Archive for October, 2009
Since we announced the ability to see lots of real estate listings directly on Google Maps back in July, we've been working hard to make it even easier to use. As we've added new features and updated Google Maps, with things like brand new high-resolution Street View imagery or detailed map data, Google Maps has become an even more useful tool for online real estate searching. Here are a couple of things you can look out for next time you visit.
First of all, we've made it easier to find real estate listings. Now, you can simply select "Real Estate" from the 'More' button on the top right of any Google Map to discover listings. From there, it's a simple matter to refine your search using the left hand panel – price, bedrooms, bathrooms, and so on. Of course, you can still pan the map to search for the perfect neighborhood and it'll automatically update with more listings.
You'll also notice that Google Maps is now showing even more information about an area as you pan around and zoom in. There are small icons on the map showing the names and location of businesses and prominent features of the neighborhood. This means that during your property search, you'll be able to tell at a glance just exactly what shops can be found down the road from where you're looking, all without typing!
You can now find real estate in cities and towns across the US, Australia, New Zealand and India.
Of course, these aren't the only resources available for your new home search. You can use Street View on Google Maps to check out the neighborhood before driving to an open house; use driving directions to find out exactly how to get there; and transit information to work out what your new commute might be if you went ahead and moved house.
Also, if you're in the real estate industry and want to provide listings to be seen in Google Maps, it's really easy to get started.
Happy house hunting this weekend!
Posted by Andrew Foster, Product Manager
 
Tags: google
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As USB flash drives continue to get faster and provide increasing amounts of storage capacity, you can use them for more than just backing up files and documents. You can actually run a ton of applications right from your flash drive, which can come in handy when you’re on the road outside your office or home. There are some popular suites of flash drive apps, such as PortableApps, which we’ve covered before. There recently announced freeware portable apps for popular packages such as Google Chrome, Skype and even uTorrent. However, PortableApps is not the only game in town these days.
NirLauncher
NirLauncher is another impressive suite of portable apps that are easy to launch from your USB flash drive. It includes the entire collection of useful Systernals troubleshooting tools. The author makes the process of setting up all of these apps easy, with a file named systernals.nlp that you simply copy to the Systernals folder.
LiberKey
LiberKey offers a super-slick interface with three different packages of portable apps, including audio, file management, graphics, Internet, office, security and networking tools. Here’s a list of all the applications available.
Lupo PenSuite
Lupo PenSuite also provides a graphical interface that’s been translated into 28 languages for managing a plethora of portable apps (over 200, including popular apps such as 7-Zip, Audacity, CCleaner, eMule, FileZilla, Firefox, Foxit Reader, GIMP, IrfanView, Notepad++, Opera and Pidgin).
Individual Portable Applications
Of course, you don’t need to have an app suite launcher to install portable apps on your USB flash drive. You can simply copy them to your flash drive manually. For example, i.Scribe is a fully functional email client that you can run from you flash drive. Just drag it to your stick and you’ll be able to read and compose email messages. It also includes a calendar, address book and supports many plugins.
It’s a good idea to add anti-virus protection to your USB flash drive. Avira AntiVir Personal is a free anti-virus program that you can install on your flash drive.
There are numerous portable versions of browsers that you can use on your flash drive. The most popular are Portable Firefox, Portable Google Chrome, Portable Opera and Avant Portable Browser.
Portable OS in Your Pocket
You can actually install a stripped-down version of Windows XP on your USB flash drive thanks to software like BartPE (Bart’s Preinstalled Environment) which makes the process extremely less painful and more efficient.
If you prefer to roll with a Linux-flavored operating system, instead of a mini-Windows, then you can do so with the help of PendriveLinux.com. You can select just about any type of Linux, such as Debian, Ubuntu, and many more. You can find ready-to-burn Live CD images here on The LiveCD list and UNetbootin.
How about Mac OS? Yes, that’s possible too, although you’ll need a USB drive that is 8 GB or larger.
Virtual OS on a Stick
VMware is the leading innovator of virtual operating systems. It started by developing a way to install multiple operating systems on a single desktop but eventually found its niche by offering a platform to host multiple virtual servers instead of just desktops operating systems. It now provides a way to install a complete virtual operating system on a USB flash drive with a product called VMWare ACE. Not only can you run everything you run on a normal full-blown desktop or laptop, but it also provides connectivity back to your company’s network via a secure VPN. Thus, you can pop your flash drive in any computer with Internet access and work on your own customized desktop and even access your files and documents on your corporate LAN.
What do you carry on your USB flash drive?
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Tags: firefox, google, internet, linux, ubuntu
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Today, we’re happy to announce that Similar Images is graduating from Google Labs and becoming a permanent feature in Google Images. You can try it out by clicking on “Find similar images” below the most popular images in our search results. For example, if you search for jaguar, you can use the “Find similar images” link to find more pictures of the car or the animal.
When we revamped Labs in April, we also launched Similar Images to highlight some of the innovative work our engineers have been working on. Google Labs gives us a way to get some of our new ideas in front of you early in the process, refine them based on your feedback and see what sticks. Your support has helped to make Similar Images the first major feature to graduate from Google Labs since its recent overhaul.
So, let’s say you want to find images of Ancient Egypt. Google Images will provide you with a rich variety of results, including pyramids, maps, relics, drawings and other types of images. Instead of poring through hundreds of images, now you can simply click “Find similar images” to narrow down the results to the results to the type you want. (We’re rolling this out gradually, so the links in the below examples may not work for you yet.)
Or illustrative maps of Ancient Egypt:
Or ancient Egyptian-style drawings:
While we’ll continue to use Google Labs as a way to showcase and collect feedback for exciting new technologies, we also want to make it easier for you to provide direct feedback on all aspects of Google Images. That’s why today we’re also announcing the availability of Product Ideas for Google Images. With product ideas, you can post comments that will be seen directly by members of the Images team, as well as vote on ideas that others have submitted. We’ll pay special attention to those ideas that are voted to the top of the list.
Posted by Erik Murphy-Chutorian and Chuck Rosenberg, Software Engineers
Tags: google, ideas
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Up until now, if you wanted to use Google Voice, you needed to choose a new number (a “Google number”). Taking calls through your Google number allows us to offer features like call recording, call screening and getting text messages via email. But we know not everyone wants to switch to a new phone number, so it made sense for us to create a lighter version of Google Voice for people who are willing to trade some features for the ability to use their existing numbers.
We’re excited to announce that you now have the choice to get Google Voice with your existing mobile number OR with a Google number.
If you sign up using your existing number, you’ll still get many of Google Voice’s features. Most notably, you’ll get all the functionality of Google voicemail, as explained in this video:
If you already have a Google Voice account, you can add Google voicemail to any mobile phone you’ve linked to your account. If you’re not yet using Google Voice, you can request an invite or ask a friend with a Google Voice account to send you an invitation. When you receive the invitation to sign up, you can choose to use Google Voice with your existing number — or to get a Google number for additional features.
Google Voice is about giving you more control over your communications. We hope this new option makes it easier for you to manage your messages and personalize your voicemail experience.
Posted by Craig Walker, Vincent Paquet & Pierre Lebeau, Product Managers
Tags: google
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This past September, you may have heard about the launch of our Data Liberation site, a central place on the web detailing how you can easily move your data into or away from Google’s cloud. Today, we’re adding another product to our growing list of liberations: the “Convert, Zip and Download” feature in Google Docs, which allows you to download a bunch — or all — of your Docs simultaneously.
This new feature comes out of a collaboration between the Google Docs engineering team and Google’s Data Liberation Front, a small team of engineers that aims to make it easy for you to transfer your personal data in and out of Google’s services by building simple import and export functions.
“Convert, Zip and Download” now joins dozens of other liberation features across our product offerings, ranging from Blogger’s full blog downloads to email export from Gmail using IMAP and POP3. The feature lets you bundle your Google Docs in a format of your choice (MS Office, Open Office, PDF, etc.) and download them as a zip file. No longer do you have to download each document individually, which can take a lot of time if you have hundreds of documents like I do! All you need to do is select the relevant Docs, click on “Export” from the “More Actions” menu and download them in one go. (Check out the Google Docs Blog for more details.)
We hope you find the new export feature useful. We strongly believe that you — not the products you use — should control your data, and be able to quickly and easily take that data out of any product without a hassle. We’ve already liberated more than half of our products, and are working hard to address the remaining challenges. Keep an eye out for more upcoming Data Liberations.
You can also take a deeper look into product liberation at dataliberation.org, follow us on Twitter @dataliberation or contribute suggestions for services that you think need to be liberated on our Data Liberation Moderator page.
Posted by Brian Fitzpatrick, Engineering Manager, the Data Liberation Front
Tags: gmail, google, twitter
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