Google Working On One Web API to Rule Them All

In a blog post, Google software engineer James Hawkins revealed that the company is working on a system called Web Intents in which it will enable Chrome users to pipe data between different Web applications much the same way Android users can share data between apps. The idea is to create one API that various Web applications can all use to pass data back and forth without a need for each one to be designed to work with the other apps. 

Google used the example of a photo-sharing site enabling an "edit" intent through the Web Intents API. Then users would be able to use various Web-based photo editors or meme generators to modify the image on the photo-sharing site, all through the browser.

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OK Go Play with Chrome Via Google Blog

(Cross-posted from the Google Blog )

They all have a song or a personal soundtrack that speaks to them. But it doesn’t always say exactly what they want it to say.

In All is Not Lost — an HTML5 music collaboration between the band OK Go, the dance troupe and choreographers Pilobolus, and Google—you can embed your message in a music video and have the band dance it out. The band and Pilobolus dancers are filmed through a clear floor, making increasingly complex shapes and eventually words—and messages you can write yourself. 

All is Not Lost is built in HTML5 with the browser Google Chrome in mind. Different shots are rendered in different browser windows that move, re-size and re-align throughout the piece. With HTML5’s canvas technology, these videos are drawn in perfect timing with the music.

OK Go are well-known for their delightfully creative music videos, including Here It Goes Again, their first work featuring half a dozen treadmills, and This Too Shall Pass, based around an extraordinary Rube Goldberg machine—both of which have become extraordinarily popular on YouTube.They’re excited to collaborate with them on another project that finds its natural home on the web.

This project also has a special significance for the team here at Google Japan, who worked on this collaboration alongside OK Go. In the wake of the devastating Tōhoku earthquake, the band suggested using All is Not Lost as a message of support to the Japanese people during this difficult time. 

All is Not Lost is best experienced in Chrome at allisnotlo.st. For web developers curious about how the experience was created, you can read more on the Google Code Blog.

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Google Makes Money from Chromebooks

( Cross Posted From The Google System Blog )

While many people think there's a lot of overlap between Android and Chrome OS, the products don't have a lot in common. Chrome OS is a proprietary operating system based on an open-source project and OEMs can't tweak it or add new features. Just like for Nexus One and Nexus S, you get all of the updates from Google. Another difference is that Chrome OS is constantly updated and you can even switch to the beta or the dev channel to try the latest features. Chrome OS has an automatic update feature, so that Chromebooks run the latest version of the operating system.

Google's CFO, Patrick Pichette, mentioned another difference between Android and Chrome OS: "Google is making some money from companies buying computers that run the Chrome operating system." Google came up with an innovative subscription modelfor businesses and schools. Instead of paying for the hardware, organizations can pay $20-$33/device/month and get a notebook, enterprise support, new devices every 3 years or even more often, a Web-based central management console, integration with Google Apps. While enterprise Chromebooks are a lot more expensive than the regular Chromebooks available at Amazon or Best Buy, Google says that the total cost of ownership of a notebook can be reduced by up to 70%. "Chromebooks and the management console automate or eliminate many common, time-intensive IT tasks like machine image creation, application distribution, patching, and upgrades. Additionally, there is no need to purchase licenses for anti-virus, data encryption or data back-up software."

Like Android, Chrome OS also encourages people to use Google's services more often. "People search more when they use the Chrome browser or Android phones, which increases Google's core business," says Patrick Pichette. Android will also offeradditional revenue opportunities. "Nonsearch revenue will eventually arrive for Android as it combines Google Maps, mobile payments with Google Wallet and daily deals with Google Offers."

When they have products that get resounding user and consumer success and that are growing in the hundreds of millions they don't worry. The only question is when and how will they monetize. Everybody's all nervous about the fact it's been 36 months since Android has launched and you only have search (revenue). That's the criticism I hear. The questions that are asked are so short-termish. That's just not the way that Google thinks.

For now, Chromebooks are the perfect Google Apps "thin clients", while Android devices have so many sensors that help you explore the world and make Web services a lot more useful when you are on the go.

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Syncs and Sandboxes - Samsung Chromebook

There are clear advantages to Google's setup. Because you log in with your overarching Google account, the company can synchronize your setting across machines. When we first logged into our Samsung Chromebook, it synced with our Cr-48, right down to the extensions we had installed. And because Google keeps everything in the browser, it has greater control over security.

Every webpage is restricted to a sandbox, and if malware escapes the sandbox, Google does a verified boot at startup in an effort to identify any system tampering. What's more, like Google's Chrome browser, the OS is constantly updated across the wire with security patches. Some researchers warn that Google is simply "moving the goalposts" for scammers. But at least in the short term, moving the goalposts is nothing but a good thing, and there's no denying that Google has shrunk the scope of the problem – just as it has shrunk the scope of the applications the machine is capable of running.

For every advantage, there's a disadvantage. When using our Chromebook, we can't run the Yahoo! Instant Messenger we normally run on our Mac. We're forced to use either a third-party Yahoo! Messenger browser extension or the web-based version of Yahoo!'s tool. The extension is practically unusable, so we opt for the web service. It works well enough. But there are caveats. We don't always notice we have a new message, and it's harder to toggle back and forth between IMs and some other app.

That's just one example, but it's indicative of the platform as a whole. You can't use Skype or play a DVD. But you can use Google Talk or You Tube. At least in theory. Sadly, our Samsung Chromebook shipped with what appears to be a faulty audio system. We can't get sound. At all. We can watch videos, but we can't hear them. And we can't listen to MP3s on Google's new media player. Though we asked Google and Samsung about the sound system and Google acknowledged our questions, neither company provided help with the problem.

That said, it actually took us awhile to notice that problem. We were using the machine for work purposes, opening it on the train into the office each morning and in evening on the way home. It serves certain purposes.

More future, please

Yes, it works on the train. The Samsung model we tested includes a built-in 3G adapter, and in partnership with Verizon, Google and Samsung offers 100MB of free service a month for the first two years of use. This isn't an awful lot of data, but it's something. This 3G version sells for $499, sixty dollars more than the Wi-Fi version.

We ran through our 100MB after about four or five days and no more than several hours of email, IM, and web browsing. We were cut off in the middle of a train ride, as we typed another IM. We couldn't instant message. We couldn't browse the web. We couldn't write. We couldn't edit. We couldn't do anything.

Of course, most machines are only marginally useful when you use an internet connection. And the Chromebook will become more useful in such situations. A few web apps available from Google's Chrome Web Store already work offline, and Google continues to promise that its Google Apps suite will offer HTML5-based offline access sometime "this summer".

The Chromebook is an idea ahead of its prime. It makes sense for certain businesses – or at least portions of certain businesses – where you don't need high-end applications and you don't have to worry about losing internet access. Google is targeting enterprises with a subscription pricing model, in which you pay a monthly fee for hardware, software, and support.

But for consumers, the Chromebook is a rather intriguing creation that's ultimately less useful than you'd like it to be. It needs more than a file manager. It needs five more years of interwebs evolution.

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Chromebook In Black and White

Physically, the Samsung Chromebook is a welcome improvement over the Cr-48. The touchpad is far more adept, letting you easily scroll, drag and drop, and "right click". With its rather squishy keys, the keyboard is bit more comfortable. And the 12.1-inch matte display is brighter and easier to read at tight angles. None of these are particularly impressive pieces of hardware, but they're acceptable.

Plus, the machine looks better. The rather mysterious-looking Cr-48 all-black box has given way to a sleeker white-and-black case with a bit more finish to it (other colors are available). The machine isn't as small and light as, say, an Apple MacBook Air. But it's quite totable, weighing 3.3 pounds and measuring less than an inch thick.

The core hardware is nothing to shout about – 1.66GHz Intel Atom N570 CPU, integrated Intel graphics, 2GB of RAM, and a 16GB SSD – but this too is beside the point. When everything's on the web, you hardly need the latest and greatest in CPU and graphics technology. What you do expect from such a machine is extended battery life, and that you do get. Samsung rates the machine's life at 8 and a half hours, and that seems about right. We used the machine about two hours a day, and it needed recharging after each week.

Yes, I/O ports are also kept to a minimum. You get two USB ports, a headphone jack, a port for an (included) VGA dongle, and a media card slot, but that's it. You can attach external keyboards and mice and displays, and you can plug in a thumb drive when the time comes. But don't expect to attach your camera. We couldn't. And you certainly can't attach a printer. Chrome OS is light not only native applications but third-party hardware drivers – though the company has said it's working to accomodate cameras.

The machine does include a built-in one-megapixel camera, installed just above the display. And though you can't attach a printer, you can print. Google offers a beta web service that routes print jobs from your Chromebook, through Google servers, and down to one of your machines that can talk to a local printer. The service is dubbed Google Cloud Print, and it nicely encapsulates Mountain View's rather extreme approach to personal computing.

Print server in the heavens

To use Google Cloud Print, you need a traditional PC that's already attached to a printer. The PC must be registered with the service, and this involves opening a Chrome browser on the machine, locating the appropriate dialog box, and supplying your Google account credentials. Once this is done, when you log in to your Chromebook with the same Google account, you can print by way of Google's data centers. Selecting Print on your Chromebook launches a small dialog box that lists the printers you've registered with the service, and to print, you select one.

It works well enough. But there are caveats. And it's a tad creepy. Which adequately sums up Chrome OS as a whole.

The trouble is that you can't simply log onto a wireless network and print to an attached printer. You have to be in the same room with a registered Cloud Print machine – or register a new one. HP is now offering printers that directly attach to Google's service, but these are hardly common. Google seeks a world were everything is connected to the net – and to Google – but we're not quite there yet.

Some people don't ever want to be there. There's something unsettling about routing your print jobs through Google, a company that already logs so many other things you do with your PC. For what it's worth: this data is vulnerable to subpoena or national security letter. With Cloud Print, Google stores the title of your print job, the printer it was sent to, and the document being printed, and all this is tied to your Google Account. But the company says it deletes the actual document after it's successfully printed, and you can manually delete additional records.

Like Cloud Print, like Chrome book. You log into the machine with your Google account, and it's fundamentally designed to keep your data on Google's servers. But you have the option of using third party web services – Microsoft's Office Web Apps, for instance – and Google tells us that when you use Chrome OS, it collects no more data about your behavior than it would if you were using an ordinary Chrome browser on Window PC or Mac. There's also a "guest mode", which lets you anonymously log in to the machine. Once you exit guest mode, all data from that browsing session is deleted.

It's the standard Google setup. There are privacy controls in place. But simply by using the product, you're giving up a certain amount of yourself. Richard Stallman doesn't approve. But Google is adamant that he's blowing things way out of proportion.

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Samsung Chromebook: The $499 Google Thought Experiment

Samsung Chromebook: The $499 Google Thought Experiment Oh, Google! You're so Googly!

The most amazing thing about Google's inaugural Chromebooks is that they come with a file manager. It's not much of a file manager, but it's relatively easy to find, and it gives you relatively quick access to the files you've download or screenshots you've taken or documents on a thumb drive you've plugged into the USB port.

This may seem like the most fundamental of tools. But in December, when Google released its beta Chromebook, the Cr-48, there was no file manager. And Mountain View was adamant that such a basic piece of software was beside the point.

Running Google's Chrome OS operating system, Chromebooks seek to move everything you do onto the interwebs. Chrome OS is essentially a modified Linux kernel that runs only one native application: Google's Chrome browser. You can install plug-ins and extensions, but otherwise, every application you use must be a web application. Rather than run a local copy of Microsoft Office, you use Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Calendar. Rather than iTunes, you use Pandora or maybe the "cloud" music services offered by Google and Amazon.

This also means that most of your data sits on the web, inside services like Google Docs. Google pitches the Chromebook as a kind of disposable computer. If you lose it, the company says, you lose neither your apps nor your data. You simply buy replacement machine, sign in with your existing Google account, and find everything waiting for you, just as you left it.

The rub is that the world isn't quite ready for a machine that doesn't give you access to local files. Google admits as much in adding a file manager to Chrome OS, which made its official debut last month with the arrival of the $429 Samsung Series 5 Chromebook and the $349Acer AC700-1099 Chromebook. Cr-48 beta testers called for a file manager, and Google gave them one.

But this file manager is rudimentary at best. Familiar nested folders give you access to downloaded files and screenshots and external drives, but there are few file types you can actually launch straight from the manager. If you click on a .doc file, for example, Chrome OS gives you an error message. It doesn't open the file with Google Docs. The OS now offers a media player for playing MP3s and the like, but it too is the most basic of tools. These are merely in place to wean you away from local files and applications. Google is still very much intent on moving everything to the web.

We've used the Samsung Chromebook for the past two weeks, and with the exception of the file manager and the media player and a few other nips and tucks, the basic experience isn't that different from what we saw with the Cr-48.

Using a solid state flash drive rather than a traditional hard disk, the machine boots in about a ten seconds. It instantly goes to sleep and instantly revives when you close and open the display. And its security model makes an awful lot of sense. But if you're a consumer, this isn't a machine that can replace your primary laptop. And if you're a business, it's suited toonly a portion of your workforce.

There are certain native applications that the web just can't duplicate, including design tools and video editors and high-end games. Even fairly mature web applications like Google Docs can't quite match what you get from desktop software.

What's more, shuttling files between web applications is still a painful process, and this is eased only marginally by Google's file manager. But the primary problem is that a Chromebook is all but unuseable if you don't have an internet connection. Even Google's centerpiece web applications don't yet work offline.

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Which Browser Should I Use To Set Up Facebook Video Calling?

Facebook Video calling works best with the latest versions of the following browsers:

Mozilla Firefox

Google Chrome

Internet Explorer

Safari

Note that Facebook video calling for Linux is not currently supported. You will need to use one of these browsers in a Mac or Windows operating system. If you’re having trouble with video calling, try upgrading or switching your browser using the links above.

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Addthis Updates to WordPress, Chrome and More!

Here in AddThis Land, April showers bring May updates! From browser extensions to WordPress plugins, They’re making sure you get the latest and greatest version of AddThis.

AddThis for Wordpress: AddThis for WordPress is better than ever. They added the ability to personalize the tweets shared from your site, given you more fine grained control in choosing which pages AddThis appears on, updated analytics dashboard and also included more filters! 

AddThis for Chrome: AddThis for Chrome now supports the right-click context menu form of sharing. So if you are on a page you want to share, just right-click and AddThis appears in the menu! They also made some modifications to the settings page.

AddThis for Joomla: AddThis for Joomla is now updated to support the Joomla 1.6 plugin. They’ve also integrated options for the AddThis share counter.

AddThis Status Page: Want to check out the status of any of the above features? Check out the AddThis status page at status.addthis.com. This page is meant to keep track of all AddThis issues or outages, so you are never in the dark about anything that may be affecting your sharing or analytics.

Want to Work on AddThis?

They’re hiring! AddThis is a part of Clearspring Technologies. They are a rapidly growing company with offices in the DC Metro area, NYC, Chicago, Detroit and LA. They’re looking for people who can make things happen and have fun doing it. Please check out their careers page for a list of openings, some of which include:

Javascript/UI Developer

Account Executive - Sales

Sr. Java Software Engineer

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Browsing through time and space with GigaPan and Chrome

From the presidential inauguration to the World Series to gorgeous cityscapes, for the past few years the GigaPan team at Carnegie Mellon University has been making it possible to explore breathtaking panoramic photos from around the world. GigaPan pioneered the hardware design that captures these photos and used innovative rendering techniques—similar to those of Google Maps—to create seamless transitions between photos, so people can pan and zoom through the image for an interactive and incredibly detailed photo experience.

Yesterday, the GigaPan team took their creative and technical skills to the next level with the GigaPan Time Machine, which brings this same kind of visual interactivity to video using the power of HTML5 and modern browser technology. Time Machine works particularly well on Google Chrome, thanks to its support for the latest HTML5 features and its stability architecture, which ensures it can smoothly run complex web applications without crashing. Time Machine is featured on the gallery of Chrome Experiments, a showcase of creative web applications submitted by developers around the world, and built using the latest web technologies.

The sophisticated cameras the GigaPan team uses for their photographs capture hundreds or even thousands of digital pictures and stitch them together to form an interactive panorama. With Time Machine, the cameras capture these image mosaics at regular intervals to create a video with hundreds of millions or even billions of pixels in each frame. The result is a video that viewers have the ability to zoom in on while it’s playing and see incredible detail.

With Time Machine, watching paint dry or grass grow is actually pretty cool. Take a look at a table full of potted plants grow and bloom into flowers. Zoom in to examine a specific plant or even a single leaf, or watch a caterpillar bite off a leafy green for lunch.

One of the critical elements of making Time Machine work was developing algorithms that allow the site to shift seamlessly from one portion of a video to another, to give people the experience of zooming and panning across a video of almost limitless resolution. This is particularly challenging because a seamless transition between videos requires starting a new video before the old one is finished, and then queueing it to align perfectly in time before the swap. The GigaPan researchers were able to accomplish this successfully using HTML5’s video tag feature, as well as by taking advantage of Chrome’s speed and stability to render the content smoothly as videos start and stop dynamically.

While you can’t fast-forward to the weekend (yet), head over to GigaPan’s Time Machine to zoom around in space and time with some of the samples, or create your own Time Warp by building your own animated tour through any of the sample videos.

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Install or update Google Chrome: Update Google Chrome

To make sure that you're protected by the latest security updates, Google Chrome automatically updates whenever it detects that a new version of the browser is available. The update process happens in the background and doesn't require any action on your part.

Check for updates

Updates are available if the wrench icon on the browser toolbar shows a little arrow  . To apply the update, just follow the steps below.

1. Click the wrench icon on the browser toolbar.
2. Select Update Google Chrome.

In the confirmation dialog that appears, click Restart. The browser saves your opened tabs and windows and reopens them automatically when it restarts. If you'd prefer not to restart right away, click Not now. The next time you restart your browser, the update will automatically be applied.

More information for Mac and Linux users

• Mac users: You can also set up automatic browser updates for all users of your computer if Google Chrome is installed in your Applications folder. Go to the "About Google Chrome" dialog and look for the Set Up Automatic Updates for All Users button. If it's available, click the button and authenticate to set up automatic updates. 
• Linux users: Use your package manager to update Google Chrome. 

Check your browser version

Click the wrench icon on the browser toolbar and select About Google Chrome. The version number is the series of number beneath the "Google Chrome" heading.

More information

Having problems updating? See troubleshooting information

Learn about the features and fixes included in each update at the Google Chrome Releases blog. 

Google Chrome uses a process called Google Update to periodically check for updates. This process sends information, such as version number, language, operating system, and other installation or update-related details, back to Google servers. This information is not associated with you or your Google Account. Learn more about how Google Update works.

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How to Get Full Feeds inside Google Reader HQ Video

Some websites, BBC News for example, offer only a headline and a short excerpt in their RSS feeds and you therefore have to leave your Google Reader to read the full news story.

Now there are a bunch of services - like FiveFilters, FullTextRSSFeed and FeedEx - that can quickly transform partial RSS feeds into full-text feeds but with certain obvious limitations.

First, these services can only process a limited number of feed items per day so the transformation may not work with high-volume feeds. Second, when you convert a partial feed into a full feed, you are actually creating a new RSS feed and this will only exist as long as the conversion service is in business.

If you are a Google Chrome user, there’s however a much better option that will give you the best of both worlds. You will be able to read the full text of a story inside Google Reader itself but without going through any transformation service.

To get started, simply install the Super Google Reader extension inside Chrome and it will add a new menu called “Super Settings” to your feeds page. Then choose the “Readable” option for all the partial RSS feeds that are you are subscribed to in Google Reader.

That’s it. The next time you expand a partial item inside Google Reader, this extension will automatically fetch the full content of that page in real-time and will display it in place of excerpts. You can use the ‘pre-fetch’ option to let it process the full feed in the background and this will reduce the time it takes for Google Reader to display the full text entries.

How to Get Full Feeds inside Google Reader HQ Video 

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