Elliott C. Back » Google

New GMail Security Feature

Elliott Back — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 03:48:33 +0000

I was using my GMail today and was surprised to see a little link that read “Last account activity: 1 minute ago at this IP (74.101.6.15). Details.” If you click on Details, it brings up a popup with the latest activity on your account–who accessed your email last, and from where:

Activity on this account: This feature provides information about the last activity on this mail account and any concurrent activity.

GMail now tells you with timestamps (a) what kind of thing (browser, IMAP client, etc) accessed your email (b) when it happened, and (c) what the IP address was. The only thing lacking is a log of what content precisely was downloaded. So finally Google has solved the “is my significant other spying on me” or “do my parents secretly read my email” questions.

Vote for Google’s Final 10^100 Projects!

Elliott Back — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:36:44 +0000

Google’s Project 10¹⁰⁰ is about gathering the world’s best ideas and sifting them to produce meaningful agents of change. After thousands of people from hundreds of different countries submitted over 150,000 ideas, dedicated Google staffers aggregated them into 16 different “Big Ideas,” up to 5 of which will be funded. Here’s a little more info about the project:

Thanks to ReadWrite Web for pointing out this video.

If you head on over now to the Project 10¹⁰⁰ voting page, let your voice be heard! Voting will end on October 8th, so you don’t have much time! Proposals include:

Promote health monitoring and data analysis
Enhance science and engineering education
Create real-world issue reporting system
Create genocide monitoring and alert system
Help social entrepreneurs drive change
Make government more transparent
Provide quality education to African students
Create real-time natural crisis tracking system
Build real-time, user-reported news service
Drive innovation in public transport
Make educational content available online for free
Create more efficient landmine removal programs
Work toward socially conscious tax policies
Build better banking tools for everyone
Collect and organize the world’s urban data
Encourage positive media depictions of engineers and scientists

I’ve voted for Work toward socially conscious tax policies. Let me know what you think in the comments!

Google Chrome 3’s “New Tab” Thumbnails Sucks

Elliott Back — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 21:14:51 +0000

So I recently restarted my computer to find a new version of Google Chrome which has a pathetic “New Tab” page. Where the old one gave me a ton of recently viewed thumbnail icons (12, I think), the new only has 8! And they pathetically take up a mere fraction of the available real-estate on the monitor. If you don’t believe me, check out this screenshot of the feature-crippled Chrome 3 in action:

I’m not the only one to notice, there are a couple support threads on the Google Chrome Forums about this. More, sure to come.

Google Happy Valentine’s Day

Elliott Back — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 17:42:18 +0000

This year Google went for a Gossip-Girl inspired XOXO, V-day logo:

I think it’s a very striking color of red, but not very romantic logo.

Google Chrome Screenshots

Elliott Back — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:45:15 +0000

Google Chrome, Google’s new web browser is out, and you can download it! Gizmodo earlier posted some screenshots (as did TechCrunch and Walter Mossberg), but I thought I should post a few of my own captures of the fast, new browser in action.

The first screen you see shows your recent history and a bookmarks bar

The about:memory page shows memory usage of Google Chrome, and any other browser you might have open (Firefox, IE, Opera, Safari). It’s a nice, sneaky feature that makes you feel better about how Chrome manages system resources.

Google Chrome stole Firefox’s Awesome bar. In fact, the Google “do anything” bar is less usable than Firefox’s, and uglier to boot.

As Reisigner noted, Chrome is faster than other browsers. It shows this off with its own task manager.

Chrome seamlessly imports bookmarks, passwords, and browsing history from Firefox

For those afraid Google might do some evil, and watch what you’re surfing on the internet, Matt Cuts in Preventing paranoia: when does Google Chrome talk to Google.com? writes about how Chrome will contact Google:

I knew that as soon as Google Chrome launched, some readers would ask tough questions about privacy and how/when Google Chrome communicates with google.com. So I decided to tackle this issue head-on. I talked to the Chrome team to find out if there’s anything to worry about. The short answer is no. For the long answer, read on.

So, Chrome is a gorgeous, fast, simple, and secure browser. Why not use it? No more crashing, lightning-fast page loading and rendering, faster javascript, a standards-compliant renderer, nice import features… there’s really no reason not to switch.