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 can you use this product? There are 5 ways: inside Google+ (replaces the Google Chat box), inside Gmail (optionally replaces the Gmail Chat box), using a Chrome extension (has already replaced the Google Chat extension and it requires Google+), an Android app (gradually replacing the built-in Google Talk app) and an iOS app (entirely new, requires Google+). As you can see, 3 of the 5 ways to use it require Google+. You can refuse to upgrade to Hangouts in Gmail, but the Gmail Chat feature will eventually be discontinued. Probably most Android users will upgrade from Google Talk to Google+ Hangouts. The only other Google Chat clients are the Google Talk app for Windows and the chat boxes from iGoogle and orkut.Google+ Hangouts doesn't require Google+, but most Google+ Hangouts clients require Google+. Actually there are 2 features that are somehow tied to Google+: sharing photos (they're uploaded to Google+ photos) and group chat. Here's what happens when you try to use them in Gmail, without joining Google+:Google+ Hangouts has little in common with Google Chat/Talk, it's actually an upgraded Google+ Messenger. Hangouts focuses on conversations, not people, that's why you won't see a long list of buddies. Ideally, Hangouts lets you communicate with anyone you've added to a Google+ circle or anyone else, if you know his email address or phone number. When you open mobile clients for the first time, Google asks you to verify your phone number and that's optional.Many people complain that Hangouts doesn't show if someone is online. Google's new service does away with busy/away/invisible/offline and has a different way to show if some is "connected": a green bar under the photo if someone can reply immediately. It only shows up if someone actually uses the application.Hangout's tagline is "conversations come to life". Maybe because there are hundreds of emojis you can add to your messages, maybe because there's video chat, maybe because of the presence signals. "Hangouts inserts tiny little square avatars into the chat history, called 'watermarks.' These watermarks show when somebody else is typing, but they also indicate how far others have read in the conversation," reports The Verge.Google+ Hangouts lacks many features from Google Chat: voice chat, phone calls, sending SMS, formatting tricks. You can now use keyboard shortcuts, but only for the desktop clients. Hangouts has its own Easter Eggs and they're really funny. Unfortunately, Hangouts drops support for server-to-server XMPP, it can't interact with other XMPP apps/services. It still works with Gmail Chat and Google Talk, though.So what's Google+ Hangouts, after all? "The single communication app that we want our users to rely on," says Nikhyl Singhal, from Google. "We don't see Hangouts as a messaging product, we see it as a communication product," says product manager Kate Cushing.Hangouts lets you decide for each Google+ circle if you want to be added to a hangout by its members or if you want them to send a request. Notifications are supposed to be synchronized for all your devices, so you only see them once, but I got multiple notifications.Google+ is about real-life sharing, so Hangouts is built on top of the original Hangouts and Messenger features. The initial name of Google+ Messenger was Huddle, which means "draw together for an informal, private conversation".The Talk era was about openness, the Chat era was about ubiquity, the Hangouts era is about Google+, the new Google that's all about social and mobile. From OpenSocial to ClosedSocial, from OpenMessaging to ClosedMessaging, from idealism to realism.

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 via your mobile carrier network, without encryption."This features works for most of the countries where Gmail SMS is supported, but not the US. It works for India, Pakistan, Israel, Turkey, Ukraine, Congo and many other countries from Africa and Asia.{ Thanks, Herin and Camilo. }

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.Depending on your computer and the browser you're using, you may not see the Google Earth view and other 3D features. WebGL features require Windows Vista/7/8, Mac OS 10.8.3+, Chrome OS, the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox and up-to-date graphics drivers. This page explains what's the lite mode and provides links for the lite mode and the full 3D mode.Probably the most impressive feature in the new interface is the Google Earth integration that doesn't require a plugin. It looks great, even if it doesn't includes all the features of the desktop software.Another impressive feature is the "Explore" box at the bottom of the page that combines Street View, panoramas and static photos. It's the best way to find interesting places and explore them from your armchair.Standard maps look better, colors are softer, labels are easier to read. Google Maps finally has permalinks that automatically update in the address bar, so it's easier to share pages and bookmark them (obviously, URLs only work in the new Google Maps). You can no longer find a contextual menu when you right-click, so features like "directions to/from here", "zoom in/out", "center map here" are missing. Now you can click any place on the map and you'll get a small info pane below the search box that shows the address and lets you get directions and go to Street View. Double click to zoom in, use the mouse wheel or the "+"/"-" buttons. The new Google Maps simplified navigation and removed many useful features like the zoom level bar, panning, "show my location" and the Street View Pegman. Layers like Wikipedia, weather, webcams, photos, videos, previous searches are no longer available, while transit, traffic and bicycling can be found in the "getting around" box."My Places" is not part of the new Google Maps interface. Click the "options" icon in the black navigation bar, click "My Places" and you'll go back to the old interface. It's a trick that lets you temporarily switch to the old interface. You can also click "classic maps".The new full-screen interface places all the navigation controls on top of the map and invites you to explore the map. To get directions, mouse over the search box and click "directions". To find a place, use the search box. The transitions are smooth and Google Maps uses a simplified version of Google Instant: you're automatically sent to the place you've selected without having to press Enter. You can restrict the results to places from top reviewers or your Google+ circles. Google emphasizes the reviews from your Google+ circles, so search results are personalized. Results are placed on the map and this is disconcerting: you don't know which one to click. Mouse over the results to get some information, click them to get even more information. It's a strange way to display search results, since you don't know which one is better. Google used to rank the results and ranking was an important component of local search. You can click "go to list of top results" and you're sent to a different page that includes other results and the list isn't comprehensive.I don't like the new interface for directions because the step-by-step directions are no longer displayed automatically. You need to click "step-by-step" and you're sent to a different page. Switching between the suggested routes is more intuitive because all of them are displayed on them map and you can compare them. Google also includes transit directions, which have a simplified interface that summarizes information. Printing directions requires additional clicks and you can no longer hide the map or include maps for all steps.The new Google Maps requires a lot more resources, especially more RAM, so it's not a great idea to use it if you have an old computer. Earth View and Street View use a lot of memo

The landscape in data analysis has changed rapidly in the past few years. Organizations and developers are analyzing larger data sets, from more data sources, to drive their decision-making. They are examining huge volumes of unsampled data to make informed business decisions--often mining information in business intelligence tools for strategic insights. For the data scientists that perform these analyses, having direct granular access to Google Analytics data is becoming increasingly important. Today at I/O, we announced that we are giving Google Analytics Premium users the ability to glean new business insights by accessing session and hit level data and combining it with separate data sets. Organizations and developers can analyze in seconds without massive cost by leveraging Google BigQuery, a web service that lets developers and businesses conduct interactive analysis of big data sets and tap into powerful data analytics. Interactive data analysis and data ownership The upcoming BigQuery integration, happening later this year, is a planned feature for Google Analytics Premium that allows clients to access their session and hit level data from Google Analytics within Google BigQuery for more granular and complex querying of unsampled data. For those unfamiliar with Google BigQuery, it’s a web service that lets you perform interactive analysis of massive data sets—up to trillions of rows. Scalable and easy to use, BigQuery lets developers and businesses tap into powerful data analytics on demand. Plus, your data is easily exportable; you own it. Benefits of BigQuery Leverage Google’s massive computing power to get business insights from big data in seconds rather than hours. Analyze massive amounts of data in the cloud with no up-front investments (hardware provisioning or software licensing investments). Share and collaborate quickly and securely using Access Control Lists. Store as much as you want, paying only for what you use. Protect your data with multiple layers of security from Google. Potential Uses of the Google Analytics Premium and BigQuery Integration Having Google Analytics session and hit level data available in BigQuery opens several possibilities for developers and data scientists. Usage includes, but is not limited to, the following Analyzing visitor behavior across very large date ranges. Answer the question: "From 2010 to 2013, which sections of my site had the most volatility in daily traffic volumes?" Joining against data from other sources. Make detailed, custom analyses, such as: "I have a database that contains all the metadata about each article posted on my site and would like to see the bounce rate, conversion rate and new visitors generated by author and topic." Understanding complex queries. Answer the question: "Of the visitors to my site that used a voucher code, how many originally discovered my brand from a voucher code site and how many left the checkout process and returned within 10 minutes with a voucher code? Which codes were used in each case?" Integrating with Data Warehouses. Make detailed, custom analyses, such as: "On a weekly basis, for each of my logged in customers, I want to see the top 5 products that they viewed but did not buy and add that information into their record in our CRM." We are looking forward to getting this granular data access into the hands of developers and data scientists. To receive more information about this integration as it comes available, developers may register their interest here: http://goo.gl/QJR9Y. Posted by: Clancy Childs, Product Manager, Google Analytics Premium

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 Google Search pages look, how queries are processed and what people expect from Google. When Google will be able to answer complex questions, to summarize long pages, use inferences to find new information and truly understand human language, you'll no longer need a browser for most searches. A Google search button can be embedded in any smart device from watches, fridges to smart glasses and cars.In a recent video, Matt Cutts tries to predict the future of Google search: "It ought to be able to go out and take multiple sources of information and figure out how to combine those together and fuse or synthesize that information. And it should really be able to handle d

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 next to the subject line in a list of messages. "These buttons appear next to certain types of messages in your inbox and let you take action on an email without ever having to open it. For example, you can RSVP to your friend's party invitation or rate that restaurant you went to last night all right from the inbox. You'll be checking things off that to-do list in no time."For flight notifications, Gmail has a special card displayed above the message that includes real-time information about the flight and a "check-in" button.Google detects the type of message and tries to extract the most important action, but you can help Google by adding schema.org markup to the mail you're sending. R

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 with the same software experience we ship on our Nexus devices. It's Google's take on Android and it feels awesome on the S4," said Google VP Hugo Barra.It's good news for everyone. Google can sell a powerful LTE phone that doesn't compete with Nexus 4 because it's more expensive. Samsung has access to Google's software updates, so there's less work to keep up with the new Android versions. Developers can buy a Nexus version of the most popular Android phone and can even use a MicroSD card, replace the battery, use a physical home button and two other capacitive buttons. People who want to buy a Galaxy S4, but don't like Samsung's TouchWiz software, no longer have to rely on custom ROMs. Projects like Cyanoge

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 with the same software experience we ship on our Nexus devices. It's Google's take on Android and it feels awesome on the S4," said Google VP Hugo Barra.It's good news for everyone. Google can sell a powerful LTE phone that doesn't compete with Nexus 4 because it's more expensive. Samsung has access to Google's software updates, so there's less work to keep up with the new Android versions. Developers can buy a Nexus version of the most popular Android phone and can even use a MicroSD card. People who want to buy a Galaxy S4, but don't like Samsung's TouchWiz software, no longer have to rely on custom ROMs. Projects like CyanogenMod will do a better job of supporting Galaxy S4. Even if you buy the regular Gal

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, we've obsessed over building great maps—maps that are comprehensive, accurate, and easy to use," says Google.You can also check the new colors, the new icons for local business and the corresponding cards.The new Street View powered by WebGL:{ Thanks, Florian K. }

At Google I/O yesterday Google+ enjoyed a wave of updates. I've always been fond on the network, especially the communities and it feels like Google is making steady progress with the platform. I suspect most people will have the new edition already but, if not, I posted some screenshots of new plus last night. One of the new features is Auto Awesome. This is an automatic layer to Google+ that improves photos and one of the features is Auto Awesome motion. If Google detects you've uploaded five or more similar photos in a row then it'll (may) animate them. As it happens, the HTC One has a feature called Zoe which takes a short video/series of still images in an "uber burst". When you have auto sync on then all these images are uploaded from your phone to Google+. It's been a bit quirky until today. Now it has a practical application. The HTC One's Zoe feature makes it easy to trigger Motion Photos in Google+. There's a sample below... and you'll see it's not quite right. The car is clearly out