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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What You Need To Know About Windows System Restore

Windows System Restore could save your butt when your computer goes wonky. There are plenty of horror stories of people who forgot to make backups. Well, imagine the trouble you could find yourself in, if you didn’t make backups of your system? That’s where System Restore steps in. What is a restore point? Should you be using the System Restore feature or would you be better off disabling it? And if you decide to use it, how do you go about setting it up? By the end of this article, you’ll know the answers to each of those questions, so...

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Google Chromebook Lands in India; Should You Buy One?

Google Chromebooks, the low-cost laptops running on Google Chome OS, are available in India but do they offer value for money? Should you buy a Chromebook?

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This story, Google Chromebook Lands in India; Should You Buy One?, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 10/10/2013 under Google Chromebook, India

Lightweight Music Players Not Up To Snuff? Jaangle Will Change Your Mind

Don’t you just hate it when a music player is so bloated that it takes forever to install, even longer to load, and slows your computer down to unbearable speeds? There are some lightweight music players out there, like Foobar2000 (our Foobar2000 review) and GOM Audio (our review), but maybe you don’t like them for whatever reasons. Well, have you heard of Jaangle? Jaangle flew under my radar until a MakeUseOf reader, DiogoCosta, recommended it as his personal favorite program for light, simple, and efficient music playing. Seeing as how Jaangle was originally known as Teen Spirit, I was a...

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Oil Rush: A Fun, Cross Platform Strategy Game With Amazing Graphics

I’ve been waiting a long time to be able to do this — review a decent game that’s available for Linux. Yes, I’m fully aware of the fact that there have been great games such as X-Plane available for the OS a long time ago, but this is different. Linux actually has a steady stream of good games coming its way, rather than the cute, but lackluster open source games that most serious gamers laugh at before turning back to Windows. Ever since Steam has been made available for Linux, there’s been a number of great titles added (and plenty...

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5 Creative Uses Of PowerPoint Presentations You Haven’t Explored Yet

Death by PowerPoint is a popular term. It’s unfair that PowerPoint gets the stick as there are more than a few presentation tools around. As anyone who has taken the pains to make a memorable PowerPoint presentation will tell you – the secret of the steak is in the sizzle. The sizzle also comes and stops at creativity. If you have creativity by your side, you can use PowerPoint as your canvas. We have looked at a few offbeat uses earlier. Visual resumes on PowerPoint could make you stand out in a crowd. I looked into how to turn a...

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Create A Free Online Database For Any Purpose With Soda DB

What do you call a spreadsheet on steroids? A database. Where’s the best place to store a database? Well, on the Internet of course; and here I am going to tell you how to easily create a free online database for your own purpose. Having your data, and the ability to enter your data, right on the Internet means that you can manage and control your data from anywhere in the world, so long as you have an Internet connection. Why would you ever want to do this? Well, just think of the possibilities. You could maintain a complete online...

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5 Tools To Take An Auto-Guided Google Street View Tour

Hitting the road for a scenic drive can be super relaxing. Unfortunately, it’s neither a cheap, nor an environmentally friendly pastime, which both traffic and weather can utterly ruin. With Google Street View you can comfortably explore the world from your desk. Google Maps is a nifty navigation tool and all the information embedded in the maps make it a great travel guide, too. Now you can even set Street View on auto-pilot and let it take you on the world’s most scenic drives. Here are 5 tools that make this possible. Gaiagi Driving Simulator This online driving simulator will...

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Technophilia 84 Live From MakeUseOf

This week: some jerk hacked into a baby monitor and started swearing at a two-year old. Maybe your baby monitor shouldn’t be connected to the web? The federal government shut down the Silk Road. Typical big government intervention: shutting down an innovative company just to protect traditional, brick-and-mortar drug dealers. And we talk with a longtime Technophiliac whose website we made fun of. He’ll tell us whether or not we’re jerks. The CEO of Qwest, a phone and broadband Internet provider, is going to jail for not giving the NSA info. Why didn’t he just tell the NSA he’d drop...

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Align Parallel Texts and Help Improve Google Translate

When you select a language pair in Google Translate, you might see a message at the bottom of the page: "Please help Google Translate improve quality for your language here". The link sends you to a page like this one (the example is for French -> English).



It's an interesting way to help Google Translate become more accurate. Here's what you need to do: "In the translated sentence, select the words which mean the highlighted word in the original sentence."

It's likely that all the texts from this experiment are used to train Google Translate and they include professional translations. This might help Google Translate improve the word-level alignment of Google's parallel corpora.

Google's Knowledge Graph Card Shows TV Episodes

When you search for a TV show from the US, Google's Knowledge Graph card now shows the latest episodes. "For example, say that you're wondering when the next season of The Walking Dead starts. Try searching for [the walking dead tv show] and you'll see all episodes listed along with their air dates," explains Google.



I've searched for [Breaking Bad], [Seinfeld], [Dexter], [Modern Family] and the results are pretty good. Unfortunately, when you click on the episode title, Google displays a card that doesn't provide a lot of useful information. It's just the first paragraph from the corresponding Wikipedia article. Here's an example: "'Problem Dog' is the seventh episode of the fourth season of the American television drama series Breaking Bad, and the 40th overall episode of the series. It originally aired on AMC in the United States on August 28, 2011." Google should use the plot summaries from IMDb.

How To Make Your Windows 7 PC Genuine Again After a Hardware Upgrade

When you purchase a computer that comes with Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows 8, that copy of Windows is tied to your computer’s hardware. It’s an OEM copy, which means it can only be used on that computer. Even if you purchase a retail, boxed copy of Windows and install it, that copy of Windows will become tied to your hardware after it activates itself with Microsoft. If you change your hardware later, your copy of Windows may become “non-genuine,” turn your desktop background black, and start pestering you to use a genuine version of Windows. You’re allowed to...

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How To Extend System Partition In Windows 8.1

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Most PC users allocate less than 25GB space to the system partition while installing Windows operating system. While 25GB of free space is good enough for users who don’t install apps that require huge disk space, it’s always a good idea to allocate at least 50GB of space to the system drive. If your Windows […]

Track Your Website’s SEO Performance with Positionly [Giveaway]

You run a website – but how do you judge your success with keywords? One way is to compare your keyword rankings with those of your competitors. Positionly offers this service, enabling you to compare and contrast your successful (or otherwise) keyword strategy. Offering a suite of tools and reports, Positionly can be used to determine whether your website’s keywords are projecting your website the best position in the search engine rankings, or if more work needs to be done. This might be used in conjunction with a Google Analytics account and a search engine optimization strategy for your website....

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How To Automatically Set Start Screen Background Color As Window Border And Taskbar Color In Windows 8.1

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The Start screen in Windows 8.1 has been enhanced with a couple of new features. The Start screen in the newest version of Windows comes with new tile sizes, lets you set desktop wallpaper as Start screen background picture, allows you uninstall multiple apps at once, and more. Just like its predecessor Windows 8, Windows […]

Google Chrome 31 Beta Packs Web Payments, Application Shortcuts For Android

Google Chrome is on a roll. After debuting a smarter Omnibox with Chrome 29 and baking Search By Image into the browser, the Chrome 31 Beta has even more new features in store, including a new e-payment system as well as mobile website shortcuts on Android. The current technology that automatically fills up forms on sites using the browser’s autocomplete information — requestAutocomplete() — is now also being used to work for online payments. On sites with requestAutocomplete(), users will be able to use payment data such as Google Wallet. Meanwhile, if you are using Chrome for Android beta, you...

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