I was responsible for writing content about Hacking/Cracking which is not allowed as per Google Adsense guidelines, and so has stopped serving Ads on my site. They mentioned the responsible URL too and said that if I do not take some steps regarding this issue they be even ban my Adsense account. Have a look at the exact Email from Google:

While reviewing your account, we noticed that you are currently displaying Google ads in a manner that is not compliant with our policies. For instance, we found violations of AdSense policies on pages such as
http://www.techfreakstuff.com/2010/06/hack-twitter-account-profile.html.
Please note that this URL is an example and that the same violations may exist on other pages of your website.

As stated in our program policies, AdSense publishers are not permitted to place Google ads on sites with content related to hacking or cracking. For example, sites showing ads may not provide instructions or equipment to illegally access or tamper with software, servers, or websites.

As a result, we have disabled ad serving to the site.

Your AdSense account remains active. However, we strongly suggest that you take the time to review our program policies
( https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/answer.py?answer=48182&stc=aspe-2pp-en ) to ensure that all of your remaining pages are in compliance.

Please note that we may disable your account if further violations are found in the future.

I was going all crazy as I wasn’t writing any content on Hacking on the mentioned URL and so I checked my Blog whether it was showing Adsense Ads or no. I also checked the Adsense account and it was working pretty well. Also, Ads were appearing quite properly on my blog! But, still I wrote a reply to Google saying that the mentioned URL had no content related to Hacking, even though its Title appeared to be so. The Title of that page was “How to Hack Twitter Accounts?” but I explicitly told Google authorities that it only contained some Customization tricks and was no way intending to hack Twitter accounts. Have a look at my Email to Google:

I completely agree that Ads must not be placed on Content which relates to Hacking or Cracking. But the URL which you mentioned is in no-way related to hacking. The word “hack” is used only to show that the method we are using for customization is different than
usual.
There are a few pages where I write about Decrypting passwords [but in no-way hacking]. Still as a precaution, can you tell me how do I stop showing Ads on those particular pages in my WordPress Blog.

Awaiting your response. Thanks!!

Nothing happened that day and I was pretty relaxed that Google has somehow found and corrected their mistake. But, the real shock came next morning! Adsense Ads were not visible on my Blog! I was totally going nuts. I dint know what to do. I thought that Google had taken some serious action on me. But, I realised that my Adsense account was still working. I heaved a sigh of relief!

I thought I must do something for disabling the Ads on that webpage which Google complained about, so I tried different methods but I was unsuccessful. In between, I received an Email from Google saying that they were sorry for the confusion and the Ads will start appearing on my blog within 48 hours. Read their complete Email:

Our AdSense representatives monitor all sites participating in Google’s AdSense program according to our Terms and Conditions and program policies. It appears that we sent the prior warning message in error. I apologize for the confusion.

We have now re-enabled ad serving to your site.

Please note that because ad serving to your site was temporarily disabled, there may be a delay of up to 48 hours or more before ads begin appearing on your site again. We appreciate your patience.

I wrote about this incident on my Facebook wall, Amit Banerjee and Raju PP were of great support there. After thinking for some time, I came to the conclusion that there is no point in risking my Adsense account just for earning a few quick bucks. I thought that it will be a cool idea to disallow the Google Adsense Bot from Crawling that page through my robots.txt file, so that Ads wont be served on that page and normally on other pages. I also stopped the Adsense bot from crawling another page which had similar content(but in no way intended towards hacking). After all this, I had some mental peace, but still the Ads were not visible on my Site. I was following the principle of “Wait and Watch”. Anyways, I had no other option..

On 16th July afternoon, Ads started appearing on my blog and it was the time to rejoice. The tension was relieved but I made three cool observations about the Google Adsense system:

The Title of the Web-page rather than the content of that web-page has a great bearing in deciding which Ads appear on your Blog (even though it is called contextual Advertising)
It may take upto 48 hours for Google to implement the change they have applied into their Adsense systems.
Google may give you a chance to correct your mistake if you have a been a loyal/trustworthy Adsense Publisher(referring to me) for a long time (more than 2 years)

I would like to hear your comments about this incidence!!

Do you feel that your Internet Access Speed is Slow? Google to your Rescue!

Rohit Sane — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 15:10:54 +0000

Are you tired for waiting even for a second before your Web-Page Loads up? No Problem! Even Google hates Slow Internet Speeds and so it is working on developing a SPEEDIER protocol. It hopes to Double the Speed of the Web Soon!

If you are still confused on what I am talking about, Let me make it a bit more clear. Google is working on designing a protocol which will not only assure faster search, but also faster communication between servers and Browsers.

This project named SPDY (pronounced SPEEDY), has shown 55% faster loading speeds (Double Fast) than it is now. So, Google is soon planning to replace the HTTP:// in your URLs with SPDY://

Taking the technical picture into consideration, the HTTP request is often almost a Kilobyte in Size and takes more than a dozen milliseconds to transmit. To avoid such slower speeds, SPDY compresses requests/responses and puts them into frames that are multiplexed over one Connection. This makes it possible to send a higher priority small file without waiting for a large file to transfer.

Google showering Blessings on me. Tech-Freak Stuff gets Google Sitelinks!

Rohit Sane — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:38:04 +0000

I could not tell you this Good NEWS as I was a bit busy with my Exams. I was just doing some casual time-pass on FaceBook when I saw Pradeep Kumar’s update on my Wall saying that Tech-Freak Stuff got Sitelinks. I dint really notice the Sitelinks before he told me but I was really happy and the best part is that Tech-Freak Stuff got Sitelinks on the very next day of getting a PageRank hike of 2.

There are currently 3 Google Sitelinks Showing the following Posts:

Let me tell you that these are among the most popular pages in this Blog and Also there are a lot of Backlinks from different websites pointing to these articles!

For those Who don’t have any idea of What Sitelinks are all about, let me tell you that these are among the most relevant and the most Visited Pages in a Website. Also, not every website gets Google Sitelinks! Getting Sitelinks is supposed to be a very rare case and also very prestigious. So, now you know that Tech-Freak Stuff is making the Mark over Google too….lolz

Is Google changing its Favicon too frequently?

Rohit Sane — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 23:33:00 +0000

Recently, Google had changed its Favicon (the icon which comes alongside the website address in the browser’s address bar) But today, Google again changed its Favicon to a more colorful one. It appears that, Google is finding Red, Green, Blue and Yellow as its lucky colours, so it is trying to put those colours in every product they launch.

We can also relate the new logo to the Google Chrome logo with similar colour theme. Let us just check out all of these:

Is Google trying to support terrorism?

Rohit Sane — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 06:58:00 +0000

Recently, It is observed that Google is drifting away from its Tag Line of “Don’t be evil”. First, Google was observed linking to sites that were spreading Malware and now it appears to have extended its support to terrorism. Google strictly warns Adsense Publishers from putting ads on Violent content or Hate related content. But during the recent Terrorist attacks on Five-Star Hotels in Mumbai, Google showed up something that you would never believe if I wouldn’t attach this Proof

A Google Ad on IBN-Live website says:

Terrorism: Pursue a certificate in terrorism 100% online. Enroll today

This ad was found on a story which was a news coverage of the recent attacks in Mumbai(India). When everyone is cursing the terrorists who have caused such huge loss to Mumbai, When all the countries in the world are trying to fight terrorism, Google on-the-other-hand is encouraging people to pursue and get excellence in the field of terrorism. Is this what is expected from the biggest Internet company?

Even though, the Ad might have resulted due to some error, but still it might have great effect on the people viewing it.

*Tribute to all Indians Soldiers who fought bravely to bring normalcy in the City. Condolences to family members of all those whose lost their lives in the terror attack.
Image credit: Jithesh Nair(from Orkut). Thanks Rahul

Google Logos for Beijing Olympics 2008-Part 2

Rohit Sane — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:54:00 +0000

The Beijing Olympics came to an end on 24th August and we bring you the second part of our Google Olympic logos series. The First part of the Google Olympic logos got wide acclamation from the visitors, and so we bring you this part. The Olympic closing ceremony was a wonder to watch so was its Google logo.

22nd August

23rd August

24th August

This was my first series about Google logos. Will keep you friends updated with other series too. Stay tuned.