Chemi Techeblog » Google http://www.che-mi.com Computer, Internet and Electronics News Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:19:06 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Monitor Pages for Changes in Chrome http://www.che-mi.com/2011/09/15/monitor-pages-for-changes-in-chrome/ http://www.che-mi.com/2011/09/15/monitor-pages-for-changes-in-chrome/#comments Thu, 15 Sep 2011 10:36:57 +0000 kuju http://www.che-mi.com/2011/09/15/monitor-pages-for-changes-in-chrome/

Sometimes keeping track of website pages can be a pain. Maybe you want to monitor a certain section of a webpage, such as the price of an item on Amazon. Page Monitor for Google Chrome lets you do exactly that, and does so intelligently.

Using this extension you get a lot of control over any page. You can specify the interval you want it monitored at, which parts of the page you want tracked, and much more. It also ignores things like code changes so that you’re not frequently getting notified for things that don’t matter.

Here’s a rundown of the features:

  • Monitor any number of pages for changes
  • Add pages with two clicks
  • Visually select parts of a page to track
  • Smart comparison system that ignores ads and code changes
  • Highlighting of changes that happened to a page since the last check
  • Set separate check interval for each page
  • Set a sound alert when a page change is detected
  • Custom sound alerts
  • Desktop notifications
  • Import and export the monitored pages list

Page Monitor for Google Chrome

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]]> http://www.che-mi.com/2011/09/15/monitor-pages-for-changes-in-chrome/feed/ 0 Google accuses China of interfering with Gmail http://www.che-mi.com/2011/03/21/google-accuses-china-of-interfering-with-gmail/ http://www.che-mi.com/2011/03/21/google-accuses-china-of-interfering-with-gmail/#comments Mon, 21 Mar 2011 16:11:04 +0000 kuju http://www.che-mi.com/2011/03/21/google-accuses-china-of-interfering-with-gmail/

It’s act three of Google vs. China. We’ve seen the two duke it out over accusations of cyberwarfare and search engine censorship, and now Google is throwing down the gauntlet over interference with Gmail.

According to The Guardian, the number of complaints from Gmail users and advertisers in China has steadily risen of late. Google believes that the problems are the result of “a government blockage [which has been] carefully designed to look like the problem is with Gmail.” A Google spokesperson went on to say that the company has checked extensively and that there is no problem on its end.

The blockage may be an attempt to quiet the Jasmine Revolution, which arose in China following the identically-named Tunisian revolution earlier this year.

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]]> http://www.che-mi.com/2011/03/21/google-accuses-china-of-interfering-with-gmail/feed/ 0 Panelize fixes one of Chrome OS’s fundamental flaws http://www.che-mi.com/2010/12/12/panelize-fixes-one-of-chrome-oss-fundamental-flaws/ http://www.che-mi.com/2010/12/12/panelize-fixes-one-of-chrome-oss-fundamental-flaws/#comments Sun, 12 Dec 2010 15:12:55 +0000 kuju http://www.che-mi.com/2010/12/12/panelize-fixes-one-of-chrome-oss-fundamental-flaws/

If you haven’t played with Chrome OS yet, it has one fundamental niggle that harkens back to the DOS days of yore: windows don’t exist, and it has no way of displaying multiple tabs on screen at the same time. This means if you want to refer to a document while you compose an email, you need to repetitively switch between tabs — and I think we can all agree that tab-switching is one of the most important omissions from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Chrome OS does support one way of displaying multiple Web pages at the same time, however: panels. If you’ve looked through our Chromium OS galleries (or taken a quick look at the screenshot above) you’ll notice some always-on-top panels across the bottom of the screen. Panels are handy things — capable of being resized, or quickly popped down out of view. By default, the download manager, popped-out Gmail chat windows and the media player display in panels — but, for some reason, there’s no way to load custom websites in panels.

Which brings us onto our very first Chrome OS-specific extension: Panelize. With Panelize you can put anything into a panel, such as Gmail, Reader, or even Download Squad. In one fell swoop, having to switch between tabs is a thing of the past!

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]]> http://www.che-mi.com/2010/12/12/panelize-fixes-one-of-chrome-oss-fundamental-flaws/feed/ 0 Google buys mobile game dev SocialDeck http://www.che-mi.com/2010/08/31/google-buys-mobile-game-dev-socialdeck/ http://www.che-mi.com/2010/08/31/google-buys-mobile-game-dev-socialdeck/#comments Tue, 31 Aug 2010 13:43:11 +0000 kuju http://www.che-mi.com/2010/08/31/google-buys-mobile-game-dev-socialdeck/

SocialDeck has become the latest addition to Google’s Hall of Acquisitions. The creators of the popular iPhone game Shake and Spell have also produced Spark, which allows mobile gamers to challenge or chat with friends, recommend games, save games in the cloud, and more.

In their own words, SocialDeck are “super excited to announce that someone found our social games as fun as you have – in this case, that “someone” is Google.” They’ll even have a nice group of friends with common interests to play with now that they’re part of the Google collective.

Earlier this month, Google acquired Jambool — who created the Social Gold virtual currency platform. Back in April they picked up Lab Pixies, who specialize in social and casual gaming widgets. And let’s not forget Google is also a major investor in casual game maker Zynga — the demons behind the game you love to hate, Farmville.

What does it all mean? Clearly Google sees gaming (and social gaming in particular) to be an area worth getting involved in. With Android picking up momentum and Google TV and Chrome OS both on the way, there are going to be a whole lot more Google hardware users looking to kill some time destroying pixelated zombies or spelling their way to a high score.

That means money spent on games, on virtual goods, and, of course, delicious, delicious ad impressions.

[via Inside Social Games]

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]]> http://www.che-mi.com/2010/08/31/google-buys-mobile-game-dev-socialdeck/feed/ 0 Google Apps and Gmail Notifier for Multiple Accounts http://www.che-mi.com/2010/08/13/google-apps-and-gmail-notifier-for-multiple-accounts/ http://www.che-mi.com/2010/08/13/google-apps-and-gmail-notifier-for-multiple-accounts/#comments Fri, 13 Aug 2010 13:20:20 +0000 kuju http://www.che-mi.com/2010/08/13/google-apps-and-gmail-notifier-for-multiple-accounts/

Spiffy, is on the verge of being awesome. Spiffy is simple, and that is partially because it is available in a portable form. The rest of the simplicity comes from being able to configure up to 5 Gmail accounts in a few minutes.

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]]> http://www.che-mi.com/2010/08/13/google-apps-and-gmail-notifier-for-multiple-accounts/feed/ 3 Google Android Voice Actions http://www.che-mi.com/2010/08/13/google-android-voice-actions/ http://www.che-mi.com/2010/08/13/google-android-voice-actions/#comments Fri, 13 Aug 2010 13:16:33 +0000 kuju http://www.che-mi.com/2010/08/13/google-android-voice-actions/ Google announced a new Android feature called Voice Actions today, and it’s useful, but maybe not a big enough deal to warrant the press conference they held for it. Voice Actions allows you to control your Android phone (2.2 Froyo only) with spoken commands: you can send email, call any contact, get a map of a location, load a webpage or leave a note to yourself.

Here’s the full list of commands:


  • send text to [contact] [message]
  • listen to [artist/song/album]
  • call [business]
  • call [contact]
  • send email to [contact] [message]
  • go to [website]
  • note to self [note]
  • navigate to [location/business name]
  • directions to [location/business name]
  • map of [location]

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]]> http://www.che-mi.com/2010/08/13/google-android-voice-actions/feed/ 0 The best Chrome extensions, according to the Google Chrome team http://www.che-mi.com/2010/07/17/the-best-chrome-extensions-according-to-the-google-chrome-team/ http://www.che-mi.com/2010/07/17/the-best-chrome-extensions-according-to-the-google-chrome-team/#comments Sat, 17 Jul 2010 17:13:00 +0000 kuju http://www.che-mi.com/2010/07/17/the-best-chrome-extensions-according-to-the-google-chrome-team/ Apparently, the Google Chrome team has been circulating a list of awesome Chrome extensions around Google, and everyone there liked it so much that they published it on the Official Google Blog. You can see the whole list there, but here are a few picks I wholeheartedly agreed with:

Readability: Great for removing ads and extra cruft from articles, paring them down to highly-readable text.

Turn Off The Lights: Darkens video pages to highlight the video you’re watching. Works on YouTube and many other video sites.

After The Deadline: The ultimate spelling and grammar checker, brought to you by Automattic, the company behind WordPress.

There are more where those came from, to pump up your browsing experience. I’ll say this for Google: they have great taste in extensions for their own browser. It’s nice to see them encouraging their developer community, too.

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]]> http://www.che-mi.com/2010/07/17/the-best-chrome-extensions-according-to-the-google-chrome-team/feed/ 1 2010 FIFA World Cup Final Gets a Google Doodle http://www.che-mi.com/2010/07/11/2010-fifa-world-cup-final-gets-a-google-doodle/ http://www.che-mi.com/2010/07/11/2010-fifa-world-cup-final-gets-a-google-doodle/#comments Sun, 11 Jul 2010 13:40:24 +0000 kuju http://www.che-mi.com/2010/07/11/2010-fifa-world-cup-final-gets-a-google-doodle/

The company has decided to get themselves into the 2010 FIFA World Cup final (Netherlands vs Spain) mood by creating a special Google doodle just for the occasion.

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]]> http://www.che-mi.com/2010/07/11/2010-fifa-world-cup-final-gets-a-google-doodle/feed/ 0 Google gets license renewed to stay in China http://www.che-mi.com/2010/07/10/google-gets-license-renewed-to-stay-in-china/ http://www.che-mi.com/2010/07/10/google-gets-license-renewed-to-stay-in-china/#comments Sat, 10 Jul 2010 10:15:13 +0000 kuju http://www.che-mi.com/2010/07/10/google-gets-license-renewed-to-stay-in-china/ At the beginning of the month, we told you how Google’s license to operate in China was up for renewal. Well, that renewal has finally come through, and Google will be allowed to stay in the country. The search giant had temporarily redirected its Chinese site to Google.hk in Hong Kong, to avoid censorship, but ended the redirect to make sure the renewal went through.

It’s not surprising that Google got its license approved again, especially after making that concession, but it is surprising that the company says it will still provide unfiltered results. ” Users can conduct web search or continue to use Google.cn services like music and text translate, which we can provide locally without filtering.” Not all of Google’s services are available through Google.cn, though, so even though there’s no longer an automatic redirect, there’s still a link to Google.hk on Google’s Chinese homepage.

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]]> http://www.che-mi.com/2010/07/10/google-gets-license-renewed-to-stay-in-china/feed/ 0 YouTube’s mobile site gets a new look, beats up on native YouTube apps http://www.che-mi.com/2010/07/08/youtubes-mobile-site-gets-a-new-look-beats-up-on-native-youtube-apps/ http://www.che-mi.com/2010/07/08/youtubes-mobile-site-gets-a-new-look-beats-up-on-native-youtube-apps/#comments Thu, 08 Jul 2010 16:24:46 +0000 kuju http://www.che-mi.com/2010/07/08/youtubes-mobile-site-gets-a-new-look-beats-up-on-native-youtube-apps/

For a long time, the best way to watch YouTube on a mobile device has been through a YouTube app, like the one that comes with the iPhone. The mobile site was confusing to navigate, and not all that attractive to look at. Well, that dusty mobile version has been revised into a pretty, easy-to-use, HTML5-friendly site, and it makes a good case for watching YouTube in your mobile browser again.

Part of the new YouTube Mobile website is simply making the buttons bigger, so they’re easier to tap on touchscreen phones. It also adds familiar features from the full YouTube site, like liking, unliking and adding to favorites. Focusing on the mobile website means YouTube can update its mobile experience more quickly than native apps, which take a while to update. The site works with iPhone and Android phones so far.

This seems like a subtle knock on Apple for not offering a new and better YouTube app with the iPhone 4. Because the YouTube app comes with the iPhone OS, it doesn’t get updated unless the OS gets updated. iOS 4 would have been a good opportunity to do that, but Apple didn’t take it. I’m sure Google would have gone ahead with a new mobile site anyway, because they’re selling a browser-based strategy for everything these days, but it’s still interesting that they framed this update in such anti-native-app terms.

[via CNET]

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