Time Zone Converter in Google Search

I'm not sure if this is a new Google feature, but it's pretty useful. You could always ask Google "what's the time in Mountain View?", "what's the time in Australia?" or "time in GMT". Now you can also convert time zones. For example, you can convert "2PM GMT to EST" or "10 PM in Mountain View in Vienna time".

If you search for "10 PM in Mountain View in Australia time", Google shows the time in Canberra and mentions that Australia has 13 time zones, while linking to the search results for "time in Australia".

{ via Matt Cutts and Search Engine Roundtable }

YouTube Music Key, Free for Play Music Subscribers

When YouTube announced the Music Key subscription service, I wondered if Google Play Music subscribers will be able to use it for free. It made sense to assume this, since YouTube Music Key bundled Google Play Music All Access. It turns out that Google Play Music subscribers will get access to YouTube Music Key for free.



"Starting next week, as a Google Play Music subscriber, you'll get free and complete access to the YouTube Music Key beta, a new service from YouTube where you can watch ad-free music videos, and keep the music playing in the background or when you're offline. The Google Play Music app will also include ad-free music videos alongside select tracks," informed Google.



This means that Play Music subscribers will be able to use Music Key starting today. It's worth pointing out that Music Key will only be available in the US, UK, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Finland and Portugal.

Music Key and Play Music All Access are complementary services. Music Key uses Play Music data to show recommendations and metadata, Play Music's catalog is enhanced by adding YouTube's huge music library. Play Music's subscription service offers more value, while Google manages to use YouTube's strengths to make Play Music more popular.

Particles Visualization in Google Play Music

Google Play Music's desktop web app has a cool visualization you can enable when playing a song. Mouse over the small album art thumbnail at the bottom of the window and click "Particles" to enable the visualization. You can disable the visualization by pressing Esc or clicking anywhere inside the animation pane. To enable it again, just click the album art thumbnail.

If you don't like the particles visualizer, you can always mouse over the album art thumbnail and pick the album art visualizer, which is more subtle. Google Play Music remembers your last pick.

{ via Android Police }