» Smart Phones, Web Design, Google or whatever
Posts tagged google
Google Retiring the Old Adsense Interface
Sep 26th
I got an email today about Google retiring the old Adsense interface, which they’ve been developing for a while now. But, to be fair, maybe the old interface isn’t better, maybe I am just resisting the change.
At first, the new interface was unwelcome, because I’d just gotten used to using the old one. Then, I started noticing the new interface did some things better, and unfortunately it seemed to crash months ago or simply not perform certain functions I wanted. In the end, I stayed with the old interface because I decided the new one was still a work in progress and I didn’t want to spend the necessary time to get to know the new interface. Looking at the new Adsense interface tonight, I noticed that the Overview page presented at login in much more informative than the old interface. The new interface, originally launched in November 2010, seems to have had some new features added, and will most likely have ironed out the issues that turned me off of the new design months ago.
To switch from the old to the new interface, click the red link, pictured below in the red box.
OLD ADSENSE INTERFACE
NEW ADSENSE INTERFACE
The email had some useful information in the form of links that I will certainly be checking out, and if you use Adsense you might want to check these links out also:
Adsense New Interface – Video Tutorials
Adsense New Interface – Help Center
I must admit I think the new interface looks better. It also will make it simpler for Adsense to do more with the addition AJAX functionality. Unless you only use Adsense to see what your current earnings are, you will probably need to find some of the current features you use in the new Adsense interface.
Google +1 Button Coming Soon to Adsense
Sep 23rd
That Google +1 button is sprouting everywhere, and now the +1 button is slated to appear in Adsense ads. Below is an example from the Adsense Insider blog.
Now your “social friends” can see what ads you like … I don’t know if that’s good or not, but its good for Google whose ads will start appearing outside of their environment. According to an email announcement to Google Adsense publishers, you can opt out of the +1 button displaying on your site’s ads if you are a publisher.
The email also said:
Soon, your users will be able to endorse specific ads and make the ads more likely to appear to their social connections. We believe that these recommendations could help your readers notice ads on your site more, leading to higher returns for you over time.
Well, voting on Google Adsense ads is something I never expected, not even after Adsense started appearing in Yotube videos!
Gmail, Gmail Mobile Go Persian (Farsi)
Sep 22nd
Google has released its Gmail and Gmail mobile in Persian today. Or as Google put it:
At Google, we want to make our products universally accessible and useful, and that means providing them for as many people as possible in the language they speak. The Gmail and Google Localization teams have worked together to bring Gmail to people around the world in 53 languages. Today that number grows to 54, because we’re proud to announce that through working with the Persian Initiative Team, we are able to release Persian (Farsi – فارسی), as the newest language available in Gmail. If you or someone you know speaks Persian, they can change the language in Gmail by selecting it on the Gmail settings page, under the language dropdown.
- Gmail+Gmail mobile in Persian/Farsi
Click To Enlarge
Mobile Multi Sig, Mobile Sig, and Vacation Auto-Respond
Sep 21st
Gmail announced some new stuff for Gmail for mobile today.
Specifically Google’s Dominic Leung, Mobile Software Engineer announced the addition of these Gmail for mobile features…
- Multiple sign-in support
- Mobile-specific signature
- Vacation Auto-Responder
Multiple Sign-In Support
So, first the addition of multiple sign-in support. You’ve been able to do that on the desktop for a while now (more info & warnings), but now you can also sign in to multiple accounts in the same browser using Gmail for mobile. There was no mention on the post about warnings like the issues the desktop version has offline versions
Mobile-Specific Signature
There are some good reasons to let people you email know you are sending/replying to email on your mobile, for example why your reply is so short, or has typos. Now if Gmail can do something about that “Sent from my BlackBerry” fun that Blackberry (and other mobile users) have to put up with, that would be great. But I digress.
Vacation Auto-Responder
Imagine you’ve prepared everything for a week’s vacation, tidied up your workload at the office, packed all of your vacation gear and you are off toward that relaxing destination in [wherever]. As you drive off, you realize that you forgot to set your vacation autoresponder in your Gmail back at the office. Do you turn around and go back to the office (“Phew! I’m, glad to see you’re not gone yet, we have these last minute details on this important project before you go on vacation.”)? No need, just login to Gmail for mobile and you can now set your vacation auto-response from wherever you can get access – no office visit required!
Greener Google? Sure.
Sep 8th
Gmail is cooler in the cloud. Literally. Google’s point is that cloud-based services (which are ever more popular) use less energy than their traditional counterparts. Of course, their post doesn’t make such a broad claim, they focus on some of their services and also said:
Cloud computing is secure, simple, keeps you productive and saves you money. But the cloud can also save energy. A recent report by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and Verdantix estimates that cloud computing has the potential to reduce global carbon emissions by millions of metric tons…
We compared Gmail to the traditional enterprise email solutions it’s replaced for more than 4 million businesses. The results were clear: switching to Gmail can be almost 80 times more energy efficient (PDF) than running in-house email. This is because cloud-based services are typically housed in highly efficient data centers…
If you’re more of a romantic than a businessperson, think of it this way: It takes more energy to send a message in a bottle than it does to use Gmail for a year, as long as you count (PDF) the energy used to make the bottle and the wine you drank…
So Gmail away, get more productive and feel good about your part in helping the environment.
Yahoo! Acquires eGroups, Google Acquires Neotonic
Aug 27th
Tech Lead Manager of the Gmail delivery team
“Yahoo! Acquires eGroups” AND “Google Acquires Neotonic”
Those two news flashes are probably two of the more exciting statements Brandon Long has ever read -
real life-changers.
Under What did you do before joining Google? in the latest Faces of Gmail post, Brandon reveals he worked at eGroups, which was acquired by Yahoo! back in 2000. It took a little digging to find out that his statement “I founded Neotonic Software which wrote a web application for email customer support” may indicate a little humility. In fact Google acquired Neotonic back in 2004. So, the latest face of Gmail, Brandon Long was director for a company bought by Yahoo!, then went on to found a company bought by Google. Not only that, Google evidently kept him around – maybe to make sure he didn’t found another spinoff?
What’s Brandon’s typical day like?
My typical day involves catching up on email from our teams in other timezones (Google Engineering never sleeps). I also stay on top of escalations from our support team, keep abreast of the running service with our SREs (Site Reliability Engineers), and make sure my team doesn’t have any blockages. Finally, I still manage to keep my hands in the codebase, working as part of the team. When I have some extra time, I take a peek in the Gmail help forum to see if there’s anything brewing or any help I can offer.
Read the rest of Faces of Gmail: Brandon Long.
Gmail Tip: Stars
Aug 24th
The Gmail Blog yesterday posted a tip on using stars in Gmail. I’ve been using the free version of Active Inbox (AIB) to manage my email for probably over a year now. However, as Gmail makes routine changes that break the Active Inbox interface, and since AIB hasn’t rolled out changes addressing some features that went missing in Firefox 5 (and 6) and since Gmail is evolving nicely to do much of the same, I’m looking at not using AIB any more.
Anyway, I thought these search codes when searching Gmail are very useful, and saw them on this post, so I’m including them below. Later, I am thinking of posting more about searching Gmail:
has:yellow-star
has:red-star
has:orange-star
has:green-star
has:blue-star
has:purple-star
has:red-bang
has:orange-guillemet
has:yellow-bang
has:green-check
has:blue-info
has:purple-question
As mentioned, just added these when searching Gmail to find posts that have stars.
Gmail Labs Rolls out Email Preview Pane
Aug 5th
I just read New in Labs: Preview Pane and I’m really glad to see you can now preview emails in Gmail.
It can be difficult to get a feel for which emails to read and which to pass up for later. For most business users and many regular Gmail users, time savings and convenient features allowing smarter access to messages and ways to filter which to read, and when to read them are essential. You may appreciate your new widescreen monitor a little more now!
Bravo Gmail, I hope to begin playing with this new “toy” first thing tomorrow AM!
