Tag Archives: web site

Google+ offers custom URLs for verified accounts, other profiles to come ‘over time’

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Google offers custom URLs for verified accounts, other profiles to come 'over time'

Do you happen to be David Beckham or Toyota? Well, congratulations -- you now have a Google+ vanity URL. The rest of us looking for the football star or car manufacturer need only type "google.com/+davidbeckham" or "google.com/+toyota" to reach those respective pages, enabling easy access to that must-see picture in front of a private jet, or a vehicle recall notice. Sadly, you're probably not eligible for a custom shortcut of your own -- here's the word from Google:

At first, we're introducing custom URLs to a limited number of verified profiles and pages. But over time we plan to offer custom URLs to many more brands and individuals, so please stay tuned!

So, for now, you better get comfy with "plus.google.com/108326689306432447266," or whatever the good Goog has granted.

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Google+ offers custom URLs for verified accounts, other profiles to come 'over time' originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Aug 2012 21:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google+ offers custom URLs for verified accounts, other profiles to come ‘over time’

Posted on by

Google offers custom URLs for verified accounts, other profiles to come 'over time'

Do you happen to be David Beckham or Toyota? Well, congratulations -- you now have a Google+ vanity URL. The rest of us looking for the football star or car manufacturer need only type "google.com/+davidbeckham" or "google.com/+toyota" to reach those respective pages, enabling easy access to that must-see picture in front of a private jet, or a vehicle recall notice. Sadly, you're probably not eligible for a custom shortcut of your own -- here's the word from Google:

At first, we're introducing custom URLs to a limited number of verified profiles and pages. But over time we plan to offer custom URLs to many more brands and individuals, so please stay tuned!

So, for now, you better get comfy with "plus.google.com/108326689306432447266," or whatever the good Goog has granted.

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Google+ offers custom URLs for verified accounts, other profiles to come 'over time' originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Aug 2012 21:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TechCrunch  |  sourceGoogle  | Email this | Comments

Google updates PageSpeed Service so you don’t waste precious seconds waiting for pages to load

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Google updates PageSpeed Service to further reduce website load times

Last year, Google launched its PageSpeed Service, aiming to improve our experience across the web while reportedly deferring its own financial interests. The concept was sound -- similar services like Akamai work to accelerate web browsing by caching pages in much the same way -- but there's always room for improvement. The latest PageSpeed beta uses some straightforward techniques to improve performance even further, using a new rewriter called "Cache and Prioritize Visible Content." Using this new tool, your browser will load content that appears "above the fold" before fetching text and photos that would be initially hidden on the page, while also prioritizing other content ahead of Javascript, which often isn't needed as quickly as more basic elements. Finally, for pages that contain HTML that isn't cacheable, such as when personalized info is returned, standard portions of the site are cached and displayed immediately, while other content loads normally. The new tool isn't a perfect fit for every webpage, but we'll take a boost wherever we can get it.

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Google updates PageSpeed Service so you don't waste precious seconds waiting for pages to load originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 05 Aug 2012 11:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TechCrunch  |  sourcePageSpeed, Google Developers Blog  | Email this | Comments

Google adds browser-based weather feature to tablets with temperature, wind and precipitation

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Google adds browserbased interactive weather feature to tablets with temperature, wind and precipitation

You may have noticed Google's forecast feature on your HTML5-capable smartphone browser -- simply typing "weather" into the search field brings up a basic real-time temperature tool, complete with hourly and five-day forecasts for your current location. That feature has been around in one form or another since the beginning of last year, but as of this week, it's made its way to tablets, too. Web weather is entirely browser based, and you can bring it up in just the same way as on a smartphone -- confirm that your GPS is enabled, then head to Google.com and type "weather" -- you'll be rewarded with a 10-day forecast, complete with temp, precipitation, humidity and wind speed readouts. The tool is interactive, so while you may only be able to view a few days of weather at once, you can simply slide along the timeline to see more. The same applies to the hourly forecast as well. There's nothing to download or subscribe to for this one, and it's available right now at Google.com.

James Trew contributed to this report.

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Google adds browser-based weather feature to tablets with temperature, wind and precipitation originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Jul 2012 18:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TechCrunch  |  sourceGoogle+  | Email this | Comments