Google Account History

Google Settings page has a new section called "account history". The section shows some links that let you manage Google search history, Google location history, YouTube search history and video history (the videos you've watched).

Google also includes "pause" buttons for all the 4 data streams. When you click "pause", Google shows black-and-white pictures and tells you what you'll be missing.



"Pausing Google Search History may limit or disable features such as Google Now, more accurate search results and predictions, and saved searches on mobile devices. Pausing Google Location History will limit the functionality of some Google products over time, such as Google Maps and Google Now. Pausing YouTube Search History does not delete existing history. To view your history, remove individual items, or clear your entire history, go to your YouTube Search History page."

Here's what happens when you pause Google search history, Google location history, YouTube search history and video history: the colorful images are converted to black and white.

YouTube's video history is really useful because it shows all the videos you've watched from any device, as long as you are logged in. Unfortunately, YouTube doesn't provide a search feature, so you have scroll until you find the right video. YouTube's video history is the most important source for YouTube's recommendations, so you should delete some of the videos if you see unpleasant recommendations. Google also uses video history to improve ads, but you can opt out of interest-based Google ads.



YouTube's search history is used to show search suggestions and to improve recommendations:

Google search history is used to show search suggestions, to personalize search results, to improve ads and to provide data for some Google Now cards. There's an important distinction between YouTube search history and Google search history: YouTube only saves your queries and the video history is saved separately, while Google search history includes both your queries and the search results you've clicked on.



Location History started as a Google Latitude feature, but it's still available, even if Google Latitude was discontinued. To understand Location History, you need to know what Location Reporting is.



"Location Reporting allows Google to periodically store and use your device's most recent location data in connection with your Google Account. Location History allows Google to store a history of your location data from all devices where you are logged into your Google Account and have enabled Location Reporting."



Both features are related to mobile devices and they're used by Android/iOS apps like Google Maps, Google Search and Google+. Location History requires Location Reporting, but you can use Location Reporting while disabling Location History. Google uses your data to improve Google Maps search results based on the places that you've been, to show some Google Now cards and to show your data on a map.



{ Thanks, Herin Maru. }

Feeling Lucky in Google Flight Search

A few days ago, Google Flight Search added some really cool features that help you find destinations you may enjoy. Pick one or more airports and Google shows a list of recommendations.

You can expand the map and "enter a full-screen exploring experience".

There's an "I'm feeling lucky" button that picks a destination for you. You can restrict the results, depending on your preferences. Choose the number of stops, a price range, an airline, times and duration. Click "I'm feeling lucky" again to see a different destination that matches your filters. Google shows photos for each city and helps you find the best dates for your trip.

Google Flight Search now lets you enter the name of a continent (South America) or a region (Central Africa) and shows a list of popular destinations.

Startup Tips From a Former Googler

Thomas Korte worked at Google for almost 9 years and he's now running AngelPad, a startup incubator. Thomas shared some of the things he learned at Google and could be useful for a startup:

* hire great people

* hire for the company, not for the job

* ask "why not?" instead of "why?"

* use data, not opinions

* put users first, money last

* share company information with employees

* build a culture that lasts

* give a license to dream (Google's 20% time - the permission from the company

to do things that are outside the normal scope of what you are doing)

* ask for forgiveness, not for permission (Google Books started as a service for scanning catalogs and Google didn't ask for permission to scan them).

Google Shows Step-by-Step Instructions

I mentioned a few months ago that Google now answers complicated questions. Depending on your query, you might see a long answer obtained from a web page.



Google's answers also include lists. Here are some examples from a Gmail support page and an Apple support page:

When searching for [gmail export contacts], Google now lists the steps right on the search results page, so you don't have to click the search result and find the answer.



Here's a similar example for [icloud restore]. Notice how Google removes some of the text from the article to keep it brief.

The answers aren't limited to tech-related queries. You can also find [how to remove a popcorn ceiling], [how to install a toilet], [how to change a tire], [how to boil eggs] and more.

Save your Google Voicemail to Google Drive as MP3 Files

When you receive a voicemail message on a phone number connected to your Google Voice account, the text transcription of the voice mail is emailed to your Gmail account along with a link to play the audio message on your phone or desktop. Now you can automatically save that voice mail to your Google Drive as an MP3 file.

I have written a little web app that scans your Gmail mailbox for any voicemails from Google Voice and it will save the audio in a specific folder on your Google Drive. The app attaches the voicemail transcript to the MP3 file as well thus making it possible for you to search your voice mails from within Google Drive.

To get started, click here and authorize ^why the app to access your Gmail and Google Drive accounts. On the next screen, click the Google Voice button and wait for the app to initialize. That’s it. The app will run in the background and monitor your Gmail account for any messages from Google Voicemail.

It creates a new folder called Google Voice in your Google Drive and all the voicemail MP3 files are saved in this folder. Also, once a voice mail has been processed in Gmail, a new label called MP3 is applied to that message to prevent the app from reprocessing that email message.

The app is powered by Google Scripts and the entire source code is available below. You can stop the script anytime using the uninstallation link that would have arrived in your Gmail account when you authorized the app.

Google Script – Save Voice Mail as MP3 in Google Drive

/* Written by Amit Agarwal amit@labnol.org   */
/* Tutorial: http://ift.tt/1qEMTAp  */

var folder,  folder_name = "Google Voice";
var archive, gmail_label  = "MP3";

/* Find Google Voice messages in Gmail */

var filter  = "from:voice-noreply@google.com -label:" + gmail_label;    
var threads = GmailApp.search(filter, 0, 10);

if (threads.length) {
  
  /* Google Drive folder where the MP3 files will get stored */
  var folders = DriveApp.getFoldersByName(folder_name); 
  folder = folders.hasNext() ? folders.next() : DriveApp.createFolder(folder_name);
  
  /* Gmail Label that is applied to processed voice mails */
  archive = GmailApp.getUserLabelByName(gmail_label) ? 
    GmailApp.getUserLabelByName(gmail_label) : GmailApp.createLabel(gmail_label);
  
  for (var x=0; x<threads.length; x++) {
    
    threads[x].addLabel(archive);
    
    var msg = threads[x].getMessages()[0];
    
    /* Find the link to play the voice mail message */
    var url = msg.getBody().match(/https?:\/\/http://ift.tt/1qauxtx);
    
    if (url) {
      
      /* Find the name of the voice sender (or their phone number) */
      var file_name = msg.getSubject().match(/new voicemail from (.*) at /i);
      
      /* Add the voice mail date to the file name */
      var file_date = Utilities.formatDate(
        msg.getDate(), Session.getScriptTimeZone(), "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm");
      
      if (file_name) {
        
        /* Extract the audio file and save as an MP3 file */
        var mp3 = url[0].replace("/voice/fm/", "/voice/media/svm/");
        var file = folder.createFile(UrlFetchApp.fetch(mp3).getBlob());
        
        /* Save the voice mail transcript with the audio file */
        file.setName(file_name[1] + " [" + file_date + "]" + ".mp3");
        file.setDescription(msg.getPlainBody());
        
      }                   
    }        
  }      
}

[*] The script triggers every 15 minutes and processes 10 voice mail messages in the batch starting with the most recent ones. If you have too many old voice mails in your Gmail account, it may take a while to process all the emails.

[**] The web app requires permissions to access your Gmail and Google Drive. I have shared the full source code of the app but if you aren’t convinced yet, just make a copy of the above code in your Google Drive and run it manually.

Also see: Save Gmail Attachments to Google Drive

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This story, Save your Google Voicemail to Google Drive as MP3 Files, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 13/06/2014 under GMail, Google Drive, Internet

How to Record Streaming Audio with Audacity

Would you like to record streaming music from Internet radio stations like Pandora or iTunes? Are you looking for a simple way to save the audio from a live webinar that’s playing on your computer? Or maybe you are trying to capture the background sounds of your favorite video game.

Recording “What You Hear” – Step by Step

Here’s an extremely easy and inexpensive method that will let you record any sound coming from your computer speakers. There’s no complex configuration required and all you need is Audacity, a popular audio editing software (freeware) and some common computer cables. The steps are similar for both Windows and Mac computers.

Step 1. Get the Software Cables

You’ll need a pair of headphones that you already have, a stereo audio cable (3.5mm male to male) and a jack splitter (3.5mm male to two 3.5mm female splitter). With the splitter, you can connect two headphones to your iPhone or iPod and thus both you and your friend can listen to music at the same time.

Step 2: Connect the cables to the computer

This video clip explains how you can connect the cables to the computer for recording system audio.

The male end of the jack splitter goes into the audio output port of the computer (often colored green). Plug one end of the loopback cable into the jack splitter and other end into the line-in port on the computer (often colored blue). Finally, plug your microphone jack into the other vacant female port of the splitter.

[*] If you have a newer Macbook that doesn’t have the audio input port, you can still capture the audio of Mac using Audacity without needing any cables.

Step 3. Start the recording

Open the Audacity program on your computer and under preferences, set the recording input as Built-in Input (it maybe listed as Line In or Microsoft Sound Mapper Input as in this screenshot). Now play any media file on your computer, or play music on a streaming site, switch to Audacity and hit the Record button. If you see a moving waveform, the audio is getting recorded.

When you are done, stop the recording in Audacity and export the audio as an .wav file. You can also download the LAME encoder to save the audio in MP3 format or use FFMPEG to convert the audio manually.

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This story, How to Record Streaming Audio with Audacity, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 08/06/2014 under Music, Software

Create an Email Newsletter with your Facebook Photos

Most of your friends and family members are active on Facebook and thus they can always see the pictures and other stuff that you regularly post on these social networks. However, if there some people in your family who do not have an account on Facebook yet, or they prefer to stay away from the site, you can still keep them in the loop with Kidpost.

Also see: Sell your Facebook & Instagram Photos

Send Facebook Photos by Email

Kidpost will monitor your Facebook and Instagram feeds and it will prepare a daily email digest with all the photos and videos that you have uploaded to your accounts in the previous day. It will only gather media that have the tag #kidpost attached (see example) so you can choose what gets included in the outgoing email.

You then need to specify a list of email addresses who you want to send these updates to. Once the recipients confirm their addresses, they will start getting a daily email newsletter will all your photos.

It is much like building an automated email newsletter with your Facebook content except that it is private – you have to decide who is included in your list.

Kidpost currently supports Facebook and Instagram though support for other services like Twitter and Flickr will be included soon. Also, the service is free though that may not be the case once the service sheds the beta tag.

Thank you Gina Trapani for the tip.

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This story, Create an Email Newsletter with your Facebook Photos, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 06/06/2014 under Facebook, Internet

How to Record Screencast Videos on Android

I uploaded my first Android screencast on YouTube today. The video walks you through the steps necessary to install an Android app from the Google Play store on your mobile phone.

The Android screen was recorded at 720p (1280×720) resolution, there are no visible frame-drops in the video and the screencast output is in MPEG-4 (.mp4) format that can be directly uploaded to YouTube or can be edited in any video editing app, both on your phone and the desktop.

Screencasting on Android – Step by Step

If you would like to record screencast videos of your own Android phone, the good news is that you don’t need to install any app nor do you have to root your device. The not-so-good news is that you can only capture screencasts on phones (or tablets) that are running Android 4.4+ and it will not record the audio.

According to Google, about 14% of Android devices are currently running KitKat. If you happen to be one among them, here’s how you can screencast your phone.

Step 1: Prepare your Android Device for Screencasting

Open your Android phone settings and go to About Phone, the last option in the list. Next tap Build Number seven times in quick succession and you’ll see a message saying that Developer Options have been enabled in your device.

Now use the “back” button to return to the Settings page, tap Developer Options and toggle the on-off switch. Here turn on USB Debugging and also enable Show Input Touches – the on-screen interactions like taps and swipes will be recorded as circles in the screencast.

Step 2: Prepare your computer (Windows or Mac)

We need to install the Android SDK on our desktop. This is simple. All you have to do is download the SDK in a zip file from the android.com website and unzip the file anywhere on your computer.

The Android SDK is available for both Mac and Windows.

Step 3: Connect your Android phone to the desktop

First connect your Android phone to your computer though the regular micro USB cable. The phone will display a prompt asking you to “Allow USB debugging.” Tap OK to continue.

Now open the command prompt in Windows, or the Terminal shell on your Mac, and switch (use the “cd” command) to the sdk/platform-tools directory inside the Android SDK folder.

Here run the command adb devices and if it shows a device under the “List of devices attached”, you are all set to record the first movie of your Android screen.

Step 4: Record the Screencast Video

Run the follow command to enter recording mode. Advanced users may refer to the help manual to learn about the various options supported by screenrecord.

adb shell screenrecord --verbose ./sdcard/screencast-video.mp4

Now switch to your phone and whatever you do here will get recorded in the video. When you are done, go to command window and press Ctrl + C to stop the video recording. The screencast is now saved in your Android phone.

You can use a File manager app, I prefer File Wrangler, to search for the screencast-video.mp4 file on the phone and transfer it to your desktop for editing.

Also see: Screencasting on iPad & iPhone

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This story, How to Record Screencast Videos on Android, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 06/06/2014 under Android, Screencasting, Software

Chrome Web Store Links to Android Apps

Chrome Web Store now shows links to Google Play for apps and extensions that are also available for Android. For example, Pocket's page includes this message next to the number of users: "Available for Android. Get it".

You can also find Chrome apps and extensions that are available for Android:

Google Play doesn't show links to Chrome Web Store apps, at least not yet. It will be interesting to see if Google plans to keep a separate store for Chrome or merge it with Google Play. When Google rebranded Android Market, I speculated that Google Play will become Google's unified store for digital content.



{ via Chrome Story }

A Google Translate Experiment Shows Definitions

Google Translate experiments with displaying definitions for the words you're translating. Jérémy Heleine noticed the new feature, which shows a list of definitions, synonyms, examples and related words and snippets. Google also suggests a related translation ("see also").

Definitions and synonyms are also displayed in Google Search, but they're useful in Google Translate too. In addition to using Google Translate as a dictionary, you could improve your translation by picking a better synonym, a context or a more appropriate expression. For example, instead of using "Hello", you could translate "Hi" or "Howdy" and you'll get different translations.



Google Search even lets you translate words when searching for definitions. Search for [define hello], expand the dictionary card and you'll see a section called "translation hello to". Another option is to search for [translate hello into french].

{ Thanks, Frédéric Pereira. }

What is Gmail’s Daily Limit on Sending Email?

Gmail has certain limits in place. For instance, the maximum size of file attachments that you can include in an email message is 25 MB while the total storage limit for a free Gmail account is 15 GB.

Similarly, Google also limits the number of email messages that you can send through your Gmail account in a day. If you exceed the daily quota, Google may temporarily disable your Gmail account without any warnings and you may have to wait for up to 24 hours before you can regain access to your Gmail mailbox.

Gmail Limits for Sending Email

Gmail isn’t designed for sending bulk email. If you are planning to send an email message to a large group of friends using Gmail, do read the following rules to avoid temporary lockdown of your Gmail:

Rule 1: You can send emails to a maximum of 500 recipients per day through the Gmail website. Try exceeding the limit and your Gmail account may get temporarily disabled with the error – “Gmail Lockdown in Section 4.”

It is important to note that this limit is around recipients and not messages. Thus you can send 10 emails to 50 people each or 1 email can be addressed to a maximum of 500 people.

Rule 2: If you access Gmail via POP or IMAP clients, like Microsoft Outlook or Apple Mail, you can send an email message to a maximum of 100 people at a time. If you exceed the limit, your account may be disabled for a day with the error – “550 5.4.5 Daily sending quota exceeded.”

Rule 3: Always double check email addresses of recipients before hitting the Send button in Gmail. That’s because your account may get disabled if the email message contains a large number of non-existent or broken addresses (<25 ?) that bounce back on failed delivery.

Rule 4: You can associate multiple email addresses with your Gmail account and send emails on behalf of any other address. However, when sending mail from a different address, the original account’s message limits are applied.

Also see: 10 Most Important Google Pages

Rule 5: If you are send emails through Google Script, like in the case of Gmail Mail Merge, the daily sending limit is 100 recipients per day for free Gmail accounts. You can use the MailApp.GetRemainingDailyQuota method to know your existing quota. If your script doesn’t perform the check, it will fail with the error – “Service invoked too many times.”

If you wish to send more email message through Google Scripts, you’ll have to upgrade to Google Apps. Even then, your sending limits will be only be increased after a few billing cycles or if you have opted for 5 or more users.

This is slightly unrelated but still important. Google, as per their program policies, may disable your Gmail account permanently if you don’t check your Gmail email for a period of nine months.

Further reading:

• My account has been locked


• Message bounced due to sending limit


• Google Apps Limits


• Google Scripts Quota

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This story, What is Gmail’s Daily Limit on Sending Email?, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 03/06/2014 under GMail, Google Apps, Email, Internet

Google Home IQ

Christopher Bettig, Art Director at Google, posted some images from a Google mobile app called Google Home IQ.



"These are some illustrations and some screens of exploratory UI for a mobile app for Android and iOS, which is now a deprecated project. The app was to control a smart thermostat and had a very visual UI which needed to account and meet accessibility standards while also illustrating four main states and varying weather conditions outside the home. Each state was given a unique shape and a corresponding unique shaped UI icon for use in the app. Each of the four states (awake, away, home, and sleep) is illustrated with all the variable weather conditions."

Google now owns Nest, so that's probably one of the reasons why this app wasn't released. EnergySense was rumored to be the name of a Google service that lets you monitor and adjust energy use.



{ Thanks, Francisco Marujo. }

Google Web History, Back to Search History

Back in 2007, Google upgraded the Search History service and renamed it Web History. If you installed Google Toolbar and enabled Web History, Google recorded your entire browsing history and made it available at google.com/history. Your browsing history was searchable and it was used to personalize your search results.

Even though the service is still called Web History, the Google Toolbar feature was removed a few months ago. "With Google Web History in Toolbar you once could store the URLs of the pages you've visited, to view and manage from any computer by signing into your Google Account. However, Web History in Toolbar is no longer supported and no new Web History information is being recorded from Toolbar," informs Google.



It's surprising that Google didn't integrate Web History with Chrome. The service shows the bookmarks from Google Toolbar instead of the bookmarks saved in Chrome and it doesn't show the browsing history synced by Chrome.

Google's Site Info Cards Use DMOZ Descriptions

When Google added site info cards for search results, I noticed that Google only used information from Wikipedia. If a site or an organization didn't have an associated Wikipedia article, the info card wasn't displayed. Now Google also uses descriptions from the Open Directory Project (DMOZ), so sites like the Official Google Blog, Android Police or this blog got their own cards.

YouTube Switches to the HTML5 Player in Chrome

YouTube has a page that lets you switch to the HTML5 player. If you visit that page in Chrome, you'll only see the message: "The HTML5 player is currently used when possible" and you can't switch to the Flash player. In all the other browsers, the Flash player is enabled by default and you can click "request the HTML5 player" to enable that player.

Here's the same page in Firefox:

It turns out that the HTML5 player is now enabled by default in Chrome and it's the only player you can use, at least officially. YouTube's HTML5 player now supports all the features of the Flash player, including ads and encrypted streams.



If you don't like the HTML5 player and you want to switch to the Flash player, install this extension.

Knowledge Graph Card in Google Maps

Google Maps for desktop added a "quick facts" card that uses information from the Knowledge Graph. If you search for a country, a state, a city, a district, a museum or any other important building, you'll find some information from Wikipedia.

Google Maps cards include a lot of useful information, depending on the context: events, transit information, hotel booking.

{ via +Google Maps }

Mobile Interface for Chrome Web Store

One of the most annoying things about Chrome Web Store was that it didn't work if you used a mobile phone or a tablet. Google only displayed a message that allowed you to send a reminder to download the app or extension from the desktop Chrome.



Chrome Web Store now has a mobile interface, but only for individual apps and extensions. The homepage, category pages and the search feature still aren't available. If you find a link to a Chrome app or extension, you can now open it in your favorite mobile browsers, read the description, check the screenshots and some other details. You can't read or write reviews, install extensions remotely, find related extensions, go to the homepage or to a category.

{ via François Beaufort }

PayPal Billing in Google Play

Google Play added support for a very popular payment service: PayPal. "We're making it possible for people to choose PayPal for their Google Play purchases in 12 countries, including the U.S., Germany, and Canada. When you make a purchase on Google Play in these countries, you'll find PayPal as an option in your Google Wallet; just enter your PayPal account login and you'll easily be able to make purchases," informs Google.

Here's the full list of countries where PayPal is now supported: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, United States, United Kingdom. One important notice: "PayPal can't be used to purchase devices or accessories on Google Play or for other purchases that use Google Wallet outside of the Play Store."



Google has always tried to promote its own payment service, whether it was called Google Checkout or Google Wallet, so why would Google add support for a competing service? Google offers an answer: "Sales of apps and games on Google Play are up by more than 300 percent over the past year. And today, two-thirds of Google Play purchases happen outside of the United States, with international sales continuing to climb. We're hoping to fuel this momentum by making Google Play payments easier and more convenient for people around the world."



In addition to supporting PayPal, Google also added carrier billing to 7 more countries (including Singapore, Thailand and Taiwan) and Google Play gift cards to 13 more countries (including Japan and Germany). "Developers based in 13 new countries can now sell apps on Google Play (with new additions such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Turkey), bringing the total to 45 countries with support for local developers."

Advanced Gmail Filters That Aren’t Available in Gmail

Gmail filters help you automatically sort email messages based on rules. So if your boss has sent an email message, the filter can mark it as important. If the email has the word “Unsubscribe” somewhere in the message body, it can be marked as a promotional message and so on.

How to Create Advanced Gmail Filters

While the built-in Gmail filters are powerful, they do have certain limitations.

For instance, you cannot have a Gmail filter that does case-sensitive search. It will treat WHO and who as same. Gmail filters won’t do pattern matching (regular expressions) so you cannot have a filter for messages that contain phone numbers.

We often get spam messages that have a few dozen addresses in the TO and CC fields but there’s no filter to automatically redirect such messages to the SPAM folder of Gmail. That’s where Google Scripts can help. You can setup advanced filters that aren’t available in the native version of Gmail.

What you see above is a set of 10 Gmail filters that were created with Apps Script. You can have a filter to process messages that contain tons of links. Or messages that have too many attachments. Or messages that have just a word or two in the message body.

The best part is that you don’t have to know scripting to use either of these filters. Just follow these 3 easy steps:

1. Click here to copy the Gmail Filters sheet into your Google Drive. You can write OFF to deactivate any of the available rules.


2. Go to the Gmail Filters menu in the sheet, choose Initialize and grant the necessary permissions to the script.


3. Now choose Turn-on Gmail Filter to activate your filters. You may close the Google sheet now.

Here’s what happens behind the scenes. The script will run in the background every 10 minutes and monitor any new unread messages in your Gmail inbox. It will then run the various rules against these messages. The native filters in Gmail take precedence and then your custom rules specified in the sheet are applied.

You can also look at the source code to understand how the various rules were created.

Awesome Google Scripts → Custom Google Scripts →

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This story, Advanced Gmail Filters That Aren’t Available in Gmail, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 15/05/2014 under GMail, Internet