Computer Tips and Guides

Posts Tagged ‘Google’

Namebench Helps You Find the Fastest DNS Server for Your Computer

Windows/Mac/Linux: Last week Google announced a free DNS service designed to speed up your browsing, but just because Google wants to be fast doesn’t actually mean they’re the best option for you. Namebench finds the fastest DNS server for your connection.

After you download and fire up namebench, just click the Start Benchmark button to test out a handful of free public DNS services, from Google Public DNS to OpenDNS to ..read more

The Google Phone Edition

Rumors fly that Google will soon release their own phone build around Google Voice (not just another Android handset), the upcoming Chrome for Mac beta will be lacking several important features, and Gmail’s creator thinks Wave could someday integrate nicely with Gmail.

Features Chrome For Mac Beta Will Be Missing When Chrome for Mac hits sometime this month, it’ll be missing its bookmark manager, Fluid-like app mode, possibly the task manager, and definitely Gears, among other potentially missing features. ..read more

An Early Look at Chrome’s Extensions System

It’s not officially released, but a gallery-like site for extensions has made itself known into the latest development builds of Google Chrome for Windows and Linux. Take a peek at what’s coming, presumably very soon, in these development screenshots.

The Download Squad blog was the first to notice the new new thing in Chrome—namely, a jigsaw-like page corner in Chrome’s new tab page, next to a message at the bottom that reads “New! Chrome now ..read more

The Gaia Desktop

Reader Sweetshop Union’s Windows 7 desktop has been completely transformed with the Gaia09 skin for Rainmeter, complete with widgets, wallpaper, and a visual style to match.

The desktop is a combination of:

Rainmeter with the Gaia09 theme. Rocketdock Gaia09 Visual style for Windows 7 (includes wallpaper) Full instructions for installing Gaia09 Rainmeter skins can be found here.

This desktop not your style? Why waste time complaining? Instead, get started creating your own killer desktop with the easy-install Rainmeter 1.1 package and show the world ..read more

Google Tasks Goes Full-Screen in iGoogle

Google Tasks, the to-do manager that has everything but its own dedicated page, gets the next best thing with an iGoogle gadget that can go mostly full-screen. That makes doing everything beyond adding tasks easier from a desktop browser.

Tasks brags on its home page about its accessibility inside different Google apps, but from a standard browser, you have to settle for the condensed sidebar views inside Gmail or Google Calendar. Hitting the “maximize” button in ..read more

Manage Your Google Reputation

We’ve always emphasized the importance of managing what Google has to say about you, but now Google’s jumping in with their own tips for managing your online reputation through search results.

Most of the time, thinking before posting something that might be potentially embarrassing is the best route, but hindsight’s 20/20, isn’t it?

Google already took a significant step toward helping you have a little more control over what search results for your name turn up when they released ..read more

WOT Extension Integrates Web of Trust into Google Chrome

Chrome extension WOT adds the Web of Trust community web site rating service to the Google Chrome browser, so you can check the trustworthiness of a web site without leaving the page.

Once you’ve installed the extension—by simply clicking on the link and accepting the install—you will see a new icon in the Chrome status bar that shows the community rating for the site you are browsing. Clicking the icon will display a ..read more

The Best Way to Search for an Old Post on Lifehacker

We frequently get emails from readers having trouble finding an old post on Lifehacker. They’ve tried the site’s search box but still aren’t having any luck. It’s not you, it’s us. There’s a better way.

Unfortunately Lifehacker’s search doesn’t always do the job of turning up content as well as it should, so when you’re having trouble finding what you’re looking for, turn your query over to the people who do ..read more

Google Adds Shared Folders to Docs

Good news for people using Google Docs to share or collaborate on documents: Google today has added folder sharing and multiple document uploading to its popular suite of web-based document and spreadsheet apps.

There’s not much to getting up and going with shared folders. Either right-click a folder and select Share or go to a folder and select the Share this folder drop-down to invite people. They’ve also improved their file upload tool to support uploading ..read more

Google Integrates Hot Trends into Search Results

Good news for all you web trend followers: Searches constituting the top 100 fastest-rising terms—a.k.a. Hot Trends—will now display a graph at the bottom of the search engine’s results page demonstrating the rise of the trend.

Currently available in the U.S. and Japan only, when searched, these hot trends will come up as a graph at the bottom of the search page results, detailing information including popularity and how quickly the term is rising over ..read more