Google likes to discontinue products without waiting until it launches some proper replacements. Lately, Google closed products that were used by millions of people. There’s a race to destroy everything that was built by the old Google and build new products that are aligned with the most important features of the new Google: social and…
AddressSanitizer (ASAN) is a tool for finding memory problems and has been used to find thousands of memory errors in Chromium over the last two years. These kinds of errors will typically lead to heap or data corruption and subsequent crashes in random, unrelated code, which make them quite challenging to find and fix without…
There’s an interesting Google Settings page for phone numbers. By default, the page only includes a message that says: “No phone numbers associated with this setting.” A help center page explains that this feature will help your friends find your phone number. “Help people who have your phone number find you on Google services and…
I’m trying to understand Google+ Hangouts. It’s supposed to replace products and features like Google Talk, Google Chat, Google+ Messenger and to become Google’s unified messaging service. Let’s start with the name. It includes “Google+”, so it looks like a Google+ feature. The product actually borrows the name of Google+’s group video chat feature. How…
Google Accounts settings page has a new feature called “SMS for Hangouts“. You can “add your phone number to receive messages from Google+ Hangouts as SMS, when you are idle.” Google goes on to explain that “SMS is less secure and may be less reliable than web-based communication. All messages sent by SMS are sent…
By now, you’ve probably received the invitation to try the new Google Maps. It’s not available without an invitation and it’s likely that it won’t replace the classic Google Maps very soon. The new interface is the most radical change to Google Maps since 2005, when Google’s online mapping service was launched. Here’s Google Maps…
I found a great paragraph in a Google page about Gmail actions: “Google Search is evolving from surfacing search results to answering questions. With Voice Search and Natural language queries, users can speak or type questions they have and see highly structured information cards in Search.” That changes how people interact with Google Search, how…
Wouldn’t it be nice to deal with an email message without having to read it? Sure, you can read the subject line and archive the message, delete it or flag it as spam, but what happens when you receive notifications for online orders, flights, hotel reservations, reviews? Gmail introduced quick action buttons that are placed…
Google didn’t announce a new Nexus device at Google I/O, but you’ll still get something close to a Nexus phone: Samsung Galaxy S4, unlocked, with LTE support for T-Mobile and AT&T, Google software and quick updates. It will be available on June 26 from Google Play US for $649. “This is a Samsung Galaxy S4…
Until Google sends invites that let you preview the new Google Maps interface, check the MoreThanAMap site to see the new maps. It’s a site that shows demos for various Google Maps API features, but the “base maps” demos are the most interesting because you can see the new map tiles. “For the last decade,…
Many people expected to hear some information about a new Android version at the Google I/O keynote. Google decided to focus on new development tools, Google Play Store, Google Play Music and new APIs for Google Play Services. Actually Google focused on the things it can control and quickly update. Google Play Services is automatically…
Sometimes it’s a good idea to question browser stats. While some companies claim that Chrome loses market share, Google says that the number of active Chrome users increased from 320 million (June 2012) to 750 million. According to Google, Chrome is now the most popular browser in the world. “With over 750 million active users…
That’s a long name. It’s actually a music subscription service available in the US that’s part of Google Play Music. “Google Play Music All Access is a new monthly music subscription service that lets you listen to millions of songs across your devices. You can create a radio station from any song or artist you…
Google+ has received a major update. There’s a new multi-column desktop interface, a new messaging platform and Google+ Photos is a lot smarter. The desktop Google+ looks different. You can see more content thanks to the new interface that shows up to 3 columns, depending on the window size. “Photos and videos can fill the…
Amit Singhal announced at Google I/O that this is “the end of search as we know it”. The future of search goes beyond search results and it has more to do with answering questions, conversations and anticipating user’s intentions. Google has 3 products with similar goals: Knowledge Graph, Voice Search and Google Now. They go…
