17 August 2013

A YouTube Experiment Removes Ads



YouTube's experiments add new features or tweak the interface. Here's an experiment that does something unexpected: it removes the ads. After changing your cookie, you'll no longer see ads on the homepage, in search results, next to YouTube videos.



This screenshot shows an ad at the top of my YouTube homepage:






When enabling this experiment, the ad disappears:






This also works for the in-stream video ads and the Homepage Roadblock ads. It's not clear why YouTube added this experiment. Maybe they want to see how people use the site if there are no ads.



How to enable the experiment? If you use Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari or Internet Explorer 8+:



1. open youtube.com in a new tab



2. load your browser's developer console:



* Chrome or Opera 15+ - press Ctrl+Shift+J for Windows/Linux/ChromeOS or Command-Option-J for Mac



* Firefox - press Ctrl+Shift+K for Windows/Linux or Command-Option-K for Mac



* Opera 12 - press Ctrl+Shift+I for Windows/Linux or Command-Option-I for Mac, then click "Console"



* Safari - check this article



* Internet Explorer - press F12 and select the "Console" tab.



3. paste the following code which changes a YouTube cookie:



document.cookie="VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=oKckVSqvaGw; path=/; domain=.youtube.com";window.location.reload();



4. press Enter and close the console.



To go back to the regular interface, use the same instructions, but replace the code from step 3 with this one:



document.cookie="VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=; path=/; domain=.youtube.com";window.location.reload();



Obviously, there are many ways to hide or remove ads, so if you want to do that, there are better options than relying on an experiment that might no longer work at some point.



{ via Techno-Net }

Google Tests Desktop Sub-sitelinks



A few months ago, Google's mobile search site tested sub-sitelinks. "The links shown below some of Google's search results, called sitelinks, are meant to help users navigate your site. Our systems analyze the link structure of your site to find shortcuts that will save users time and allow them to quickly find the information they're looking for," explains Google. The expandable sub-sitelinks go deeper and send users to some popular subsections of a site.



The same sub-sitelinks are now tested by Google's desktop search interface. Sub-sitelinks are only displayed for navigational results. The experiment makes the top result a lot more prominent and shows snippets and arrows next to the regular sitelinks. The homepage title is bigger and Google uses the card layout.






Click the arrows to see the sub-sitelinks.






Here's a video:






To try this experiment, install a cookie manager extension like "Edit This Cookie" for Chrome, go to google.com and change the value of the NID cookie to:



67=bmHw1iFJSvWl2_5KKxRfyyqHcge-1Ki-6j033efhbbojYKHEFKmAUPx-XYe2dHQi0a8mu_CqdbVH5ir0J4ZNKv7QXl_uftc7XY7Mx5UXge1RRKNpmH6Q-q9v-gfYfsbZ






If you use "Edit This Cookie", don't forget to click "Submit changes". Delete the NID cookie to opt-out from the experiment.



{ via Techno-Net }

YouTube Tests New Music Cards



YouTube experiments with a new format for the music artist box. Now it looks more like the Google Knowledge Graph card, it has more pictures, more songs, a list of related artists and a list of albums. Click an album and you'll start a playlist with all the songs from the album. Click a song and you can listen to all the other songs from the artist's playlist. Who needs Google Play Music All Access when you have YouTube?






Here's the existing layout:






There's also a new YouTube Mix interface that looks more like Google Music's radio feature. It's still a playlist, but it no longer shows numbers, there's an "up next" section, a "next video" button and the end of the list has a fading effect which suggests that there are other songs, but they're not yet displayed.












How to enable the experiment? If you use Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari or Internet Explorer 8+:



1. open youtube.com in a new tab



2. load your browser's developer console:



* Chrome or Opera 15+ - press Ctrl+Shift+J for Windows/Linux/ChromeOS or Command-Option-J for Mac



* Firefox - press Ctrl+Shift+K for Windows/Linux or Command-Option-K for Mac



* Opera 12 - press Ctrl+Shift+I for Windows/Linux or Command-Option-I for Mac, then click "Console"



* Safari - check this article



* Internet Explorer - press F12 and select the "Console" tab.



3. paste the following code which changes a YouTube cookie:



document.cookie="VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=CvMBBZAh_fw; path=/; domain=.youtube.com";window.location.reload();



4. press Enter and close the console.



To go back to the regular interface, use the same instructions, but replace the code from step 3 with this one:



document.cookie="VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=; path=/; domain=.youtube.com";window.location.reload();



{ Thanks, Yu-Hsuan Lin. }

3 Secret Ways To Use Hashtags You’ve Never Tried Before



How-To-Use-Hashtags-In-Novel-Ways-For-Better-Search

Six years after Chris Messina first introduced the hashtag, it’s taken over the Internet and is used in Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google+, Flickr and other places. The basic purpose of a hashtag, of course, is to find a list of all posts about a certain topic. We have already told you why hashtags are key to reaching a wider audience and how to use hashtags effectively on Twitter. You can also use services such as Tagboard to search hashtags across social networks. So I thought, why not take it out of the Web services that already integrate it, and apply...


Read the full article: 3 Secret Ways To Use Hashtags You’ve Never Tried Before



Faster Spell Checking in Google Docs



Now it's easier to check the spelling of a Google Docs document or a Google Slides presentation. Just click the Tools menu, select Spelling and review each spelling suggestion. You can click "change", "change all", "ignore" or "add to dictionary". After performing an action, Google locates the next spelling mistake, so you don't have to manually find it.






Until now, you had to right-click each spelling mistake and select one of the options. Google Docs flags the mistakes with red underlines, so you can still fix them manually.



"The updated spell check lets you check the spelling of your entire document or presentation at once, instead of having to resolve misspellings individually," explains Google.





8 Legal Uses For BitTorrent: You’d Be Surprised



live concert

To many people, BitTorrent is synonymous with piracy. This isn’t true — BitTorrent is certainly used for piracy, but it’s also used for many legal things. If we banned BitTorrent tomorrow and removed it from the Internet, many organizations, businesses, and content creators would have to scramble to replace it. Like HTTP, which your browser uses to communicate with websites, BitTorrent is just a protocol. You could use your browser to download pirated content, just as you could use a BitTorrent client to download pirated content, but that isn’t the only possible use. Sure, let’s face it — BitTorrent is...


Read the full article: 8 Legal Uses For BitTorrent: You’d Be Surprised



Google Drive's Desktop Shortcuts



Google Drive has a new promotional message that suggests users to install the desktop Drive app and "access your Drive from a folder on your computer."






After installing the app in Windows, you'll get 4 desktop shortcuts for Google Drive and 3 of its web apps (Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides). Google's mostly silent installer doesn't ask if you want these shortcuts. I think it's impolite to clutter people's desktops with 4 shortcuts without even asking if it's OK.






The same shortcuts are also added to the start menu / screen:






The shortcuts for Docs/Sheets/Slides let you create new documents/spreadsheets/presentations from your browser. Chrome users can already install apps and add shortcuts to the new tab page or the app launcher. Sure, you can easily delete the shortcuts, but you shouldn't have to do that.

5 Message Boards To Chat With Fellow iOS Gamers



ios-board

For some people, gaming on iOS is just a casual pastime. They jump in, play some Candy Crush or whatever the latest craze is, and move on with their day. This is fine, as the device is suited perfectly to such a method of play – many of the games are aimed at casual players. But there are also some hardcore games out there, and plenty of gamers who enjoy playing them. For hardcore iOS gamers, connecting with others can be quite enjoyable. That’s where message boards come into play. They are a great place to find like-minded iOS gamers...


Read the full article: 5 Message Boards To Chat With Fellow iOS Gamers