Latest Blog Posts
24 July 2008 JavaScript: The Missing Manual (featuring jQuery)
I know what you’re thinking. “Three posts in one week Ruscoe? You neglect your blog for all this time, managing to squeeze out a maximum of one post per month and now all of a sudden you’ve got blogorrhea? What gives!?!”
Well – to answer your question – “what gives” is that I'm not as busy as I have been so far this year. I’ve pretty much finished going to the gigs (actually, there are a couple more coming up this year), I’ve partied like it’s 1985, I’ve moved house, and I’ve reviewed two books for O’Reilly’s Missing Manual series, which is what this post is about...
Google Apps: The Missing Manual was finally released on 27th May 2008. It’s a book aimed at people who want to get the most out of Google’s online applications, such as Google Docs, Gmail, Google Talk, Calendar, iGoogle, Page Creator, Google Apps and Google Sites.
Reviewing a book like this, which covers Google’s ever-changing online services, meant that I had to keep right up-to-speed with all the features as they were being released. Even after finishing each chapter, I kept emailing the editor with updates when Google changed the Google Docs toolbar and Google Speadsheets kept adding new features! Of course, as soon as the book was released it was inevitable that some parts of it would already be out-dated. That obviously doesn’t mean the book was immediately worthless though. Only a few parts now contain minor errors, and it’s mainly omissions as new features have been added rather than outright inaccuracies. Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed reviewing this book and am pleased that all my (what many people probably see as being useless) knowledge about Google could finally be put to good use!
You can read a bit more about it on Google Blogoscoped. And while you’re there, check out Philipp’s book, Google Apps Hacks.
JavaScript: The Missing Manual was released yesterday and I just got my copy today. After reviewing the Google Apps book, I was approached to do this one. I figured that I would probably know everything the book had to offer but how wrong I was! Not only does it cover standard old-fashioned JavaScript techniques, it also covers the jQuery JavaScript library in quite a lot of detail.
For anyone who’s only ever used raw JavaScript, jQuery is like a programming language from the web of the future. It’s everything that JavaScript should have been. It really does make pretty much everything so much easier to implement. Whether you want to create a simple image rollover (which is one of the first pieces of JavaScript I wrote or, more accurately, copied and pasted!) or a highly dynamic AJAX website, this book helps to explain how you can go about achieving it quickly and easily using JavaScript and jQuery.
So if you think you’re a JavaScript guru but you’ve never bothered looking into jQuery, this book is a great place to start and will help to completely change how you think about developing dynamic websites!
Well – to answer your question – “what gives” is that I'm not as busy as I have been so far this year. I’ve pretty much finished going to the gigs (actually, there are a couple more coming up this year), I’ve partied like it’s 1985, I’ve moved house, and I’ve reviewed two books for O’Reilly’s Missing Manual series, which is what this post is about...
Google Apps: The Missing Manual was finally released on 27th May 2008. It’s a book aimed at people who want to get the most out of Google’s online applications, such as Google Docs, Gmail, Google Talk, Calendar, iGoogle, Page Creator, Google Apps and Google Sites.Reviewing a book like this, which covers Google’s ever-changing online services, meant that I had to keep right up-to-speed with all the features as they were being released. Even after finishing each chapter, I kept emailing the editor with updates when Google changed the Google Docs toolbar and Google Speadsheets kept adding new features! Of course, as soon as the book was released it was inevitable that some parts of it would already be out-dated. That obviously doesn’t mean the book was immediately worthless though. Only a few parts now contain minor errors, and it’s mainly omissions as new features have been added rather than outright inaccuracies. Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed reviewing this book and am pleased that all my (what many people probably see as being useless) knowledge about Google could finally be put to good use!
You can read a bit more about it on Google Blogoscoped. And while you’re there, check out Philipp’s book, Google Apps Hacks.
JavaScript: The Missing Manual was released yesterday and I just got my copy today. After reviewing the Google Apps book, I was approached to do this one. I figured that I would probably know everything the book had to offer but how wrong I was! Not only does it cover standard old-fashioned JavaScript techniques, it also covers the jQuery JavaScript library in quite a lot of detail.For anyone who’s only ever used raw JavaScript, jQuery is like a programming language from the web of the future. It’s everything that JavaScript should have been. It really does make pretty much everything so much easier to implement. Whether you want to create a simple image rollover (which is one of the first pieces of JavaScript I wrote or, more accurately, copied and pasted!) or a highly dynamic AJAX website, this book helps to explain how you can go about achieving it quickly and easily using JavaScript and jQuery.
So if you think you’re a JavaScript guru but you’ve never bothered looking into jQuery, this book is a great place to start and will help to completely change how you think about developing dynamic websites!
Labels: books, development, google, javascript, personal
21 July 2008 iPhone 3G: One Week Later
When the iPhone 3G was announced on 9th June, I was immediately convinced that I was going to get one. Then I realised it still had a crap camera, no MMS and would probably cost me an arm and a leg. And then I changed my mind again just last week and ended up queuing outside an O2 store in Sheffield on Friday, eagerly awaiting their 08:02 opening and the launch of the iPhone 3G in the UK. (Queuing was actually pointless as the store quickly ran out of its stock of just ten iPhones, but I was luckily given a tip-off at lunch time and managed to get one from another store.)
Anyway, I’ve now been using the phone for just over a week, so I thought I’d post some of my early and honest observations. I’m likely to go on a bit, so don’t read this on your iPhone because your battery will be dead by the time you’ve finished... ;-)
First impressions
It’s slick, easy to use, has a really smooth user interface, has some great features and, perhaps most importantly, it’s shiny! However, it does lack some features that many other phones have. And I’m not talking about a one billion megapixel camera (because the camera produces really good, sharp pictures), voice calling (who uses that?) or MMS (because I can live with using email instead); I’m talking about different profiles (e.g. silent, sleeping, work, meeting), the ability to delete individual text messages, display how many characters are remaining when sending an SMS to someone and other little things like that – but the innovative features definitely outweigh all these minor annoyances and these are all things that may still (hopefully) be added in future software upgrades.
App problems after first sync
Putting aside all the initial problems of getting my phone line activated with O2 and then activating the handset through iTunes, I was pretty happy with my new phone’s capabilities after playing with the App Store and downloading a few free applications. (If you’re interested: iPint, Alarm Free, Banner Free, BubbleWrap, TapTap Revenge, Facebook, Shazam and Midomi.) The problems came when I synced my iPhone with iTunes for the first time.
I don’t know whether the problem occurred because I had originally activated my iPhone on a different computer, but after syncing with my main desktop PC none of the apps I’d downloaded to my iPhone would work. Each time I clicked one of the icons, it opened the app for a second or two and then immediately closed it down again. After removing them from the iPhone and re-syncing, everything worked fine though.
Contact syncing issues
Given that my old Nokia N73 made a complete mess of my Outlook contacts when I tried to synchroise them, I decided to enter all my contacts into my iPhone manually with the intention of syncing them with either Outlook or my Google Contacts later. Last night, I decided to sync them back to a folder in Outlook (since my Google Contacts are a real mess due to all the times Gmail added people to my contacts just because I’d emailed them a couple of times). Oddly, not all of my contacts were transferred to Outlook. They were literally nowhere to be seen. I deselected the folder in iTunes, removed all my contacts and tried again. This time, iTunes managed to copy all my original contacts from Outlook to my iPhone – despite still not being able to see them all in Outlook!
After much confusion and experimentation with various configurations, I somehow managed to wipe all my contacts from my iPhone apart from the few that I could see in Outlook. So I then tried to sync with Google Contacts just to see what that would do. This was a complete waste of time because it synced all my Google Contacts, including the new “Suggested Contacts” groups which seems to include everyone I’ve ever emailed!
In the end, I decided to export a spreadsheet from Outlook based on my old N73 contacts, clean them up a bit and import them back into Outlook before syncing again. So far, everything looks good but this should have been so much easier! Things weren’t helped by the fact that iTunes has no contacts manager of its own which allows me to select which contacts to import (like it does for tunes and podcasts).
Something else I’ve noticed is that my contacts list can be pretty slow loading at times, although it does seem quicker when accessed through the Phone icon rather than the Contacts icon.
Visual Voicemail setup problems
Since I was porting my old mobile number across to O2, I waited until this had been done before I tried to setup my visual voicemail. After following the on-screen instructions, entering my chosen password and failing to save my greeting several times (the last step in the process would just keep reloading the page) I decided to phone O2 Customer Services. They suggested dialing 1750 to switch on Visual Voicemail (which I’d already done), switching it off and on again by dialing 1760 and then 1750 (which I’d already done) and even suggested a full software restore (which I had done before trying to setup it up for the first time). After being passed through two iPhone specialists, they decided I had a faulty handset and would need to return it. However, before I managed to hang up they suggested that I could dial 901 just to prove to myself that my voicemail was up and running. And guess what. Dialing 901 asked me to choose a password and record a greeting, after which my Visual Voicemail worked fine!
Actually, one further problem was that when I accessed my voicemail and selected a message, my screen was going black. After a few quick tests, it seemed this was due to my screen protector interfering with the proximity sensor. As a quick solution, I got my hole-punch and made three holes in the protector to line up with the light and proximity sensors which means everything now works fine! (And it doesn’t look as bad as it sounds either because you can’t see the holes for the case.)
3G and battery life
When the original iPhone was announced, many UK and European users were puzzled why the handset didn’t have 3G. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal last year, Steve Jobs basically said that they didn’t include 3G because the chipsets were too big and would drain the iPhone’s battery too quickly. I seem to remember people all over the world complaining about this, demanding that Apple should let its users make that decision for themselves. This time around, Apple added 3G and many users are choosing to switch it off to gain more battery life.
My last phone had 3G, and moving from a 3G device to a non-3G device would obviously be a step backwards for me, so I had no intention of buying the original iPhone whatsoever. Of course, the irony is that now I’ve got an iPhone 3G, I’m using it with 3G switched off most of the time in order to save battery life! Generally speaking, I don’t even notice the speed difference though. The websites I use a lot while I’m on the move – like Google Reader, Facebook and FF To Go – have all been optimized to make them fast to download on mobile devices (including the many first generation iPhones without 3G).
The main problem with the iPhone is that it’s such a great mobile device that you want to play with it all the time, and that obviously means the battery isn’t going to last very long!
If I discover anything else about the iPhone which I fancy sharing, I’ll be sure to make a short post about it straight away, instead of making one massive post like this each month, which is what I seem to have been doing recently...
[Image courtesy of Apple.]
Anyway, I’ve now been using the phone for just over a week, so I thought I’d post some of my early and honest observations. I’m likely to go on a bit, so don’t read this on your iPhone because your battery will be dead by the time you’ve finished... ;-)First impressions
It’s slick, easy to use, has a really smooth user interface, has some great features and, perhaps most importantly, it’s shiny! However, it does lack some features that many other phones have. And I’m not talking about a one billion megapixel camera (because the camera produces really good, sharp pictures), voice calling (who uses that?) or MMS (because I can live with using email instead); I’m talking about different profiles (e.g. silent, sleeping, work, meeting), the ability to delete individual text messages, display how many characters are remaining when sending an SMS to someone and other little things like that – but the innovative features definitely outweigh all these minor annoyances and these are all things that may still (hopefully) be added in future software upgrades.
App problems after first sync
Putting aside all the initial problems of getting my phone line activated with O2 and then activating the handset through iTunes, I was pretty happy with my new phone’s capabilities after playing with the App Store and downloading a few free applications. (If you’re interested: iPint, Alarm Free, Banner Free, BubbleWrap, TapTap Revenge, Facebook, Shazam and Midomi.) The problems came when I synced my iPhone with iTunes for the first time.
I don’t know whether the problem occurred because I had originally activated my iPhone on a different computer, but after syncing with my main desktop PC none of the apps I’d downloaded to my iPhone would work. Each time I clicked one of the icons, it opened the app for a second or two and then immediately closed it down again. After removing them from the iPhone and re-syncing, everything worked fine though.
Contact syncing issues
Given that my old Nokia N73 made a complete mess of my Outlook contacts when I tried to synchroise them, I decided to enter all my contacts into my iPhone manually with the intention of syncing them with either Outlook or my Google Contacts later. Last night, I decided to sync them back to a folder in Outlook (since my Google Contacts are a real mess due to all the times Gmail added people to my contacts just because I’d emailed them a couple of times). Oddly, not all of my contacts were transferred to Outlook. They were literally nowhere to be seen. I deselected the folder in iTunes, removed all my contacts and tried again. This time, iTunes managed to copy all my original contacts from Outlook to my iPhone – despite still not being able to see them all in Outlook!
After much confusion and experimentation with various configurations, I somehow managed to wipe all my contacts from my iPhone apart from the few that I could see in Outlook. So I then tried to sync with Google Contacts just to see what that would do. This was a complete waste of time because it synced all my Google Contacts, including the new “Suggested Contacts” groups which seems to include everyone I’ve ever emailed!
In the end, I decided to export a spreadsheet from Outlook based on my old N73 contacts, clean them up a bit and import them back into Outlook before syncing again. So far, everything looks good but this should have been so much easier! Things weren’t helped by the fact that iTunes has no contacts manager of its own which allows me to select which contacts to import (like it does for tunes and podcasts).
Something else I’ve noticed is that my contacts list can be pretty slow loading at times, although it does seem quicker when accessed through the Phone icon rather than the Contacts icon.
Visual Voicemail setup problems
Since I was porting my old mobile number across to O2, I waited until this had been done before I tried to setup my visual voicemail. After following the on-screen instructions, entering my chosen password and failing to save my greeting several times (the last step in the process would just keep reloading the page) I decided to phone O2 Customer Services. They suggested dialing 1750 to switch on Visual Voicemail (which I’d already done), switching it off and on again by dialing 1760 and then 1750 (which I’d already done) and even suggested a full software restore (which I had done before trying to setup it up for the first time). After being passed through two iPhone specialists, they decided I had a faulty handset and would need to return it. However, before I managed to hang up they suggested that I could dial 901 just to prove to myself that my voicemail was up and running. And guess what. Dialing 901 asked me to choose a password and record a greeting, after which my Visual Voicemail worked fine!
Actually, one further problem was that when I accessed my voicemail and selected a message, my screen was going black. After a few quick tests, it seemed this was due to my screen protector interfering with the proximity sensor. As a quick solution, I got my hole-punch and made three holes in the protector to line up with the light and proximity sensors which means everything now works fine! (And it doesn’t look as bad as it sounds either because you can’t see the holes for the case.)
3G and battery life
When the original iPhone was announced, many UK and European users were puzzled why the handset didn’t have 3G. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal last year, Steve Jobs basically said that they didn’t include 3G because the chipsets were too big and would drain the iPhone’s battery too quickly. I seem to remember people all over the world complaining about this, demanding that Apple should let its users make that decision for themselves. This time around, Apple added 3G and many users are choosing to switch it off to gain more battery life.
My last phone had 3G, and moving from a 3G device to a non-3G device would obviously be a step backwards for me, so I had no intention of buying the original iPhone whatsoever. Of course, the irony is that now I’ve got an iPhone 3G, I’m using it with 3G switched off most of the time in order to save battery life! Generally speaking, I don’t even notice the speed difference though. The websites I use a lot while I’m on the move – like Google Reader, Facebook and FF To Go – have all been optimized to make them fast to download on mobile devices (including the many first generation iPhones without 3G).
The main problem with the iPhone is that it’s such a great mobile device that you want to play with it all the time, and that obviously means the battery isn’t going to last very long!
If I discover anything else about the iPhone which I fancy sharing, I’ll be sure to make a short post about it straight away, instead of making one massive post like this each month, which is what I seem to have been doing recently...
[Image courtesy of Apple.]
22 June 2007 Paris and Google Press Day? Zut Alors!
Some of you already know what I got up to earlier this week; I went to Paris to live-blog Google Press Day 2007. If you’re interested, you can read all about the day’s announcements on Google Blogoscoped, but here’s a more personal (and quite lengthy) account of what happened over those couple of days...
I was flying out from Manchester Airport on Monday lunchtime, so I stayed at my parents’ over the weekend and started my journey at Bolton train station. While I was waiting on the platform, I was kept amused by a random drunk nutter telling some guy how he’d played on stage with loads of famous bands, like “Franks Ferdinand”.
When I got on the train, the guy the nutter was ranting to was on his mobile loudly telling someone all about it. I had no choice but to listen in. “I’ve just been chatting to that busker [the nutter] who was in the video. He’s given me his address and wants a copy of the DVD. Can we send him one? Who should I give his address to?” After getting someone’s name, he continued. “Yeah, the gig was brilliant. Everyone said it sounded really good. Shall we just tell Jay he’s on the monitors at Glastonbury?” So, I’d managed to establish that he was linked to a band, presumably playing at Glastonbury. “Sorry, this is a bad line. I’ll call you later.” And then he hung up, leaving me wondering who he was.
I arrived at Manchester Airport a few minutes later, checked in for my flight and bought a copy of Q. Imagine my surprise when I turned to page 20 and saw the guy from the train! Turns out that he’s Bolton-born singer-songwriter Simon Aldred, more commonly known as Cherry Ghost. I’ve no idea what his stuff is like, but he’s been on Later... With Jools Holland and one of his tunes – People Help The People – is one of Q’s 50 essential tracks to download this month, so I’ll have to check it out.
My flight was delayed by just over an hour but I finally arrived at Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport and waited for my train. On the platform were two French chavs, one of which was playing crap French music through her crap, tinny-sounding mobile phone speakers. It’s both disturbing and reassuring to see that this isn’t just a British phenomenon. When the train arrived, it was crammed, dirty and far too hot. I reckon it was actually worse that the one we got to Headlingly!
Anyway, I finally got to my hotel with around 90 minutes to spare before I had to get on a coach at the Marriott that would take us to dinner. Plenty time for a shower and a leisurely stroll. Or so I thought. As it turns out, the map Google provided wasn’t entirely accurate, so I had to phone Suzy at work and get her to give me better directions. After making my way towards the wrong Marriott (there are apparently several in Paris) I had to resort to running(!) to make sure I made the coach pickup. Red-faced, sweaty and out of breath, I finally arrived at the right Marriott with blisters on my feet only to be told that there was no rush because the second coach wasn’t leaving for another 10 minutes. Thankfully, the coach had air-conditioning so I managed to cool off a bit before we arrived.
The venue for dinner was a small restaurant and marquee on the river, with a view of the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower. Danny Sullivan (of SearchEngineLand.com) was behind me in the queue for name badges. Danny overheard me stating my name and publication, joked that Google Blogoscoped wasn’t really a publication and introduced himself. Danny and I then shared a table with a member of Google’s PR team in India and a few newspaper reporters from Paris, Israel, Turkey and India. The food selection was pretty impressive; canapés on arrival (including a rather disgusting combination of chocolate, foie gras and what I think was some kind of cherry jelly or liqueur), a choice of terrines for starter, duck breast in a creamy mushroom sauce served with vegetables and some kind of bulgur-wheat-like substance for main course, and then a wonderful variety of desserts. After plenty of talking, listening, eating and drinking, we headed back to get some rest before our early start the following day.
Having picked up an agenda for Press Day, I thought I’d go back to the hotel, connect to the Wi-Fi and make a post about the evening. That’s when I found out that (a) the Wi-Fi wasn’t free and (b) the Wi-Fi didn’t work. So, I reluctantly paid €8 for a card which gave me 60 minutes of Internet time in the hotel lobby and battled with the French keyboard to post the agenda. Other than the annoying French keyboard, the Internet kiosk was a normal Windows 98 PC that had been locked down with software so that you had to enter the code from the card to use the Internet from its restricted browser. Except, as I learned while I was making my post, you could simply press Ctrl+N to circumvent the software completely and open a new, clean Internet Explorer window – even when your paid-for Internet time is up!
After a terrible night’s sleep (too noisy with the window open; too hot with the window closed) I was taken by coach to Google Press Day 2007 to start my live-blogging. When I arrived, I looked for a seat near the front with a power socket nearby because my laptop only has a battery life of around two hours and the day was going to last about four hours. Luckily, I managed to find a socket to give my laptop a recharge during the morning break and lunch hour. Throughout the day, the Wi-Fi was a bit flaky, as was most of the electrical equipment after a member of the catering staff managed to make a table collapse that was supporting loads of glasses and a few large vases, smashing them all and causing water to drip through the ceiling of the room below, directly above the stage, the lighting rig, projectors, microphones, laptop and front two rows of seating!
After four hours of live-blogging, taking photos and asking questions, Press Day was finally over and a coach took us to the airport, where I managed to catch a well-deserved power nap. My flight home was then delayed by an hour or so (again) due to thunderstorms and lightning in Paris, which meant I had to get a later train from Manchester Airport to Sheffield and eventually arrived home at around 01:30.
What a busy couple of days, eh? I saw Cherry Ghost, experienced a bit of Paris, met Danny Sullivan, got a photo with Marissa Mayer, asked Eric Schmidt some questions, saw a real iPhone (when Eric whipped his out of his pocket for a few seconds just to show off) and had a brilliant time at Google’s first Press Day in Europe and my first attempt at live-blogging from an event!
Many, many thanks for sending me Philipp!
I was flying out from Manchester Airport on Monday lunchtime, so I stayed at my parents’ over the weekend and started my journey at Bolton train station. While I was waiting on the platform, I was kept amused by a random drunk nutter telling some guy how he’d played on stage with loads of famous bands, like “Franks Ferdinand”.
When I got on the train, the guy the nutter was ranting to was on his mobile loudly telling someone all about it. I had no choice but to listen in. “I’ve just been chatting to that busker [the nutter] who was in the video. He’s given me his address and wants a copy of the DVD. Can we send him one? Who should I give his address to?” After getting someone’s name, he continued. “Yeah, the gig was brilliant. Everyone said it sounded really good. Shall we just tell Jay he’s on the monitors at Glastonbury?” So, I’d managed to establish that he was linked to a band, presumably playing at Glastonbury. “Sorry, this is a bad line. I’ll call you later.” And then he hung up, leaving me wondering who he was.
I arrived at Manchester Airport a few minutes later, checked in for my flight and bought a copy of Q. Imagine my surprise when I turned to page 20 and saw the guy from the train! Turns out that he’s Bolton-born singer-songwriter Simon Aldred, more commonly known as Cherry Ghost. I’ve no idea what his stuff is like, but he’s been on Later... With Jools Holland and one of his tunes – People Help The People – is one of Q’s 50 essential tracks to download this month, so I’ll have to check it out.
My flight was delayed by just over an hour but I finally arrived at Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport and waited for my train. On the platform were two French chavs, one of which was playing crap French music through her crap, tinny-sounding mobile phone speakers. It’s both disturbing and reassuring to see that this isn’t just a British phenomenon. When the train arrived, it was crammed, dirty and far too hot. I reckon it was actually worse that the one we got to Headlingly!
Anyway, I finally got to my hotel with around 90 minutes to spare before I had to get on a coach at the Marriott that would take us to dinner. Plenty time for a shower and a leisurely stroll. Or so I thought. As it turns out, the map Google provided wasn’t entirely accurate, so I had to phone Suzy at work and get her to give me better directions. After making my way towards the wrong Marriott (there are apparently several in Paris) I had to resort to running(!) to make sure I made the coach pickup. Red-faced, sweaty and out of breath, I finally arrived at the right Marriott with blisters on my feet only to be told that there was no rush because the second coach wasn’t leaving for another 10 minutes. Thankfully, the coach had air-conditioning so I managed to cool off a bit before we arrived.
The venue for dinner was a small restaurant and marquee on the river, with a view of the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower. Danny Sullivan (of SearchEngineLand.com) was behind me in the queue for name badges. Danny overheard me stating my name and publication, joked that Google Blogoscoped wasn’t really a publication and introduced himself. Danny and I then shared a table with a member of Google’s PR team in India and a few newspaper reporters from Paris, Israel, Turkey and India. The food selection was pretty impressive; canapés on arrival (including a rather disgusting combination of chocolate, foie gras and what I think was some kind of cherry jelly or liqueur), a choice of terrines for starter, duck breast in a creamy mushroom sauce served with vegetables and some kind of bulgur-wheat-like substance for main course, and then a wonderful variety of desserts. After plenty of talking, listening, eating and drinking, we headed back to get some rest before our early start the following day.
Having picked up an agenda for Press Day, I thought I’d go back to the hotel, connect to the Wi-Fi and make a post about the evening. That’s when I found out that (a) the Wi-Fi wasn’t free and (b) the Wi-Fi didn’t work. So, I reluctantly paid €8 for a card which gave me 60 minutes of Internet time in the hotel lobby and battled with the French keyboard to post the agenda. Other than the annoying French keyboard, the Internet kiosk was a normal Windows 98 PC that had been locked down with software so that you had to enter the code from the card to use the Internet from its restricted browser. Except, as I learned while I was making my post, you could simply press Ctrl+N to circumvent the software completely and open a new, clean Internet Explorer window – even when your paid-for Internet time is up!
After a terrible night’s sleep (too noisy with the window open; too hot with the window closed) I was taken by coach to Google Press Day 2007 to start my live-blogging. When I arrived, I looked for a seat near the front with a power socket nearby because my laptop only has a battery life of around two hours and the day was going to last about four hours. Luckily, I managed to find a socket to give my laptop a recharge during the morning break and lunch hour. Throughout the day, the Wi-Fi was a bit flaky, as was most of the electrical equipment after a member of the catering staff managed to make a table collapse that was supporting loads of glasses and a few large vases, smashing them all and causing water to drip through the ceiling of the room below, directly above the stage, the lighting rig, projectors, microphones, laptop and front two rows of seating!
After four hours of live-blogging, taking photos and asking questions, Press Day was finally over and a coach took us to the airport, where I managed to catch a well-deserved power nap. My flight home was then delayed by an hour or so (again) due to thunderstorms and lightning in Paris, which meant I had to get a later train from Manchester Airport to Sheffield and eventually arrived home at around 01:30.
What a busy couple of days, eh? I saw Cherry Ghost, experienced a bit of Paris, met Danny Sullivan, got a photo with Marissa Mayer, asked Eric Schmidt some questions, saw a real iPhone (when Eric whipped his out of his pocket for a few seconds just to show off) and had a brilliant time at Google’s first Press Day in Europe and my first attempt at live-blogging from an event!
Many, many thanks for sending me Philipp!
Update: 23 June 2007 (10:54)
I've now uploaded all my photos to Flickr and added some links to them in the post.
07 May 2007 What is Google WWW10?
It’s been a while since my last post about new Google services, so here’s one you can speculate about...
I suppose WWW10 could simply mean Web 2.0 – since “WWW” means “World Wide Web” and 10 is 2 in binary – although that obviously doesn’t help explain what it might actually be. Does anyone want to take a guess?
Anyway, I’ve added it to my list of growing Google Account Service Names which now includes several services that are yet to be named, including
- Service name: WWW10
- Code name:
www10 - NewAccount: Invalid request.
- CreateAccount: Invalid request.
- EditUserServiceData: User has not signed up for the service.
- Login: OK
- ServiceLogin: OK
I suppose WWW10 could simply mean Web 2.0 – since “WWW” means “World Wide Web” and 10 is 2 in binary – although that obviously doesn’t help explain what it might actually be. Does anyone want to take a guess?
Anyway, I’ve added it to my list of growing Google Account Service Names which now includes several services that are yet to be named, including
fiji, gam, rs2, ssd, weaver and wf.Labels: google
20 March 2007 Google Personalized Homepage Easter Eggs
Google announced an update to their personalized homepage today, which allows users to select from six custom themes (or skins). I’ve seen several blogs report that Marissa Mayer hinted at some “Easter Eggs” hidden in the themes. Well, here are the ones I’ve found so far:
I guess it’s possible these values might change too. If you’re really that bothered, you could monitor the XML files for each theme in case they make any changes:
- The Loch Ness Monster (Beach)
- UFOs (City Scape)
- Pi in the Sky (Sweet Dreams)
- Yokai (Tea House)
- Northern Lights (Winter Scape)
- Monster (Spring Scape)
Update: 6 November 2007 (13:15)
- Snow Tiger (Aja Tiger)
- Pumpkins (Autumn)
- Galleon (Hong Kong)
- Spider (JR)
Basically, the XML file for each of the “time skins” seems to contain a time-specific entry that will trigger at 3:14 AM – which is Pi to 2 decimal places, as shown in the sky of the “Sweet Dreams” theme – for what is presumably a duration of 1 minute:Update: 18 December 2007 (22:15)
- Northern Lights (Holiday Village)
I assume these are set to trigger when the user’s local time reaches 3:14 AM, but I can’t be sure. And there doesn’t seem to be an easter egg for “Bus Stop” weather skin.<time_entry>
<hour>3</hour>
<minute>14</minute>
<duration>1</duration>
<url>/ig/skins/sweetdreams/sweetdreams_3.14am.css</url>
</time_entry>
I guess it’s possible these values might change too. If you’re really that bothered, you could monitor the XML files for each theme in case they make any changes:
Update: 6 November 2007 (13:15)
Has anyone found any more?Update: 18 December 2007 (22:15)
Update: 21 March 2007 (20:11)
By the way, if you want to see any of the easter eggs without installing Greasemonkey or any other extensions, just paste this code into your browser’s address bar and hit enter (remove the line break though):
For Beach:javascript:void(document.getElementById("ext_css").href=
"/ig/skins/beach/beach_3.14am.css");
For City Scape:javascript:void(document.getElementById("ext_css").href=
"/ig/skins/cityscape/cityscape_3.14am.css");
For Sweet Dreams:javascript:void(document.getElementById("ext_css").href=
"/ig/skins/sweetdreams/sweetdreams_3.14am.css");
For Tea House:javascript:void(document.getElementById("ext_css").href=
"/ig/skins/teahouse/teahouse_3.14am.css");
For Winter Scape:javascript:void(document.getElementById("ext_css").href=
"/ig/skins/winterscape/winterscape_3.14am.css");
For Spring Scape:javascript:void(document.getElementById("ext_css").href=
"/ig/skins/springscape/springscape_3.14am.css");
In fact, you can replace the /ig/skins/sweetdreams/sweetdreams_3.14am.css part with any of the other stylesheets found in the XML files above if you want to see what the other themes look like at different times of day or during different weather conditions!
Update: 28 April 2007 (9:45)
Added the new “Spring Scape” theme and changed “Seasonal Scape” to “Winter Scape”.
Update: 6 November 2007 (13:15)
Added the new Aja Tiger, Autumn, Hong Kong, JR and Solar System themes. If you want to see the Easter eggs for these themes, here’s the code to paste into your browser’s address bar:
For Aja Tiger:javascript:void(document.getElementById("ext_css").href=
"/ig/skins/tiger/tiger_3.14am.css");
For Autumn:javascript:void(document.getElementById("ext_css").href=
"/ig/skins/autumn/autumn_3.14am.css");
For Hong Kong:javascript:void(document.getElementById("ext_css").href=
"/ig/skins/hongkong/hongkong_3.14am.css");
For JR:javascript:void(document.getElementById("ext_css").href=
"/ig/skins/JR/JR_3.14am.css");
For more information on how to enable the new themes if they’re not showing in your iGoogle homepage, see my post on Google Blogoscoped.
Update: 18 December 2007 (22:15)
Added the new Holiday Village theme. If you want to see the Easter eggs for this, here’s the code to paste into your browser’s address bar:javascript:void(document.getElementById("ext_css").href=
"/ig/skins/holidayvillage/holiday_village_3.14am.css");
If you want to read about some Secret iGoogle Themes, see my post on Google Blogoscoped.
Labels: google
13 March 2007 UK Government assumes everyone uses Google
I heard a radio advert this morning telling my that if I blow my car tyres up to the correct pressure, I’ll be helping to reduce global warming. At least, I think that’s what the point was. It was early. Anyway, the ad finished by saying something along the lines of:
So let’s take a look at the results returned by the four most popular search engines...
Google – www.google.com/search?q=act+on+co2
Why didn’t they just grab ActOnCO2.com (which is available) or another similar domain? Or just tell people “to google” for [act on co2] instead?
(Maybe they wanted to avoid parody sites being setup using similar domains like what happened when they launched their Preparing for Emergencies campaign a few years ago...)
It seems that this is the latest campaign from the UK Government to help educate people about ways in which we can prevent global warming. (I think.) And since they were restricted to a 30-second advert, someone had the bright idea of telling people to search the web to find out more. What a great idea!Search the web for [act on co2] for more information.
So let’s take a look at the results returned by the four most popular search engines...
Google – www.google.com/search?q=act+on+co2
- Top sponsored result links to:
Act on CO2
www.dft.gov.uk - Top organic result links to:
With help from you, we can reduce CO2 | ACT ON C02
www.dft.gov.uk/ActOnCO2/
- Top sponsored result links to:
Need a Fire Extinguisher?
www.actfire.co.uk - Top organic result links to:
.: Albany Democrat-Herald :. Archives
www.dhonline.com/articles/2006/11/30/news/opinion/4edi01_congress.txt
- Top sponsored result links to:
Information and resources for co2
www.gawwk.co.uk - Top organic result links to:
Housewarming: Issues
www.housewarming.org.uk/issues.html
- Top sponsored result links to:
CO2 Cartridges
www.tyreinflators.co.uk - Top organic result links to:
Act on CO2 minister urges motorists
www.egovmonitor.com/node/9712
Why didn’t they just grab ActOnCO2.com (which is available) or another similar domain? Or just tell people “to google” for [act on co2] instead?
(Maybe they wanted to avoid parody sites being setup using similar domains like what happened when they launched their Preparing for Emergencies campaign a few years ago...)
06 February 2007 Google Apps to add Docs and Spreadsheets
As a follow-up to my previous post on Google Apps for Your Domain services, it looks like Google are going to add Google Docs & Spreadsheets to their offerings.
Again, using Google.com as the example domain, you can see that these login pages do not return the standard “Bad request / Unknown service name” error message. Instead, they display the old service names used for Google Docs & Spreadsheets:Furthermore, BusinessWeek suggests that Google might start charging for this service soon. So if you were thinking about using it in the future, I’d recommend you sign up now while it’s still free to beta users.
[Hat tip to Digital Inspiration.]
Again, using Google.com as the example domain, you can see that these login pages do not return the standard “Bad request / Unknown service name” error message. Instead, they display the old service names used for Google Docs & Spreadsheets:Furthermore, BusinessWeek suggests that Google might start charging for this service soon. So if you were thinking about using it in the future, I’d recommend you sign up now while it’s still free to beta users.
[Hat tip to Digital Inspiration.]
Labels: google
16 January 2007 AdSense coming to Google Apps for Your Domain?
Whilst playing with Google Apps for Your Domain the other night, I was wondering whether any more services were in the pipeline. Since it uses a similar approach to Google Accounts for its service login pages, I thought I’d see what I could find.
If you’ve not already seen my Google Account Service Names page, it contains a list of all known Google Account services along with the code used in the query string of various Google Account addresses. I’ve now added Google Apps for Your Domain service names to this page – and these are what I’ve found so far (using Google.com as the example domain):
Does that mean they’re going to add AdSense to the available services? If so, I’m really not sure how this would be beneficial to users, other than making it easier for anyone hosting their site with Google Apps for Your Domain to include AdSense in their pages. Perhaps that’s the idea...
If you’ve not already seen my Google Account Service Names page, it contains a list of all known Google Account services along with the code used in the query string of various Google Account addresses. I’ve now added Google Apps for Your Domain service names to this page – and these are what I’ve found so far (using Google.com as the example domain):
- AdSense – ads
- Calendar – cl
- Control panel – CPanel
- Start page – ig
- Email – mail
- Domain web pages – pages
- Start page editor – pspc *
- Chat – talk
- Google Spreadsheets – wise **
- Google Writely – writely **
Does that mean they’re going to add AdSense to the available services? If so, I’m really not sure how this would be beneficial to users, other than making it easier for anyone hosting their site with Google Apps for Your Domain to include AdSense in their pages. Perhaps that’s the idea...
Update: 16 January 2007 (14:08)
Actually, this has been metioned before when Google Apps for Your Domain was updated a couple of months ago. Referring to customizing the start page, the instructions said:
Once published, you may sign up for AdSense for search to earn money from your start page.
However, I can’t find any reference to AdSense in my account or in the Google Apps for Your Domain Help pages when searching for [adsense] either.
Update: 19 January 2007 (17:10)
* Added Start page editor – pspc – to the list.
Update: 6 February 2007 (14:07)
** Added Google Spreadsheets (wise) and Google Writely (writely) added to the list. More...
Labels: google
14 January 2007 Details of Google's Latest Security Hole
You can read my full post at Google Blogoscoped. Please post any comments you might have to the forum.I’ve now received confirmation from Google’s Security Team that the latest vulnerability Philipp posted about has been fixed. After carrying out some investigations of my own, I believe this is the case – so I’m going to share with you what the problem was and how I was able to exploit it. In doing so, I hope to educate other developers about the potential flaws that can occur in growingly complex web applications.
In summary, I was able to create a page that was hosted on a google.com domain, which is something that should never be allowed to happen. Because of this vulnerability, I was then able to use a simple bit of code to steal someone else’s Google cookie and access their Google services.
Labels: google
13 January 2007 On Google Account Hijacking
I wasn’t going to post anything about this security vulnerability I discovered yesterday, but then I read this post by Jim Thomson over on the Chron.com TechBlog saying:
So anyway, I figured I should probably acknowledge what happened just in case people are visiting my website expecting to find more details about the exploit. Right now, there’s not much more to add to what Philipp’s already said. However, since Google’s Security Team has confirmed the problem is now fixed, I’ll be making a post over at Google Blogoscoped soon that will shed some more light on the ins-and-outs of this particular vulnerability.
Heh. (I guess they got that ‘Google fame’ bit from my About page.)Tony Ruscoe is a web designer who achieved his 15 minutes of Google fame when he discovered the Google Base domain in October of 2005. There's no mention of the exploit at Ruscoe's blog; the most recent thing there is a recipe for his New Year's Day pie. Apparently he's been too busy breaking into Google to do much blogging.
So anyway, I figured I should probably acknowledge what happened just in case people are visiting my website expecting to find more details about the exploit. Right now, there’s not much more to add to what Philipp’s already said. However, since Google’s Security Team has confirmed the problem is now fixed, I’ll be making a post over at Google Blogoscoped soon that will shed some more light on the ins-and-outs of this particular vulnerability.
And remember, security problems like this are rare at Google – so sleep well and don’t have nightmares.
Labels: google
18 December 2006 New Gadget: Nokia N73
Finally. After around three years of having a crappy old Nokia 6100, I’ve gone and got myself a new phone! And since Orange wouldn’t give me any sort of deal on a handset upgrade, unless I cancelled my contract and started a new one – which would mean me losing my number – I’ve decided to move to the 3 network.
The Nokia N73 is one of their new 3 X-Series handsets, giving me unlimited access to Windows Live Messenger, unlimited Skype to Skype calls, unlimited data transfer, web surfing and mobile mail. Of course, when they say unlimited, they actually mean that it’s limited to fair use, which means some quite reasonable limits are in place. It can also do loads of other fancy shit, like download files from your PC using Orb and let you watch your home TV using a Slingbox.
The phone’s got Yahoo! Go stuff installed all over the place because they’ve got some kind of deal going with 3. Don’t worry though... that doesn’t mean I have to be unfaithful to my Google! I’ve already bookmarked the mobile versions of Google, Gmail and Google Reader. And I’ve also installed the Gmail and Google Maps mobile applications from mobile.google.com rather than mobile.google.co.uk, which only seems to offer Google search if you visit it from your device. I’m just missing Google Talk now. (Anyone know whether or when that is likely to be available?)
To be fair to Yahoo!, I was pleased to see that the phone’s capable of talking to Flickr directly, meaning I can upload the photos that I take with its 3.2 megapixel camera straight to my Flickr account!
Who knows, maybe you’ll see me moblogging (or even movlogging) in 2007!
The Nokia N73 is one of their new 3 X-Series handsets, giving me unlimited access to Windows Live Messenger, unlimited Skype to Skype calls, unlimited data transfer, web surfing and mobile mail. Of course, when they say unlimited, they actually mean that it’s limited to fair use, which means some quite reasonable limits are in place. It can also do loads of other fancy shit, like download files from your PC using Orb and let you watch your home TV using a Slingbox.The phone’s got Yahoo! Go stuff installed all over the place because they’ve got some kind of deal going with 3. Don’t worry though... that doesn’t mean I have to be unfaithful to my Google! I’ve already bookmarked the mobile versions of Google, Gmail and Google Reader. And I’ve also installed the Gmail and Google Maps mobile applications from mobile.google.com rather than mobile.google.co.uk, which only seems to offer Google search if you visit it from your device. I’m just missing Google Talk now. (Anyone know whether or when that is likely to be available?)
To be fair to Yahoo!, I was pleased to see that the phone’s capable of talking to Flickr directly, meaning I can upload the photos that I take with its 3.2 megapixel camera straight to my Flickr account!
Who knows, maybe you’ll see me moblogging (or even movlogging) in 2007!
12 December 2006 GAM and Fiji: New Google Services?
(This is another one of those non-posts, but I figured I’d make it anyway so that when these new services are eventually unveiled, I can say that you saw it here first!)
After noticing the Google Online Assessment and Google Workplace service codes went live recently, I thought I’d check to see if there were any more new Google services out there.
So, this is what’s new:
GAM
Fiji
(And if it makes any difference,
Also just added to my list of Google Account Service Names are a few services we already know about but that have only just surfaced as Google Accounts services fairly recently:
After noticing the Google Online Assessment and Google Workplace service codes went live recently, I thought I’d check to see if there were any more new Google services out there.
So, this is what’s new:
GAM
- Service name: gam
- Code name:
gam - NewAccount: Invalid request.
- CreateAccount: Invalid request.
- EditUserServiceData: User has not signed up for the service.
- Login: OK
- ServiceLogin: OK
Fiji
- Service name: New Service
- Code name:
fiji - NewAccount: Invalid request.
- CreateAccount: Invalid request.
- EditUserServiceData: User has not signed up for the service.
- Login: OK
- ServiceLogin: OK
(And if it makes any difference,
fiji.corp.google.com is one of Google’s internal subdomains.)Also just added to my list of Google Account Service Names are a few services we already know about but that have only just surfaced as Google Accounts services fairly recently:
- Google Print Ads:
paa - Google AdSense for Newspapers:
pap - Send to Phone:
stp
Labels: google
08 December 2006 Google Online Assessment and Google Workplace?
Back in July, I posted about a few Google services that were only available in the Google Accounts sandbox. Since then, several of the secret services I discovered have been released and added to the live Google Accounts, including Google Image Labeler, Google Marketing Tools, Google Talk and Writely.
Yesterday, Christian from Googlified reported that Google Online Assessment (GOA) had also been made live and took a couple of screenshots. Google have since taken the GOA site down though.
In addition to this, I've noticed that they’ve made live yet another of the services that I discovered in the sandbox. Simply called “New Service” at the moment, its service code is
(Note that signing up for this service won’t add it to your account though.)
When it was in the sandbox, clues pointed to this service being called Workplace. In the previous post where I mentioned this, I said:
See also: Google Account Service Names (which is constantly being updated)
[Thanks Googlified and Google Blogoscoped!]
Yesterday, Christian from Googlified reported that Google Online Assessment (GOA) had also been made live and took a couple of screenshots. Google have since taken the GOA site down though.
In addition to this, I've noticed that they’ve made live yet another of the services that I discovered in the sandbox. Simply called “New Service” at the moment, its service code is
wf. Here are all the usual pages:(Note that signing up for this service won’t add it to your account though.)
When it was in the sandbox, clues pointed to this service being called Workplace. In the previous post where I mentioned this, I said:
Does anyone else want to guess what Google Workplace could be?Maybe this is the big one people have been waiting for; the one that will really kill Microsoft Office. At least, if it’s at all related to IBM Workplace it could be. I don’t know an awful lot about this, so if anyone else feels more qualified to talk about it, please go ahead. All I know is that it’s got something to do with OpenOffice.org – so that’s why it could be the killer...
See also: Google Account Service Names (which is constantly being updated)
[Thanks Googlified and Google Blogoscoped!]
Labels: google
15 November 2006 Search Public Events from Google Calendar
It seems that the Search Public Events button in Google Calendar that I briefly spotted two days ago is now live.
Simply open your calendar, enter a search term, hit the new Search Public Events button and you’ll then be able to view upcoming events using the list view (which looks like a standard Google results page) or by day, week or month. Clicking an event description allows you to view the full details and copy it to your calendar. You can view the New Features! page for a little bit more information.
On a related note, the “Visible only to Google Internal IPs” Recent Changes file that I also found (view a copy here) now displays just one word:
Simply open your calendar, enter a search term, hit the new Search Public Events button and you’ll then be able to view upcoming events using the list view (which looks like a standard Google results page) or by day, week or month. Clicking an event description allows you to view the full details and copy it to your calendar. You can view the New Features! page for a little bit more information.
On a related note, the “Visible only to Google Internal IPs” Recent Changes file that I also found (view a copy here) now displays just one word:
ook?Labels: google
13 November 2006 Google Calendar: Search Public Events and Internal IP Visible Info?
I just signed in to Google Calendar and saw this:
And here’s the code that generated those links.
There are two things worth mentioning here:
And here’s the code that generated those links.
There are two things worth mentioning here:
Search Public Events – perhaps this is a new feature they’re planning to add soon. (It reminds me of the Google Events service I found in the sandbox and posted about in July.)
Entering a search term and clicking the button took me here (which returns an error):http://www.google.com/calendar/events?
btnG=Search%20Public%20Events&atyp=qc&
q=[query]&state=mode%3Dmonth%2C30%26date%3D20061113Update: 13 November 2006 (18:17)
And after a bit more digging around, I managed to see the search results when searching for [google] (on today’s date) using the Search Public Events button. You can view a copy here. (Sorry about the formatting – I was unable to download the CSS, JS and image files...)Update: 15 November 2006 (09:15)
Search Public Events is now live!Google Internal IP Visible Info: Changes | VarZ | DOM 2 | log | – these look like debugging text links meant for internal use only.
Clicking the links did nothing, apart from the Changes link that lead here (which returns a “Sorry, Calendar is unavailable right now” error):http://www.google.com/calendar/changesUpdate: 13 November 2006 (17:25)
After a bit of poking around, I’ve managed to find the Recent Changes file that the Changes link points to. It’s titled “Visible only to Google Internal IPs“ and you can view a copy here.
Labels: google
09 November 2006 Migrating to Blogger Beta
Back in August I posted about Blogger Beta being released. Yesterday, they finally announced that users with FTP-publishing blogs could migrate to the new system (using a Google Account) and benefit from some of the improved features.
I’ve just migrated my blog to use Blogger Beta and have discovered a few bugs / issues with it:
Previous Posts
When using the
They are no longer encoding the ampersands in the links created by the
will now appear as:
Which means any XHTML validation will obviously fail. And they’re still converting line breaks in comments as
Clicking the link to post a comment on a Blogger Beta blog now takes you to a page served over HTTPS instead of HTTP. This page contains both secure and nonsecure items, which means that Internet Explorer users get an annoying popup. (Who cares about those losers though, right?)
I’ve just migrated my blog to use Blogger Beta and have discovered a few bugs / issues with it:
Previous Posts
When using the
<BloggerPreviousItems> tag in your Blogger template to display previous posts on your individual item pages, this used to display a list of all the posts you made prior to the post that was on the current page. This meant that you could easily use this list of links to go back through your blog archive. This is no longer the case. Instead, it simply shows your 10 most recent posts. If you never re-publish your blog, this wouldn’t be such an issue, but they really shouldn’t have changed this functionality.Encoding HTML entitiesUpdate: 10 November 2006 (13:08)
The Blogger Team sez: We're aware of the Previous Posts issue. I don't have an ETA for when this will be fixed, though.
They are no longer encoding the ampersands in the links created by the
<$BlogItemCreate$> template tag. For example, this:http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12345678&postID=1234567890will now appear as:
https://beta.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12345678&postID=1234567890Which means any XHTML validation will obviously fail. And they’re still converting line breaks in comments as
<BR/> instead of <br /> despite the settings page saying that “single hard-returns entered in the Post Editor will be replaced with single <br /> tags in your blog. [...] This also applies to the comment-posting form.”Posting commentsUpdate: 10 November 2006 (13:08)
The Blogger Team sez: We did not know about the URL encoding; I'll add that to our internal bugs tracking system. (We generally don't report tiny stuff on the Known Issues blog.
Clicking the link to post a comment on a Blogger Beta blog now takes you to a page served over HTTPS instead of HTTP. This page contains both secure and nonsecure items, which means that Internet Explorer users get an annoying popup. (Who cares about those losers though, right?)
There are probably loads of other issues that I haven’t even noticed yet but hopefully all the extra features and improvements will overshadow those though. I just hope that the Blogger team don’t let the development of any new features overshadow the need to fix any bugs...Update: 10 November 2006 (13:08)
The Blogger Team sez: I'm not familiar with the IE problem on posting comments. (I mean, I didn't get a popup the last time I tried this.) Can you send the URL of an example page that gave you this alert? [Which I’ve done...]
Update: 10 November 2006 (13:08)
As you may have seen in my comments, Blogger Beta also seems to generate the blog feed differently. Instead of including the most recently created posts in the feed, it now includes the most recently updated posts. If you’re one of the people who subscribes to my feed and received a load of old posts in your feed reader yesterday, please accept my apologies; I was just taking advantage of one of the new Blogger Beta features and adding labels to all my old posts. (I’ve asked the Blogger Team whether that’s behaviour by design or a bug.)
Labels: blogger, google, ruscoe.net
14 October 2006 Google Platypus Client Leaked: Could this be GDrive?
Philipp Lenssen is reporting tonight that Google’s GDrive client has been leaked.
Going by the name “Platypus” this seems to be an internal only application – for now, at least. Rumours about an official “GDrive” client have been around for some time, but the reality of the “Platypus” project only surfaced when Corsin Camichel accidentally discovered a page being hosted on the Writely.com domain back in July. Since then, little has been said about the project.
Philipp’s keeping his sources secret at the moment, but screenshots, help files and a copy of the configuration file are all available at Google Blogoscoped. (I guess without access to Google’ internal network, that’s all there is to see at the moment.)
So, now that we’ve got even more evidence that this exists, what does this mean for all of us non-Googlers? Well, not much unfortunately. Many companies have applications that are meant for internal use only and the majority of these probably never, ever get released. However, what this does mean is that Google has already built the client and the technology required for a remote storage drive. And since so many people want that, wouldn’t it make sense to release it to the public?
Going by the name “Platypus” this seems to be an internal only application – for now, at least. Rumours about an official “GDrive” client have been around for some time, but the reality of the “Platypus” project only surfaced when Corsin Camichel accidentally discovered a page being hosted on the Writely.com domain back in July. Since then, little has been said about the project.
Philipp’s keeping his sources secret at the moment, but screenshots, help files and a copy of the configuration file are all available at Google Blogoscoped. (I guess without access to Google’ internal network, that’s all there is to see at the moment.)
So, now that we’ve got even more evidence that this exists, what does this mean for all of us non-Googlers? Well, not much unfortunately. Many companies have applications that are meant for internal use only and the majority of these probably never, ever get released. However, what this does mean is that Google has already built the client and the technology required for a remote storage drive. And since so many people want that, wouldn’t it make sense to release it to the public?
For more internal Google stuff, see my list of Google’s internal subdomains.
Labels: google
20 September 2006 Weird Google Marketing Tools Errors
I mentioned last week that Google had added Google Marketing Tools as a service. Later that day, Google announced they were partnering with Intuit to offer Marketing Tools to users of their QuickBooks software.
Today, whilst having a look through the source code of the Google Accounts login page, I found references to the following pages:
(They’re practically the same page, except one says “signing in” and the other says “signing up” depending on which one the user is trying to do.)
Who’s dani@suleman.com and fatmatt@yahoo.com? Looking at the code, those email addresses would probably get replaced by the user’s email addresses if these error pages were called for real – but why include random email addresses instead of just leaving them blank? Maybe ‘Dani’ and ‘Fat Matt’ just want some more mail to make them feel wanted...
Anyway, in case you’re interested, the code – which seems to have been added to all the service login pages around 16 September 2006 – tries to create a
Weird or what!?
Today, whilst having a look through the source code of the Google Accounts login page, I found references to the following pages:
- https://www.google.com/accounts/gmt/signInUserChangeWarning.html
- https://www.google.com/accounts/gmt/signUpUserChangeWarning.html
And here’s a screenshot:You are trying to access Google Marketing Tools with the following email address:
dani@suleman.com
However, you were previously signed in with a different email address:
fatmatt@yahoo.com
By signing in with a different email address, you may lose access to information you have entered.
(They’re practically the same page, except one says “signing in” and the other says “signing up” depending on which one the user is trying to do.)
Who’s dani@suleman.com and fatmatt@yahoo.com? Looking at the code, those email addresses would probably get replaced by the user’s email addresses if these error pages were called for real – but why include random email addresses instead of just leaving them blank? Maybe ‘Dani’ and ‘Fat Matt’ just want some more mail to make them feel wanted...
Anyway, in case you’re interested, the code – which seems to have been added to all the service login pages around 16 September 2006 – tries to create a
QuickBooks.CoLocator ActiveX object before calling these pages in a window.showModalDialog popup, meaning it’s obviously only meant for use with Internet Explorer.Weird or what!?
Update: 21 September 2006 (08:51)
It seems someone must have made a boo-boo! The email addresses have now been removed from those pages. [Thanks bioego!]
Labels: google
Google's Internal Subdomains
You can read my full post at Google Blogoscoped. Please post any comments you might have to the forum.As many of you will already know, I like to investigate new Google subdomains to try and guess what they might be working on next. Having already compiled a list of Google’s publicly accessible subdomains (which is no doubt still incomplete), I thought I'd see whether I could find out more about Google’s internally accessible subdomains.
...
I recently obtained a long list of what seem to be internally accessible subdomains that don’t appear to be discussed anywhere else.
See also:
Labels: google
13 September 2006 Google Marketing Tools
It appears another Google service has crept out of the sandbox. Previously listed as simply ‘New Service’ when I originally discovered it back in July, the service with the code
Here’s a screenshot of the login box:
If you want to see this for yourselves, you can go to either of the following URLs:
So, other than AdWords and Analytics, what new marketing tools could Google have up its sleeve for us? As usual, only time will tell...
gmt has now emerged as being Google Marketing Tools.Here’s a screenshot of the login box:
If you want to see this for yourselves, you can go to either of the following URLs:
- https://www.google.com/accounts/Login?service=gmt
- https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=gmt
So, other than AdWords and Analytics, what new marketing tools could Google have up its sleeve for us? As usual, only time will tell...
Labels: google
31 August 2006 Google's AOL Marketplace Account
It’s been a while since my last post because there’s not been anything worthwhile to report on. I wouldn’t really say that this was even worthwhile to report on either, but it’s something new that I found so I thought I’d share it with you...
Cast your minds back to the 20th December 2005, when Google’s Time Warner’s AOL and Google to Expand Strategic Alliance press release mentioned something called AOL Marketplace (the emphasis being mine):
You’re probably already used to seeing something similar, which would usually look something like this:
So, what’s an AOL Marketplace account? I’m assuming that it’s simply a Google Account by another name so that the AOL Marketplace users don’t get too confused. But that raises a couple more questions. What is the AOL Marketplace? And how do you access it?
Does anyone know...?
(Just for the record, at the time of writing this, a Google search for ["AOL Marketplace account"] returns zero results, so I’m guessing that nobody really knows just yet...)
Cast your minds back to the 20th December 2005, when Google’s Time Warner’s AOL and Google to Expand Strategic Alliance press release mentioned something called AOL Marketplace (the emphasis being mine):
Whilst I was doing some ‘routine’ interrogations of Google’s services, I just saw the following for the first time:Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt said: “ [...] Today’s agreement leverages technologies from both companies to connect Google users worldwide to a wealth of new content. We’ve also created a simple way for AOL Marketplace advertisers to buy and place search-related advertising across the AOL network. [...] ”
...
The agreement’s broad range of new features for users and advertisers include:...
- Creating an AOL Marketplace through white labeling of Google’s advertising technology - enabling AOL to sell search advertising directly to advertisers on AOL-owned properties;
AOL and Google have also agreed to extend the term of their existing European relationship, and, subject to mutual agreement, they may extend the AOL Marketplace internationally. In addition, Google, AOL and Time Warner may choose to expand the new partnership to Time Warner’s other advertising opportunities.
You’re probably already used to seeing something similar, which would usually look something like this:
So, what’s an AOL Marketplace account? I’m assuming that it’s simply a Google Account by another name so that the AOL Marketplace users don’t get too confused. But that raises a couple more questions. What is the AOL Marketplace? And how do you access it?
Does anyone know...?
(Just for the record, at the time of writing this, a Google search for ["AOL Marketplace account"] returns zero results, so I’m guessing that nobody really knows just yet...)
Update: 13 September 2006 (00:26)
I’ve just noticed that AOL Marketplace account has now been updated to AOL Search Marketplace account instead:
Still no more clues as to what this is though...
(And just for the record, at the time of writing this update, a Google search for ["AOL Search Marketplace account"] returns zero results...)
14 August 2006 Blogger Beta is finally here!
Last Tuesday, I said:
As well as migrating Blogger to use Google Accounts, they’ve also (finally) added loads more features:
(I wasn’t able to migrate my Blogger account to my Google Account, so I just created a new Blogger Beta account using my usual Google login.)
So, there we have it. After all this time, Google have finally made some changes to the Blogger service that everyone thought they’d forgetten about! Will it be enough? Of course not! Users always want more...
(One final thought – I wonder why they’ve named it “Blogger Beta” rather than “Blogger 2.0 Beta” instead. “Blogger Beta” indicates that it’s a predecessor to Blogger, which it obviously isn’t...)
[Thanks to Pierre S in the Google Blogoscoped Forum.]
On Friday, I suggested that Blogger was going to be migrating to Google Accounts. And today they’ve launched Blogger Beta!Just when I was starting to actually believe that Google had abandoned all development on Blogger, I noticed something that could possibly mean that they haven’t forgotten about their free blogging service after all...
As well as migrating Blogger to use Google Accounts, they’ve also (finally) added loads more features:
- Customize your template by dragging and dropping page elements; there are also new templates from which to choose).
- Create a private blog by editing your permissions to control who can view and contribute to your blog.
- Add category labels to your posts – at long last!
- More feed options are now available, including RSS 2.0 and Atom 1.0 (instead of just Atom 0.3) – and also feeds for your blog comments, even on a per-post basis!
- Updated Dashboard to check our blog’s activity and make managing your blog easier.
- Instant publishing whenever you make a change.
(I wasn’t able to migrate my Blogger account to my Google Account, so I just created a new Blogger Beta account using my usual Google login.)
So, there we have it. After all this time, Google have finally made some changes to the Blogger service that everyone thought they’d forgetten about! Will it be enough? Of course not! Users always want more...
(One final thought – I wonder why they’ve named it “Blogger Beta” rather than “Blogger 2.0 Beta” instead. “Blogger Beta” indicates that it’s a predecessor to Blogger, which it obviously isn’t...)
[Thanks to Pierre S in the Google Blogoscoped Forum.]
Update: 14 August 2006 (21:35)
View this post on my Blogger Beta blog here, which nicely shows off some of the new features including a nice new format for the archive menu, which is fully customizable, although still very buggy!
Also, on closer inspection it appears that you can’t:
- publish to a non-Blog*Spot domain (at least for the time being)
- edit the templates by hand – “Raw template editing functionality coming soon.”
12 August 2006 The Search for Secret Google Services
You can read my full post at Google Blogoscoped. Please post any comments you might have to the forum.Since stumbling across Google Base almost a month before its release and more recently uncovering some more secret Google services, several people have asked how I go about finding these new services. By way of a response, here’s a quick guide to just some of the many different ways you could use to try and find new services that Google are working on.
See also:
Labels: google
11 August 2006 Blogger definitely migrating to Google Accounts
I recently questioned whether Blogger was finally going to use Google Account logins. Well, here are some screenshots of pages I just discovered that suggest this is highly likely to happen sooner rather than later...
This is what we see before we sign in now
This is what we will start to see soon
This is what we will see if we’re already signed in to our Google Account
In the last screenshot, the ‘Switch now’ link takes you to this page – blogger.com/migrate-login.g – which currently returns a 404 error but will presumably migrate or link your Google Account to your existing Blogger details.
So the only question now is, “When will this happen?”
This is what we see before we sign in now
This is what we will start to see soon
This is what we will see if we’re already signed in to our Google Account
In the last screenshot, the ‘Switch now’ link takes you to this page – blogger.com/migrate-login.g – which currently returns a 404 error but will presumably migrate or link your Google Account to your existing Blogger details.
So the only question now is, “When will this happen?”
Update: 14 August 2006 (21:27)
When will this happen? Sooner than we thought perhaps...
Blogger Beta is finally here!
08 August 2006 Blogger.com to finally use Google Accounts?
Just when I was starting to actually believe that Google had abandoned all development on Blogger, I noticed something that could possibly mean that they haven’t forgotten about their free blogging service after all...
As regular readers will know, I’ve been doing quite a bit of research into Google Account service names recently. As well as periodically checking for new service names, I’m also checking for any changes in behaviour of existing services.
Today I realised that the ‘NewAccount’ and ‘CreateAccount’ pages – which always seem to be identical – no longer generate the usual “The page you requested is invalid.” error when appending the word
(If you’re not already signed in, you’ll get the usual “Create an Account” page but customized for the Blogger service.)
This behaviour usually only occurs for services that you can sign up for using your Google Account. So, either someone’s introduced a bug that allows this to appear or Google are working on migrating Blogger logins to use Google Accounts.
Unfortunately, that’s where the fun ends for now because clicking the ‘Continue’ button appears to just reload the page whilst submitting the data to the CreateServiceAccount page. Oh well. Maybe all that will change in the next few days... or weeks... or even months!
Anyway, let’s hope this small change means Google are actually going to start developing new features for Blogger again!
As regular readers will know, I’ve been doing quite a bit of research into Google Account service names recently. As well as periodically checking for new service names, I’m also checking for any changes in behaviour of existing services.
Today I realised that the ‘NewAccount’ and ‘CreateAccount’ pages – which always seem to be identical – no longer generate the usual “The page you requested is invalid.” error when appending the word
blogger to the service parameter. Instead, you get this message (when already signed in to your Google Account):
(If you’re not already signed in, you’ll get the usual “Create an Account” page but customized for the Blogger service.)
This behaviour usually only occurs for services that you can sign up for using your Google Account. So, either someone’s introduced a bug that allows this to appear or Google are working on migrating Blogger logins to use Google Accounts.
Unfortunately, that’s where the fun ends for now because clicking the ‘Continue’ button appears to just reload the page whilst submitting the data to the CreateServiceAccount page. Oh well. Maybe all that will change in the next few days... or weeks... or even months!
Anyway, let’s hope this small change means Google are actually going to start developing new features for Blogger again!
Update: 12 August 2006 (09:16)
It seems that the ‘NewAccount’ and ‘CreateAccount’ pages both return the standard “The page you requested is invalid.” error again.
(BTW, I’ve since realised the difference between the ‘NewAccount’ and ‘CreateAccount’ pages; the ‘CreateAccount’ page will always show the full registration form, whereas the ‘NewAccount’ page will show a “Welcome back ... Get started with ...” page if you’re already signed in to your Google Account. When you’re not already signed in, they always seem to be identical.)
[Thanks to Sankar Anand in the Google Blogoscoped Forum.]
Update: 14 August 2006 (21:27)
Blogger.com to finally use Google Accounts? Yep...
Blogger Beta is finally here!
03 August 2006 Matt Cutts: No comment on secret Google services
As many of my readers will already know, Matt Cutts has recently been publishing Q&A video sessions to his blog in order to answer various questions about SEO, spam, indexing and other Google stuff in more detail.
His latest post references my recent discoveries.
For more videos from Matt, check his following posts:
His latest post references my recent discoveries.
You can watch the video for yourself below. I’m even using Google Video’s new “Embed videos with a specific start point” feature, so you should be taken to the exact point where I’m mentioned, which means you don’t have to watch the entire thing if you don’t want to:TOMHTML asked:
“What are Google SSD, Google Guess, Google RS2, Google Mobile Marketplace, Google Weaver and other services discovered by Tony Ruscoe?”
Matt answered:
“I think it was very clever of Tony to try to do a dictionary attack against our services check-in... but I’m not gonna talk about what those services are.”
For more videos from Matt, check his following posts:
- SEO Answers on Google Video (July 31, 2006 @ 12:53 am)
- More SEO Answers on Video (August 1, 2006 @ 12:04 am)
- Vidyo! (August 1, 2006 @ 10:36 pm)
- Another two videos (August 3, 2006 @ 1:24 am)
- Google’s Matt Cutts on Duplicate Content and More (Wednesday, August 2, 2006)
- Matt Cutts on Searching Homepages Only and More (Thursday, August 3, 2006)
Labels: google
27 July 2006 What's in Google's Sandbox?
It’s been a while since I’ve done any digging around Google’s servers to try and find some new services, so I thought I’d have a quick go tonight.
I started by looking at one of the subdomains I found when I first ran my Google subdomains sniffing script last year:Since Google Checkout was released earlier this year, that subdomain has been serving up what appears to be the Google Checkout pages. However, anyone who has tried to login would’ve noticed that they wouldn’t have been able to sign in using their usual Google Account. Furthermore, if anyone creates a new account from within these pages, it’s not a ‘real’ Google Account – it’s actually some kind of test account.
(Just try to sign in to the ‘sandbox’ pages using your normal account and it won’t work. Similarly, try signing in to the real Google Accounts pages with your ‘sandbox’ login and that won’t work either.)
It appears that the ‘sandbox’ subdomain and associated Google Accounts are used for the development and testing of new or experimental Google services. So, using the same methods I used to find new service code names before – e.g. Weaver / M Scrapbook, Google RS2, SSD, Mobile Download Console and Google LH2 – I managed to find and add the following services to my ‘sandbox’ Google Account – all of which aren’t currently available to add to your ‘real’ Google Account (even though you’ll have heard about some of them before):
Note: The links used above are the same as those linked to each service name in the ‘My Accounts’ page, of which you can also view the screenshot.
Old news?
Discuss.
I started by looking at one of the subdomains I found when I first ran my Google subdomains sniffing script last year:Since Google Checkout was released earlier this year, that subdomain has been serving up what appears to be the Google Checkout pages. However, anyone who has tried to login would’ve noticed that they wouldn’t have been able to sign in using their usual Google Account. Furthermore, if anyone creates a new account from within these pages, it’s not a ‘real’ Google Account – it’s actually some kind of test account.
(Just try to sign in to the ‘sandbox’ pages using your normal account and it won’t work. Similarly, try signing in to the real Google Accounts pages with your ‘sandbox’ login and that won’t work either.)
It appears that the ‘sandbox’ subdomain and associated Google Accounts are used for the development and testing of new or experimental Google services. So, using the same methods I used to find new service code names before – e.g. Weaver / M Scrapbook, Google RS2, SSD, Mobile Download Console and Google LH2 – I managed to find and add the following services to my ‘sandbox’ Google Account – all of which aren’t currently available to add to your ‘real’ Google Account (even though you’ll have heard about some of them before):
| Service Name | Code Name |
|---|---|
| Google Events | ev |
| Google Guess | guess |
| Google Online Assessment | goa |
| Google Real Estate Search | re |
| Google RS2 | rs2 |
| Google Writely | writely |
| Local (AKA Local Business Center) | lbc |
| Mobile | mobile |
| Mobile Marketplace | mmp |
| New Service (AKA Workplace) | wf |
| New Service | gmt |
| Talk | talk |
| Weaver | weaver |
| WiFi | wifi |
Note: The links used above are the same as those linked to each service name in the ‘My Accounts’ page, of which you can also view the screenshot.
In addition to those services, the following were recognized as being valid services – i.e. the usual login screens were available – but it wasn’t possible to add them to my account:Update: 28 July 2006 (13:42)
Also now available, screenshots of the sandbox ‘My Account’ page in the following languages: Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese and Welsh!
| Service Name | Code Name |
|---|---|
| New Service | cf |
| New-Service-1 | voice |
Old news?
- Local (AKA Local Business Center)
Some of you will have come across this before. This appears to be related to Google Local (now known as Google Maps) where you can create, edit, or suspend your Google Local business listing. - Google RS2
Well, I’ve already posted about Google RS2 before, but this is the first possible hint at what it could be. The link in the ‘My Account’ page points to Google Translate, so could it be anything to do with the statistical machine translation system that we know Google’s working on? - Google Talk
We all know what this is, but why would you want to add it to your Google Accounts page?Update: 29 September 2006 (08:59)
Aha... they were planning on releasing Google Talk to everyone instead of just Gmail users. This was released on 28 September 2006. Read the Official Google Blog post: Now anyone can Talk - Google Weaver
I’ve posted about Weaver / M Scrapbook before too. Most suspect it’s going to be some kind of Medical Scrapbook. The links points to google.com/h9. Could that just be a typo or might it be a code for something – i.e. Health 9? - Google Writely
They’ve already told us that they were going to migrate Writely to use Google Accounts, so it’s no big surprise that they’re testing that.Update: 29 September 2006 (08:59)
Oops... I forgot to say that this was made live on 21 September 2006. Read the official Writely blog post: Google Account Sign-in LIVE - Google WiFi
According to the Google WiFi FAQ, “Google WiFi is a free wireless Internet service offered to the city of Mountain View as part of our ongoing community outreach efforts.”
- Google Events
This has been hinted at before, but only in the context of Google Base and Google Calendar. Is it really likely that Google would release a service specifically for events when they already have two that handle them? The fact that the service links to google.com/events suggests maybe they will – or, at least, maybe they’ve thought about it before. - Google Guess
How many guesses do we get? This really could be anything! (Unless it’s a new Google service that simply guesses what you’re searching for... like the Mentalplex perhaps?)Update: 14 September 2006 (10:14)
This service was actually released on 1 September 2006 as Google Image Labeler. - Google Online Assessment
This could be just something that Google uses internally for internal assessments of Googlers. Or it could be used for qualifying sales leads or prospects. Has anyone got any other ideas? - Google Real Estate Search
Again, this concept has been discussed before with reference to Google Base. Are they going to be taking this more seriously? - Mobile Marketplace
Maybe number 13 in John Battelle’s Predictions 2006 post will come true. Maybe Google will finally plug mobile “into the web in a way that makes sense for the average user” and maybe they’ll also be the ones to create “a major mobile innovation - the kind that makes us all say - Jeez that was obvious.” But we’ll see... - New Service (AKA Workplace)
Maybe this is the big one people have been waiting for; the one that will really kill Microsoft Office. At least, if it’s at all related to IBM Workplace it could be. I don’t know an awful lot about this, so if anyone else feels more qualified to talk about it, please go ahead. All I know is that it’s got something to do with OpenOffice.org – so that’s why it could be the killer... - New Services
With code names likecf,gmtandvoice, does anyone want to speculate what any of these could be?Update: 14 September 2006 (10:14)
Thegmtservice has surfaced in the live Google Accounts pages in September as Google Marketing Tools.
Discuss.
Update: 29 July 2006 (12:49)
Just a quick update...
I can confirm that Google have now deactivated all of the new services that I mentioned above. Creating a sandbox account and trying to add these now won’t work. Furthermore, Google have deactivated my sandbox account! When I tried to login earlier today, I got the following error:Sorry, your account has been disabled. For more information about Google Accounts, please consult our Help Center at http://www.google.com/support/accounts/.
I guess that’s fair enough.
Also, thanks to Digg user merreborn for pointing out that the sandbox is actually intended for the testing of Google Checkout, and is mentioned in the Google Checkout API documentation. I guess Google just didn’t expect people to start trying to register new services on there too...
Labels: google
13 July 2006 Visualizing Google Search Results
Philipp Lenssen’s post on Visualizing Coordinates With Google presents some interesting and unusual ways to help visualize how many results are returned when searching Google for certain keyword combinations. He’s plotted the number of results returned for various coordinates onto a grid and also the number of times a chess position was returned onto a chess board, including some variations based on chess pieces. He asks, “Which other structured numbers or words can be visualized with Google for interesting results?”
Here’s what I’ve come up with:
This image represents the number of results returned when searching Google for words and phrases corresponding to the letters, numbers or names of keys on a standard (UK English) computer keyboard; the brighter the key, the more search results were returned. I normalized the results so that the key with the most results returned has an opacity of 100% whilst the keys with the least results have an opacity of 10% (just so you can see them).
I guess the aim was to show which keys may be the most used, but there are obviously some whose results have been skewed because they share their name with another popular letter or word, particularly the “Home” and “@” keys. Nevertheless, I think it’s still a quite accurate and interesting representation.
Some notes:
Here’s what I’ve come up with:
This image represents the number of results returned when searching Google for words and phrases corresponding to the letters, numbers or names of keys on a standard (UK English) computer keyboard; the brighter the key, the more search results were returned. I normalized the results so that the key with the most results returned has an opacity of 100% whilst the keys with the least results have an opacity of 10% (just so you can see them).
I guess the aim was to show which keys may be the most used, but there are obviously some whose results have been skewed because they share their name with another popular letter or word, particularly the “Home” and “@” keys. Nevertheless, I think it’s still a quite accurate and interesting representation.
Some notes:
- Where the key displays a phrase – e.g. “Caps Lock” or “Alt Gr” – I’ve searched for the words enclosed in double quotes.
- Where the key is for a symbol that Google doesn’t allow, I’ve searched for the symbol’s name – e.g. “tilde” or “question mark” – sometimes including several variations.
- Where there are multiple phrases or symbols on a key, I’ve searched for all variations separated by a vertical bar – except for the number keys because I forgot to include their shifted symbols... oops!