Google Talk Guru : Get Google Search Results Within Gmail Chat

Google Talk Guru is an experimental feature from Google that offers you a chat session through which you can ask certain questions (your search queries) and receive instant Google search results in the chat box itself.

Just add guru@googlelabs.com to your contact list and send a chat invitation. Apart from Gmail, it works through any chat client that supports Google Talk (Pidgin, Adium, Digsby etc.). It works quite well as long as you stick to simple commands and don't ask anything complex.

 
If you get stuck, simply type "help" (without quotes) in the chat box and receive a list of supported categories. Typing help followed by the name of a category tells you how to phrase your query.


 Few examples queries:

• weather Nagpur, India

• calculate 500+54(2568-2495)

• define hakunamatata

• web techmeasy
• translate hello from english to french

Also Check :

• List of all Facebook Chat Emoticons
• Hidden Smileys in Gmail Chat  
• Hidden Smileys in Google Plus 
• Find Big Mail

Hidden Smileys in Google Plus

As I mentioned in my last post, Gmail chat has a few undocumented smileys other than the regular ones. All those hidden smileys works even in Google Plus chats. Additionally, I discovered a few more emoticons that works in Google+ but unfortunately don't seem to work in Gmail Chat or in Google Talk. Here's the list :

Key	Meaning	Classic	Round	Square
~=[,,_,,]:3	Nyan Cat
:3	Cat
-<@%	Bumblebee
+/'\	Cowbell

Once again, thanks to Deen for his contribution.

Also check :

• List of all Facebook Chat Emoticons
• How to Revert Back to Gmail's Old Look 
• Hidden Smileys in Gmail Chat 
• Google Talk Guru : Get Google Search Results Within Gmail Chat

Download Entire Album from Google Plus

UPDATE :

Great news! Recently Google has introduced the ability to download complete albums from Google plus. So, from now on, if you wish to download an album from Google plus, you just have to follow three simple steps (and not a cumbersome workaround that was earlier mentioned in this page).

Here's how :

1. Browse to the album that you wish to download.

2. On an album page, click  on the “v” button.

3. Click on the “Download album” option to download all the photos in the album in a .zip file

Extract the photos from the downloaded .zip file and enjoy the album from your local hard drive :)


By now many of you will know about Google+ : the latest social networking site by Google. Features such as Circles, Hangout, Sparks has made it stand apart. Moreover, Google+ makes it incredibly easy to upload, share and browse images. Sadly, till now Google+ doesn’t offer an option to download an entire album. That’s where original "Picasa Web Albums" comes in.

Here's the trick :

1.  Make sure that you have Picasa installed in your computer

2. Go to the profile page of the person who has uploaded the album

3. Now copy the series of digits from addressbar [see screenshot below]

4. Clear the addressbar or open a new tab/window and type :

      https://picasaweb.google.com/

5. Paste the series of digits you copied at the end of the address along with ?noredirect=1. Hit enter.

Note : If the URL has ?Authkey or ?locked=true in it, then instead of adding ?noredirect=1 write &noredirect=1 at the end, and it will work.

6. Enter your Google+ username and password (if prompted).

7. This will open up the "Picasa Web Album" of that person. Locate the album you wish to download.

8. Click on the album and it will open up. Click on the "Download" button and select "Download to Picasa".

9. Firefox : In case a "Launch Application" window pops in, select "Picasa"
    Chrome : In the "External Protocol Request" window, click "Launch Application"

10. Click "Download"

Note : Picasa web album provides an option using which a user can restrict visitors from downloading his\her photos. Even if an album is "public" but this particular option is ticked, you'll find the download options greyed out.

The only workaround that I can suggest is ask the album owner to go to https://picasaweb.google.com/, then click on Settings->Privacy and Permissions, and check the box that says "Allow any visitor to download my photos."

Also check :

• Hidden Smileys in Google Plus 
• Share your Google Plus public posts to Twitter automatically 
• How to Disable Facebook Timeline
• How to Restore Old Gawker Commenting System [Lifehacker, Kotaku, io9]

Share your Google Plus public posts to Twitter automatically

I came upon a service today which helps managing your twitter account: ManageFlitter. It has interesting stuff like managing who you follow, finding out who is not following you back, which inactive accounts you follow, etc..

And now, they have added a new service, where they automatically share your Google Plus's public posts to your twitter account. And, when google plus's API comes around, they have plans for making the opposite too: posting twitter's posts feed to google plus.

You can check this service out at: http://manageflitter.com/plus