Finally invisible mode on Gmail Chat..!!

I had written a post about missing feature on Gtalk- invisible mode. Last weekend I saw that Gmail Chat added invisible mode feature. It gives flexibility to the user to be in invisible/visible mode.

But this feature wasn’t added to Gtalk which is almost the replica of Gmail chat. So, if a user has logged in to Gtalk and Gmail chat simultaneously then Gmail chat doesn’t allow user to change the mode to invisible mode. I hope soon Google would add this feature to Gtalk also.

Google-y??

At least once a day or in two days, we all pay our ritualistic visit to Orkut, only because Facebook has taken over that frenzy. Well, I recently paid one such visit, and wanted to message a friend of mine. However, to my great surprise, I could not find a ‘Search’ button on the page!

The only option is to hit ‘Return’ to get to the search results!

Even though I understand that when Google started off, they did put a tool-tip saying ‘You can hit Return instead of clicking the Search button to get the results faster’, did they just assume we all learned?

Assumed intelligent behavior?

Google as per Google

Google indexer has a bunch of rules which ranks search results. What if the same rules were to be used to redesign the Google homepage ...?

:)

Thanks Gene.

Google acquires Jaiku

Happened today, its likely that you have already read about it.

img courtesy: jaiku

Here's some FAQ&A on the deal and its implications.

Q: Why not Twitter?
A: Google probably thinks Twitter is overvalued (at USD 20 million). It is likely that they spent lesser on the Jaiku deal. Twitter recently closed a USD 5 million second round. And it is in Europe (read: ahead of the US on mobile technology adoption).

Q: But Twitter has more users, is more popular?
A: Sure, but Jaiku is more than just a micro-blogging or lifestreaming platform. It is an intelligent presence detection application, with their smart address book feature. Google is acquiring technology again, they can generate the user numbers, I suppose.

Q: Where does this all fit in the biG picture?
A: The New York Times reported yesterday that Google phone project is a mobile software project. So whether the Google offering competes with Microsoft (Windows Mobile) or Apple (iPhone) remains to be seen, but in the light of this, the Jaiku acquisition seems to make sense. A mobile software (platform, most likely) + mobile technology from Jaiku + mobile social network Zingku to promote it. All the right conditions for Google to continue to govern your life.

Q: Google, Social Networking? Remember Orkut, Dodgeball? Why will they take on Facebook and MySpace?
A: Because they are Google. Their social networking attempts have not taken off well - at least in the US - but there are rumors that there may be a third life (or should it be second, second life?) in the wings. Although Jaiku fits in nicely with their mobile strategy, its lifestreaming features is a ammunition for any Social Networking War (what an Oxymoron!) that it may be gearing up for.

Afterthought: MS should really buy that stake in Facebook.

What do you think?

Google Talk's Schizophrenia Problem

As you all know, google put a small Google talk box on the gmail page. Nice touch I thought. So now when I check mail, I can also see people online.

Now the problem is when you're logged on to the desktop client too. Then a window pops up in gmail as well as gtalk, but if your friend is using the desktop client and so are you, then only the first message comes up in the Gmail client.

If you thought that was it, I'm just getting started :).

If you start talking to a friend on the Gmail client, then later move to the desktop client, you can't see you're recent messages. And by chance if you're friend is using the Gmail client, all messages keep appearing there. Oh boy!!

And now for the killer. If you're using just the gmail client, you start talking to a friend, but managing multiple chats inside the gmail client is a pain. Imagine having multiple windows as below clouding the bottom part of your Gmail page.


The guys at Google thought of that, and they created this nifty feature of allowing you to pop out a chat window.
So you might have multiple chat windows open at any point of time. But once in a while, you might refresh the gmail page to see if you have any new mail. Or God forbid you close the browser. And poof!, all the chat windows you popped out are gone!!!

Google though gives you this very handy message below!


P.S. I thought I wouldn't post screenshots for the rest of the issues so as not to take the focus away from this gem :).

Wow tube

The video player user experience in YouTube is probably single biggest contributor to its explosive adoption.

By the time the one video that you came to see ends, a very very smart engine keep egging you to seem more and more untill you are hooked.

The uncluttered screen layout presents the most obvious options. Share and the replay being the first choice of actions. Scrollable other similar videos being the second and only other choice.

Simple and (hence?) effective

Value Ad

I was exploring ways to travel from Lima to Arequipa for my upcoming vacation in Peru, and was served a super sensational advertisement by Google.

Non-flat advertisements are here ! A boring link replaced by a sexy data entry/query !

Ads 3.0?

The presentation is awesome. The subtle image of the airplane. The simple text boxes (notice, no calendar control, no year in the date. As light weight as possible). Link to 6 popular travel portals to complete the search.

Awesome !!

Invisible mode on Gtalk

Gtalk should provide the feature of signing in invisible mode, giving us (the users) the freedom of signing in way we want.

In comparison Yahoo provides an option of logging in as well as switching to the invisible mode after logging in.

blogger clogger

I noticed to my horror that Google actually has a label control masquerading as a text box!

You cannot type, you cannot select text ... Why would anybody do this? And why google?

Google's Number One UI Mistake

"Google's user interface minimalism is admirable. But there's one part of their homepage UI, downloaded millions of times per day, that leaves me scratching my head ...", writes Jeff Atwood.

Worth a read. What do you think?

2nd most common password: password

Bravo, google. Nicely implemented password strength indicator.

Here is another site which gives you the relative strength of passwords. And a site that lists the most common passwords.

Blogger('s) sign in pain

The blogs on blogger have a top navigation bar to help users sign in...

Clicking on the sign in link lands you on the following badly designed page...

The first couple of times, I ran in circles, my eyes refusing to look where the designer expected me to look. While I finally came around to using it, I think there are two ways this should have been designed

Either

1. The page should have been a simple Sign In/Sign Up page

OR (better)

2. Blogger could have used this page to show a blogging tip / New features of blogger/ Blog of the day

Gmail : Open in a new window/tab

Why do you commonly right click on a link? To open a link in new window or tab.
I am sure you must have tried to open mails in yahoo, rediff or hotmail in a new window.
“Open in a new window” is the first option in the right click menu.

But try doing this in Gmail –

“This frame” is the last third option on the right click menu, on selecting that another menu comes up, from where you need to select “Open frame in a new tab/window” option.

On clicking that, the selected mail wont open in a new window, but the inbox (very same page) opens in a new window.

• You land up clicking once more to read a mail from your inbox.

• “Open in a new window/ tab” should have been first or second option in the main menu instead of being in the sub menu.

• Standard “Page” word should have been used instead of “Frame” as Gmail is targeted to not just techie people, who understand the concept of frame.

Browsing through your mails takes more time, as user tends to navigate in the single window only.

Below are the screenshots of yahoo mail, rediff mail and hotmail showing how easy it is for the user to navigate and read their mails.

Google Calendar

Considering I am a person who is very bad with dates, I always needed something to keep track of them and have it with me all the time.
Google has an offering called GOOGLE CALENDAR saved my life. 

These are some of the things I love about Google Calendar:

1. Drag and Drop: I can reschedule events and just drag and drop them onto another date with ease.
2. Quick Add: Click anywhere on your calendar where an event belongs (or use the Quick Add link), and start typing.
3. Gmail Integration: Gmail recognizes events mentioned in emails and asks the user to integrate to the calendar.

4. Mobile Access: You can receive event reminders and notifications on your mobile phone.

5. Google Calendar on the toolbar: The calendar button could be added to your toolbar. This way you don’t need to get to the website every time you need to know your upcoming events.
There are so many things that I like about it. The service is usable and friendly. But I wish Google Calendar would get a little more intelligent.

When I add an event like a birthday or an anniversary date to remind me, I would have to set the repeat function to “Annual”. So, if I need to enter multiple birthdays or any another kind of events that are annual in nature, I would have to keep setting my repeat tab to “Annual” for all the events. Instead, the user should be asked what type of an event it is first. If the user clicks on birthdays or anniversaries, it would automatically set the reminder to “Annual”.

So it would’ve been great if I could just add an event - put in the event name, event type and date and Google would do the rest.

(P.S. Yahoo Calendar has this feature…)