Sunday, September 15, 2013
Saturday, September 14, 2013
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Google spreadsheets, now with discussions
Google spreadsheets, now with discussions: Getting things done with others would be much easier if everyone was sitting right next to you. But since that’s rarely the case, we’re always updating Google Drive to make it easier to collaborate with others, no matter where you are or who you’re with.
Today we’re bringing the discussion functionality that’s already in documents and presentations to spreadsheets. If a cell has a comment in it, you'll see an orange triangle in the upper right corner and when you hover over the cell you'll see the full discussion.
The total number of comments are also tallied up at the bottom of the screen on the sheet tab, and hovering over the comment icon shows all the comments on that sheet.
And just like you’re used to with comments elsewhere, you can +mention someone to automatically include them in a discussion and send them a notification via email—and they can even reply to the comment without leaving their inbox.
Any comments that were created in spreadsheets before today are still available and saved as “Notes”. These are shown in your spreadsheet using a black triangle in the corner of the cell to differentiate them from the new discussion-style comments. You can also create new notes from the “Insert” menu if you need to leave a quick annotation on a cell.
We hope discussions makes working in spreadsheets with others more fun and productive, and we look forward to making even more improvements to collaboration in Google Drive.
Posted by Patrick Donelan, Software Engineer
Today we’re bringing the discussion functionality that’s already in documents and presentations to spreadsheets. If a cell has a comment in it, you'll see an orange triangle in the upper right corner and when you hover over the cell you'll see the full discussion.
The total number of comments are also tallied up at the bottom of the screen on the sheet tab, and hovering over the comment icon shows all the comments on that sheet.
And just like you’re used to with comments elsewhere, you can +mention someone to automatically include them in a discussion and send them a notification via email—and they can even reply to the comment without leaving their inbox.
Any comments that were created in spreadsheets before today are still available and saved as “Notes”. These are shown in your spreadsheet using a black triangle in the corner of the cell to differentiate them from the new discussion-style comments. You can also create new notes from the “Insert” menu if you need to leave a quick annotation on a cell.
We hope discussions makes working in spreadsheets with others more fun and productive, and we look forward to making even more improvements to collaboration in Google Drive.
Posted by Patrick Donelan, Software Engineer
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Customize Blogger Permalinks
Customize Blogger Permalinks: Until now, Blogger automatically generated the URL of a post using the first words from the title. If you want to customize the URL, there's a new "permalink" option in the "post settings" sidebar. When you create a post, click "permalink", enable "custom URL" and type the file name. You can only customize the file name (it's highlighted in the following example):
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2012/07/custom-blogger-url.html
... and you can only use alphanumeric characters, underscore, dash and period.
It's important to note that you can choose a custom URL only when you create a post and you can't change it later.
Why use this feature? Create shorter permalinks, use different keywords in the URL, improve search rankings. "A site's URL structure should be as simple as possible. Consider organizing your content so that URLs are constructed logically and in a manner that is most intelligible to humans," suggests Google.
As a side note, there's a mistake in the help center page for this feature: "Because Blogger automatically creates the URL from information from your post title, your URL would change should you decide to edit the title. This would result in broken links, and fewer visitors to your blog." That used to be a major annoyance in the pre-2006 Blogger, but it's no longer the case today.
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2012/07/custom-blogger-url.html
... and you can only use alphanumeric characters, underscore, dash and period.
It's important to note that you can choose a custom URL only when you create a post and you can't change it later.
Why use this feature? Create shorter permalinks, use different keywords in the URL, improve search rankings. "A site's URL structure should be as simple as possible. Consider organizing your content so that URLs are constructed logically and in a manner that is most intelligible to humans," suggests Google.
As a side note, there's a mistake in the help center page for this feature: "Because Blogger automatically creates the URL from information from your post title, your URL would change should you decide to edit the title. This would result in broken links, and fewer visitors to your blog." That used to be a major annoyance in the pre-2006 Blogger, but it's no longer the case today.
Website testing & Google search
Website testing & Google search: Webmaster level: Advanced
We’ve gotten several questions recently about whether website testing—such as A/B or multivariate testing—affects a site’s performance in search results. We’re glad you’re asking, because we’re glad you’re testing! A/B and multivariate testing are great ways of making sure that what you’re offering really appeals to your users.
Before we dig into the implications for search, a brief primer:
Website testing is when you try out different versions of your website (or a part of your website), and collect data about how users react to each version. You use software to track which version causes users to do-what-you-want-them-to-do most often: which one results in the most purchases, or the most email signups, or whatever you’re testing for. After the test is finished you can update your website to use the “winner” of the test—the most effective content.
A/B testing is when you run a test by creating multiple versions of a page, each with its own URL. When users try to access the original URL, you redirect some of them to each of the variation URLs and then compare users’ behaviour to see which page is most effective.
Multivariate testing is when you use software to change differents parts of your website on the fly. You can test changes to multiple parts of a page—say, the heading, a photo, and the ‘Add to Cart’ button—and the software will show variations of each of these sections to users in different combinations and then statistically analyze which variations are the most effective. Only one URL is involved; the variations are inserted dynamically on the page.
So how does this affect what Googlebot sees on your site? Will serving different content variants change how your site ranks? Below are some guidelines for running an effective test with minimal impact on your site’s search performance.
To learn more about website testing, check out these articles on Content Experiments, our free testing tool in Google Analytics. You can also ask questions about website testing in the Analytics Help Forum, or about search impact in the Webmaster Help Forum.
Posted by Susan Moskwa, Webmaster Trends Analyst
We’ve gotten several questions recently about whether website testing—such as A/B or multivariate testing—affects a site’s performance in search results. We’re glad you’re asking, because we’re glad you’re testing! A/B and multivariate testing are great ways of making sure that what you’re offering really appeals to your users.
Before we dig into the implications for search, a brief primer:
Website testing is when you try out different versions of your website (or a part of your website), and collect data about how users react to each version. You use software to track which version causes users to do-what-you-want-them-to-do most often: which one results in the most purchases, or the most email signups, or whatever you’re testing for. After the test is finished you can update your website to use the “winner” of the test—the most effective content.
A/B testing is when you run a test by creating multiple versions of a page, each with its own URL. When users try to access the original URL, you redirect some of them to each of the variation URLs and then compare users’ behaviour to see which page is most effective.
Multivariate testing is when you use software to change differents parts of your website on the fly. You can test changes to multiple parts of a page—say, the heading, a photo, and the ‘Add to Cart’ button—and the software will show variations of each of these sections to users in different combinations and then statistically analyze which variations are the most effective. Only one URL is involved; the variations are inserted dynamically on the page.
So how does this affect what Googlebot sees on your site? Will serving different content variants change how your site ranks? Below are some guidelines for running an effective test with minimal impact on your site’s search performance.
- No cloaking.
Cloaking—showing one set of content to humans, and a different set to Googlebot—is against our Webmaster Guidelines, whether you’re running a test or not. Make sure that you’re not deciding whether to serve the test, or which content variant to serve, based on user-agent. An example of this would be always serving the original content when you see the user-agent “Googlebot.” Remember that infringing our Guidelines can get your site demoted or removed from Google search results—probably not the desired outcome of your test. - Use rel=“canonical”.
If you’re running an A/B test with multiple URLs, you can use the rel=“canonical” link attribute on all of your alternate URLs to indicate that the original URL is the preferred version. We recommend using rel=“canonical” rather than a noindex meta tag because it more closely matches your intent in this situation. Let’s say you were testing variations of your homepage; you don’t want search engines to not index your homepage, you just want them to understand that all the test URLs are close duplicates or variations on the original URL and should be grouped as such, with the original URL as the canonical. Using noindex rather than rel=“canonical” in such a situation can sometimes have unexpected effects (e.g., if for some reason we choose one of the variant URLs as the canonical, the “original” URL might also get dropped from the index since it would get treated as a duplicate). - Use 302s, not 301s.
If you’re running an A/B test that redirects users from the original URL to a variation URL, use a 302 (temporary) redirect, not a 301 (permanent) redirect. This tells search engines that this redirect is temporary—it will only be in place as long as you’re running the experiment—and that they should keep the original URL in their index rather than replacing it with the target of the redirect (the test page). JavaScript-based redirects are also fine. - Only run the experiment as long as necessary.
The amount of time required for a reliable test will vary depending on factors like your conversion rates, and how much traffic your website gets; a good testing tool should tell you when you’ve gathered enough data to draw a reliable conclusion. Once you’ve concluded the test, you should update your site with the desired content variation(s) and remove all elements of the test as soon as possible, such as alternate URLs or testing scripts and markup. If we discover a site running an experiment for an unnecessarily long time, we may interpret this as an attempt to deceive search engines and take action accordingly. This is especially true if you’re serving one content variant to a large percentage of your users.
To learn more about website testing, check out these articles on Content Experiments, our free testing tool in Google Analytics. You can also ask questions about website testing in the Analytics Help Forum, or about search impact in the Webmaster Help Forum.
Posted by Susan Moskwa, Webmaster Trends Analyst
Google's New Favicon
Google's New Favicon: Google has a new favicon that looks like the icon from Google's mobile search apps for Android and iOS. The same icon was also used for the Google Search app from the Chrome Web Store.
Most likely, Google wanted to use the same icon irrespective of the platform so that it becomes instantly recognizable.
Here's the new favicon:
... and the old favicon, which was launched back in 2009:
This screenshot shows the first three Google favicons. As you can see, the new favicon has a lot in common with the second favicon used by Google. "We felt the small 'g' had many of the characteristics that best represent our brand: it's simple, playful, and unique. We will be looking to improve and enhance this icon as we move forward," said Google back in 2008, when it changed the favicon for the first time.
If you don't see the new favicon when you visit google.com, try clearing your browser's cache.
{ Thanks, Arpit Kumar. }
Most likely, Google wanted to use the same icon irrespective of the platform so that it becomes instantly recognizable.
Here's the new favicon:
... and the old favicon, which was launched back in 2009:
This screenshot shows the first three Google favicons. As you can see, the new favicon has a lot in common with the second favicon used by Google. "We felt the small 'g' had many of the characteristics that best represent our brand: it's simple, playful, and unique. We will be looking to improve and enhance this icon as we move forward," said Google back in 2008, when it changed the favicon for the first time.
If you don't see the new favicon when you visit google.com, try clearing your browser's cache.
{ Thanks, Arpit Kumar. }
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Cloud Testing; How to Test on the Cloud?
Cloud Testing; How to Test on the Cloud?:
Unless you've been living under a rock you must already be knowing that 'Cloud Computing' has been making a lot of buzz over past couple of years -- whether it your peer meeting, a client interview, a demo POC session with a prospect, the recent Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Online Event on January 18, 2012 -- the talk about cloud is everywhere.
And why wouldn't it be? After all, if industry analysts and virtualization experts are to be believed then cloud based computing and business solutions are going to be the NEXT BIG thing of this decade.
So I guess it is only natural if you find yourself to be asking yourself questions like 'what is cloud testing?', 'how to test on cloud?', 'how can we use cloud to better our testing?', 'how does cloud impact how we used to test before?' etc.
However, since all these queries pose different questions, the answers to them would be unique. For starters, if you are looking for cloud testing, it simply means a testing environment that utilizes cloud infrastructure for performing software testing.
How to leverage Cloud to Transform Software Testing?
If you are someone who heavily use tools while testing then IBM (IBM Cloud) and Hewlett-Packard have already jumped into the market for software testing in the cloud. Thankfully, if done smartly, cloud based computing can prove to be a great value-addition for both software development and testing. The reason is simple -- the very nature of a cloud based infrastructure allows for great team collaboration.
As an added advantage, cloud based testing (as well as programming) environments are easy to setup (on-demand). In today's tight budgeted IT world, this can be a much bigger advantage than it appears at first. It is no secret that IT managers are operating under a very tight budgetary constraint and when it comes to testing phase, the budget is even smaller.
Traditional approaches to setting up a test environment involves high cost to setup multiple servers with various OS, hardware configuration, browser versions etc. And if you are going to simulate user activity from different geographic locations you will have to setup test servers with localized regional language OS, which in turn can add up to the cost. But using cloud based infrastructure, the team wouldn't have to setup expensive physical servers -- rather, setting up new testing environment will be fast and efficient and VMs (virtual machines) and test servers can be launched and decommissioned as needed.
On the other hand, as a tester you might also be required to one of those ever emerging cloud based SaaS applications that aim to cater to various large and small customer base, on-demand. If you are testing such a cloud based application then your challenges are double-fold. Because, testing all the layers - from your application to the cloud service provider - is something that as a tester you will have to become efficient in.
As a closing note, if you are a tester and if you are intrigued by all these buzz surrounding cloud testing, then here are 2 main reasons why you might consider trying it out -- Cloud based software testing infrastructure greatly helps in reducing capital expenditure and these testing setups are highly scalable , thus allowing your team to expand or decommission your test servers on-demand, as needed.
Are you someone already using cloud testing? Share your experience with me and other readers by leaving your comment below.
Firepath, THE XPath and CSS Locator Addon For Firefox
Firepath, THE XPath and CSS Locator Addon For Firefox:
First I used XPather, then it was FireFinder, and since neither of those seems particularly compatible with the most recent versions of Firefox…
I now use FirePath.
FirePath operates as a Firebug extension and provides a handy “Inspect in FirePath” context menu entry.
FirePath handles XPath, CSS and JQuery selectors.
I don’t have any spare tools extensions in my tool box, so if Firepath dies I’m not sure what I’ll do.
Does anyone have any suggestions to add in the comments?
First I used XPather, then it was FireFinder, and since neither of those seems particularly compatible with the most recent versions of Firefox…
I now use FirePath.
FirePath operates as a Firebug extension and provides a handy “Inspect in FirePath” context menu entry.
FirePath handles XPath, CSS and JQuery selectors.
I don’t have any spare tools extensions in my tool box, so if Firepath dies I’m not sure what I’ll do.
Does anyone have any suggestions to add in the comments?
After Nevada, California Gives Google’s Autonomous Car a Thumbs Up
After Nevada, California Gives Google’s Autonomous Car a Thumbs Up:
Google’s autonomous car took the tech world by storm when it was first spotted in October 2010. The state of Nevada approved Google’s self-driving cars last year in June and recently; California has joined the list of state willing to have self-driving cars on its roads and has proposed to pass rules for autonomous cars.
Nevada was the first state of choice for Google’s driverless cars because it has ample open space. However, the state of California will not be an easy drive-by for Google. Apparently, Google is not the only one trying out autonomous cars in California. Caltech and Stanford research are also working on autonomous car technologies on their own, so the competition is tough. Although Google has been prompt enough to secure a patent for driverless cars, Volkswagen has already showcased an autonomous VW Passat with an in-house self-driving technology. From a holistic perspective, multiple tech foundries are working on autonomous driving, and Google and Volkswagen are leading in the race.
For Google’s autonomous cars to work in California, some necessary traffic standards have to be set. Kurt Ernst at Motorauthority writes on this development, saying,
Google’s autonomous car took the tech world by storm when it was first spotted in October 2010. The state of Nevada approved Google’s self-driving cars last year in June and recently; California has joined the list of state willing to have self-driving cars on its roads and has proposed to pass rules for autonomous cars.
Nevada was the first state of choice for Google’s driverless cars because it has ample open space. However, the state of California will not be an easy drive-by for Google. Apparently, Google is not the only one trying out autonomous cars in California. Caltech and Stanford research are also working on autonomous car technologies on their own, so the competition is tough. Although Google has been prompt enough to secure a patent for driverless cars, Volkswagen has already showcased an autonomous VW Passat with an in-house self-driving technology. From a holistic perspective, multiple tech foundries are working on autonomous driving, and Google and Volkswagen are leading in the race.
For Google’s autonomous cars to work in California, some necessary traffic standards have to be set. Kurt Ernst at Motorauthority writes on this development, saying,
A bill proposed by California Senator Alex Padilla would set guidelines for the testing and operation of self-driving vehicles within the state. If passed, Padilla’s bill would require the California Highway Patrol to establish standards and performance requirements for autonomous vehicles operated on the state’s roads.The idea of having an AI control cars is marvelous in itself, and it will only get better with more and more cars using this technology. At one point, it would be of significant business value for Google to make these cars communicating with each other. This will probably solve traffic problems in many cities.
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TAGS: Google News
After Nevada, California Gives Google’s Autonomous Car a Thumbs Up originally appeared on Techie Buzz written by Chinmoy Kanjilal on Saturday 10th March 2012 11:13:20 AM under Tech News. Please read the Terms of Use for fair usage guidance.
YouTube Preview
YouTube Preview: YouTube started to roll out a few features that will make it easier to preview videos and to quickly jump to a certain scene. Just mouse over the seek bar and you'll see a thumbnail of the frame you've selected. The thumbnail is updated almost instantly when you pick a different frame.
This feature is obvious and you'll certainly notice it. There's also a way to preview multiple frames: just drag the handle along the seek bar and YouTube will "show a filmstrip of thumbnails of previous and upcoming scenes".
For movies and other videos longer than 90 minutes YouTube added a more advanced feature: a second seek bar that lets you preview one and a half minutes of video one second at a time.
These features aren't available to everyone yet, they'll be slowly rolled out in the coming weeks. For now, they only work in the Flash player. If you want to try them, they're enabled for videos longer than 90 minutes. Here's one of them:
This feature is obvious and you'll certainly notice it. There's also a way to preview multiple frames: just drag the handle along the seek bar and YouTube will "show a filmstrip of thumbnails of previous and upcoming scenes".
For movies and other videos longer than 90 minutes YouTube added a more advanced feature: a second seek bar that lets you preview one and a half minutes of video one second at a time.
These features aren't available to everyone yet, they'll be slowly rolled out in the coming weeks. For now, they only work in the Flash player. If you want to try them, they're enabled for videos longer than 90 minutes. Here's one of them:
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