Google has a zillion other services. While you’re pretty familiar with things like Search and Maps, even these Google stalwarts have some secret powers for you to master. And if you haven’t seen Google’s little-known Panoramio, we’ll show you how to view and contribute to its amazing collection of geotagged photography.
Google’s Traffic function uses data analysis from road sensors and GPS-equipped mobile phones.
Before you start the car, check for clogged arteries by clicking the Traffic button. By default you’ll see live, current traffic conditions—anonymously collected from drivers’ mobile devices—but you can change the day and time to see extrapolated predictions. To do so, start from the Traffic pop-up and click the Change link, then set the day and time of your departure.
Things looking bad out there? When you get directions in Google Maps, you can always opt for an alternate route by clicking and dragging the suggested route to another road. Or you could opt to ditch the car entirely: click the Public Transit or Walking link on the right panel below the starting point and destination to see how you can get there by bus, train, trolley, or on foot.
Remember to make the port 5223 and check the box for use SSL.
iChat is great...but what if your friends aren’t MobileMe or AIM users? Getting your favorite IM client to play nice with Google’s chat network is actually pretty simple. In iChat’s preferences, click the + button to add a new account. Select Jabber ID and enter your Gmail username (or Google Talk username if they aren’t linked) and your password. Under Server settings, make the server talk.google.com and the port 5223. Check the boxes next to Connect using SSL and Allow self-signed certificate. Type iChat in the Location field. Just like that, you’ve got a Google Talk account configured in iChat.
To the moon!
Google Image search has special filters you can use to specify the size and type of the image you’re looking for. For example, if you’re looking for desktop-wallpaper images of the moon that are 1024x768 pixels, first go into Google Images, search for moon, then in your results, click the Show Options link to set the exact size. In those options, you can also narrow down results by the type of image you want—images that contain faces, a photo, clip art, or line drawing. Google’s Video search offers similar options. You can specify the length of a video you’re looking for as well as whether it’s a cartoon, slide show, or high quality.
Stabbing a tab with a thumbtack ensures that it’ll remain stationary.
When you open a new tab in Google Chrome, you land by default at the aptly named New Tab screen, a smart grid of thumbnail previews of your most visited websites. You can customize the look, layout, and position of the thumbnails on this launcher page to make it more useful. To remove a thumbnail, hover over it and click the X in the upper-right corner. To relocate a thumbnail to a different position in the grid, hover over it, then drag and drop it to its new location. To pin a thumbnail to a spot—so it’s always there, no matter how often you visit it—hover over it and click the thumbtack button on the upper-left side.
It’s like Google Maps and National Geographic hooked up.
Google Maps and Google Earth are great for getting around town or across the globe, but they don’t give a sense of a place’s character. With your help, Panoramio can fix that. It’s Google’s photo-sharing service for geotagged shots of landscapes and landmarks—not vacation shots of friends and family.
Where’s Waldo’s hotel?
On your Mac, visit Panoramio’s website (panoramio.com) to create an account or sign in with your Google username and password. A free account gives you 2GB of storage, and you can upload up to 10 pictures simultaneously from the Finder at a maximum of 25MB or 50MP per photo. Panoramio detects location data automatically, but you can also place pictures on a map manually after uploading. Next, add titles, tags, and other details to your photos to make them easier for others to find.
Tags based on photo metadata are suggested automatically, but you can add your own.
The simplest way to share snaps from your iPhone or iPod touch is with the Panoramio app. It lets you take pictures with location data if you’ve activated Location Services for Panoramio in Settings, or you can upload selections from your Photo Library. You can add titles to shots before upload, but not tags, and pictures must be uploaded one at a time.
Every month Panoramio adds the best pictures to Google’s map apps and websites (they’re as picky about quality as Apple), but you can browse them all at Panoramio’s site. Search for tags, specific locations, or just get lost browsing a map decorated with users’ pictures. Happy traveling!
