Search by Camera in Google+ Photos

Google+ Photos has a sophisticated search feature, but some of the features aren't easy to find. For example, you can search photos by camera. Use queries like #canon, #nikon, #sony, #apple, #panasonic, #samsung, #nokia to find photos taken using a phone or camera from one of these companies. You can also use the name of the phone or camera, but not all of them work. These worked for me: #iphone4s, #iphone5s, #canonpowershots95, #canoneos, #dsc-w150, #k800i.

Supercharge Your eBook Reading With IFTTT

Remember when finding a good deal on books required sifting through piles of used or on-sale paperbacks? As fun as that was (and still is), it’s pretty time consuming. In the world of eReaders, we’re now used to thinking of a book one moment, and reading it the next. Unfortunately, finding eBook deals can still be time consuming. Unless you find a hack. As you probably already know, IFTTT is just the hack you’re looking for. This great automation service can be used for anything from superpowering Google Calendar to making money, and yes, it can also be used to...

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Google+ Auto Backup for Desktop

The latest version of Picasa for Windows and Mac installs a separate utility called Google+ Auto Backup. It's a simple tool that lets you select the folders that you want to backup automatically and even has support for SD cards. Google+ Auto Backup works in the background, much like Google Music Manager and Google Drive for desktop.

The application uses the new Google Photos icon and, even though it's installed by Picasa, it doesn't have anything to do with Picasa, which has its own syncing feature.

Here's the installer file in the Picasa folder:

When you visit Google+, you'll see this message, which informs you that you can use the search box to find photos and videos from Auto Backup.

By default, Google uploads the original photos and they use your Google Drive storage space. You can enable photo resizing, so that the uploaded photos don't count against your Google Drive storage quota. Photos are resized so that the longest edge is 2048px or less.



{ Thanks, Daniel. }

How To Go Visual With Your Ideas On The Microsoft Research Mood Board

One wouldn’t expect a tool as basic as a mood board to come out of Redmond’s multi-million dollar research labs. The Microsoft Research Mood Board (v1.3) probably grew from the potential that rests in visual communication. If you are not a designer or a visual communicator in any sense, then the concept of a ‘mood board’ is probably alien. But the joyful art of pasting together images and colorful text into collages shouldn’t be. A mood board is a collage of images, color samples, sketches, pasted items or text meant to communicate an idea visually. They are used across disciplines...

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Google+ Photo Search Filters

Google+ Photos has some filters you can use to refine your search results. Just click the search box and you can choose the source of the photos (Auto Backup, Hangouts, Google Drive, posts) or the type of results (Auto Awesome, photos of you, photospheres, videos). For some reason, Google uses hashtags and they don't work well all the time: the #Videos hashtag returns not only videos, but also photos that match "videos".



Here are the hashtags: #AutoBackup, #Hangouts, #GoogleDrive, #Posts, #AutoAwesome, #PhotosOfYou, #PhotoSphere, #Videos. You can add them to your query and filter the results. Google first shows your photos and then the photos from your circles. If you choose the source of photos, Google will only show your photos.

Some cool searches you can try:



- #AutoAwesome (all your Auto Awesome photos and videos and the ones from your circles - if they're public or shared with you)



- #AutoAwesome twinkle gif (find photos with the twinkle effect)



- #AutoAwesome motion gif (find photos with the motion effect)



- #AutoAwesome snow gif (find photos with the snow effect)



- #PhotoSphere (show panoramic images uploaded from Nexus devices)



- #AutoBackup (quickly find the photos from your mobile devices).