Windows Update: Everything You Need To Know

Is Windows Update enabled on your PC? If you don’t know the answer to that, you should — Windows Update keeps Windows, Internet Explorer, and Microsoft Office up-to-date with the latest security patches and bug fixes, ensuring your computer is as secure as possible. However, Windows Update can also cause problems — particularly by nagging you to reboot when you’re trying to use your computer and automatically restarting your computer overnight. While Windows Update can be obnoxious, it keeps your computer secure and is well worth using. It can also be made less obnoxious with a few quick settings changes....

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Duolingo Gives A Fillip To Free Language Learning With Crowdsourced Lessons

Duolingo has gained a lot of traction as an online language learning service. It could easily gain some more with a new initiative that aims to crowdsource new lessons and new languages with the help of the website’s growing community of ten million and counting. The Language Incubator could be your chance to contribute to a course and expand the scope of learning from the six languages which Duolingo covers on its own. According to the site, the most requested languages are Chinese, Japanese Russian and Arabic. Bilingual participants can apply to contribute a course. Duolingo looks over their applications...

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Think Big, Start Small: 6 Tips To Start A Creative Project On The Web

So you have plans for a creative project and you aren’t sure where to begin? Why not start off on the Web? The Internet has a low barrier of entry yet grants you access to the largest audience known to man — the worldwide audience. There has never been a better time to jumpstart a creative project on the web than now and you won’t even need to spend much money to do so. Unfortunately, though the Internet has increased the viability of creative projects, the creative process remains as difficult as ever. You’ll face a lot of challenges and...

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Concerned About Privacy? How To Keep Google At Arm’s Length

With all of the scares surrounding the NSA’s PRISM program and the potential backdoors in many of the top American websites, most people today are as privacy-aware as ever. One of the biggest Internet companies, Google, has become a part of everyone’s lives, but if you’re concerned about Google’s data collection policies in light of these privacy issues, it might not be a bad idea to keep Google away from your Internet activities. But just how can you do that when Google is practically everywhere on the web? Here are 5 tips you can follow so that Google has far...

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Google's Storage Problem

A lot of people wonder what happens when you stop paying for additional Google storage. Google doesn't delete your files, but you're forced to delete some of them because you can't upload new files until you use less than 15GB of storage (your quota may be different).



A downside of Google's shared storage system is that it affects both Gmail and Google+ Photos, not just Google Drive. Gmail used to offer 10GB of free storage, Picasa Web/Google+ Photos only 1GB and Google Drive - 5GB. Small photos (< 2048x2048) and short videos (less than 15 minutes) uploaded using Google+ Photos, as well as the documents, spreadsheets and presentations created using Google's Drive apps don't count towards your storage limit.

"If you exceed your quota limit, you'll receive warnings in each product and you'll need to correct the issue as soon as you can. Otherwise, you'll be unable to upload additional items to your Drive or photos to Google+, and, after a period of time, incoming messages to your Gmail account will be returned to the sender and you won't be able to send new messages," explains Google.



Now that Yahoo Mail offers 1TB of free storage and Outlook.com "includes email storage that expands to provide you with as much storage space as you need", Gmail's 15GB limit doesn't look that impressive. Maybe Google wants to encourage people to use Google Drive for uploading files, instead of using Gmail attachments.



Yahoo's Flickr service offers 1TB of free photo storage. "No limited pixels, no cramped formats, no memories that fall flat." Suddenly, Google's photo offering is less impressive: you get unlimited photo storage, but only if you resize the photos.



It looks like Google no longer has the edge when it comes to free storage. Gmail offered 1GB of free storage when its main competitors only included a few megabytes of storage. Now roles are reversed.

Top 8 Sources For Downloading And Printing Masks

Did I catch you shopping for Halloween masks? You should be out and about as Halloween is not very far away. There’s time left to ratchet up the creepiness with the right mask and the right costume to go with it, but why not start “mask hunting” now with a few ready online sources for printable masks. The Web coughs up a lot of Halloween ideas and there’s so much to choose from. We do our bit too – from websites for the best Halloween costumes to geeky house decoration tips, we cover a large territory. We don’t waste nifty...

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Multi-Point Directions, Available in the New Google Maps

Google added one of the missing features from the new Google Maps for the desktop and now you can enter multiple destinations when searching for directions. Just click the "+" button to add more destinations".



"Whether you're running weekend errands or planning a cross-country tour, you can plot multiple destinations for your trip with ease – now available for driving, walking and biking directions. Once you've chosen a starting point, click '+' and add stops to your route by typing in the search box or clicking on the map," informs Google.

You can also reorder the destinations using drag and drop: just drag the icon next to the location you want to move.



Google Maps now shows data from your Gmail account. "Find your flight, hotel, and restaurant reservations faster right in Maps. Just search for your departing airport or dining destination, and we'll instantly show your upcoming plans." This only works in the US, just like the similar Google Search feature.

There's also an events card that's displayed if you search for places like Radio City, O2 Arena or Arena Berlin and click "upcoming events". The same data is used in the Knowledge Graph card from Google Search.

Multi-point directions was one of the most important missing features from the new Google Maps. What other features from the classic Google Maps would you like to see in the new Google Maps?



{ via Google Lat Long }

Real-Time Site Search Visualization

If you like the full-screen Google Trends visualization that shows the latest hot searches, there's a cool project that uses the same animations to show Google Analytics searches in real time. It's made possible by the recently launched Google Analytics Real Time Reporting API and it shows your site's internal searches, as well as some of the Google searches that lead to your site.

"You can setup your own site visualization in only two steps: first authorize access to your Analytics data, select your site, and set the query parameter for your site searches, usually the letter q. Click save, and see your visitor's searches appear live as a beautiful visualization," explains Yvo Schaap, who developed the service.



Here's a video that shows how to use this addictive mashup:

According to the site, Live Site Search Visualisation is "a dashboard visualizing live search activity on your site using your existing Google Analytics tracking." It also shows Google search referrals. Just like in Google Trends, you can click the top-left corner to select the number of keywords that are displayed at a time.

Just in case you're worrying about this, the site does not "save any data coming from your Google Analytics account on its servers. All data requests are made client-side only over https."



{ Thanks, Yvo. }

Make Interactive Image Labels with qTip (jQuery Plugin)

Images can be pretty lifeless and boring – unless they’re interactive and awesome, that is. And qTip makes this easy, with the power of jQuery. Read on to find out how you can add interactive labels that appear when the user hovers over parts of an image. Why would you want to do this? Personally, I’m using the technique in a new eCommerce site – so the user can hover-over elements of a scene (like an Ikea catalogue), with the product title and add to cart button appearing dynamically. It could also be used to good effect on something like...

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