Category: Google

If you ask any Gmail power user what feature they think is most desperately needed to make their favorite Web-mail service even better, we guarantee nine out of ten will either say rich text or HTML signatures. See, Google decided some time ago that we'd only need plain text for our electronic sign-offs. Those of us who wanted to insert links, images or even just use a different font were forced ...

Have you all been watching 'Work of Art,' Bravo's latest horrible venture into competitive reality programming? The show -- which pits artists of varying skill, experience and taste against one another for a solo show at the Brooklyn Museum -- asked the contestants this week to make an artwork based on their experience visiting an Audi showroom. (We're just going to gloss over how ridiculous that ...

Google has now announced that you can use its services to get a sideways view of the world. A few months back, Google released its 45-degree aerial photographs to developers, and has since incorporated the perspective into its beta testing ground, Google Maps Labs. Now the images are available for all users, but they only cover a handful of areas: some parts of California; South Africa; Venice, ...

We're suckers here for 'Rock'Em Sock'Em Robots,' and, really, who isn't? Before we were plunking down hundreds of quarters on 'Street Fighter II' or 'Mortal Kombat,' we were making little plastic bots launch haymakers at each other, trying to literally knock their blocks off. But kids these days aren't content to play with plastic figures and board games anymore, so 'Rock'Em Sock'Em' must update ...

Big changes are afoot at YouTube, on both desktop and mobile fronts. The video sharing site finally launched its new TV-friendly 'Leanback' Web interface yesterday, just a month after parent Google announced its own highly touted GoogleTV platform. Leanback [Ed. Note: Does this make anyone else wanna 'Do the Rock Away?'] lets users navigate feeds, recommendations, searches and categories, by ...

Since hitting the market in late 2008, Android has had one glaring omission from its repertoire of form factors: a candy-bar style, portrait QWERTY phone like a BlackBerry. Those who fell in love with their BlackJack or Dash back in the day, and are desperate to upgrade to a modern mobile OS like Android finally have an option: the Motorola Charm. The Charm is the spiritual successor to the ...

This weekend, the mischievous hackers that hang out on the boards at 4Chan uncovered and had a field day with a vulnerability in the comments system on YouTube. The exploit allowed the troublemakers to hijack a page by simply leaving a comment with specific HTML tags. The attack could come in the form of a banner laid over a video, a pop-up alert message or even redirect you to a different site. ...

Google announced yesterday that it would be "grossing-up imputed taxes on health insurance benefits for all same-sex domestic partners in the United States." Basically, the Google Gays (or 'Gayglers,' as the company calls them) who happen to live outside of Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Washington, D.C., and who list a domestic partner on their insurance plans will ...

Google Senior product manager Baljeet Singhe announced Tuesday that YouTube, which is expected to finally make a profit this year, will begin embedding skippable ads in some videos within the next six months. Allowing users to offer feedback or choose ads is hardly new; Hulu lets you choose your commercials with Ad Selector, and Facebook's ads can be voted up or down. As with most everything in ...

When Claire Rowlands searched Google Street View for her mother's home, she expected to see her mom's garden, car and front fence. One thing she didn't expect was her 3-year-old son's bare butt, but that's exactly what Google's camera-equipped car had captured, in all its glory. Although her son Louis's frontal anatomy was blocked from view, the uncensored image of his heinie was enough to make ...

Google News got a major overhaul last night, and, as you'd expect, the site's major changes revolve around user autonomy. The news aggregation site now lets you choose to view stories in headline or section view, and, with the help of a drop-down menu, more easily shares stories on Facebook, Twitter, Buzz or Reader. The revamped version of Google News will also provide more local news and events, ...

Since withdrawing its services from the Chinese mainland due to concerns over the governmental censorship of online content, Google has been rerouting Chinese searches to its uncensored search page based out of Hong Kong. The Chinese government, of course, is none too pleased with Google's clever maneuver, and, in response, is threatening to reject the company's application to renew its Internet ...

Although it's only been a few months since November, it seems like forever ago that Google announced Chrome OS, its lightweight Linux plus browser operating system that is aimed at the growing netbook and tablet market. Over the past couple of months, we've caught a few tantalizing glimpses of its Web-app based future, including interface mock-ups and the announcement of an app store. We've even ...

Who is Horse-Boy? Internet mystery! You can debate your iamwhoiams all night, but Horse-Boy is a true conundrum. How do we know? Why, the BBC told us so. Britain's biggest news organization is baffled by Horse-Boy, a shadowy figure dressed in what could only be described as a perplexingly purple button-down shirt, who has a horse's head in his human head's place, and has made surprise ...

Share In celebration of... well, we're not sure what exactly (perhaps to raise awareness of migraine sufferers), Google has added a vuvuzela button to YouTube. Just click the soccer ball icon to overlay a loop of the blaring World Cup staples over almost any video on the site. It's great for transforming seemingly harmless clips (of bunnies staring, for instance) into terrifying, Stanley ...