"To produce these photo tours, we use advanced computer vision techniques to create a 3D experience from public, user-contributed Picasa and Panaromio photos. We start by finding clusters of overlapping photos around major landmarks. From the photos, our system derives the 3D shape of each landmark and computes the location and orientation of each photo. Google Maps then selects a path through the best images, and adds 3D transitions to seamlessly guide you from photo to photo as if you're literally flying around the landmark and viewing it from different perspectives," explains Google.
Google has a new Easter Egg: search for [zerg rush] and you'll notice that search results will start to disappear, destroyed by zerglings. Your mission is to save the search results and kill the zerglings using your clicks, but it's not easy.
According to KnowYourMeme, "Zerg Rush is a popular online gaming term used to describe an overwhelming scale of attack carried out by one player against another in real time strategy (RTS) games. The term originates from the popular RTS game Starcraft, in which the Zerg race is notoriously known for its ability to mass-produce offensive units within a short time frame, thus allowing the player to overpower the opponent by sheer number."
When the game is over, Google lets you post your results to Google+ and shows the message "GG", a cryptic way to say "Good Game".
Google Drive has the most powerful image search technology you can find in an online storage service. It uses Google Goggles technology to recognize objects, logos, landmarks, text and much more, so you can find an image even if the filename is a.jpg. The most impressive thing is that the processing happens as soon as you upload the images and there's no setting to enable.
For example, Google Drive found an image of the Android statue from the Googleplex when searching for [Android].
It also found a screenshot of Google's homepage and a Chrome logo when searching for [Google], this time using OCR technology.
"Let's say you upload a scanned image of an old newspaper clipping. You can search for a word from the text of the actual article. We also use image recognition so that if you drag and drop photos from your Grand Canyon trip into Drive, you can later search for [grand canyon] and photos of its gorges should pop up. This technology is still in its early stages, and we expect it to get better over time," explains Google.
One of the most important Google Drive features is the support for third-party apps. Now you're no longer limited to Google's word processor, spreadsheet editor, presentation app and you can use web apps developed by other companies.
Google released a SDK for Google Drive apps and there are already 18 apps that use it. Users are required to install a Chrome app from the Chrome Web Store for each Google Drive app, but they don't have to use Chrome. Google's dev blog informs that "Drive apps are distributed from the Chrome Web Store and can be used with any modern browser." I've managed to install apps in Firefox and Opera, but not in IE9.
To integrate a third-party app with Google Drive, the app sends you to a page that asks for your permission. The authorization process fails if you load the page without installing the Chrome Web Store app. As Google says, "apps will not have any API access to files unless the app has been installed in Chrome Web Store." Chrome apps are only used to allow the third-party apps to use the Drive API, but they can be uninstalled immediately after they're installed and all the features will work in Chrome and any other browser.
At the moment, Drive apps don't integrate with Chrome, but that's likely to happen in the future. Chromebooks would be a lot more useful if you could sync files with Google Drive and open them using web apps.
Google Docs tests another great feature: a font manager that will help you customize the list of fonts and add new fonts from the Google Web Fonts project. You can sort the fonts by popularity, by name or the date added and restrict the fonts to serif, sans serif, display and handwriting.
There's also a search box that lets you find a font. For example, you can use the advanced search tool from the Web Fonts project, find your favorite font, then quickly add it to the Google Docs font list.
You can try the new feature using this template (update: the document has been removed). Just click "use this template" and you'll create a new document that opens in an updated version of the Google Docs editor. To access the font manager, click the font dropdown from the toolbar and select "add fonts" at the bottom of the list.
Google Drive added a new way to view the files from a folder. Just right-click the folder, select "open folder" and you'll be able to preview and edit files, while still seeing the list of files. The nice thing is that the files are cached and you can quickly switch between them without reloading the files.
You can use this feature to compare documents, edit two documents simultaneously or preview the files from a folder shared with you. The sidebar can be minimized by clicking the small arrow icon and you'll still be able to click file icons.
There's a really cool feature that could be available soon in Google Docs. Just press Alt+/ or click the "?" icon from the toolbar and you can type a few letter from the name of a Google Docs command and select it. For example, you can type "in" and select "increase indent" or "insert row above". It's much faster than finding the command in the Google Docs menus.
You can try the new feature using this template (update: the document has been removed). Just click "use this template" and you'll create a new document that opens in an updated version of the Google Docs editor.
Gmail now offers 10 GB of free storage, up from 7.56 GB. Google says that "the increase will take effect over the next 24 hours" and the reason for this sudden bump is Google Drive's launch. To get more Gmail storage, check the new Google Drive plans.
I find it strange that Gmail offers two times more free storage than Google's online storage service. While the files created using Google Docs apps don't count towards the free storage limit, there are many other files that can be uploaded. I also find it strange to see that Google Music can store up to 20,000 of music files for free and that's more than 80 GB of free storage.
Google Drive should be the place where you can find all your files. Right now, photos and videos are stored using Picasa Web Albums, music files are stored in Google Music, documents are stored in Google Docs/Drive and many files are stored in Gmail.
Google Drive is finally here, but it's not a completely new service. It's not just a new name for Google Docs, it also brings a different vision: your files are always in sync. Google Drive offers 5 GB of free storage, up from 1 GB, and lets you download desktop and mobile apps that synchronize your files. For now, the apps are only available for Windows, Mac and Android, but Google will release an app for iPhone and iPad in the near future.
By default, the desktop app creates a new folder for Google Drive, downloads all the files uploaded to Google Docs and adds shortcuts for the files created using Google Docs apps. This way, the files download to your computer are available offline and can be opened using your favorite apps, while the files created using Google Docs can only open in a browser. If you use Chrome, you can also open some of the files offline. For some people, this will be confusing.
Another issue is that Google offers some new storage plans. The sad thing is that Google's new storage plans are a lot more expensive that the previous ones: now you need to pay $2.49/month (almost $30/year) for 25 GB, instead of $5/year for 20 GB. They're still cheaper than Dropbox's plans, but they're more expensive than Microsoft's plans. Microsoft downgraded the free quota from 25 GB to 7 GB, but existing users can still keep it.
Google Drive
Dropbox
SkyDrive
Free storage
5 GB
2 GB (up to 18 GB)
7 GB (existing users: 25 GB)
+20 GB
$10
+25 GB
$29.88
+50 GB
$99
$25
+100 GB
$59.88
$199
$50
If you upgrade to one of the new plans, Google offers 30 GB of additional Gmail storage. For some reason, the shared storage is no longer available for Gmail and it's now limited to Google Drive and Picasa Web Albums.
Here are the old Google plans (if you already use one of them, you can keep it and you won't be upgraded to the new plans automatically):
and the new plans:
Gmail now offers 10 GB of free storage, while Google Drive only offers 5 GB. Instead of encouraging users to send attachments, the files could be stored in Google Drive.
Google Drive integrates with third-party apps and one of them is already enabled by default: Pixlr, a photo editor. You can also install some Chrome apps that integrate with Google Drive. There's a new "open with" item that lets you pick one of the apps from the contextual menu.
There are many other changes: a grid view, collections are now called folders, an activity view that shows "live updates of everything you and others have modified" and Google Apps support.
"Drive is built to work seamlessly with your overall Google experience. You can attach photos from Drive to posts in Google+, and soon you'll be able to attach stuff from Drive directly to emails in Gmail. Drive is also an open platform, so we're working with many third-party developers so you can do things like send faxes, edit videos and create website mockups directly from Drive," explains Google. Ironically, the Google blog post is written by Sundar Pichai, who killed the Google Docs project back in 2008. "I don't think we need GDrive anymore. Files are so 1990," he said at that time.
Google Play is not just for digital content. You can now buy unlocked Galaxy Nexus phones for only $399 if you are in the US. "Galaxy Nexus devices purchased on Google Play are unlocked GSM/HSPA+ devices. The unlocked Galaxy Nexus requires GSM compatible service provider for voice calling. In the United States this includes AT&T and T-Mobile," explains Google.
"Galaxy Nexus costs $399 and arrives at your door unlocked, without a carrier commitment or contract. You can use it on the GSM network of your choice, including T-Mobile and AT&T. It also comes pre-installed with the Google Wallet app which lets you easily make purchases and redeem offers with a tap of your phone. Best of all, we'll give you a $10 credit to get you started with your new mobile wallet," mentions Andy Rubin.
This is not Google's first attempt to create an online store for selling Android devices. Back in 2010, Google launched a web store that allowed you to buy a Nexus One and choose your favorite service provider. Google's goal was to add other Android devices and to make it easy to buy phones. Unfortunately, Google's store wasn't successful, people complained about the lack of customer service, Verizon skipped the Nexus One and Google closed the store four months later. "While the global adoption of the Android platform has exceeded our expectations, the web store has not. It's remained a niche channel for early adopters, but it's clear that many customers like a hands-on experience before buying a phone, and they also want a wide range of service plans to chose from," said Andy Rubin at that time.
It's really difficult to sell unlocked phones in the US because they're a lot more expensive than the locked phones, plans cost the same and phones can't be used on two of the most important carriers: Verizon and Sprint. This time, things are a little different: Galaxy Nexus was only available for Verizon customers and its price dropped from $299 to $199. While $399 is not a high price for an unlocked phone launched 5 months ago, you can buy subsidized phones that are more powerful than Galaxy Nexus (for example, HTC One X for $199).
Google's new store is better suited for tablets, since most people don't buy subsidized tablets. As the Wall Street Journal speculated last month, "Google will open its own online store this year, but stocked with tablets instead of phones. The Android tablets would be built by Samsung and ASUS who already offer the well received Galaxy Tab and Transformer lines, but have been unable to make a dent in marketshare comparable to that of Apple or even Amazon."
We started shipping Nexus phones more than two years ago to give you a pure Google experience and access to the latest Android updates. Today, we’ve started selling Galaxy Nexus (HSPA+) from a new Devices section in the Google Play web store, so you can quickly and easily purchase an unlocked version of the phone. We want to give you a place to purchase Nexus devices that work really well with your digital entertainment.
Galaxy Nexus by Samsung runs the latest Android software, Ice Cream Sandwich, with Google mobile services, Google Play and new features like Android Beam and Google+ mobile hangouts. It also offers a 4.65” HD Super AMOLED display that’s perfect for watching movies, playing games or reading books on the go.
First available in the U.S., Galaxy Nexus costs $399 and arrives at your door unlocked, without a carrier commitment or contract. You can use it on the GSM network of your choice, including T-Mobile and AT&T. It also comes pre-installed with the Google Wallet app which lets you easily make purchases and redeem offers with a tap of your phone. Best of all, we'll give you a $10 credit to get you started with your new mobile wallet.
We’ve come a long way since the first Android devices started hitting shelves three and a half years ago and since the launch of the first Nexus device. More than 300 million Android devices have been activated globally. We’ve worked with developers and content partners to launch Google Play, offering more than 500,000 apps, millions of songs and books, and thousands of movies. And we’ve implemented new customer support services to improve the purchasing experience on Google Play. We’ve taken all of this into consideration in designing Devices on Google Play. We hope to bring it to more countries soon.
Posted by Andy Rubin, Senior Vice President of Mobile and Digital Content
Google+ was built around sharing content and that's its main purpose, so many Google products started to provide a unified sharing experience powered by Google+.
Gmail allows you to share image attachments with other Google+ users by clicking the "Share" link, but what about the embedded images from a message? Now you can share them by mousing over the images and clicking the "share" button.
How to insert images into a Gmail message? Just drag and drop the images from your favorite file manager. It should work in the latest versions of Chrome, Safari and Firefox, assuming that you haven't disabled the rich text mode.
Just because you add a YouTube video to a playlist doesn't mean you'll be able to watch it in the future. Many YouTube videos are removed because of copyright infringement, but some of them are deleted by the uploaders.
YouTube now shows a warning at the top of the page when some of the videos from a playlist have been deleted from YouTube. The warning is only displayed when you open the playlist and there's also a button that lets you remove the videos that are no longer available.
Unfortunately, YouTube no longer shows the title of a video after it's been deleted. This was useful because you could find similar videos and add them to the playlist. Now that YouTube replaces the title with "deleted video" and the video page only shows an error message, YouTube could automatically remove the missing videos.
The Android app includes many references to Google Drive, which is just a new name for Google Docs. There's a file named GoogleDriveSharedPreferences.xml, a special icon file for Google Drive and there's a modal dialog that's displayed when you migrate to Google Drive.
The Google Drive rebranding could be more about positioning Google Docs as an online file storage service. You can already upload any file to Google Docs and there's an Android app for managing your files, but there's no desktop app for syncing files and there's no integration with third-party services. Another issue is that 1 GB of free storage is not enough.
According to The Next Web, Google Drive could launch next week and offer 5 GB of free storage. There are apps for Windows, Mac, phones and tablets, so you can access files on your computer from anywhere.
When YouTube launched the feature that shows a filmstrip of thumbnails when you mouse over a video, it only worked in the Flash player. Now it's also available in the HTML5 player. Unfortunately, the HTML5 player doesn't support yet the second seek bar for videos that are longer than 90 minutes.
It's nice to see that YouTube's HTML5 player supports almost all the features of the Flash player and looks just like the Flash player. If you uninstall or disable the Flash player, YouTube automatically switches to the HTML5 player, assuming that you have a browser that supports the video tag. Obviously, you can still manually switch to the HTML5 player.
Back in 2010, YouTube started to test a feature that associated videos with topics. At that time, the experiment tried to improve search results pages by allowing you to find related videos.
YouTube Topics is still available as a separate page that lists the most popular topics and lets you find topic channels like this one.
There's also an experiment that shows the topic of a video next to the channel's name and lets you subscribe to the topic. The topic is an automatically generated channel. "We use many different sources to find these topics, including frequently used uploader keywords, common search queries, playlist names, and even sources outside of YouTube such as Wikipedia articles," explains YouTube's blog.
Here's how you can enable this experiment. If you use Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera or Internet Explorer 8+, open youtube.com in a new tab, load:
* Chrome's JavaScript console (Ctrl+Shift+J) * Firefox's Web Console (Ctrl+Shift+K) * Safari's Web Inspector (how to do that?) * Opera Dragonfly (press Ctrl+Shift+I and select the "console" tab) or * IE's Developer Tools (press F12 and select the "console" tab)
[This post is by Francesco Nerieri, engineering team lead for C2DM — Tim Bray]
In the upcoming weeks, some of the older Client Login authentication keys will expire. If you generated the token you’re currently using to authenticate with the C2DM servers before October 2011, it will stop working.
If the response from the C2DM servers contains an Update-Client-Auth header, you’ll need to replace the current token with the one included in the header.
// Check for updated token header String updatedAuthToken = conn.getHeaderField(UPDATE_CLIENT_AUTH); if (updatedAuthToken != null && !authToken.equals(updatedAuthToken)) { log.info("Got updated auth token from datamessaging servers: " + updatedAuthToken); serverConfig.updateToken(updatedAuthToken); }
We suggest that you start using the Update-Client-Auth response header to update tokens regularly, as keys will expire periodically from now on. For example, have a look at the Chrome to Phone service hosted on code.google.com; this code takes care of authenticating via Client Login and then sending a message:
Alternatively, you can manually generate a new Client Login token now and replace the one currently in use. ClientLogin can be used with any application that can make an HTTPS POST request. The POST request should be structured as a form post with the default encoding application/x-www-form-urlencoded, like this:
POST /accounts/ClientLogin HTTP/1.0 Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
If the POST succeeds, the response contains the authorization token, labeled "Auth", which is your new token. You could even do this from the command line:
If your request fails or if you are prompted for captchas, please read ClientLogin for Installed Applications. And of course, if you updated your code to use the Update-Client-Auth header after the keys had expired, then you will first need to manually generate a new token.
Over the past year we’ve been working to expand the list of countries and currencies from which Android developers can sell their products. Starting today, developers in Czech Republic, Israel, Poland, and Mexico can sell priced applications and in-app products on Google Play, using their local bank accounts for payments. Welcome developers!
If you develop Android apps in one of the new countries and want to get started selling them, visit play.google.com/apps/publish and set up a new Google Play developer account. Once you’ve uploaded your apps, you can price them in any available buyer currencies, publish, and then receive payouts and financial data in your local currency.
If you are based in Israel or Mexico and are currently selling apps through an AdSense merchant account, you will need to migrate your apps to a new Google Play developer account in your local currency. Watch for an email that provides complete information on the migration process and timeline.
Additionally, we encourage developers everywhere to visit the Developer Console as soon as possible to set prices for their products in the currencies of these new countries. Stay tuned for more announcements soon as we continue to roll out our new billing infrastructure to buyers and sellers throughout the world.
In December we launched Google Currents, an app for Android and iOS devices that lets you explore online magazines and other content with the swipe of a finger. We’re thrilled by how many readers and publishers are using the app in the U.S.—nearly 400 publisher editions and over 14,000 self-produced editions are now available.
After the U.S. launch, the top features readers requested were to make the app available internationally and to allow content to sync quickly. We’ve heard you, and today we’re making Google Currents 1.1 available around the world. Hundreds of U.S. editions are now readable in your preferred language with a new publisher-selected translation feature, and local publishers can begin adding their content to the catalog through Google Currents Producer. Plus, a new dynamic sync feature improves your reading experience with fresh content wherever you are.
Whatever you’re interested in—whether it’s science (Popular Science, Scientific American, Space.com), sports (Bleacher Report, CBS Sports, Surfer), business (Harvard Business Review, Inc.), celebrities (Celebuzz, HollywoodLife, Now magazine, TMZ), health & wellness (Men’s Health, Yoga Journal), design (Colossal, Dwell) or news (The Atlantic, PRI, Slate)—it’s easy to find a great edition to read in Google Currents.
Read in more places With this update, we’ve made Google Currents available globally, wherever apps are available on Google Play and the Apple App Store. International publishers, using Google Currents Producer, can now begin adding local content for an international audience, choosing where to make it available globally and whether to enable auto-translation. For example The Guardian in the UK, LaStampa in Italy, Financial Times Deutschland in Germany, ABC News in Australia, Neue Zürcher Zeitung in Switzerland and Hindustan Times in India have already started publishing editions with local content. Readers can also add their favorite local blogs which are instantly converted into Currents editions.
Read in your favorite language To help you enjoy content in your preferred language, we’ve integrated Google Translate into Google Currents. Just press the globe icon while reading an edition, and you can automatically translate that edition to one of 38 supported languages. So it’s easier than ever to keep up with Italian and German sports (Corriere dello Sport, kicker.de), or read Scientific American, in your preferred language.
Read fresh content, automatically With our new dynamic sync feature, you’ll always have fresh content to read. As you open each edition, new content is dynamically delivered, using a minimum of your phone or tablet's battery, bandwidth and storage. Those of you who travel on planes and trains can choose which editions you would like fully packaged for offline reading, including images.
Google Currents is now available for download on Google Play and in the Apple App Store, wherever apps are available. Whether you’re a reader or a publisher, we hope that Google Currents helps you easily experience the best content on the web, now in even more languages.
Google+ has a new interface that brings a lot of changes. It's not yet available to everyone and that's because it rolls out over the next few days.
The new interface has a vertical navigation bar that lets you reorder and hide apps. When you mouse over an app, Google+ shows a list of quick actions. This change will make it easier to add third-party apps in the future.
There are two new pages in the navigation bar: a hangouts page that lists the invitations from the people you've added to your circles, as well as a list of popular hangouts and an explore page for "what's hot".
The list of circles is now displayed at the top of the page, the search box is larger and the chat gadget has been moved to the right sidebar. When you resize the window and there's not enough room to display the chat sidebar, it becomes a floating panel.
Google+ conversations borrowed the old card interface from the previous versions of Gmail, while thumbnails for images and videos are bigger and include captions.
The profile page now accommodates bigger photos, so it's probably a good idea to upload new photos.
Vic Gundotra, Google Senior VP, says that there are 170 million Google+ users, up from 90 million users 2 months ago. That's a really impressive achievement.
“But,” you may be thinking, “What is accessibility, exactly? Why should I make it a priority? How do I do it? And most importantly, how do I spell it?” All good questions. Let’s hit some of the key points.
Accessibility is about making sure that Android users who have limited vision or other physical impairments can use your application just as well as all those folks in line at the supermarket checking email on their phones. It’s also about the Mom over in the produce section whose kids are driving her to distraction, and really needs to see that critical notification your application is trying to deliver. It’s also about you, in the future; Is your eyesight getting better over time? How about that hand-eye coordination?
When it comes down to it, making an application accessible is about having a deep commitment to usability, getting the details right and delighting your users. It also means stepping into new territory and getting a different perspective on your application. Try it out: Open up an application you developed (or your all-time favorite app), then close your eyes and try to complete a task. No peeking! A little challenging, right?
How Android Enables Accessibility
One of main ways that Android enables accessibility is by allowing users to hear spoken feedback that announces the content of user interface components as they interact with applications. This spoken feedback is provided by an accessibility service called TalkBack, which is available for free on Google Play and has become a standard component of recent Android releases.
Now enable TalkBack, and try that eyes-closed experiment again. Being able to hear your application’s interface probably makes this experiment a little easier, but it’s still challenging. This type of interaction is how many folks with limited vision use their Android devices every day. The spoken feedback works because all the user interface components provided by the Android framework are built so they can provide descriptions of themselves to accessibility services like TalkBack.
Another key element of accessibility on Android devices is the ability to use alternative navigation. Many users prefer directional controllers such as D-pads, trackballs or keyboard arrows because it allows them to make discrete, predictable movements through a user interface. You can try out directional control with your apps using the virtual keyboard in the Android emulator or by installing and enabling the Eyes-Free Keyboard on your device. Android enables this type of navigation by default, but you, as a developer, may need to take a few steps to make sure users can effectively navigate your app this way.
How to Make Your Application Accessible
It would be great to be able to give you a standard recipe for accessibility, but the truth of the matter is that the right answer depends on the design and functionality of your application. Here are some key steps for ensuring that your application is accessible:
Task flows: Design well-defined, clear task flows with minimal navigation steps, especially for major user tasks, and make sure those tasks are navigable via focus controls (see item 4).
Action target size: Make sure buttons and selectable areas are of sufficient size for users to easily touch them, especially for critical actions. How big? We recommend that touch targets be 48dp (roughly 9mm) or larger.
Enable focus-based navigation: Make sure users can navigate your screen layouts using hardware-based or software directional controls (D-pads, trackballs and keyboards). In a few cases, you may need to make UI components focusable or change the focus order to be more logical.
Use framework-provided controls: Use Android's built-in user interface controls whenever possible, as these components provide accessibility support by default.
Test: Checking off the items on this list doesn’t guarantee your app is accessible. Test accessibility by attempting to navigate your application using directional controls, and also try eyes free navigation with the TalkBack service enabled.
Here’s an example of implementing some basic accessibility features for an ImageButton inside an XML layout:
Notice that we’ve added a content description that accessibility services can use to provide an audible explanation of the button. Users can navigate to this button and activate it with directional controls, because ImageButton objects are focusable by default (so you don’t have to include the android:focusable="true" attribute).
The good news is that, in most cases, implementing accessibility isn’t about radically restructuring your application, but rather working through the subtle details of accessibility. Making sure your application is accessible is an opportunity to look at your app from a different perspective, improve the overall quality of your app and ensure that all your users have a great experience.
Google's navigation bar widget that shows information about your account has been updated and now makes it easier to switch to a different account. All the accounts are automatically displayed, so you no longer have to click a link to see them.
It's nice to see that Google went back to basics and removed the extra click. Multiple sign-in supports a lot of Google services, including Web Search, Google+, iGoogle and YouTube, so you don't need to use a different browser or the incognito window to sign in to another Google account.
Chromebook users who install the latest Dev channel release of Chrome OS will be surprised to notice that Chrome OS looks more like a desktop operating system.
Google has been working on a new window manager called Aura that brings many features of a desktop OS. Chrome OS now has a desktop, a taskbar, apps are placed on the desktop, there's support for wallpapers and overlapping windows.
According to Chrome's engineers, Aura is a hardware-accelerated "user interface framework for Chrome UI" that offers "rich visuals, large-scale animated transitions and effects that can be produced only with the assistance of hardware acceleration". Aura is cross-platform and should "provide the foundation of a flexible windowing system and shell for Chrome and ChromeOS on a variety of form factors".
The latest Chrome OS release is only available for Samsung and Acer Chromebooks as Cr-48 Chromebooks will skip Chrome 19.
Gmail has never included an option to manage the attachments from the messages you've received. You can't see a list of PDFs received this month or a list of photos sent by one of your friends. Gmail's advanced search features let you find the messages that include PDF files or photos, but you have to open each message to see the files.
The people widget now shows more information about a contact: thumbnails of recent photos your contacts sent you. Clicking on a thumbnail opens the corresponding message.
For now, Gmail only shows the most recent 3 photos from a contact and doesn't let you see all of them. Maybe Gmail will integrate with the upcoming Google Drive and all the Gmail attachments will finally be searchable, easy to organize and share, just like Google Drive (Docs) files.
If you're looking for more features for Google Music, try the new Labs page. Google informs that "Google Play music labs are a testing ground for experimental features that aren't quite ready for primetime. They may change, break, or disappear at any time."
Right now, there are three experimental features available: desktop notifications for Chrome, HTML5 audio and 5-star ratings. If you enable 5-star ratings, thumbs ups and thumbs downs will be converted to 5 stars and 1 star. HTML5 audio "works in all browsers that support MP3 playback with HTML5 audio: Chrome, Safari 3.1+, and IE 9+" and replaces the hidden Flash player that's currently used.
After enabling desktop notifications, you should see an infobar that asks for permission. Click "allow" and Google Music will show a nice notification enhanced with a cover art thumbnail when a new song starts playing.
