Google has designed two (2) programs for its “Screenwise” project that aims to increase awareness of how people relatively make use of their browsers. These are the “lightweight option” and Google’s partnership with Knowledge Networks.

The lightweight option gives user a Chrome browser extension as this will share with Google the sites user commonly visits and how it’s used. A user that sign’s up is given a $5 Amazon gift card (one every three months). The maximum amount stated by Google is up to $25 but the company still has to strategize how it will deal with users who are into the program for more than a year.

On the other hand, the partnership with Knowledge Networks (a company that undertakes surveys for companies) involves households receiving a “high end router” from Cisco and having it installed. Its purpose mainly is to record data traffic (through a firmware) during the web access made by the household. Payment for those who will participate is at $100 up front and an additional $20/month.

Details on the programs aren’t that specific yet but those interested to sign up for updates as well as register can go here.

Some say that secret lab is as mysterious as the CIA and located into two different places. One is located in Google’s headquarters in California while the other one is in a secret place within the country. Well, it seems that Google is trying to be different and would like to explore a different field in spite of the fact that it has grown into the company that it is today. It is not really the first time that we have heard about the possibility that Google has a secret lab. In fact, we have heard of this rumor back in 2005 when a Google engineer posted an experimental website with the purpose of showing off a MAC-OS interface for the company’s services. However, after one day this site was removed already without any explanation at all.

Google’s self driving cars have also surprised a lot of people because of its advanced technology and this started the speculation that Google has a secret lab where such types of developments are being developed. Google’s spokeswoman, Jill Hazelbaker refused to comment about Google X, but stated that the company has been investing in various speculative projects that would be of help to many. If you still remember, another secret facility called Xerox PARC lab has also introduced the society to various innovative products such as the Ethernet, laser printers, and the graphical interface that has helped the late Steve Jobs in revolutionizing Apple.

Let us just wait and see what new products we can expect from the Google X and how it will change our lives in the future. Watch out for more updates.

A quick look on its development tells us that it was in late June that Google started to showcase the web app future. Surprisingly, Google has uploaded a video at YouTube wherein the changes that they have made have been explained. The new look on Gmail puts premium on being clean, simple and intuitive. Moreover, its theme has the touch of Google+ on it.

Some of the new features of the email interface include the automatic adapting to any size window. User is also given the power to manually resize windows on chat and label. The option to choose density has also been added and this perfectly suits user preferences on layout of components as well as the white space. Google has also made it simple for users to browse and read past email messages. In relation to this, the threaded messages appear on a new conversation view. Moreover, an advance search box has been put in place for quick and easy access. This is a drop down from the search field.

More details can be found on this video:

Currently, it is not quite clear yet on when the roll-out of the new look comes fully to all users. Some though have already started to view the new themes in their account.

The whole announcement was made by Bradley Horowitz, Google’s VP for Product, last Friday (October 14th) along with an accompanying statement that the company will be focusing more on the development of Google Plus (Google+). The Buzz API will also be closed along with Jaiku, Code Search and Google Labs. These services will be closed in the next few weeks/months. Though, the exact dates of closure weren’t revealed.

Nevertheless, the death of Google Buzz alarmed some of our social media experts. And apparently,  they seem skeptical about the success of Google Plus, as well. In fact, a statistical report from Chitika Insights also revealed the newly established social network’s continues a downward trend. And despite of the network’s 40 million users, statistics shows that most of these users have little to no activity.

Well, we really can’t predict the future of Google’s newest social network service. Who knows? The search engine giant may manage to succeed. After all, they were quite tight-lipped and have yet to comment about the aforesaid findings.

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The widget can also be incorporated by adding some PHP codes to a template. Adding a Google+ 1 button works in the same way and makes sense with any Google profile. WordPress themes are also available while WP Plus, a theme content menu and SEO optimized, is possible by tweaking the site’s code. The new and per-invite social networking site of the popular search engine provider has been providing several options to make its presence felt worldwide.

The process of integrating the plug-in takes the following steps: Download googlecards.zip; Unzip the file; Upload the unzipped files to the `/wp-content/plugins/` directory; Activate the plug-in; Go to Widgets menu in WordPress; Add widget to the sidebar and Choose a widget title and google+ id. Of course, the blog site should be WordPress-created.

In order to display the widget anywhere in the template, a few PHP codes are all that is required. Or a widget API may be needed to allow its use in multiple sidebars. WordPress is a widely known open source tool for blog sites and a publishing platform using PHP and MySQL programming language. You may check this site for more information about the plugin.

This offer is being made by Google to advertisers who are into AdWords. With Google’s credit line, advertisers are assured on a no annual fee and there’s an 8.99 percent annual percentage rate. Meanwhile, MasterCard will be issuing Google’s cards. Google has thought of this strategy as a way to aid small as well as medium businesses increase their sales with volumes of advertisements when needed i.e. before holidays.

Google recognizes that these businesses don’t have the resource or are financially constrained with what they only have. The Credit Line will depend largely on the cardholder or in this case the company’s customer/client. This card can only be used by companies in purchasing AdWords advertisements.

There will already be a “beta” testing by next week (Wednesday) and a number of customers will have invites from Google to participate and start using the credit cards. Google though hasn’t released any word on who the companies are. This is commendable on the part of Google considering that they are thinking of the small businesses that would benefit for such initiative.

A vanity URL or domain name points to something indicated in the URL, be it a product, a service or a personal profile. This is to prevent spammers from intruding to the privacy of users or deciphering their accounts since most google accounts are interlinked to their gmails. The only problem is the difficulty in remembering those long numbers that identifies a unique user.

Gplus.to comes to the rescue by simplifying the URL for easy sharing with friends and is more convenient to remember. Although not a google product and owned by a Turkish developer, it facilitates URL identification by shortening it.

Users may input 3-25 latin characters without numbers of other special characters and may come in the following form: Gplus.to/myname, after copying or pasting the string of numbers. Currently the service is being swarmed by new users every 1-2 seconds and continuously growing by the minute. Other networking sites provide vanity URLs to their users by placing the user’s name in the URL.

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The new Google service is called Prizes.org. It is a place where people can create contests, ask help and reward those who can help them with a prize. The prize will be in forms of credits wherein users can convert into real cash.

As of now, the site is still in its beta mode. But you can already avail the service through Facebook Connect or Twitter. Then, you can be able to participate in a wide range of contests as you get to follow other users and build connections.

Some of the site’s exciting features are listed below:

• Follow Contests, Follow People
• Own Profile Page with Links to Websites and Follows
• Facebook and Twitter Integration
• The ability to vote to contest submissions

On the other hand, the site’s ‘Create a Contest’ feature is still in its invitation-only mode. But the site did state that it will be open to everyone – soon. A maximum amount of 50 USD will also be required before you can withdraw your credits to your Paypal account. 1 Credit will be equal to 1 USD and participants must be able to submit their entries before the final date of submission.

Prizes.org is currently being developed and maintained by Slide, a sub-company of Google.

And because of its popularity, it is only normal to see lots of Facebook applications that could make your Facebook experience even more fun and exciting. And one of these is the Google Chrome extension called Facebook Friend Exporter that makes extracting Facebook contacts an easier task. Apparently, this Chrome extension can help more users to reconstruct their social graphs in Google+.

However, there are some reports that Facebook is trying its very best to block the Facebook Friend Exporter. This information was divulged by Mohamed Mansour, the person behind the Google Chrome extension Facebook Friend Exporter.

Basically, this Google Chrome Extension is only a simple tool that allows its users to grab phone numbers, e-mails and other data from your Facebook friends and directly import them into the Google Contacts. However, its current version does not work anymore, but its developer promises to build and maintain a new version that will employ a different design.

Google is definitely a big name online, but it has been an underdog in the social networking department and this may be the reason why it has decided to come up with this kind of a tool that has the ability to export information. However, according to CNET reported this tool seems to be against Facebook’s Terms of Service.

This extension is such a great help when it comes to building your own Google+ network, but you should use it at your own risk. So far, from the more than 30,000 users who have used this application, none have experienced getting a ban notice from Facebook. But there is no guarantee that Facebook will not be doing anything about it in the future.

So what can you say about this Chrome extension? Is it an advantage or disadvantage?

And speaking of games, reports have told that game developers are now working their way towards the new social interface. In fact, most of them have shown their admiration for the Google Plus Project and are deeply anticipating for the social network to officially open its gate for social games.

So, can we now play Farmville? Not yet. But some leaks have spotted that the Google Plus game feature is already in the works. The said leak was found hiding behind the social network’s source code.

Well, this could mean that it won’t be long until we get to play those in-browser MMOs and RPGs. This could also mean that there’s a big chance that the new Google Plus social network will get some boost on its user activity.

Google, on the other hand, have stated its bigger plans for the Google Plus Project. However, it did not state any specific time or possible date of release. Watch out guys!