TidBit ~ Google Realtime Search

On Thursday, Google rolled out Google Realtime Search on its own Web site. Realtime was originally  rolled out last December as part of Google Search. Realtime brings the freshest and most relevant information up-to-the second from across the Web for your search results; therefore, it only made sense to give it its own home. You can get Realtime updates as soon as they occur or bundled on a daily or weekly basis. These up-to-the second updates are from sites like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, news sites, blog post etc. Real-time search allows you to receive the most current information on the Web, whether it is breaking news or simply a blog post.

To try Google’s Realtime search and ascertained more information visit the above link or http://www.google.com/landing/realtime/

As always, post your comments, email me with your topics and let’s have a good time learning together!

In His Service,
AvaByGrace

You can follow this blog via the “Follow with Google Friend Connect” link on the right, add http://www.webbytesblog.com/ to your RSS feed or Google Reader.

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Making Calls from Gmail

Article first published as "Making Calls from Google" on Technorati

Yesterday Google rolled out a new feature to U.S base Gmail users. This feature allows you to call any phone from Gmail. Currently, calls to the US and Canada will be free and there is a fee to call other countries. If you are already set up to use this feature, you will see a new icon “Call Phone” when you sign in to your Gmail account. This icon is listed under the “Chat” link on the left of the screen. When you click on the “Call Phone” icon a pop-up key pad window will appear where you can point and click the numbers you would like to call or select a contact from your contact list.  After placing a call you have the option of redialing the number. Pretty neat! You can also install voice and video plug-in from this pop-up window with the key pad if you do not already have this installed.

If you have a Google Voice account, you can choose to have these calls received in your Gmail account by following the instructions given in Google Chat Help. Remember you will need to have voice and video plug-in installed on your computer for this new feature to work.

For more information on this new Gmail feature, visit http://www.google.com/chat/voice/
As always, post your comments, email me with your topics and let’s have a good time learning together!

In His Service,
AvaByGrace

You can follow this blog via the “Follow with Google Friend Connect” link on the right, add http://www.webbytesblog.com/ to your RSS feed or Google Reader.

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New Jing Features

TechSmith has updated Jing (a screen capture application) with three new features to enhance user experience. The next time you sign in to Jing you will be prompted to install the new version which will contain these new features or you can choose to defer this upgrade for two weeks. To view previous Webbytes blog posts on Jing, check out the 11/22/08 post and the 3/3/09 posts.

These new features are:

Audio control

This new feature helps if you use more than one audio device to record videos i.e. a headset and the internal microphone on your computer. Now Jing will now automatically prompt you to select which one of the devices you would like to use prior to recording a video. You can also specify the recording device in Jing preferences. Check out the Learning Center for this feature.

Sharing via Secure FTP (File transfer protocol)
This new feature allows you to send your content directly to the site you want it to go to(a secure FTP). Jing now lets you point and click to accomplish this by first creating a customized output button with the details for the server. This makes it easy to share your captures with others. Steps for creating this button can be seen on a video at the Jing’s Learning Center via this link http://www.techsmith.com/learn/jing/tutorials/share/the-ftp-button/default.asp?cmp=jing24 

Jing Auto Detects
If you work with a proxy server, Jing will automatically detect your proxy settings and it supports authenticated proxy. You will have to set your preferences and Jing will do the rest. In visiting the Learning Center, I only saw information for Windows so I would have to presume this new feature only applies to Windows operating systems at this time. 

As always, post your comments, email me with your topics and let’s have a good time learning together!

In His Service,

AvaByGrace

You can follow this blog via the “Follow with Google Friend Connect” link on the right, add http://www.webbytesblog.com/ to your RSS feed or Google Reader.

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Gmail Changes

 Article first published as Gmail Changes on Technorati.

Yesterday Gmail Blog announced several changes to Gmail for Mail, Contacts and Tasks. These three most used features have been moved to the top left hand panel making them easier to find. In the same vicinity the Compose link has been replaced with a button.

Another change is the move of the All, None, Read, Unread, Starred and Unstarred links to the left of the Archive button. They are now housed in a drop-down menu above the selection field and as stated, left of the Archive button. There is also a broader area for documenting your tasks.

Gmail has also made some major changes to Contacts making it easier to use as requested by the users so keep making your comments. Contacts can now be sorted by last name via the More action button and selecting the Sort by you prefer. Other changes are custom labels for phone numbers and other fields; the Undo feature is also available for Contacts; automatic saving of changes; the option to use structured name fields or continue with free-form fields; the merging of manual and bulk contacts via the More actions menu; and selecting and grouping contacts have been made similar to selecting and labeling email. Lastly, keyboard shortcuts can now work in Contacts.

If you are a Gmail user, a pop-up window will display the first time you sign into Gmail notifying you of the new changes.

As always, post your comments, email me with your topics and let’s have a good time learning together!

In His Service,
AvaByGrace

You can follow this blog via the “Follow with Google Friend Connect” link on the right, add http://www.webbytesblog.com/ to your RSS feed or Google Reader.

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Google Chome Drop and Drag

Yesterday, Google announced one of its newest tips for Google Chrome. The task of dropping and dragging attachments from emails and saving to your desktop is now possible with the Google Chrome browser. This can be done by opening the email and hover (let your mouse remain on the item) your mouse over the attachment link or the file icon. This will produce a tooltip (a pop-up with a brief description/instruction) stating “Click to view OR drag to your desktop to save”. You simply click and hold the file with your cursor then drag the file to where you want to save it.  Release the file and your attachment is saved. Great time saving tip!

Other time saving tips on attachments:
Drop and Drag Attachments onto Messages (Google Chrome and Firefox only)
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/drag-and-drop-attachments-onto-messages.html

Drag Images into Messages (Google Chrome only)
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/drag-images-into-messages.html

As always, post your comments, email me with your topics and let’s have a good time learning together!

In His Service,
AvaByGrace

You can follow this blog via the “Follow with Google Friend Connect” link on the right, add http://www.webbytesblog.com/ to your RSS feed or Google Reader.
Read more!