Better Faster PC

Using Adobe AIR (which you can read more about at Wikipedia here) Polaris delivers Google Analytics Data to your desktop using the new Google Analytics API. Polaris is still in Beta but apparently works fine so if you are interested check out the Polaris website here. You can get Adobe AIR here.

If you have been using the internet for a long time you will remember Ask Jeeves (read about Ask at Wikipedia here) which was one of the competitors to Google, Yahoo!, AltaVista, WebCrawler and other search engines that have slowly fallen by the wayside as the omni-present Google has slowly (but comprehensively gained control of the Search Engine market).

Ask Jeeves was based on the concept and image of a butler that you asked a question to, but eventually it was re-branded as Ask.com and the butler fell away. Some research has apparently established that 3 years since the reb-randing the ‘Ask Jeeves’ identity is still more well known that the newer ‘Ask.com’. Hence (though currently only in the UK) the Ask Jeeves logo, branding and website is back. It is doubtful whether this will establish Ask as a major competitor in search engine world but you never know.

The Ask Jeeves UK website is here and the other Ask.com homepage is here.

If you have never checked it out, then maybe you should head over to Google Mars and take a look at the official Google site dedicated to providing some very detailed maps of the planet Mars. Though obviously you won’t recognize any of the locations it is still great viewing. The Google Mars website is here and it even allows you to view it in 3D with Google Earth! If you want to find out more about the planet Mars read the Wikipedia entry here.

A couple of things happening in the world of Google you might be interested in:

• Google has FINALLY introduced themes for users that use Gmail with their own domain (like companies). That means if you are in an office and have been stuck with the plain, old boring standard Gmail theme for too long now you can change that (though apparently it has not been rolled out to every single domain, though this will occur shortly) by clicking on ‘Settings’ in the right hand corner. There should now be a tab called Themes from which you can select a Theme. Read more about it at Download Squad HERE
• If you use one Gmail account to manage more than one address you will have encountered the on behalf of phrase that is added to your emails, revealing the fact that the email was sent from a different email address. This was one of the reasons I personally stopped using Gmail for this purpose as I felt it negated the entire concept of anonymously managing multiple addresses (apart from the worry of your email address falling into the hands of the spammers you were trying to avoid in the first place!). This little phrase is NO MORE, thank goodness. Read more about it HERE
• If you love Autocomplete (the feature that makes suggestions when type in a search box) you will want to check out the new Gmail Labs feature that does just that - when you type in a search in Gmail it will offer suggestions with some extra features throw in as well. Worth checking out (and enabling) - go HERE
• Lifehacker did an interview with Senior Product Manager of Gmail, Keith Coleman, on the 5th Birthday of the ’still-in-beta’ free email service. Read it HERE

A couple of things Google related to be aware of:

• If you use Gmail (and hence Google Contacts) there is now a stand alone page for Google Contacts which you can access HERE
• Google has entered the venture capital world with Google Ventures, check out the official site HERE
• Add ‘Retro Links’ to Google search page, allowing you to search different sites from within Google. Check out the image below and link HERE for more

Two Google related topics you should be aware of:

• A bunch of holes have been discovered in the security of the web application Google Docs. If you are a user of Google Docs and keep any sensitive information stored there you would want to read this. The article at TechCrunch is HERE. If you don’t know what a web application (webapp) is, then you might want to read the Wikipedia entry which is HERE
• Gmail is celebrating it’s fifth birthday soon and with that they have announced “Google is celebrating with the launch of an exciting new product”. What it is I am not sure, but come April 7 we will find out. Read more about it HERE and HERE

If you use Google Image Search then you will be interested to know that it is now possible to search by color! That means if you are specifically looking for “red” images then you can now do it.

The basic search query is structured like this: “http://images.google.com/images?q=frog&imgcolor=green” and then you just change the color to “blue”, “red”, “teal”, “purple”, “yellow”, “orange”, “pink”, “white”, “gray”, “black” and “brown” depending on what you are looking for.

Read this post at Google Operating System (an Unofficial Google Blog) right HERE.

Okay, I have been using Google Chrome for a while now. Not for all my browsing needs but exclusively for my Google Apps needs, such as Gmail. I have found Chrome to be reliable, fast (faster in my personal experience than Firefox is) and my only real problem is that I am used to Firefox, so it the change is not so easy. The second major issue is the fact that I cannot use my favourite Add-Ons, which have become part of my daily Firefox browsing.

However, today to add a bit of spice to your Google Chrome user experience I am going to give a round up of some the good stuff you can add to or do with Chrome to make things a bit better.

•  The Google Chrome 2 Beta - I have been using it for a little while and am happy with it. To be honest I have not noticed massive differences but there are a few new features. Read more about it at the Official Google Chrome Blog right HERE and get Google Chrome 2 Beta from the official download page HERE. If you are interested in using the latest Developer Builds of Chrome then go to this link HERE and get involved, just be aware that these are not Stable Releases
• Want to check out how amazing the Java engine in Chrome really is? Then Chrome Experiments is for you, with some very cool, very fun experiments that run in Google Chrome. Worth checking out. Remember to open the link in Google Chrome though, as the site is designed specifically for Google Chrome. Check it out HERE
• Want to install a Theme on Google Chrome, it’s not as simple as Firefox but can be done. Use a program called XChrome which is a theme manager for Google Chrome - Get it HERE. Then you will need some themes to install to make your Google Chrome look a bit more pleasing to the eye. deviantART has a bunch of themes which you can get HERE. Otherwise here are a couple more links to other Google Chrome Theme sites. Link 1 - Link 2 - Link 3
• There are two great forums for Google Chrome that I have found. They have the latest hacks, plugins and themes, all cutting edge. You can also submit your thoughts, ideas, themes etc. ChromeSpot is one, check it out HERE and Google Chrome Plugins is another - check it out HERE
• Some odds and ends are here, MakeUseOf has a list of 7 Useful Hacks for Chrome right HERE. TechRadar has a list of 10 Really Cools Hacks for Google Chrome which you can check out HERE. You might also want to check out My Chrome Addons which is HERE and Chrome Plugins which is HERE

Do you use Gmail? If you do then you might want to check out this post on Lifehacker with a bunch of great tips from the Gmail Labs team to spice up your experience.

Check out the post HERE.

When Gmail was launched there was one big sticking point that everyone complained about and was not so sure would become popular - the concept of ‘labels’ as opposed to folders. So, instead of archiving mail into seperate folders, the mail is all stored together in the archive and only differentiated by the label it carries.

For new-comers to the internet this was nothing to difficult to understand but for old-timers, used to neatly organizing everything into different folders it was a major shock to the system.

Today Gmail is rolling out a small update to the label feature of Gmail. As opposed to having to find the labels under the ‘More Actions‘ button, there is now a ‘Move To ‘ button (check out the image below). They have also introduced a new keyboard shortcut, according to the official Gmail blog, you can now apparently label a mail without even using your mouse. Read more about it HERE.