Google to Close Down 'Picnik.com' and Other Projects

We mentioned earlier in our blog post about the closure of several Google Projects in upcoming months. Google has already shut down its several projects last year including Google Buzz, Google Waves, iGoogle etc. and now Google is going to shut down its highly profile project named "Picnik.com" online photo editing website, Not only Picnik but Google will also close its other ventures including Needlebase, Urchin Software and Social Graph API projects soon in upcoming months. According to Google's Post, Google is more focusing towards its upcoming projects and wanted its staff to be more focused on other profitable projects like Google+.

Google acquired online photo editing website Picnik.com in 2010 but today the company said, "We�re retiring the Picnik on April 19, 2012" so the Picnik team can continue creating photo-editing magic across Google products. If any user of Picnik wants to get its data from Picnik.com can get it from here and can download a zip file through Picnik Takeout or copy them to Google+. Google have also unlocked the premium features of Picnik's so that users can get more benefits from it before its closure. People who paid for the premium service will receive refunds.

Closure of other Google projects includes Needlebase, the data management platform will also be shut down on June 1, 2012.

The Social Graph API from Google, which gives developers information about public connections between people on the web, will also be closed on April 20, 2012.

Urchin Software from Google, a client based online web analytics product, will also be shut down on March 2012.

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1:17 AM | 0 comments

Lock Google's Account with SMS Code - Google's 2-Step Verification Method

Google has always known for its extraordinary features for its products. Google always try to introduce such features which no one in industry provides to its users and now Google has comes one step forward to introduced "2-Step Verification" method for all of its Google Accounts and Google Products. Now Google users can able to lock up their Google Accounts through their cell phones.

Google's 2-Step Verification provides users an strongest level of security to your Google Account by necessitating you to have access to your phone as well as your username and password when you sign in to any Google's product and service online. Additionally you will require entering a code that Google will send you via text or voice message upon signing in.

According to Google Official Statement;

"2-step verification drastically reduces the chances of having the personal information in your Google account stolen by someone else. Why? Because hackers would have to not only get your password and your username, they'd have to get a hold of your phone".

I am personally using 2-step verification method and i strongly recommend all users to switch over to it. With their "2 step verification system", u can lock your account with your mobile phone and it is virtually guaranteed that only the person who's in possession of the Mobile No. (YOU) will be able to access the account.

For more information regarding How it works and How to setup 2-step verification Click Here.

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5:16 AM | 0 comments

Google To Shut Down Google Buzz, iGoogle and Google Labs

Google has finally decided to shut down its Google Buzz project after introducing its social feature in February 2010. Google Buzz was one of the first steps of Google towards social networking arena and after learning the goods and bads from Google Buzz, Google launched its new Social Networking platform called Google+ in late June 2011, which is considering the one of the successor of Google in social networking arena.

According to the Official Google Blog, �In a few weeks we�ll shut down Google Buzz and the Buzz API, and focus instead on Google+, written by Google vice president of product "Bradley Horowitz". The site more said that "While people obviously won't be able to create new posts after that, they will be able to view their existing content on their Google Profile, and download it using Google Takeout."

Its good for Google to shutdown Google Buzz to focus more on Google+ because Google Buzz was not providing the online presence of Google into Social Networking arena. Google announced earlier this week that Google+ has 40 million users, and it seems now is the time to shut down Google Buzz.

In addition of Google Buzz shut down news, the company more said that they are going to close their Code Search project on January 15, 2012. (The feature let users search for open source code on the Internet). Google also said that they will also shut down other Social Media Features includes, Jaiku (Twitter Look alike), iGoogle�s social feature for Google Search and Google Labs will also be shut down on same date.

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1:59 AM | 0 comments

Google Badges for Google News - Read News, Earn Badges and Share It

Google has released new and exciting feature for its product Google News called Google News Badges. Google News is one of the most news reading website on internet with millions of readers worldwide. Google News provides news from all sources either its political, religious, technology, business etc. Google turns reading news articles into a game where readers are rewarded with news badges based on their reading habits. Google officially announced this news on its Official Google News Blog. Starting today, in the U.S. edition of Google News, you can see how voracious a news reader you are by earning Google News Badges as you read articles about your favorite topics. The more you read the higher level badge you�ll receive.

According to Natasha Mohanty, an engineer at Google News;

"On Google News, the average reader of political news has read 20 articles about politics in the last six months. Where do you stand? Once we see how badges are used and shared, we look forward to taking this feature to the next level."

You earn badges by reading articles on specific topics. The more you read, the more stars appear on a badge. The stars start at the Bronze level and move up to Silver, Platinum and Ultimate. There are more than 500 badges available to suit a wide range of topics.

Google's badges are private by default, meaning only you can see which awards you've won. But as soon as you are ready to start showing off how many articles you have read, you can share the badges with friends.

Like with all Google products, there is easy integration with other Google features so you can easily share your badges on your new Google+ account. This automatic sharing of news sections is probably the most interesting feature of badges, but it isn't as useful as it could be. Your friends can see how many stories you've read, but they can't see what stories you've read, or better yet, stories you've marked in some way.

To turn Google News Badges on, enable Web History. Badges will appear in the Personalize column in Google News, if you don't see the column, you can open it by clicking "personalize" at the top right corner of the screen. Google has a help page that explains the new feature, complete with a short, happy video.

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3:14 AM | 0 comments

Google Redesign Search Engine Reuslts Page - Experimenting & Testing

Google always experiment a new things and tests for its product and now Google has just started to redesign its Search Engine Results page. One of our valuable readers has just accidently got this image and news from relevant sources that Google is redesigning its whole Search Result Page and making changes to its current design with a new color scheme and a lot more white space.

One of the Google Representatives also confirmed this news and said that Google is working and conducting one of its user tests. The newly design results page incorporates a tweaked color scheme. The greens, purples and blues are not as harsh as the current set of colors used on Google.com.

The bigger changes focus on separating and spacing out individual search results. There is simply a lot more white space around each search result and each link. Also, each search result is divided by a dashed line.

The new changes are rather dramatic for a search engine used by millions of people daily. Google is gathering data on how people react to the new changes. Those numbers will determine whether or not these changes will move out of testing and become permanent.

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6:19 AM | 0 comments