How to Try Google's New Navigation Menu

Google has recently announced a new interface that hides the navigation menu until you mouse over the logo. If you'd like to try to interface before, you can edit your Google cookie and use some values that trigger the new UI.

If you use Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Internet Explorer 8+, open google.com in a new tab, load Chrome's JavaScript console (Ctrl+Shift+J), Firefox's Web Console (Ctrl+Shift+K), Safari's Web Inspector (how to do that?) or IE's Developer Tools (press F12 and select the "console" tab) and paste the following code:

document.cookie="PREF=ID=03fd476a699d6487:U=88e8716486ff1e5d:FF=0:LD=en:CR=2:TM=1322688084:LM=1322688085:S=McEsyvcXKMiVfGds; path=/; domain=.google.com";window.location.reload();

Then press Enter and close the console. If you're not in the US and you're using a different Google domain, replace ".google.com" with your domain in the code (for example: ".google.co.uk" in the UK). Please note that this only works for the English interface, so you many need to adjust the language in the preferences page.

{ via Tecno-Net }

Google's Hidden Navigation Menu

As previously anticipated, Google will drop the black navigation bar and will use a simplified navigation interface that will make the transition between two Google products seamless. Google+ notifications, the sharing box and the profile menu will be displayed next to the search box, while the list of Google services will be placed in a drop-down menu next to the Google logo.

"The Google bar, which runs across the top of the browser of nearly all Google services and offers easy access to Google's products, has recently updated its look for a more consistent, streamlined user experience and increased visibility of the most popular services," explains Google.

The new navigation interface no longer uses additional space, it's more compact and the short list of Google services that's displayed by default matches Google's simplified product line. The menu links to Google+, Web Search, Image Search, Google Maps, YouTube, Google News, Gmail and Google Docs, but you can mouse over "More" to see additional services. Here are the services that have never been included in the navigation bar until now: Google Wallet, Google Offers, Google Music, Google Mobile and Blogger.

While the new interface looks modern, it's also less user-friendly because the navigation links are hidden behind a drop-down menu and the average user might not be able to find them. Android's menu button wasn't a great idea and Ice Cream Sandwich made menus more visible, so it's not clear if this is going to work. Google's homepage will expand the product menu by default, but it will be interesting to see if Google users will actually notice that mousing over the Google logo lets them access Gmail, Google Docs and other services.

I don't see the new interface yet, but it's likely that it will be rolled out in the coming days.

Update: try the new interface.

By The Cute & Girly December Challenge

Morning, on the count down to Christmas and not a pressy bought...said to myself last year I wasn't going to leave everything to the last but it looks like I'm going down the exact same road, well can only hope I can do better next year lol!
Another challenge ready to go over on By The Cute and Girly and this month it's LET IT SNOW. This month our digital sponsor is The Paper Shelter who

Smooth Scrolling in Google Reader

Google Reader's settings page has a new section where you'll find "experiments you can choose to opt-in and try out". It's like a small Google Reader Labs that only has a single experiment you can enable: smooth scrolling. This feature makes the transition between items smoother and it's especially useful in the expanded view.

While this feature is more difficult to find, you've probably noticed the colorful ball that's displayed when Google Reader loads new posts. The animation is one of the few colorful elements from the new Google Reader interface.

{ Thanks, Venkat. }

Memories all round!

 Been real busy socialising and crafting since I last blogged. Went off to the Papeterie on Saturday after seeing Kath's toot for Andy Skinner and was not disappointed. Loved what he was demoing so home with some new stash to have a go myself...no better excuse than that is there! Then off out for my Birthday meal on Sunday night with my family and gorged ourselves, then the hotel owner cut the

Cached Pages in Google Mobile Search

Maybe it's not so obvious, but the link to the cached version of a search result is still available when you're using Google Search on a mobile phone. Just like in the desktop interface, you need to click the Instant Preview icon (a magnifier) and you'll find the "cached" link.

For some reason, the links to the mobile formatted version and to the list of similar pages are no longer displayed. To go back to the old interface that displayed all these links next to the search results, bookmark http://www.google.com/m or replace "google.com/search" with "google.com/m/search" in the URL (just add the two characters in bold).

Frenchie - P Funk Role Call (Feat. Sony) [Trailer]

Frenchie Ft. Sony (P Funk Role Call) Official Video Coming Soon. Track Produced by J.Moss

D-Bo Freestyles

D-Bo - Fetish [In Studio Performance]

Just Rich Gates & JCE Walking In Jam Room Studios Columbia SC

**NEW** CHRISTMAS MIX - PART 2 FREEBIE KIT

We are thrilled to share the second part of our Christmas Mix with you.  Its a much bigger kit with 118 elements (including 28 wordarts) and 22 backgrounds.  Hope you have fun playing with it.

Loads of love Gracie and Tracy xxx

CREDITS

Big thank you to:-

CU Freebies only

Merielle

Scrapcap

DouuDou'sCUDesigns

MishelleCraftscraps

cajolineCU

Backgrounds, Wordarts and some elements made by G&T Designs

DOWNLOAD

When you click the download button - and you get the Sendspace page - please ensure you click the

second download link (the blue box)

**THERE APPEARS TO BE QUITE A LONG DELAY ON THE DOWNLOAD TIME - WE ARE TRYING TO SORT IT OUT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE - PLEASE BARE WITH US - THANKS XXX

Silent Night by Tracy

Image from the net.

Kit is our new kit - available this weekend A Christmas Mix-Part2 by G&T Designs xxx

Woo Hoo!! I've been published

 Just had to share my lovely piece of news with you all.
Was contacted by Papercraft Inspirations awhile back, saying they liked what they saw on my blog and in particular  one of my cards and would I be willing to let it be published in their magazine. Well I just about fell off my seat, was gobsmacked but didn't take me long to reply, Oh yes please. Well I thought it wasn't going to happen

Unwelcomed Visitor!!

 Morning, not been about these past few days and haven't anything on the card front to show! I don't usually take any of the bugs my family land with but did not escape this time. Why this time! On my Birthday, inconsiderate little begger..... missed out on a lunch date with my crafty friends and told family to keep away, poor Hubby joined in too so a real misserable couple of days. He's back to

Google's Broken Drop-Down Lists

Google has recently redesigned the advanced search page and removed two options that weren't used very often: finding pages that are similar to a page and pages that link to a page. You can use the similar: and link: operators and "similar pages" and still available in the Instant Preview pane, so the features haven't been removed.

What's disconcerting is that Google made drop-down lists a lot more difficult to use in the new interface. Until now, you could use the tab key to select a list, but this no longer works. After clicking a list, you could use the up/down arrows or Page Up / Page Down to move between the options, but you can no longer do that. It was much faster to type the first letters from the name of the language or the country to quickly find an item, but this is another feature that no longer works. Basically, the only way to use the new lists is to scroll up or down until you find the item you were looking for.

Google's lists are also inaccessible to screen readers, so they can't be used by people who are blind or visually impaired. The explanation is that Google now uses regular lists with custom styles instead of drop-down lists (or drop-down menus). Disable CSS and you can no longer select an item from the list.

You can check the old advanced search page at the Wayback Machine or the advanced image search page, which still uses the old interface.

Another service that makes drop-downs more difficult to use is Blogger. If you have a long list of labels, you can no longer find a label by typing the first letters.

Google Reader's new interface lets you use arrows to move between the items from a list, but you can no longer type some letters from a subscription's name in the "All items" drop-down. This was a non-standard featured added back in 2007, when Google Reader added a search engine.

Hopefully, Google will address these issues and will no longer remove basic features that are taken for granted by many users.

OJ Da Juiceman - The Lord Of The Rings (Hosted By DJ Don Cannon)

Download Mixtape | Free Mixtapes Powered by DatPiff.com

Gucci Mane & V-Nasty - Fuck You (Feat. Slim Dunkin)

Frenchie Interview With VLAD TV

Brick squad member Frenchie on his relationship with Waka Flocka

Waka Flocka & French Montana - Lock Out [Studio Session]

Waka Flocka & French Montana "Lock Out" Mixtape Coming Soon Live in the Studio with Blind Folks Vision

Another Christmas card

After being away on holiday for over 3 weeks, it is great to get back into cardmaking again. I am now so late with my Christmas card makes!!
I saw this challenge on
http://pennybfriendssaturdaychallenge.blogspot.com/
for green and trees.
I can also enter at
http://creativecraftchallenges2.blogspot.com/
for anything goes
and at
http://shoppingourstash.blogspot.com/
for Christmas or Winter

I used 3251H Garland Tree, and stamped it 3 times on the card, and 3 times on different green papers, which I then paper pieced. Finished off with some green spotty ribbon, a gold metallic snowflake, and  Christmas words. Quite simple really, but looks very nice IRL

Slim Dunkin & Da Kid in Virginia

Waka Flocka & Wooh Da Kid Live in Pittsburgh

Restrict Google Results to Mobile Apps

Google's search engine for mobile apps is now available in the sidebar. Just click "More" in the left sidebar and select "applications" to restrict the results to Android and iOS applications. The results aren't only from Apple's App Store and Google's Android Market: you'll also find results from AppBrain, AndroidZoom, CNet and more. Unfortunately, you can't restrict the results to iOS apps or Android, find iPad apps or filter the apps by rating or price.

Here are the results for [games]. The search engine doesn't have a proper homepage, but you can bookmark this page.

The search engine for mobile apps was initially available in the mobile version of Google Search as an OneBox, and then as a search option. Earlier this year, Google added support for app-related rich snippets.

Google Help Forums Migrate to Google Groups

Back in 2009, many of the official Google discussion groups moved from Google Groups to a new platform called "Google Help Forums". Now it's time for them to go back to Google Groups.

"Over the next several months, we'll be migrating our 250+ help forums in 20+ languages to the new Google Product Forums platform. Built on the new Google Groups, Google Product Forums provide users with a fresh interface and robust features for asking questions and discussing our products. The new platform brings some exciting new features to our forums. For example, you can now select between starting a discussion or asking a question, quickly indicate your own interest in a question that has been asked by voting 'Me too!,' and easily share a topic with your circles on Google+," explains Google.

Google+ and Chromebooks Central already use the new platform and you'll be able to find the upcoming forums if you bookmark this odd URL.

{ Thanks, Herin. }

Google Discontinues Knol, Friend Connect and Other Services

Google closed a lot of services this year, but there are still a few projects that weren't successful enough and have to be discontinued. Probably the last batch of services that bite the dust includes: Google Bookmarks Lists, Google Friend Connect, Google Gears, Google Wave and Knol. Google also removed the timeline search option, which created "a graph of historical results for a query".

Google Friend Connect will be replaced by Google+ pages. It will still be available until March 1, 2012 for non-Blogger sites, while the Blogger feature will continue to work for a few more months. Google Wave will become read-only on January 31 and it will be closed 3 months later. The Gears-based offline mode will no longer work in Google Calendar and Gmail starting from next month, so if you're still using an old version of Firefox or Internet Explorer for this feature, you'll have to switch to Chrome. Bookmarks Lists will continue to work until December 19, but I'm sure that not many people will miss it.

Knol is a project that attracted experts who wrote a lot of interesting articles, but it wasn't successful enough to make a difference. After all, Knol was a niche service and Google's goal is to "focus on products that can benefit the most people and solve the most important problems". Google informs that "Knol will work as usual until April 30, 2012, and you can download your knols to a file and/or migrate them to WordPress.com. From May 1 through October 1, 2012, knols will no longer be viewable, but can be downloaded and exported. After that time, Knol content will no longer be accessible." Why not preserve the content? Some Google Answers pages are still useful after so many years.

It's interesting that all these projects, except for the Gears plugin and the timeline option, had a social component. Now that Google+ is Google's social hub, it makes sense to replace these projects with Google+ features.

Waka Flocka Gives Out BSM Chains To His Artists

Shabby Vintage by Gracie

Used Shabby Summer by Rosey Posey. Image from The Graphics Fairy BG my own x x

Slim Dunkin, Wooh Da Kid & D-Bo - Fight Night [BTS]

Slim Dunkin, Da Kid & GH - You Damn Right Remix [BTS]

Cartel MGM & Trap-A-Holics - Kilo Lingo [Mixtape Trailer]

Updated Google Search App for iPad

Google's search app for iPad needed an update. That was especially obvious if you installed the Bing app, probably the best search app for iPad.

Now you can try the latest version of Google's app, which adds a lot of useful features on top of the regular web interface. "We have added new features to make the app more interactive, more visual and to help you find what you want more easily," explains Google.

You'll see the results faster because Google Instant is enabled by default. Once you've clicked a search result, you can +1 the page, share it or highlight one or more keywords. To go back to the search results page, click the Google logo or slide the page to the right.

Google Image Search lets you see the results in a slideshow, an improved version of the similar feature from the mobile interface. "Tap on any image result to use the new image carousel, which lets beautiful images shine. You'll see the image you selected expand, and you can easily swipe through the carousel to see other similar images."

There's also a new interface for Instant Preview that lets you explore the list of results in a visual way. The same interface is also used to display the search history.

The app is available in the App Store, but you can only install it if you've updated the iPad to iOS 4 or iOS 5. It's a major improvement, but the Bing app is still more fluid, has more features and it takes advantage of the iPad's capabilities to display maps and local search results.

Chrome's Enhanced Spelling Suggestions

I've mentioned in a previous post that Chrome will use a web service to improve spelling suggestions. This feature is already available in the latest Canary / Dev Channel builds and you can test it. As you can see in the image below, this is a minor enhancement that adds one suggestion at the bottom of the list, but only if it's useful.

The left screenshot shows the result obtained from Google's online spell checker: "Gmail" is the most likely spelling correction for "Gmal", but a dictionary-based approach can't tell you that. Google can:

"Google Chrome can provide smarter spell-checking by sending what you type in the browser to Google servers, allowing you to use the same spell-checking technology used by Google search," explains Google.

It's disappointing to see that the most useful suggestion is added after all the other suggestions, which are terrible. After all, Google's search engine has probably the best spell checker and Chrome only uses it to supplement the list of suggestions that's generated locally. The latency makes it difficult to instantly display the suggestions obtained from a web service, but Google should find a way to minimize the delay and switch to the online spell checker.

Right now, the feature is disabled by default, but you can enable it by right-clicking on a text box, mousing over "Spell-checking options" and clicking "Ask Google for suggestions". The feature can also be enabled from the settings page in Chrome Canary: just go to the "Under the hood" tab and check "Use a web service to help resolve spelling errors". This only works in the latest Canary/Dev Channel builds and in Chromium.

Hopefully, the updated privacy policy won't make users hate this feature and Google will anonymize the data, just like it does for the Omnibox suggestions.

Bo Deal - WOW (Feat. Paperboy & Cartier Kitten) (Official Video)

Bo Deal releases the video to his hit single thats been tearing down the clubs and the radio. On this song he brings Paperboy & Bricksquads first lady Cartier Kitten! Cameos from Duct Tape Ents Alley Boy, Trouble, Big Bank, Bricksquad Monopoly's Wooh Da Kid, Southside, ect.

The Grind Episode 15 - Staring Wooh Da Kid, Frenchie, Fetti Gang, Sony, YG Hootie, Ice Burgundy & P.Smurf

M-Vision Films takes you behind the scenes to Headquarters Studios in Atlanta,GA as Wooh Da kid,Frenchie,Fetti Gang & Sony records live. Appearances BSM West artist Y.G Hootie,Ice Burgundy, P.Smurf.

Winters Beauty by Gracie

This is quite an old page of Gracie's but one of my favourites - so I am sneakily posting it!! hehe Tracyxxx

A Good Read by Gracie

Used Your Story - My Story by Mystique Designs x x

The Days We Treasure

A Scrapbook page using My Memories Software program. If you've never digitally Scrapbooked before and fancy giving it a go, check their site out, there's a newer version out today.  This is my middle son Alan who we went to visit in London the other weekend. He took us on the London Eye and guess what, I forgot my Camera, lucky for me he used his Iphone, his took better piccies than mine. Off to

YouTube Tests a New Homepage

YouTube experiments with a new homepage that makes it easy to filter the videos from your subscriptions, social networks and your account from the homepage. YouTube calls the new homepage a guide, probably because it recommends new channels. There's even a page that lets you browse popular channels by category, including a list of recommended channels.

The nice thing about the new homepage is that you can click an option from the left sidebar and the corresponding videos are displayed without opening a new page. Now you can quickly access the list of videos you liked or your history, the latest videos from a channel and the most popular YouTube videos directly from the homepage. Unfortunately, the updated YouTube.com doesn't look great when you're not signed in since most features are missing and YouTube emphasizes the "sign in" button.

YouTube also updated video pages. The background is now light gray, just like on the homepage. Buttons are embossed, there are new icons for the buttons and for the full screen/larger player options.

To try the redesigned homepage and the updated interface of the video pages, edit the VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE cookie for youtube.com and use the following value: ST1Ti53r4fU. For example, in Google Chrome, go to YouTube's homepage, open the JavaScript console (Ctrl+Shift+J or Menu > Tools > JavaScript Console) and paste the following code:

document.cookie="VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=ST1Ti53r4fU";

Then press Enter, close the console and reload YouTube's homepage.

You can also use extensions like Edit this cookie (Chrome) or Cookies Manager (Firefox). Opera's cookie manager is really advanced, so you don't need an extension to edit cookies.

To go back to the old interface, open your browser's cookie manager, search for youtube.com and delete the VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE cookie.

{ Thanks, Emerson and Mushaf.}

YouTube's HTML5 Player Gets Better

YouTube's HTML5 player has improved a lot lately and it's almost ready to replace the Flash player. You can enable annotations and captions, the contextual menu lets you copy the embedding code and the video's URL, YouTube now offers 480p and 1080p options for WebM videos and there's native full-screen support if you use a Firefox nightly build or Chrome's dev channel.

I've also noticed that sometimes embedded videos use the HTML5 player even if you've already installed Flash and you haven't enabled the HTML5 trial.

My Memmories Scrapbooking Winner

 





Got my Granddaughter Naomi to draw my Candy winner yesterday and the lucky winner is you Aud. Will contact Lisa at My Memories Scrapbooking.com so watch your email box. Thank you for taking part and hope you have as much fun with it as I'm having



x

Bo Deal - Safe Sex (Feat. Mello G Blanca) (Official Video)

Yung Joey The 6th Man (Mixtape Trailer)

Yung Joey - Lalala (Feat. RuSpits & Mazaradi Fox) (Official Video)

Yung Joey - Its My Year [BTS]

Let it Snow - new Freebie from Lindalou. Page by Tracy

Really enjoyed playing with this gorgeous new freebie from r Lindalou called 'Let it Snow' available via her blog - http://lindalousscrapspot.blogspot.com/
thanks very much honey xxx

Flossie by Gracie

This is a photograph of my Aunt Florence 'Flossie' it was taken in1919 and had until recently some quite bad damage around her head area. It was very kindly and beautifully restored by WendyP. So I thought i would make a page with her 'in tact' Thank you Wendy. tragically Flossie passed away shortly after this photo was taken from pneumonia...she was 2 years old. !! :( x

Page made from G & T Christmas Mix Freebie Part 2 which should be ready to download in a few days time. The paper and Frame were designed and made by Tracy and I in DSA2. Hope you like!! x x x

Sneaky Preview of new Freebie kit hehe (Christmas Mix Part 2) page by Tracy

Gracie and I are nose the grindestone...(well PC lol) working on the next part of our Christmas Mix kit. Love making these papers and playing with all the effects hehe. This is just a sneaky preview of some of the bits and bobs in it that I couldn't resist sharing. Kit should be ready by next weekend.  
All items will be in the new kit Christmas Mix Part2 by G & T Designs hehe (still very excited by this lol).
Finished in fotosketcher xxx

Slim Dunkin Performs Lights On At Club Krama

Bo Deal Chicago Code 2 (Promo Video)

Test Post!

 Mr Blogger had me fair confused last night! Just noticed, oh yes so slow off the mark in noticing,  he has for the past few days been running a day behind! Know the feeling but he doesn't need to jump on the band wagon too! Yesterday's post had Thursday's date on it and when I looked back the same thing had happened on Wednesday and Tuesday's had no day or date on it at all, wonder if that's

Christmas Trees

Morning, Okay Mr Blogger has stopped playing funny beggers with me! Did a test post and the days are back to normal again, how that come about I don't know, he sure had me confused with the days of the week last night, shame on him playing funny beggers with me! Okay onto my card. Nothing much to it, a quick and simple one using Stampin Up Trees, Swirls and Hero Arts Pine  background stamp inked

Frenchie - 3D (Feat. Zoe Balla) (Official Video)

Google Checkout Merges With Google Wallet

When Google Wallet was introduced, I described Wallet as "Google Checkout's extension to offline payments". Now Google Checkout is transitioning to Google Wallet and Google will no longer have two payment services. "We're starting to take all the great functionality and ease-of-use you've come to know with Google Checkout and merge it with Google Wallet to create a single wallet, whether you're buying online or in-store. We're also starting to integrate Google Wallet as the payment method on Android Market, YouTube, Google+ Games and many other Google sites."

If you already use Google Checkout, the site will redirect you to wallet.google.com, where you can manage your transactions and payment methods. Google Checkout is now known as the Google Wallet Online Service, "a free service that lets you carry your wallet on the web". Not all the sellers will use the new name right away, so you'll still see Checkout's logo in many sites.

For now, the offline Google Wallet only works in the US and the Android app is only available if you buy a Sprint Nexus S 4G phone. "Our goal is to make it possible for you to add all of your payment cards to Google Wallet, so you can say goodbye to even the biggest traditional wallets. This is still just the beginning and while we're excited about this first step, we look forward to bringing Google Wallet to more phones in the future," said Google back in September, when Google Wallet was launched.

Find WebP Images

WebP started as an experiment to create a better format for image files. Google's format has recently added a lot of features: animation, ICC profile, XMP metadata, transparency and more. "Photographic images typically encoded as JPEG can be encoded in WebP lossy mode to achieve smaller file size. Icons and graphics can be encoded better in WebP lossless mode than in PNG. WebP lossy with alpha can be used to create transparent images that have minimal visual degradation, yet are much smaller in file size. Animations compressed as GIFs can use animation support in WebP," explains Google.

WebP is the one-size-fits-all solution that can replace all the other image formats. Unfortunately, it's only supported by Chrome, Opera and Android's browser (Ice Cream Sandwich). You can also install the WebP image codec in Windows, use image editing software that supports WebP (GIMP, ImageMagick and more) or install a Photoshop plugin.

Now you can also find WebP images using Google's image search engine. Just add filetype:webp to your query or go to the advanced search page and select "WebP Files" in the "File types" section. Here's an example.

If you restrict the results to .com domains, Google only returns 1830 WebP images. There are 115 results for [Google], 7-9 results for [webp] and 88 results for [image].

{ Thanks, Herin. }