Download Squad

Chrome OS browser saddles up and mounts your drives

Sebastian Anthony — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Not only does Google's Chrome browser allow for file navigation (type 'C:\' into Chrome!), it makes sense that the browser in Chrome OS will act as a system navigation tool, much like Windows Explorer or 'My Computer'.

Recent changes to the code base reveal a 'mount library' that monitors newly-inserted devices such as USB memory sticks -- something an operating system usually does -- not the kind of thing a browser would usually worry about. We suspect that when you open a new tab in Chrome you'll have the option of a 'My Computer' view that will update in real time as you plug in new devices or insert CDs. Or perhaps when you insert a USB device an Explorer-like new tab page will simply pop into existence.

Currently the changes only appear in the Chrome OS branch of the source code, but it doesn't take a wild stretch of the imagination to believe that Google has larger, all-encompassing plans for the Mac and Windows platforms. This might just be the next step for the Google Desktop.

Watch out...Google is coming.

Chrome OS browser saddles up and mounts your drives originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Go-go Google Gopher... Go! Google invents its own programming language

Sebastian Anthony — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:30:00 EST

Filed under: Internet, Google

In exciting, but not unexpected news, Google has has put its name behind the brainchild of three of their in-house genius programmers. But it's not a web app, nor is it an enterprise solution -- it's not even a downloadable tool like their Chrome browser. They've actually gone and invented a new language. It's called Go. (That's their mascot, the Go-Gopher, over on the right.)

Citing difficulties with existing languages and arbitrary restrictions that prevent them from making the Google services as good as they could be... they did the only really sensible thing they could do: they made their own superior language. To put it into simple terms: imagine trying to communicate with grunts and squeals. That's how Google feels with today's languages, and why they've made their own one. It's why we speak English today, rather than Tarzan Talk.

And in true Google style, they've done it right. Go is fast. It's secure. They even go as far as to call it 'fun' on their homepage!

I don't want to bore you with specifications -- they're all there on their site if you're a developer and want to get going immediately (it's open source, of course!) -- but I will tell you that this is big, big news.

We haven't seen a new systems-oriented language for over a decade. Technology has moved on a lot. Heck, Google themselves have pushed the requirements of computer systems. When you're trying to build a system that scales to hundreds of thousands -- or millions -- of servers, it's no surprise that existing languages don't quite hit the spot.

Say they're only squeezing 40% of the max theoretical output from their server farm. If Go could push that utilization up to 60 or 70%... imagine the gains! For them, for us! This is even good news for the environment!

Of course, it's free to download and use, and there are tutorials that are very easy to get started with. There's even a little video showcasing just how fast it is, after the break.

Continue reading Go-go Google Gopher... Go! Google invents its own programming language

Go-go Google Gopher... Go! Google invents its own programming language originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google announces big price cuts on paid extra storage for GMail, Picasa Web

Lee Mathews — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Filed under: Web services, Google, Commercial

You may not have heard about it before, but Google has been offering additional storage for GMail and Picasa Web users for quite some time. Today, the folks in Mountain View announced big time price breaks.

If you want a little extra elbow room for your email, attachments, and shared photos plans now start at a whopping 20 gigabytes for only $5 per year. Not enough, you say? You'll be happy to know that Google offers up to a full terabyte for $256 annually. Granted, right now you can only use this space for GMail and Picasa Web stuff.

I think I'll be passing on that 16 TB option Sebastian screencapped for now, thanks.

At any rate, Chrome OS in on the way and that likely means we'll finally get our hands on the elusive GDrive as well. Here's hoping it does, anyway.

In the event that Google does open things up, how do their plans stack up against other popular offerings? Let's look at DropBox. For 50Gb of storage, you'll spend $10 per month. With Google's new plans, $20 will get you 80Gb - for the entire year. That's not too shabby.

Sure would be nice if we could use it for all-purpose storage. You listening, Google?

Who's with me?

Google announces big price cuts on paid extra storage for GMail, Picasa Web originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google's next-gen search, aka Caffeine, may arrive soon

Jay Hathaway — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Web services, Google, Search

Over the summer, we told you how Google had enlisted users to test the next generation of its search technology. The new version of search, called Caffeine, might be ready to roll out very soon, according to some evidence dug up by Mashable. The sandbox link - for testing Caffeine - that we gave you back in August no longer works, because "the sandbox has been retired."

It's been replaced with the following announcement:

"Based on the success we've seen, we believe Caffeine is ready for a larger audience. Soon we will activate Caffeine more widely, beginning with one data center. This sandbox is no longer necessary and has been retired, but we appreciate the testing and positive input that webmasters and publishers have given. "

All signs indicate that Caffeine will apparently be arriving soon. The thing is, you might not notice at first when it does. Caffeine's improvements to Google Search are all under-the-hood, focusing on faster, more accurate results. There probably won't be an overhaul of the iconic design of Google's search pages to go along with it.

Google's next-gen search, aka Caffeine, may arrive soon originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With AdMob purchase, there's really no escaping Google advertising now

Lee Mathews — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Business, News, Google

Anyone who owns an iPhone or iPod touch is all too familiar with AdMob. Their tiny "don't mind me, I'm not really all that intrusive" ads power truckloads of freebies in the App Store.

While you might not love AdMob, someone does. That someone is Google.

Drawn together like half-cut, lonely singles in a dimly-lit bar at happy hour, the two are about to enter a long-term relationship. As in permanent. Today, Google announced that they have purchase AdMob for the tidy sum of $750 million dollars.

That's a whole lotta dough, but keep in mind that Google is ultimately an advertising company. AdMob's strong position in mobile ads is a juicy acquisition, especially with 1) the number of Android-powered handsets rapidly rising and 2) AdMob's recent launch of its Android advertising platform.

The move also gives Google easy access to gobs and gobs of delicious usage data from zillions of mobile users that they may have been missing out on. That data gets fed into AdSense, making it an even more attractive option for advertisers.

Here's a thought, though... At $750 million, Google could have simply bough 3.9 million people an iPod Touch and said "here you go, but we're going to track everything you do!" Hell, I would've signed up for that.

With AdMob purchase, there's really no escaping Google advertising now originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rumor: Google buys Gizmo5, expanded VoIP service coming soon?

Brad Linder — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:30:00 EST

Filed under: Google, VoIP

TechCrunch is reporting that Google has purchased VoIP company Gizmo5. Google has its own internet telephony service called Google Voice, which lets you route your calls to different phones, screen calls, and receive email notifications and automated transcripts of phone calls. But Google Voice doesn't let you make calls from a PC to a phone. Gizmo5 does.

If Google really has entered an agreement to acquire Gizmo5, it's a pretty safe bet that we're eventually going to see Google Voice add new features turning the service into a full-fledged Skype competitor. Gizmo already has services that let you make phone calls from a desktop client or a web site.

Gizmo5 also includes chat and video call capabilities, which would be a welcome addition to Google Voice, and which, as TechCrunch points out, would bridge the divide between Google Voice and Google Talk

Of course, right now the whole thing is just a rumor. But it's one that makes a lot of sense.

Rumor: Google buys Gizmo5, expanded VoIP service coming soon? originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google to unveil a Wave-inspired, unified interface across its web apps

Sebastian Anthony — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Google

Our sister blog Engadget is reporting -- based on some leaked screenshots -- that Google may be moving to roll out a single cohesive interface for all its web apps.

The screenshots come from an anonymous source and are as-yet unverified, but it would make sense given their obvious intentions to centralize a lot of the Web's communication channels into Google Wave.

With the eventual (but sooner-rather-than-later) release of Chrome OS, a unified, standardized, user-friendly UI is an obvious step forward. Judging by the gallery of screengrabs over on Engadget, it would seem the change-over to the new interface is not all that far away -- and don't be surprised if you see a Userscript pop up to apply the updated interface before Google makes the change official anyway!

[via Engadget]

Google to unveil a Wave-inspired, unified interface across its web apps originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You spend more time on MSN Messenger than ANYTHING else

Sebastian Anthony — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:00:00 EST

Filed under: Internet, Google, Microsoft

To some of you, this might be a shock. To the rest of you that prey on poor, unsuspecting girls with webcams... not so surprised.

Apparently 14.5% of all online time is spent on MSN Live Messenger -- 14.5% of 27 billion total hours.

To put it into perspective, the next biggest service is Facebook at at 5.2% with YouTube coming in third at 4.4% (and Google's biggest slice of the online pie.)

One has to wonder if people with Messenger logged in in the background counts towards the total -- I imagine it does. So the totals are probably somewhat skewed -- but in either case, you can find all of the data on the original comScore report. Perhaps most impressive is Facebook's 200% climb in usage since the same time last year!

[via SeattlePi]

You spend more time on MSN Messenger than ANYTHING else originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Game on, Microsoft: Google Chrome shipping as default browser on some PCs

Lee Mathews — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:30:00 EST

Filed under: Hardware, Windows, Google, Browsers

The EC might be content with Microsoft's browser ballot screen, but that's not stopping Google from getting OEMs to turn away from Internet Explorer on their own.

Google already has deals with several OEMs to include their software, of course. They've been shipping Google Desktop on OEM pcs for quite some time now, and their plans to drop Google Chrome on new users have come to fruition as well.

As you can see, I unboxed a new Sony Vaio laptop running Windows 7 yesterday. Nestled amongst the other desktop icons was the tri-color Chrome orb.
Not only was Chrome pre-pinned to the Windows 7 taskbar, but a quick look at the internet options on the laptop revealed sad news for Internet Explorer: it had been bumped from default web browsing duties.

If we weren't already in the middle of an all-out browser war, the introduction of Google Chrome as the preinstalled default on Windows PCs could well set things off.

Game on, Microsoft: Google Chrome shipping as default browser on some PCs originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Voice getting ready to go global?

Lee Mathews — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:45:00 EST

Filed under: News, Google, VoIP

Nothing is more frustrating when reading about a hot, new app or service only to learn that it's not available in your area. Yes, geotarding sucks - there's no denying that. It's keeping most of us from getting to use awesomeness like Hulu, Spotify, and Google Voice.

In the case of the latter, however, it looks as though there might be light at the end of the tunnel. Business Week recently got a peek at a letter Google submitted to the FCC with regards to the blocking of certain rural and "red light district" phone numbers.

While the original letter included "formatting errors" and has since been replaced with a heavily redacted public version, BW's Arik Hesseldahl reports finding good news for those of you outside the US waiting for Google Voice.

Hesseldahl states that the letter reveals Google has working agreements with several "international service providers for inputs to Google Voice." At least the groundwork is in place, but there's no telling how long we'll have to wait. The letter goes on to say none of those services have launched as of yet.

So, how about it, Google? When does the rest world get to take Voice for a spin?

[via TheNextWeb]

Google Voice getting ready to go global? originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google's new Commerce Search helps you find holiday gifts faster!

Sebastian Anthony — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Internet, Google

Google sure knows how to time its innovations. Just in time for the holiday rush, Google have a new search tool -- but not for shoppers like you or I, at least not directly. No, this one's for businesses themselves; it's an enterprise product that straps onto existing online shops! (Sorry, I like anything that sounds vaguely Star Trekkie.)

Citing the ol' chestnut that most visitors spend on average just eight seconds before deciding if it's the right site for them or not, Google's Commerce Search replaces any kind of built-in search engine that an e-commerce shop might already have installed. Rather than hosted locally, it's hosted up in the big Google cloud, so as business gradually increases in the weeks up until Christmas, the Commerce Search will remain quick and snappy, not buckling under the increased load!

And as you all know, Google prides itself on the accuracy of its results -- so being able to search a shop quickly and reliably for the gift you want can only be a good thing for us this Christmas.

There's a lot more info over on the Google Blog itself, so go take a look.

Google's new Commerce Search helps you find holiday gifts faster! originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Embed a (very) basic Twitter client in Google Chrome with the ChromedBird extension

Lee Mathews — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Google, Open Source, Browsers

Hot on the heels of my roundup of 15+ great extensions for Google Chrome, I've already found some more that deserve to be mentioned. First on the list: ChromedBird.

You probably guessed from the name, but yes, it's a minimal Twitter client which you can access from Chrome's main toolbar. It hides inside a little birdie button until you want to check your stream or post an update.

ChromedBird displays the last 5 tweets in your stream and allows you to post updates - and that's it. Links you paste into your updates are automatically shortened using bit.ly. Sure, it's a pretty stripped-down Twitter experience, but it's still nice to have close at hand when browsing with Chrome.

ChromeBird is a little buggy, but it's a very early build. I'll turn a blind eye, since we only get extension support in somewhat buggy dev builds (click here to download) of Chrome (or Chromium) right now anyway.

You can find the ChromedBird .crx over at ChromeExtensions.

Embed a (very) basic Twitter client in Google Chrome with the ChromedBird extension originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Voice Mac is a native Google Voice client for OS X

Jay Hathaway — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Utilities, Macintosh, Google, VoIP

We recently told you about an Adobe AIR-based Google Voice client with a pretty small featureset. It puts your SMS and voicemail messages close at hand on your desktop, but that's all it does.

If you're on a Mac, though, you can do a bit better. Voice Mac is a Google Voice client with a threaded SMS view, voicemail downloading, and the ability to make calls and send texts, and Address Book integration.

Voice Mac is certainly not gorgeous, but it has a ton of functionality.

There's an SMS and voicemail/call history browser, and it also has a built-in reverse phone lookup, so you can try to figure out who any mystery calls are from. If you don't use your Voice account frequently, the web interface might be fine for you, but if you're a Voice addict - especially one who uses SMS constantly - Voice Mac is worth a download.

[via Lifehacker]

Voice Mac is a native Google Voice client for OS X originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google's new Dashboard sure would tie in nicely to Android, Chrome OS

Lee Mathews — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: OS Updates, News, Web services, Google, Open Source

When a few blog sites yesterday happened upon Google's YouTube video of the new Dashboard, they moved quickly to pull it down. Though the original video is still MIA, Google made an official announcement of the new feature on their own blog last night and the video above is now ready for public consumption.

While Dashboard is now live -- you can check yours out at https://www.google.com/dashboard -- what's being talked about by most sites is how this move is all about transparency and privacy controls. Heck, even the official post hits on those points: "In an effort to provide you with greater transparency and control over their own data, we've built the Google Dashboard."

The post continues, "Designed to be simple and useful, the Dashboard summarizes data for each product that you use (when signed in to your account) and provides you direct links to control your personal settings."

That's fantastic, and I'm sure it's a big part of the story, but I can't help thinking that there's a tie-in to other Google projects. Perhaps Chrome OS and Android, for example?

Continue reading Google's new Dashboard sure would tie in nicely to Android, Chrome OS

Google's new Dashboard sure would tie in nicely to Android, Chrome OS originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google hates passwords, wants you to sign up for sites without them

Jay Hathaway — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Security, Web services, Google

Do you hate having to remember different passwords for every site you sign up for? Google sympathizes. They're working on a way to let you keep far fewer passwords in your life on the web. It's actually something that sites like Plaxo and Facebook already do: allowing you to register for a site by sharing information from an existing account (like your Gmail, for example).

The information never gets stored by the new site you're signing up for, so using your existing credentials is both convenient and secure. Plus, you don't get one of those annoying email messages asking you to confirm your account. (Is it just me, or do those things get marked as spam most of the time, anyway?)

Google's working on some code that will let companies offer this service - it's called "hybrid onboarding," technically - to their users. It's not going to have an immediate impact, but I hope this will cause more sites to get on board with hybrid onboarding and ditch the annoying signup processes and endless passwords.

[via AppScout]

Google hates passwords, wants you to sign up for sites without them originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Customizing Chromium with Userscripts gets way easier in nightly build

Lee Mathews — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Google, Open Source, Browsers

You won't notice this change in Google Chrome just yet, even if you're running the developer channel. But if you happen to be one of the intrepid souls who routinely download and roll the dice on Chromium nightly builds, you've now got a much easier way to install Userscripts.

In past releases, you had to manually save Userscripts into your Chromium (or Chrome) Userdata\Default folder. Not any more! Now, all you have to do is click on the .js download link for any Userscript. Once saved, Chromium automatically converts the script to a Chrome Extension.

Continue reading Customizing Chromium with Userscripts gets way easier in nightly build

Customizing Chromium with Userscripts gets way easier in nightly build originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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That annoying site-preview thing on Wordpress blogs -- now also on Google searches!

Sebastian Anthony — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:00:00 EST

Filed under: Internet, Google, Search

... but, in true Google fashion, it's less annoying and invasive! Hooray!

Google keeps rolling out the big guns to their search service -- which is good, as people might've been beginning to think that Google has their attention on other things. But no, Google has their attention on everything. Fingers in every pie.

Today, if you're in a subset of Google's users, you can now choose even more ways to display your search results. You've probably noticed that 'More Options' button in the top left corner -- well now, at the bottom of that list, there are now the following options:

More text -- you can get a good 50-100 words from each page now, without having to click through!
Images from the page -- this option shows you a couple of images from each search result. I'm sure there's a good use for this, I just haven't worked it out yet.
Page previews -- the big one! Now you get a little thumbnail showing you what the target page looks like.

And that's about it. Some of you will have none of the above options -- and if you're like me, I have all of the options on my laptop, but only two of them on my desktop. I have no idea why -- I guess they are all being gradually unfurled.

That annoying site-preview thing on Wordpress blogs -- now also on Google searches! originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google come in peace... Wave Federation now activated

Sebastian Anthony — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Internet, Google, Open Source

I'm not quite ready to reveal just how geeky I am, so I'll spare you the massive deluge of Star Trek jokes. My apologies in advance if one or two slip past your shields.

Anyway... Over on the Google Wave Developer Blog they've just announced that they're ready to start implementing the federation of Wave servers. This doesn't mean a whole lot to most of us, only that it means the Borg Collectiv-- er, The Google Wave Team, is plodding ever onwards, driven by its impulse engines towards some kind of epic singularity where all email servers will be wiped out and replaced with Wave servers.

And what a glorious day that will be. But yeah, if you're a developer -- or ISP? -- now's the time to get in there and integrate your experimental Wave server with Google's sandbox! With the open specification and open source nature of Wave it will be interesting to see what other developers are hiding up their sleeves

[On a side note, our great Google Wave invite giveaway was a great success. There should be more news about that later today -- and the lucky winners should start to receive their invites in the next few days!]

Google come in peace... Wave Federation now activated originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Chrome 4 hits beta, includes bookmark sync

Jay Hathaway — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:30:00 EST

Filed under: Google, Beta, Browsers

The latest Windows version of Google Chrome, version 4.0, is now in beta. It's reportedly a scorching 30% faster than the current release, and it includes a bookmark syncing feature that's been floating around in the developer preview version of the browser for some time.

Activate bookmark syncing on each of your computers, and Chrome will automatically synchronize any changes to your bookmarks across all your machines. It's made possible by the magic of XMPP, which also powers Google Talk. Sound good? Go ahead and download Chrome 4.0 Beta.

This beta version of Chrome is also notable for what it leaves out: extensions support. According to Stephen Shankland at CNET, Google is reworking the extensions interface for Chrome, so that feature is disabled for now. Shankland also tracked down some news on the upcoming Chrome Mac Beta. The team working on it has been instructed to fix all their high-priority bugs by the end of the week, and it looks like getting the Mac version out is near the top of Google's to-do list.

[via CNET]

Google Chrome 4 hits beta, includes bookmark sync originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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15+ great Google Chrome extensions

Lee Mathews — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:00:00 EST

Filed under: Features, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Google, Browsers, Lists

We've already mentioned other ways to power up Google Chrome. Before extensions arrived on the developer channel, Userscripts and bookmarklets were your only options. Both are still great ways to add some kick-ass functionality to Chrome. If you're running the stable or beta builds, you may want to stick to them for now.

10 handy Userscripts for Google Chrome users
15+ handy bookmarklets for Google Chrome (and other browsers, too!)

Now, onto the extensions!

If you have a favorite that I left off, feel free to share it in the comments!
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Continue reading 15+ great Google Chrome extensions

15+ great Google Chrome extensions originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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