Google location history "dashboard" gone

Not sure if it's worldwide, but I can confirm my account and my friends.. This is gone. No more dashboard but people can still see individual history..

**SAD**.. The whole point of history is to check it in the dashboard (beta and i was expecting more updates and improvements) to get a easy summary.

Google, I thought killing latitude was a bad idea but now even this is gone...

New version of Google Hangouts - Google Voice integration and multiple accounts addition..

Today google released an update to their hang outs on iPhone. I wasn't quite interested but today's update seems I am going to use hangouts more often.. What's the big differentiatior? It's the Google Voice call that can be routed to hangout.

So I don't have to rely on third party apps like talkatone etc to connect to my google voice app for voice. I can just use hangouts. Great job Google..

Now I've a phone number to take incoming calls while I am roaming :)

Latitude - Dead and no alternative.

Finally Google killed Latitude. I loved it because of its capability of background updating of location and sharing with freinds and family. Ofcourse, I love the "trips" and "distance to moon" which was wonderful. You can still see it as part of the "location History" in Google search app on iOS or Web Page. Just search for Google Location History or simply login here. . You can see all your previous data there.

https://maps.google.com/locationhistory‎

But what I am missing is the 'sharing'. i.e. my friends, family can see me where I am or I can see the location in real time. Especially useful when we travel on business or on an extended holiday.

I think as part of it's product strategy, google targeted plenty of applications which doesnt really fall under "social" net and started to integrate all the apps in to Google+. May be good for Google, but not too good for me.

For the alternatives, I see Google+ auto update which will be coming to iPhone in September as the one alternative. Other than that, I don't think I've any other stuff. 

Google is killing Latitude

Source: Google

Google Latitude will be retired on August 9th, 2013. Products being retired include Google Latitude in Google Maps for Android, Latitude for iPhone, the Latitude API, the public badge, the iGoogle Gadget, and the Latitude website at maps.google.com/latitude.

Guess, Google is killing all those apps which are 'cool' but doesn't make much money to them. Reader was gone and now Latitude. Don't know but being a loyal fan of Latitude I am gonna miss it. I've started using Facebook locations (private checkin) especially to keep the record of specific locations, interesting places at new destinations etc.

May be time to look in to Google+ when it's available on iPhone. 

Google just killed Reader.. In search for good alternatives

What a terrible day to start with. The leaders at Google just decided to kill Google reader and the last day is 30-Jun-2013 which is around three months from now.

At surface it may looks like a typical cleaning exercise but I see the step is due to the not so great success of RSS (or failure ?). I tried to explain how RSS works to my Dad for months before I decided to just subscribe via email.

When a technology doesn't reach masses, it's obvious the life of it going to be short. Sad to say.

I am going to miss this reader very much and already started to look out for good RSS reader. One obvious option is "Flipboard", but it's a bit heavy. I will try Feedly & Pulse later today and see which one suits me the best.

Google Maps available on iOS

Finally, maps is available on iPhone. No longer I need to use the maps in browser or alternatives such as waze. The problem is in Singapore, we've only one good maps application which is Google Maps. Waze is perfect in USA (or at least in SFO where I used for quite a while) but in SG needs a total overhaul.

Anyway back to google maps and now wish I can make it default ;)

Google / Gmail supports SMS as a Chat

Source: Google

Google starts supporting SMS from Gmail. Each account is given 50 credits (means 50 SMS) and there are plenty of operators/countries support. Sadly Singapore is not supported :(. I don't really understand why Singapore is not supported (same with Twitter) though SMS is almost free here and one can send SMS from operator web site.
Anyway hope to see the SMS in Gmail  for more countries. :)

Google + traffic dropped (or increased based on how you see it)

Source: Forbes

I did joined the Google+ at a pretty early stage and extended the invitations to couple of hundreds. But lately I realized, I am going back to Facebook as a habit but not even looking at G+ for weeks. May be it's the critical mass issue, where by there is/are no critical mass for Google Plus to generate content and keep people occupied.
Today I see almost all my friends in Facebook and new posts just floods in (I've to mute some of the 'chatty' friends even). But in Google Plus, I can only see one of two folks making some noises.
Google has to do something to encourage people to go in. May be start some new stuff (games or whatever) exclusively in G+ or some sort of free android phones or ipads or whatever @ a mass scale. I don't know whether it works or not but certainly increases the awareness and brings people.
For any social network (or user generated content hosted sites), traffic/content is the key and Google need to get that :)

Google Music - Started sending activations...

Just received the invitation from Google Music. Below is a screenshot.. Currently they support streaming over web as well as an App for Android. For iOS or iPhone folks the alternative way is to use the "safari" browser just like with Amazon.. (More details here at Cnet). Actually I am not a great fan of Apps and Apps effectively kill the development of full browsers on mobile phones. Still I hope there comes a day when we can simply access the stuff on mobiles just like a normal, regular browser.

Looks good... Currently they are offering only in USA. But as usual we all know how to be in US to activate accounts :) 

Google Wi Fi Database check.

If you want to find whether your home Wi-Fi location is known to Google then do a search at below link. I bet you'll be pretty surprised to see what the giants like Google, Apple knows about you. I think sooner or later they can capture each and every device location on this planet. Big brother or Grand pa Sam. Don't know but sure they know tons about each and every one of us who's connected. Scary!!!

mapping MAC addresses - samy kamkar

Outlook 2010 mail index - Google Desktop not working..

We've upgraded our Office to 2010 and overall it's pretty good experience except one minor issue which is with Outlook 2010. I've been using Google Desktop Search (GDS) for years and by far I can say this is the best tool to search e-mail and its content.

But with Outlook my GDS couldn't find any e-mails. Windows Desktop Search or Live search &  lookeen (www.lookeen.net) works fine with Outlook 2010 so I am more inclined to guess that the problem is at Google domain.

In Google support forums, the support folks seems not interested to answer the question. Is it the end of Google Desktop?? May be with new OS like Windows 7, the OS vendors did a better job on search functionality but GDS still has it's own place for the great performance and familiar interface. Hope there will be a new release from Google.

Google Maps 5 for Android

One more reason to love android. Google released their Maps 5 for Android. Main features/new updates are,

* 3D Maps. (Watch here)
* Compass mode
* Offline (no need to worry about internet when roaming. Just download before touring out)
* Offline re routing
Great job guys. Finally the Offline mode which is the best feature to have.