What did people google in the last year?

The Zeitgeist 2011 report is released and the top 10's are all out there making a buzz on twitter and blogs. For those who don't know what a Zeitgeist report is, it is a report that Google releases at the end of every year to show the top searches of the whole year in different categories.

Rebecca Black tops the list of fastest-rising global queries and amazingly Google+ has taken the second position. Had it not been Google pushing Google+ onto their users, Google+ would have probably not made it to the top but anyway here it is now. Steve Jobs is at position nine and most of what contributed for his search queries came only after he died. But with iPhone5 (the biggest disappointment of 2012) at position 6 and iPad2 at position 10, apple did rock the list of top 10 this year.

MySpace has topped the list of 'Fastest falling' search queries and surprisingly Orkut is no where in the top 10 which quite amazes me. May be it is just no in the league anymore.

Coming to the consumer electronic section, Kindle Fire happens to be the most searched gadget of the year. With all the hype amazon has made, this definitely deserved to be there but on a related note : Kindle fire is no where in league with iPad. iPhone4S is in second position.

Now to see through the top 10's of India, Facebook is in first place and G+ is 3rd. Looks like Indians were busy socializing this year. Three movies in top 10 fastest rising searches is quite a lot. Bodyguard at number 5, Ra.One at number 6 and Ready at number 10. Indians don't have anything else to search? Or am I just being paranoid.

World cup this year is at number 4. Poonam Pandey, one of the reason why a part of Indian population wanted  India to win world cup, is at number 9. India won the world cup, people still wonder where is poonam pandey?

Anna Hazare takes the lead in fastest rising people. With all the friction going on in India, he definitely is the most searched upon person. Poonam Pandey is again second and I can understand why. Third comes Steve Jobs and rest of the list is populated with celebrities like Salman Khan, Anushka Sharma, Kajal Aggarwal, Vijay Mallya and etc.

Katrina Kaif is the most searched upon person in 'People'section. Sachin Tendulkar takes 7th position. Bodyguard is the most searched movie and followed by RaOne and Harry Potter in 2nd and 3rd position.

So this is the Zeitgeist 2011 list and you can find the complete list on the official website. 

Get the new Google Bar

Google recently went on a renovation spree to change the appearances of all the google services. Ever since the release of G+, google started rolling out new appearances to every other service they had.

Recently Google announced in its official google blog that google is now ready for its next set of change - the new Google bar which makes it easy to access different Google Services. Even though the new google bar is announced, it is still not rolled out for users but here is a simple tweak that help you get a head start in trying out the new google bar.

The tweak is to modify your cookie. All you have to do is follow these simple steps -

For Google Chrome users -

1. Add 'Edit this Cookie' extension to Chrome
2. Go to google.com
3. Click on the extension

4. Go to PREF section and change the value field to this

ID=03fd476a699d6487:U=88e8716486ff1e5d:FF=0:LD=en:CR=2:TM=1322688084:LM=1322688085:S=McEsyvcXKMiVfGds

 5. Refresh the page


For firefox users - 


1. Go to google.com
2. Press Ctrl + Shift + K
3. Paste the following into the text field and press enter

document.cookie="PREF=ID=03fd476a699d6487:U=88e8716486ff1e5d:FF=0:LD=en:CR=2:TM=1322688084:LM=1322688085:S=McEsyvcXKMiVfGds; path=/; domain=.google.com";window.location.reload();

For IE users -

Install Chrome, firefox or anything that evolved after dinosaurs! 

Teleport Yourself - Globe Genie

You may have seen lot of movies like Jumper or like Hiro Nakamura of Heroes where they teleport to the different place in a split of a second. Well, now you can teleport yourself to anywhere in the world just on a click of a button.

Globe Genie is the website where you can do all the teleportation. Google has captured almost whole of the world. The Globe Genie website just puts you into a random place on the Google Street view. Most of these views are scenic and you would love it. Just go the link given below and enjoy virtual teleport! 

The URL to the Globe Genie website is - 

http://web.mit.edu/~jmcmicha/www/globegenie/

Well enjoy the beauty of Google Street view.

Nokia and Microsoft join hands to ride over Apple and Google

Here comes the sensational news in the industry!! Two giants decided to take on Apple and Google together.

Microsoft's journey into the Mobile OS segment was way back, on 19th April 2000. As of now Windows OS share is a mere ~2% of the overall market. This is the impact they have made in the smart phone industry so far.

Where as Nokia, the global leader in the mobile phone segment was troubled by the introduction of Android OS from Google. The competitors are using Android OS for their smart phones extensively. With the inbuilt Symbian OS Nokia looked to be in the tribal age. Gradually the Smart phones kicked them off the ground. The tie up says it all.

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Google Body Browser - An educational tool by google

Google has released the new Body Browser in its Lab website. It is an educational tool built to completely browse the various parts of a human body. Initially you find a woman dressed in a blue attire and  on the left side are your controls that guide you to browse through her. You can rip her skin off(not the clothes) and see the organisation of various organs, bone structure, muscular tissues, nervous system and much more. 

Google Body Browser gives you a variety of controls. You can control the depth of visibility of bones, organs, muscles and nerves either individually or in a chained way. Enabling the labeling option will label the various visible parts. Search option given in marvelous in giving instant result by animating the body. 

Google Body Browser is yet another showcase of HTML5's beauty. The Body browser also needs WebGL support which is not implemented in most browsers other than Firefox and Chrome Beta. Download the beta version of the Chrome from here and try the Body Browser by logging in to bodybrowser.googlelabs.com or you can just check out the video on youtube here. 

The Body browser is still in Google Labs and expected to have much more features in the times to come.

Stay updated on Racing Infinity as more updates are to come.  

Get started with Google Chrome's Web Store

Chrome has come out with a new store for webapps called Chrome Web Store. Not probably a completely new concept if you look at Apple's AppStore and Android's 'Market', but definitely a new functionality for browsers. Chrome web store is probably a small step of Google's towards the Chrome OS which is in its beta testing side. Initially launched only for US users, it is now open to the world. So what exactly do you find in the Chrome Web Store? 

After I logged on to their web store, I installed few and realized that they're only packaged bookmarks which doesn't do anything more than just redirecting to the website(the very first app I downloaded was the Blogger app which only redirected me to http://blogger.com). Disappointing? yes. But it doesn't end there. There are some exclusive apps that use HTML5, which is the latest major revision of HTML and still under development (see wiki). Some of them are mentioned later in this article. Consider Web apps as feature rich versions of their website. 

Chrome Web Store provides a variety of categories to download from. Some free and some paid but helps any kind of users, be it shoppers, bloggers, students, gamers, developers etc.. Some of the best app that you can start off with could be Scribble, Aviary's Advanced Image Editor or NYTimes and you also have some games like the classic PacMan. 

With the introduction of WebStore, Chrome has made available, the extensions and themes under one roof.  

All you need to do is download Google Chrome stable version, access the Chrome Web Store and select an app and click Install as shown in the screenshot below. 

Once you've installed a web app, you will find them when you open a new tab just before your Last Visited section. 

With extensive work going on in HTML5, I'm sure Google's new Chrome Web Store is going to be a hit among the other browsers. 

Stay tuned on Racing Infinity for more updates on Chrome Web Store.

Google's URL Shortener Goo.gl goes public

Its a great news that goo.gl is now open for public. The much awaited goo.gl debuted in last december and was integrated in various google apps but was never out for public. Now Google has finally launched a website for people who're willing to shorten their URL.

The website goes by its name

goo.gl

and is going to compete with many other URL shorterners like bit.ly and TinyURL. Goo.gl promises security, stability and speed. It has an inbuilt spam detection and being a Google product, I'm sure the availability would be better than the others already in the market. Along comes the URL tracking feature which you can view if you're logged in to your google account. It gives you history of number of clicks, the browsers from where the clicks were made, the country and variety of details.

Browsers War : Who is the Winner?

Most of us know that Internet Explorer (IE) is the most popular and widely used browser in the world. This is because of either it is the native browser to widely used Operating System Windows or the people may really likes it. Then Apple Inc. steps in to the war with it’s Safari Web Browser in 2003. But he can not make an impact in the battle. Then the Firefox was introduced in the fourth quarter of 2004 and it did the considerable damage to the Microsoft’s IE. Lets leave the past.

At present we can say the most widely used browsers are IE, Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari in order. Google Chrome was introduced in 2008 by Google. It is the emerging browser right now. With the introduction of Google Chrome, the competition gets more tighter than ever. Then who lost to Google Chrome?

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Cool Gmail Lab features that you should enable

Here are some Gmail Lab features that have become a part of my Gmail now. Not that they are must-have features, but they do make life easier than it would be otherwise. And there is no particular order in the list here.

1. Mark as Read Button
   
   
   
   
   
   There are so many mails that you don't want to open. Like notifications from facebook/gmail/twitter. The subject line itself gives you enough information that you will prefer to make it as read. Instead of selecting it from drop down menu, a "Mark as Read" Button just next to "Delete button" comes handy. Enable this features to have "Mark as Read Button".
2. Google Docs preview in main
   
   
   
   
   
   With so many office documents moving around in mails, I use Google Docs - an online Document editor. With this feature enabled, you can view your attached documents in Google Docs without having to download it to the system.
   
3. Custom Keyboard Shortcuts
   
   
   
   
   
   You can browser your Gmail using your keyboard with this feature enabled. It lets you define various actions for various keys. Like reading mails, composing them, making it archive and many more.
   
4. Inbox Preview
   
   
   
   
   
   This is one of the best feature I loved. This features enables you to see a preview of first few mails of your inbox right when your inbox is still loading. And you can sign out if you wish to without having to completely log in to the inbox. Try this once.
   
5. Add any Gadget by URL
   
   
   
   
   
   This features lets you add many more gadgets to your inbox. You can add all the iGoogle Gadgets. This adds a new item in your settings from where you can add other gadgets.
6. Old Snakey
   
   
   
   
   
   Not something really productive for your business or mailing work, it's just the Old Snakey Game. This game to a kid is like "Hello, World!" code for a programmer. A Bonus. Didn't want to include it in this list but I still have some childhood love for it.
   
   

There are many more features to experiment at Lab. Try them all. :)

Google Buzz - the new thing!

Google released its new thing - Google Buzz just two days back. With the call, "Go beyond status messages", Google buzz integrates with your gmail inbox and is yet another social networking solution by Google. As far as I see it, it is a mix of exact quantities of Twitter and Facebook with a Google Brand. With Google buzz, you can 'buzz' like you 'tweet' on twitter. The only added features come from Facebook. Like 'liking' a post or 'commenting' on one's status update.

Google Buzz is simple. It integrates with your inbox and no serious setup needed. Just a minimal completion of profile will do the job. Since it incorporates itself in one's mailbox, it will be a good push to those people who kept themselves away from Social-networking stuff.

Sharing can be private or public. Your buzzes can be either public or private. You can make your buzzes to be seen only by a particular group of people or the whole world. Though, the setting up of groups take time, it is of great importance (You can keep your corporate clients away from knowing that you like ice creams ;) ).

Another big thing that twitter lacks is implemented in Google Buzz. With Google Buzz, your updates (buzzes) can include photos, videos and texts with more than 140 characters. Meaning - no more shortened URLs. A picture is worth thousand words. ;) So I think this is another positive point of Google Buzz.

Google Buzz is not isolated. The whole concept is about unification of picasa, Google Reader, Google Mail, Blogger, Twitter and Flickr. This is truly amazing. New post in your blog, or things you shared on Reader, or updates you make on Twitter, or photos you add to Picasa/Flickr will be shown as Buzz. Just imagine what life would be if it wasn't this way. If you wanted to share a new photo that you took, then you had to upload it to flickr or picasa. Then take its link and post it on Twitter and paste it as you status update on gmail chat.

Google with Google Buzz seem desperate to beat Facebook and Twitter. But who cares, as long as their products are good. It has been only two days and it is too early to decide on anything. But I can already see people tweeting their new Google Profile's links. And trends on twitter showed me mixed opinions among people. But Google has made lot of changes to it, based on user feedbacks, since its release. People who joined late might have not noticed it. But it's given in their official Gmail Blog.

I read some articles over net and followed trends on twitter about Google Buzz. Google Buzz is definitely better than Yahoo's social integration. Google Buzz will be better than others because it will soon be there in Google OS, Google APIs, Google Chrome and everywhere. It's Google after all. Is it a threat to Facebook and Twitter? It's too early to answer that. But my bottom line goes like this "Google Buzz has no special features for people to switch to it from their existing networks on Facebook/Twitter."

What do you think of Google Buzz? Post as your comments.

gtalX - a gtalk for ubuntu

gtalkx

Its still in the version 0.0.5. And its still not something that's very friendly.

What's good?

Its simple.

You can make voice calls. (was a hard thing just a few days back).

What's bad?

You can't log out unless you quit.

You can't change your status message or icon.

What's buggy?

Don't know whether its a bug or a super power - you can see invisible people. They are shown in the list of people who are online. Though you cannot make any contact with them. :)

Download the debian package from the link here: http://sites.google.com/site/jozsefbekes/Home/gtalx

Install it by running the following commands in command line.

sudo dpkg -i gtalx_0.0.5_i386.deb

or if you have 64-bit Ubuntu then

sudo dpkg -i gtalx_0.0.5_amd64.deb

Once it is done, run

sudo apt-get -f install

To remove gtalx just type

sudo apt-get remove gtalx