Internet

Google Buzz Now Has Reshare, Not Rebuzz

May 25, 2023 by Arnold Zafra

For Buzz users, have you wanted to share an interesting buzz that you want to share with your other Google Buzz followers? Are you tired of the copying the buzz and pasting it to a new buzz just to let your followers find it? Google finally gives a solution. Nope, sorry folks its not called “rebuzz” but rather a more correct and dandy tag called “reshare.”

If you’re familiar with Twitter’s “retweet,” well Google Buzz Reshare practically works the same way. You found and interesting Google buzz post from your followers, click on a link, add an annotation or any comment and then hit the button to publish it as a new buzz on your Google buzz account. Yes, in two clicks, Google made its Buzz product more social.

In addition, “resharing” a buzz creates a new buzz that contains link to the original post. And it creates a buzz thread as soon as more followers started resharing the buzz to their followers as well. Now, when two or more Google Buzz users share the same thing to you, the buzz is collapsed to avoid cluttering your Google Buzz inbox. Sounds fair?

On why Google implemented its buzz sharing feature this way, the Official Gmail Blog tells us the following explanations: [Read more…] about Google Buzz Now Has Reshare, Not Rebuzz

Are You Happy with Facebook’s New and Simpler Privacy Controls?

May 24, 2023 by Arnold Zafra

Here’s could probably be Facebook’s last ditch effort at convincing everyone of us that it minds user privacy. And this could possibly make or break Facebook, either retaining loyal users to driving them away to other “more secured” social networking sites.

So as Facebook is confronted with issues about its “complex” privacy policy, it now announces a simpler privacy control measures via a long post on the Official Facebook blog. But essentially, there are three major issues addressed by Facebook’s new privacy controls.

First thing which Facebook did was to build one simple control for setting who can see content that you post. You can now specify whether the content is viewable by everyone, friends of your friends or just by your friends. Which ever settings you choose will be applied to new products which Facebook will introduce in the future. You don’t need to set them up once new products are introduced.

Then Facebook also reduced the amount of basic information that are visible to everyone. The connections privacy model was also removed. You now have the ability to control who can see your friends and pages and those information are no longer default to public. Of course, as these are basic information, it is but logical to have these for public viewing since its the only way for other people to find you. Otherwise, there’s no point in maintaining your Facebook account anymore.

Finally, Facebook also made it simpler to control how apps and websites access any of your information. Turning this off is now easier and can be easily done via a simple click. Turning off instant personalization is also easier now and gives you the facility to allow only partner sites to see things you’ve made visible to everyone.

With that, Facebook is proud to announced that its privacy model is now complete. And it hopes that issues concerning user privacy would be finally put to a rest.

These new privacy controls will be rolled out to everyone in the next few weeks. By then, we will know whether users are satisfied with the measures and make them stay with Facebook.

Wikipedia Sports an Easier to Use and Edit Site Interface

May 23, 2023 by Arnold Zafra

For a huge website with contents and edited by millions of people, it will definitely take a long time before a site overhaul is implemented. Such was the case for Wikipedia which just rolled out its new design and interface for its website – wikipedia.org. In fact, it took Wikipedia more than a year to redesign its site after a year of usability testing and consultation with everyday Wikipedia users. It was certainly a long and hard work, but if there’s one consolation that the folks at Wikipedia should have, it’s the fact that they’ve done a great job!

So, have you checked out Wikipedia? Did you notice the following enhancements:

Look and feel – Wikipedia now sports the “vector” theme which makes it easier to find the site’s essential functionality.

Navigation – Tabs at the top of each Wikipedia page clearly identifies whether you are reading or editing a page. A collapsible navigation was included on the left sidebar that you can use to hide items that you are not using.

Editing improvements – The editing toolbar is no easier to use. Formating pages is simpler and more intuitive. In addition, a table wizard was introduced to make it easier for you to create tables as well as a new find and replace feature that simplifies page editing.

Link wizard: An easy-to-use tool allows you to add links to other pages on Wikipedia, or to pages on external sites.

Search improvements – Improved search suggestions that easily gets you to the page you are looking for.

Pediapress book creator: – Use the Book Creator from selected Wikipedia articles. This will be saved as a PDF so that you can read it anytime, anywhere.

Updated Puzzle globe and wordmark – The Wikipedia globe and wordmark have been enhanced and improved.

There you go. What can you say about the new interface of Wikipedia. Will you using the site more now?

How Do You Like the Redesigned Google Search Results Page So Far?

May 22, 2023 by Arnold Zafra

If you’re a regular Google Search user, you may have already noticed something different in the Google Search Results Pages starting this morning. Google has rolled out several enhancements in the user interface of the Search Results Pages including a redesigned Google logo.

In case you haven’t seen it here’s how the new Google Search Results Pages look like side by side with the old interface:

As you can see, the left-side navigation was change drastically with the inclusion of cute icons representing the different search verticals which you may want to check whenever you want to filter results for your searches. Just below these search verticals are different ways by which you may want to view your search results such as the Wonder Wheel, Google Squared View, Image-less views and more.

The Official Google Blog tells us:

The new design refreshes and streamlines the look, feel and functionality of Google, making it easier to pinpoint what you’re looking for. It’s powerful, yet simple. Today’s changes are the latest in our continuing efforts to evolve and improve Google. We’ve been testing these changes with users over the past few months, and what we’re launching today reflects the feedback we’ve received.. We want to ensure that the Google you use today is better than the one you used yesterday, and these latest changes open up many possibilities for future features and enhancements.

So, do you like the new look and feel of Google’s search results pages? Do you find it useful or you don’t mind at all? Anybody noticed its striking resemblance to Microsoft Bing’s search results pages?

Incidentally, if you’re using Google Mobile Search, that same interface was also rolled out.