Gmail Tests a Huge Image Ad

Who would have expected to see a giant image ad on Gmail's sign out page? For now, it's just an experiment and it's displayed when you log out from Gmail, but I bet that Gmail users won't be happy to see it when it will no longer be an experiment.

One of the great things about Gmail was that the ads were relevant and unobtrusive. The huge ad for Vistaprint is not relevant and it's really obtrusive. "With Gmail, you'll never see pop-ups or untargeted banner ads. Instead we display text ads and related links you might find useful and interesting." This was one of the top 10 reasons to try Gmail, but it was removed from this page.

A Gmail help page explains that "occasionally we may show a banner ad on the Gmail logout page. This ad is different from other ads in Gmail since it's not related to the content of your Gmail account. Instead, it's the same type of ad that appears on the YouTube homepage."

New York Times reported in May that "Gmail will begin allowing advertisers to use images. For example, an e-mailed offer for a ski package showing a skier on the slopes could be accompanied by an ad on the right side of the screen, showing a competing offer, replete with another skier coming down another slope. The image used in the ad would be static, not animated, and would be used only in cases where the e-mail message itself showed images."

{ Thanks, Gary. }

New Colors in Google Calendar

Google Calendar updated the color palette and you can now choose from 24 colors that match the new interface. "The color of each of your calendars has been updated to use the closest possible color from the new palette. The new colors will only be available in the web interface (for example, you won't see these colors if you're accessing Calendar via your mobile phone)," informs Google.




It's worth mentioning that the new colors are only available if you use Google Calendar's new UI. To switch to the new interface, click the Options menu in the navigation bar and select "Try the new look". You can always go back to the old UI from the same menu.


{ Thanks, Cougar, Ralph and Herin. }

The New Version of Google Presentations

There's a new version of Google Presentations that has both a new interface and new features that bring it on par with the other Google Docs apps. To try the new version, go to the settings page, select the "editing" tab, enable "Create new presentations using the latest version of the presentation editor", go back to Google Docs and create a new presentation.


Google Presentations has an HTML5 rich-text editor created from the scratch by Google and initially available in Google's online word processor. The editor supports character-by-character collaboration, transitions and animations, rich tables with merged cells, drawing charts and diagrams within the presentation and using shapes to link to other sides. Google Presentations also includes some new themes.




"At this time, it's only possible to create new presentations in the new version of Google presentations. Older presentations will remain in the old format for the time being, and we'll eventually upgrade them to the new format to give you all of the benefits of using the new version. You can copy old presentations into the new version by using the import slides feature or by copying and pasting slides using the web clipboard," explains Google. "With today's launch, the Google Docs suite is now built on a single, solid foundation. Now that the groundwork is in place, you can expect more useful and collaborative features, delivered faster than ever before," promises Google.

{ Thanks, Andrew. }

Connect YouTube with Google+

YouTube now lets you connect your Google+ account and watch the videos shared by your friends on YouTube's homepage. At the moment, AutoShare is not available and you can't automatically share activities like uploading a video, commenting on a video or liking a video.

To enable this feature, go to Settings > Sharing and click "Connect" next to Google+.


You'll have to wait a few hours until YouTube starts to show videos shared by the people you follow in Google+. Unfortunately, there's a significant delay and the videos aren't added in real time.


{ Thanks, Katty, Herin and Venkat. Via Nirav. }

How Google's Interface Might Change

In an interesting presentation I mentioned yesterday, Jon Wiley, Google's lead designer for search, showed some screenshots that showcase Google's new interface.

There are many design changes that aren't publicly released yet: the navigation bar disappears and it's replaced by a small arrow next to Google's logo that probably lets you choose a different service, the share button and the notification button have a new interface, the application menu has been moved next to the other action buttons, just like in Google Docs. The search options have been moved from the sidebar to the action bar, next to the application menu.




It's likely that the new interfaces have been introduced gradually and the black navigation bar was just a temporary solution. The most striking evidence that these screenshots reveal some future updates is that Google Docs has recently added a new settings menu that seems redundant.


{ Thanks, Jérôme. }

Google Will Discontinue Google Buzz and Code Search

It's not surprising to hear that Google Buzz will be closed in a few weeks. Google now focuses on Google+, a product that learned from Buzz's slip-ups and became a lot more popular than Buzz. "We learned privacy is not a feature... it is foundational to the product. (...) But probably the best lesson we learned is about how to introduce a product. We started very slowly with Google+ -- in a limited Field Trial - in order to listen and learn and gather plenty of real-world feedback," says Google's Bradley Horowitz.

I'll miss Buzz because it was a lot more simple than Google+, it was integrated with Gmail and it allowed me to automatically share my favorite Google Reader posts. Buzz will continue to power the Google+ activity stream, but it will no longer be a Gmail feature.

It's not surprising to hear that Google will close Jaiku, a product acquired back in 2007 that was later open-sourced or that Google will disable iGoogle's social features powered by OpenSocial. They weren't popular because iGoogle didn't integrate with a social network.


What's surprising is to hear that Google will shut down Code Search, probably the best search engine for open source code. Code Search had a great API that was used in plug-ins for software like Eclipse. It was a brilliant way to find useful code and Google, the big proponent of open source, will close it.


"We aspire to build great products that really change people's lives, products they use two or three times a day. To succeed you need real focus and thought—thought about what you work on and, just as important, what you don't work on. It's why we recently decided to shut down some products, and turn others into features of existing products," explains Bradley Horowitz.

You can still use Buzz, Code Search and Jaiku until January 15 2012. "In addition, later today the Google Labs site will shut down, and as previously announced, Boutiques.com and the former Like.com websites will be replaced by Google Product Search." I'm sure that these aren't the only Google services that will be closed: at some point orkut, Knol, Google Toolbar, Google Bookmarks will have to go away.

Google Analytics in Real-Time

Two weeks ago, Google Analytics launched real-time stats. This feature is not enabled for everyone yet, but you can request an invitation using this form. After receiving the invitation, you need to switch to the new Analytics interface, select a site, go to the "Home" tab and click "Real-Time (Beta) / Overview".

I must say that this feature is addictive because it shows a lot of information about your site in real-time. You can find the number of active visitors, the number of pageviews, the top referrals and the top active pages. There's also a map that highlights the cities where your visitors are coming from. And all this information is updated so frequently that it's difficult to keep up with the ever changing stats.


Google Analytics is great for the intuitive reports and the advanced filters that help you understand traffic fluctuations, but a lot of people will use the service more often because of the real-time stats. They're constantly changing, they're mesmerizing and empowering.