Google Toolbar for Firefox Has Been Discontinued

( Cross Posted From The Google System Blog )

Another Google product bites the dust. This time it's a popular add-on: Google Toolbar for Firefox. Many users were surprised to see that Google hasn't updated the toolbar for Firefox 5, even though it wasn't a difficult task. After enabling the Add-on Compatibility Reporter, most of the features worked well in Firefox 5.

It turns out that Google no longer wants to update Google Toolbar for Firefox, but it doesn't admit that the product has been discontinued.

"Google Toolbar for Firefox is compatible with Firefox version 4 or older. If you use Firefox version 5 or newer, you won't be able to use Google Toolbar."

Google suggests a long list of add-ons that could replace Google Toolbar's features, but the suggestions are too generic. For example, Google links to the search results for [bookmarks sync] or [language translate] in the Firefox add-ons gallery.

A Google blog post offers an explanation: "many features that were once offered by Google Toolbar for Firefox are now already built right into the browser" and thanks the loyal users. That's also true for the IE toolbar, but there are many useful features that aren't included in the browser: auto-translation (a built-in Chrome feature), Google Bookmarks integration, using Google Docs to open documents, smart spell-checking using an online service, highlighting search terms, suggestions for navigation errors (another built-in Chrome feature), custom buttons and gadgets.

You probably remember that Google Toolbar for Firefox was released in 2005, five years after the Internet Explorer version. At that time, Firefox users who wanted to install a Google Toolbar with PageRank support could try an unofficial extension calledGooglebar. Maybe that extension will be resurrected, now that Google Toolbar for Firefox is no longer available. Releasing some of the source code under an open-source license would be helpful.

For now, Google Toolbar still works in the latest Firefox releases if you install the Add-on Compatibility Reporter first and restart the browser. Here's Google Toolbar in Firefox 7 Alpha 2 (Aurora):

Last year, Microsoft's Bing Bar dropped support for Firefox and became an Internet Explorer-only add-on, just like Google Toolbar. Bing Bar is powered by Silverlight, a software for running rich internet applications. A few months ago, Google tested a new Google Toolbar powered by Chrome, but only for Internet Explorer. It's likely that the new toolbar didn't work well in Firefox, so Google decided to only offer an Internet Explorer version.

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Upcoming Improvements to Custom Search Engines

( Cross Posted From The Adsense Blog ) 

If you use a Custom Search Engine to power search on your site, you may already be familiar with the advanced Custom Search Element launched in 2009. Since then they’ve improved the results pages of these search engines with new features like mobile compatibility, more layout options, and new ad formats. They’re excited to announce that they’re now also taking steps to update the look and feel of traditional Custom Search Engines that embed results in an iframe on publisher sites, or that host results pages on Google.

Over the coming months you’ll see changes in the presentation of your search results pages for a richer, cleaner, and easier to use experience for your users. If you monitor the earnings from your search engine through AdSense for search, you may also see changes in your ad performance. They’re working towards improving ad relevance for users with new layouts and ad formats, while continuing to prevent accidental clicks. No action is required on your part for these updates.

If you’d like to add search functionality to your site and get started with Custom Search, sign in to your account and create a new Custom Search Engine under the “My Ads” tab of the new AdSense interface.

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How to Add the +1 Button to Your Blogger Blog

(Cross Posted On Blogger Blog)

“+1” is often used as a digital shorthand for “this is pretty cool.” It’s also a way for friends, contacts, and the rest of the world to find great things on Google search. Google launched the +1 button back in March as a way to help share web content and make search more personal and relevant. For more information about the +1 button, you can watch this short video:

Since Google made this feature available, web publishers and bloggers have been asking us how they can add the +1 button to their sites, including Blogger blogs. Today, we’re excited to let you know that you can add the +1 button to Blogger blogs with just a few clicks.

To add the +1 button to your blog, you’ll need to enable Share buttons on Blogger. To do this, go to Design > Page Elements on your Blogger dashboard, find the Blog posts area, click on Edit, and select the “Show Share Buttons” option. If you are already using Share buttons, the +1 button will automatically show up as a new share option.

By adding the +1 button to your blog, you’re providing an easy way for your visitors to recommend your posts to their friends right from your blog. Here’s how it works: Let’s say you blog about biking. One of your readers, Tom, finds your recent post about mountain biking interesting, and clicks on the +1 button. Now, when Tom’s friends and contacts search for biking or mountain bikes and your post appears in Google search results, they might see an annotation showing that Tom +1’d your post, helping your content stand out.

[Example of how a blog post +1’d by visitors appears on the Google search results page]

We hope +1’s will help your blog stand out better in search results, which could increase both the quality and quantity of traffic to your blog. Now, that’s indeed a big +1, isn’t it?

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The Google+ Project: A Quick Look HD Video

They've been working on some new stuff to make sharing on the web more like sharing in real life. Come check out the first five features of Google+ at plus.google.com.

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Google Testing its New Social Service - Introducing the Google+ Project: Real-life sharing, Rethought for The Web

(Cross-posted on the Google Blog)

Google Testing its New Social Service - Introducing the Google+ Project: Real-life sharing, Rethought for The Web 

Update: For our international readers, this post is also available in French, German, Italian,Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. - Ed.

Among the most basic of human needs is the need to connect with others. With a smile, a laugh, a whisper or a cheer, they connect with others every single day.

Today, the connections between people increasingly happen online. Yet the subtlety and substance of real-world interactions are lost in the rigidness of our online tools.

In this basic, human way, online sharing is awkward. Even broken. And they aim to fix it.

They’d like to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to software. They want to make Google better by including you, your relationships, and your interests. And so begins the Google+ project:

+Circles: share what matters, with the people who matter mostNot all relationships are created equal. So in life they share one thing with college buddies, another with parents, and almost nothing with our boss. The problem is that today’s online services turn friendship into fast food—wrapping everyone in “friend” paper—and sharing really suffers:

• It’s sloppy. They only want to connect with certain people at certain times, but online they hear from everyone all the time.
• It’s scary. Every online conversation (with over 100 “friends”) is a public performance, so they often share less because of stage fright.
• It’s insensitive. They all define “friend” and “family” differently—in our own way, on our own terms—but they lose this nuance online.

In light of these shortcomings they asked ourselves, “What do people actually do?” And they didn’t have to search far for the answer. People in fact share selectively all the time—with their circles.

From close family to foodies, they found that people already use real-life circles to express themselves, and to share with precisely the right folks. So they did the only thing that made sense: they brought Circles to software. Just make a circle, add your people, and share what’s new—just like any other day:

+Sparks: strike up a conversation, about pretty much anything

Healthy obsessions inspire sharing, and they’ve all got one (or two, or three...). Maybe it’s muscle cars, or comic books, or fashion, but the attraction is always the same: it comes up in conversation, they immediately jump in, and they share back and forth with other fans. Often for hours. The trick is getting things started, and getting over that initial hump. Fortunately, the web is the ultimate icebreaker.

The web, of course, is filled with great content—from timely articles to vibrant photos to funny videos. And great content can lead to great conversations. They noticed, however, that it’s still too hard to find and share the things they care about—not without lots of work, and lots of noise. So, they built an online sharing engine called Sparks.

Thanks to Google’s web expertise, Sparks delivers a feed of highly contagious content from across the Internet. On any topic you want, in over 40 languages. Simply add your interests, and you’ll always have something to watch, read and share—with just the right circle of friends:

+Hangouts: stop by and say hello, face-to-face-to-face

Whether it's inside a pub or on a front porch, human beings have always enjoyed hanging out. And why not? It's how they unwind, recharge, and spend unscheduled time with old and new friends alike. Hanging out is deceptively simple though, and the nuance gets lost online.

Just think: when you walk into the pub or step onto your front porch, you're in fact signaling to everyone around, “Hey, I've got some time, so feel free to stop by." Further, it’s this unspoken understanding that puts people at ease, and encourages conversation. But today’s online communication tools (like instant messaging and video-calling) don’t understand this subtlety:

They’re annoying, for starters. You can ping everyone that’s “available,” but you’re bound to interrupt someone’s plans.

They’re also really awkward. When someone doesn't respond, you don't know if they’re just not there, or just not interested.With Google+ they wanted to make on-screen gatherings fun, fluid and serendipitous, so they created Hangouts. By combining the casual meetup with live multi-person video, Hangouts lets you stop by when you're free, and spend time with your Circles. Face-to-face-to-face:

+Mobile: share what’s around, right now, without any hassle

These days a phone is the perfect sharing accessory: it's always with you, it's always online, and it's how theystay close with our closest friends. Theydidn’t want “just” a mobile experience, however, so with Google+ they focused on things (like GPS, cameras, and messaging) to make your pocket computer even more personal.

+Location, location, location

In life, the places they visit shape conversations in lots of meaningful ways. If they call John from the airport, he’ll likely ask about our trip. Or if Jane texts from a nearby restaurant, they might join her for dessert. With Google+ you can add your location to every post. (Or not. It’s always up to you.)

+Instant Upload

Getting photos off your phone is a huge pain, so most of us don't even bother. Of course pictures are meant to be shared, not stranded, so they created Instant Upload to help you never leave a photo behind. While you're snapping pictures, and with your permission, Google+ adds your photos to a private album in the cloud. This way they're always available across your devices—ready to share as you see fit.

+Huddle

Coordinating with friends and family in real-time is really hard in real life. After all, everyone's on different schedules, in different places, and plans can change at any moment. Phone calls and text messages can work in a pinch, but they're not quite right for getting the gang together. So Google+ includes Huddle, a group messaging experience that lets everyone inside the circle know what's going on, right this second.

Starting today Google+ is available on Android Market and the mobile web, and it’s coming soon to the App Store.

+You: putting you first, all across Google

That’s the Google+ project so far: Circles, Sparks, Hangouts and mobile. They’re beginning in Field Trial, so you may find some rough edges, and the project is by invitation only. But online sharing needs a serious re-think, so it’s time they got started. There’s just one more thing—really the only thing: You.

You and over a billion others trust Google, and they don’t take this lightly. In fact they’ve focused on the user for over a decade: liberating data, working for an open Internet, and respecting people’s freedom to be who they want to be. They realize, however, that Google+ is a different kind of project, requiring a different kind of focus—on you. That’s why they’re giving you more ways to stay private or go public; more meaningful choices around your friends and your data; and more ways to let us know how they’re doing. All across Google.

When your invite arrives they hope you’ll join the project. But it’s entirely up to +You.

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Evolving The Google Design and Experience - New Design Of Google HomePage 2011

(Cross-posted on the Google Blog)
Starting today, you might begin noticing that things look a little different across Google products. They’re working on a project to bring you a new and improved Google experience, and over the next few months, you’ll continue to see more updates to our look and feel.Even our classic homepage is getting a bit of a makeover:

New Google homepage with a smaller logo and links moved to the top and bottom edges of the browser for a cleaner look

The way people use and experience the web is evolving, and our goal is to give you a more seamless and consistent online experience—one that works no matter which Google product you’re using or what device you’re using it on. The new Google experience that we’ve begun working toward is founded on three key design principles: focus, elasticity and effortlessness.

• Focus: Whether you’re searching, emailing or looking for a map, the only thing you should be concerned about is getting what you want. Our job is to provide the tools and features that will get you there quickly and easily. With the design changes in the coming weeks and months, they’re bringing forward the stuff that matters to you and getting all the other clutter out of your way. Even simple changes, like using bolder colors for actionable buttons or hiding navigation buttons until they’re actually needed, can help you better focus on only what you need at the moment.
• Elasticity: In the early days, there was pretty much just one way to use Google: on a desktop computer with an average-sized monitor. Over a decade later, all it takes is a look around one’s home or office at the various mobile devices, tablets, high-resolution monitors and TVs to see a plethora of ways to access the web. The new design will soon allow you to seamlessly transition from one device to another and have a consistent visual experience. They aim to bring you this flexibility without sacrificing style or usefulness.
• Effortlessness: Our design philosophy is to combine power with simplicity. They want to keep our look simple and clean, but behind the seemingly simple design, use new technologies like HTML5, WebGL and the latest, fastest browsers to make sure you have all the power of the web behind you.

Constant revision and improvement is part of our overarching philosophy. For example, last year they introduced an updated look and feel to our search results, and if you compare the original Google homepage to today’s version, you’ll see that a makeover every so often can certainly be refreshing:

Original Google homepage in 1997

Starting today and over the course of the next few months, look for a series of design improvements across all our products, including Google Search, Google Maps and Gmail.

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Optimize Your Site or Blog With Affiliate Exclusive Opportunities

It’s that time again. Google Affiliate Network Exclusive Opportunities are back. As a reminder, this limited time opportunity enables you add a variety of great consumer offers to your site. If you aren’t a Google Affiliate Network affiliate, now is the time to join and start earning more from your website today.

Earlier this year, we announced that the Affiliate Exclusive Opportunity program had been extended into 2011. In March, over thirty advertisers participated with great success thanks to publishers like you. This month, over fifty Google Affiliate Network advertisers are providing exclusive offers from Friday, 6/24, through Monday, 6/27.

For every transaction that originated from your site, you’ll earn a performance fee. Here are just a few examples of offers that will be available:

$10 off $75	$20 off $125	10% off $100

How do I promote these on my site?

To promote any of these exclusive opportunities, you need to be an approved publisher in the Google Affiliate Network.

1. Apply for Google Affiliate Network with your AdSense Publisher ID (or sign in if you're already a Google Affiliate Network publisher).
2. Once approved, review offers and click the "Apply Now" link for every one that you wish to promote.
3. Tracking links will be available in your Google Affiliate Network account by viewing the “Announcements” section of your Home tab. You can also search for “June Exclusive Opportunities” links in the Links section on June 24.
4. Need help registering or want more information? Review the Getting Started guide today.

When can I post these on my site?

All opportunities will be available on June 24, and all will expire at midnight June 27. You may not post any of these exclusives until June 24.

Src:- http://adsense.blogspot.com/2011/06/optimize-your-site-with-affiliate.html

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