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Dec 18, 2009

YouTube Direct: Getting Started Guide, Video - Best of Google products and services GoogleDevelopers

Jeff Posnick narrates a screencast detailing all aspects of getting started with YouTube Direct, from required downloads to configuration to deployment.

For even more information about YouTube Direct, see http://code.google.com/p/youtube-direct/



Source: GoogleDevelopers channel

Dec 16, 2009

Google Chrome Extensions: Launch Event, part 1 video -

Video Footage from the Google Chrome Extensions launch event on 12/09/09.
In this part, Brian Rakowski, product management director, provides an update on Google Chrome and explains why extensions are important for the Google Chrome team.


Source: GoogleDevelopers channel

Google Chrome Extensions: Launch Event, part 6 video -

Video Footage from the Google Chrome Extensions launch event on 12/09/09. Nick Baum, product manager for Google Chrome's extension system presents the gallery approval process, gives tips to extensions developers on how to make their extension successful and discusses the team's short term plans.



Source: GoogleDevelopers channel

Google Chrome Extensions: Launch Event, part 5 video

Video Footage from the Google Chrome Extensions launch event on 12/09/09. Xmarks, eBay and Google Translate present their experience developing an extension for Google Chrome.



Source: GoogleDevelopers channel

Google Chrome Extensions: Launch Event, part 4 video

Video Footage from the Google Chrome Extensions launch event on 12/09/09. Aaron Boodman and Erik Kay, technical leads for the Google Chrome extensions team discuss the UI surfaces of Google Chrome extensions and the team's content not chrome philosophy. They also highlight the smooth, frictionless install and uninstall process for Google Chrome's extensions system and present the team's initiatives in the space of security and performance.



Source: GoogleDevelopers channel

Google Chrome Extensions: Launch Event, part 3 video -

Video Footage from the Google Chrome Extensions launch event on 12/09/09. Erik Kay and Aaron Boodman, technical leads for the Google Chrome Extensions team demonstrate how to build, debug and share a Google Chrome extension.



Source: GoogleDevelopers channel

Google Chrome Extensions: Launch Event, part 2 video -

Video Footage from the Google Chrome Extensions launch event on 12/09/09. Aaron Boodman and Erik Kay technical leads for the Google Chrome extensions team present a quick history of the extensions system of Google Chrome and discuss its design principles, focusing on why extensions are webby.



Source: GoogleDevelopers channel

Dec 15, 2009

Twazzup and App Engine, Video - Best of Google products and services, GoogleDevelopers

An interview with the developers behind twazzup.com on how App Engine helps them run their application.



by GoogleDevelopers channel

Dec 12, 2009

Easy Video Project Ideas - You Tube Tools

Wanna create your own video and need some inspiration? Here are some creative ideas that could work for anyone, gathered from and inspired by the YouTube community.

Very special thanks to those whose clips appear in this video. They are:

1. maddogza - "make YouTube your voice" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVe_Iu...

2. GiR2007 - "take a camera into the kitchen" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UG5gO4...

3. ArtieTSMITW - "make strange noises and faces" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPx266...

4. thecomputernerd01 - "interview your grandparents" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpCEx1...

5. jaaaaaaa - "pick up an instrument and play an original tune" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mbiql_...

6. Urgelt - "recite a spooky story" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lBkuz...

7. NeilCicierega - "put on a puppet show" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx1XIm...

8. kamapazzo - "create art in unlikely places" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCQZ2T...

9. fallofautumndistro - "make a flipbook and animate it" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUNd6y...


Got a great project idea? Leave a comment on this video.

Head to the Creator's Corner, our all-in-one hub for uploaders, including tutorial videos, guides to creator-specific features and a blog -- http://video-creativity.blogspot.com -- devoted to videographers and all the cool stuff you make.




Source: YouTube Channel

Dec 8, 2009

Now Stop Typing, Start Dictating Emails on your iPhone - Useful Tools and API's


Nuance, the makers of Dragon NaturallySpeaking (the world’s most popular voice recognition software), have released a new iPhone App that lets you dictate emails, blog posts, SMS text messages or any other text straight into your iPhone without having to use the keyboard.

Called Dragon Dictation, this voice recognition app for your iPhone sports a minimal interface. Just tap the screen and start dictating. Your speech will be recorded and transcribed into text that you can then send as an SMS, email or copy it to the iPhone clipboard and paste into any other iPhone application.

The Dragon Dictation app is available on the iTunes store as a free download for a limited time but only in the US store. That means you’ll not be able to use the Dragon application if your iTunes account is associated with a non-US address.

To correct any dictated text, you can either top on a word to get a drop-down list of alternative suggestions or you can tap the keyboard icon on the bottom left corner and use the standard iPhone text editing feature.

The voice transcription happens on Nuance servers (and not on your phone) so you’ll need an active Wi-Fi or 3G data connection to send your recorded voice and receive transcribed text back from Nuance.

Dragon Dictation is available for original iPhone 2G, 3G and the latest iPhone 3Gs but your phone must be running at least iPhone OS 3.1.

The company is also working on a separate voice recognition app for search that will let you search Google, Bing, and other search engines using voice commands. The Google mobile app for iPhone too includes voice recognition capabilities but with Dragon Search, you’ll be able to search multiple places in one go include YouTube and Twitter.

Source: www.labnol.org

Know The Best Performing Banner Sizes for AdSense - Adsense Tips and Tricks


Google AdSense can provide banners ads in eight standard sizes but if you are not too sure which of these sizes will perform best on your website, read this.

The graph below shows relative click rates (CTR) for all the standard banner ad sizes (relative to the classic "full banner") and as is obvious from the picture, the ad performance or click through rates are much better for larger ad units.

If you are using a medium 300x250 rectangle format on your site, it may be a good idea to do some split testing (for say a week) and then probably replace that unit with a large 336x280 rectangle. Similarly, try squeezing in a wide skyscraper in place of that 120x600 Skyscraper that you may be having on your site.

And while it is easy to include a 728x90 Leaderboard in almost every site design, make sure that it is not the first unit in your HTML source as it is not always the best performing unit.

Another interesting point here is that the 125x125 square ad format, which is now quite popular among the blogger community, seems to attract lower clicks than even the 468x60 banner of the "geocities era" so your advertisers may not be feeling very happy about this.


The AdSense support site also suggests something very similar:

The formats we’ve found to be the most effective are the 336x280 Large Rectangle, the 300x250 Medium Rectangle, and the 160x600 Wide Skyscraper.

Also, wider ad formats tend to outperform their taller counterparts, due to their reader-friendly format. The wider ad format also lessens the likelihood of readers leaving the ad unit altogether.



The above chart was shared in an online webinar by the AdSense optimization team and you can download the full report from DoubleClick.com. Worth reading.

Source: www.labnol.org

Dec 1, 2009

Some photo tagging applications on Facebook add links to bad sites in "your" photos and your innocent Facebook friends

If you have not logged into your Facebook account for some time, I suggest that you do so now. Once you are logged-in, click the "Photos" tab on your Facebook profile and what you see there might surprise you.

It’s your own personal photo album on Facebook but none of these pictures of odd-looking cartoon characters, horoscope charts, photo collages, friend graphs, etc. have been uploaded by you.

What photo tagging applications can do to your Facebook profile


The culprit, as you may have guessed, are these Facebook applications that tag random images with your name and the tagged image therefore shows up in your Facebook profile page without you doing anything.

What’s the problem?

These "collages" not only make your Facebook profile look very unprofessional but there’s something else to worry about as well.

Some photo tagging applications on Facebook add links to bad sites in "your" photos and your innocent Facebook friends, who are just randomly browsing your pictures, might fall in the trap.

What can you do?

The simple way is that you remove your name tag from the tagged photo and it will be instantly removed from your Facebook photo album as well.

Next you should find the Facebook application that you friend used to create that photo collage in the first place and block that application forever so that your other friends are unable to use that application to spam your Facebook profile page.

Also make sure that you get notifications each time someone tags you in a photo. You can control this setting from the "Notifications" tab on the Account Settings page.

Photo tagging is the one of the most popular features on Facebook and, probably for this reason, Facebook doesn’t offer a simple setting that will prevent other users and applications from tagging you in photographs. You can however hide "photos tagged of you" from the privacy page so that the images don’t appear in your public photo albums and are visible only to you.

And as a precautionary measure, visit the authorized apps pages to make sure that you haven’t authorized any Facebook app to tag images of other people on your behalf. If you find one, just click the cross to remove that Facebook app from your profile permanently.

What can Facebook do?

When you are tagged in a photo by your friends (or a Facebook application), the tag is automatically approved and the picture appears in your profile. All we therefore need is an extra privacy setting that would let us to approve tags before a tagged photo appears on our profile page.

Facebook won’t let developers add apps to your profile without permission then why do they allow them to add pictures to your profile without asking.

Source: www.labnol.org

What are some running gags at Google? (Video) - Google Webmaster Tool Tips and Tricks

Alex asks:

"What is the most common running gag over there at Google?"



Source: Google Webmaster Central
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