Welcome to Googleholic, your bi-weekly fix of everything Google!
In this edition:
In this edition:
- Google Maps gets a minor makeover
- Increased photo storage on Orkut
- Multi-size embedding and select for Google Presentations
- Google supports Unicode 5.1
Google Maps has gotten a little bit prettier, flushing out some of the orange of the layout and making the search box more powerful, no longer requiring you to specify whether you're looking for a business or just an address. Well, for some users anyway, as the new UI is still in an experimental stage and will only be visible to a small number of users. But, if things go well and people like it, it may be the new face of Google Maps. Which is good because Google Maps does look a little bit more cluttered than other services offered by Google.
Increased photo storage on Orkut
Everybody's favorite unknown yet kind of a big deal Google social network just got a major upgrade, removing the limit of 50 photos per user and upping it to a glorious 10,000. Not only that, each photo seems to have a size limit of 10MB, which comes out to about 100GB of photo space which is nothing short of ridiculous. Maybe this is how Google plans on bringing Orkut to the world that uses Facebook, by making it the place all the photographers throw up their pictures in turn forcing everyone else to go to Orkut to look at them. After that... it is only a matter of time.
Multi-size embedding and select for Google Presentations
If you have been embedding Google Presentations on websites to get your point across (it's our primary means of communication here at DLS - no show no go), today is a good day because Google has decided to grant you more power over your embeds. You can pick between these three mind-blowing sizes: small (410x342), medium(555x417), and large (700x525). But the magic does not end here: you can now use SHIFT click to manipulate a group of objects all at once when working with a presentation. Smashing.
Google supports Unicode 5.1
Google has updated and now supports Unicode 5.1, the web's fastest growing character encoding. According to Google anyway. Apparently, all other language encodings such as ASCII, Latin I, and other language specific encodings have been on the decline. The reason? Unicode supports a variety of languages more handily than any of the others, making it kind of, well, the best. And we know Google wouldn't settle for anything less.
Another bit of Google goodness we covered this week:
- Google Reader gets (more) social - Google has added a number of features and notes for Google Reader allowing you to play with more social dynamics revolving around your feeds.
