Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with google

Firefox/Gmail Not Filling in Email (aka The Lazy Function!)

snap_dragon — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 13:05:45 -0800

At my gmail sign-on using Firefox, I could type the first initial in my email name and it would drop down where I could click on my email name and automatically insert it (then password). It stopped doing that and I have been messing with Firefox autofill and that seems mainly for filling out forms. Yes, I am sure this is an easy thing for someone (me) to fix but for some reason it is stumping me. My wife and I liked the utter simplicity on our home computer of this function. Can you help? Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to all MeFi users

Google Offline for iPod Touch

rossination — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 00:58:02 -0800

On the iPod touch, how do mail and calendars work when you are not connected to wifi? I'm thinking of getting an iPod touch but I have a few important questions first.

I have a Gmail account and several Google Calendars that I would want to be able to view on my iPod touch. I understand that Google has native iPhone versions of these pages, so I can view them in mobile Safari (and I also know I also have the option of syncing my mail via IMAP). But what happens when I'm not connected to wifi? Can I see my old emails? Can I set up my device to "download", say, the past 2 months of email and all my current calendars? I can think of a lot of situations where I'd want to refer to an email that I had previously gotten (say, double-check the address of the place I need to be at) but I'm not able to get online with my device.

I feel like this is a simple question but I haven't been able to find answers yet. Any help is appreciated!

Sending an SMS via email to a Google Voice number?

jaimev — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:23:49 -0800

I used to have an ATT mobile number and someone could send me an SMS via email by sending a message to XXXXXXXXXX@txt.att.net. I now have a Google Voice number. Can someone still send me an SMS via email? My googlefu seems to indicate a 'no' answer - which seems surprising to me.

Cool, easy tattoo parlor website template?

Gucky — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 18:56:47 -0800

What should I use to set up a simple, cool-looking small business site for a non-techy friend? I bought my cousin-in-law 2 domains for Christmas related to his tattoo parlor. (I searched his small business and found that they didn't have a web page and some other business took the most obvious way to spell their URL.)

I've only hand written a webpage in HTML before or grabbed one of Dreamhost's default WordPress themes.

I don't want to become the business's tech support.

I just want to hand him a paper with a URL and a user name and password and there will be an easily update-able web page with the business, address, link to Google directions and blog and/or Twitter feed and a gallery (possibly a Flickr pull in?)

Do I use Google Sites? Is there a theme that is suitable for a pretty tough tattoo crowd that's easy to use?

Do I host it on my own Dreamhost with a WordPress theme? Is there a WordPress theme you'd recommend?

Low effort. Cool enough. Doesn't require a regular outlay of cash or tech effort. Help?

Ack! Google Looks Like Bing

Irontom — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 05:43:19 -0800

Why do my Google search results now look just like Bing? Yesterday, I noticed that the search results page for Google searches looks just like Bing to me. Search tools in a column on the left, and results in the main pane.

1. Is this the way it's going to be?
2. Can I make it go back to where it was before?

Why am I not getting indexed by Google?

griphus — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 22:38:33 -0800

Why am I not getting indexed by Google? I've been running my site for a few months and I get about 20 or so hits a day. I've started running an automatic sitemap plugin, touched up robots.txt, submitted it to Google, signed up on Webmaster Tools, added a (non-illegal) SEO package to Wordpress (just to automate meta-tagging) and I still can't get indexed. At all. I've surfed the forums and I'm getting a lot of conflicting information.

Meanwhile, my friends who start tumblr/wordpress blogs get indexed almost immediately. Is it because I'm running it off my own domain? I read that Google indexes "large" sites faster so I guess that their individual *.tumblr.com and *.wordpress.com blogs are considered part of a much larger chunk of webspace?

My reconsideration request has been processed (as of today) and I noticed some hits from a Google IP on my hit logs (although not search-hits.)

Is there something obvious that I am missing? It is not that big a deal that I get indexed (I'm not selling anything,) but it's just really bugging the hell out of me on principle.

The website is in my profile if you need to see it for any reason.

Transferrable URL from a Google Site to elsewhere?

omnigut — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:24:39 -0800

Friends set up a sites.google.com site with a URL that they like. I've made them realize that Google Sites won't do what they want. So I want to remove it from Google, and make it into a wordpress site, or whatever. Problem is, they want to keep the URL. Anyone know if (and how) that's possible? If I shut down their google site, will that free the URL up for me to use elsewhere (like on GoDaddy)? I asked in a google forum, but I assume I won't get a response there.

Meebo and Google Talk

simolean — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 12:03:07 -0800

I use Meebo and Google talk is one of my accounts on Meebo. Does Meebo automatically add my contacts (assuming they use Google talk) to my Meebo list? In other words, I logged on to my Meebo acct today and found someone I recently exchanged emails with (using Gmail) in my Meebo account. I never chatted with that person via Google chat. I use this specific account with coworkers, so I don't want to delete this account. Do I just delete that person?

Thanks!

Not waving.

availablelight — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 18:36:49 -0800

Google Wave. Is there anyone here who is using this regularly who can explain to me why I should too? Got an invite a month or two ago. Unlike other google apps which quickly felt indispensable (gmail, Picasa, maps, scholar, calendar, books, etc.) I'm a bit...flummoxed...as to how this is going to make my life cooler, practically speaking. (I'm sure it doesn't help that, due to how limited invites have been, I don't have more than a handful of folks to "wave" with anyway.)

If you've been using this application on a daily or weekly basis, what are you doing with it? What should I be doing with it?

Virtual "tourism"

JaredSeth — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 06:59:27 -0800

Inspired by this, does anyone know of other interesting locations that can be explored using Google Street View?

IPR for a new Google business service?

Eltulipan — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 06:17:03 -0800

How do I go about proposing a new business service concept to Google? So I got this great idea for a new business service on Google. See http://www.google.com/friendconnect/home/overview?hl=en for an example. My question is how to go about protecting my idea and entering into a meaningful discussion with them on feasability. Apologies for being vague about the idea itself, for obvious reasons.

Goog search?

fantasticninety — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 19:02:28 -0800

Can I google search half a word? There is a French-English dictionary that allows you to search the endings of words by adding a * at the beginning.

Is there a similar way to do this with google searches? If not, is there a French word list online that allows you to search words based on their endings and not only by their alphabetized beginnings?

Thanks!

Help me logon to my email!!

dmbfan93 — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 05:37:19 -0800

Please help me fix an internet/computer problem....I keep getting the message "Invalid Security Certificate" when I try to logon to my email accounts. I'm trying to logon to both my gmail account and my msn account and this morning I get the message "google.com uses an invalid security certificate"? This is just occuring, I was able to login last night. Does this have anything to do with a windows update that installed on my computer last night?

I try to logon to my MSN account and the exact same thing is occuring. The following message I get:

# This could be a problem with the server's configuration, or it could be someone trying to impersonate the server.

# If you have connected to this server successfully in the past, the error may be temporary, and you can try again later.

Please help me fix this!

My Dream Dual Boot Netbook

lemonfridge — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:39:01 -0800

Help me build my perfect netbook! I've had my iBook G4 since I started Uni over 6 years ago, but it's starting to show it's age and things are starting to play up (apart from the battery!)

So I've ordered myself a Samsung NC20 with a 2Gb of RAM upgrade. I'd really like to dual or triple boot between Windows, OSX, and....something.

1. It comes with XP, but I'm tempted to go for a Windows 7 upgrade. Thoughts?

I like OSX and wouldn't mind keeping it an option.

2. I'd like a flavour of Linux or possible the new Google OS. Thoughts?

3. I really like how quickly my current iBook waked up when I open the lid. Can I expect the same thing from my new NC20?

4. Where is the best guide to acheive what I want? I've never dual booted anything before.

Does an RSS feed reader exist that can save the linked HTML pages locally?

chrisamiller — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:04:19 -0800

Is there an RSS reader that can follow a feed's links and download html pages for offline reading? I'm primarily a Google Reader user, but its offline mode only downloads the content of the RSS feeds themselves. Many of my feeds hide some of their content "after the jump", so getting just the feed doesn't help me.

I'm looking for a script or program that will follow the links, then pull down the html page (including associated images) and save them locally so that I can peruse them on my laptop at 30,000 feet.

I could slap something together with an XML parser and wget, but I'd rather not reinvent the wheel. I feel like someone has probably solved this problem already.

I'll be using this on linux, but I'm willing to consider windows software as well, if it's something that might work reasonably under Wine.

I'll take a look at anything from full-blown desktop readers to cli scripts in perl/ruby/python etc.

Can I get Google to ignore certain terms on my web site?

valleys — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:25:24 -0800

Can I get Google to ignore certain terms on my web site? I maintain a very small web site for a non-profit organisation (ABC). On the site is the name of another organisation (XYZ) they're associated with. When you Google the name of the second organisation, ABC's site is listed first, while XYZ's is further down the results.

While I have suggested XYZ needs to make their site friendlier to search engines, for now the main concern is that ABC is getting many phone calls from people who are lazy - when they Google XYZ but see ABC as the first answer and assume that's what they are looking for without really looking at it.

Can I add something to my site to make Google ignore the name of XYZ organisation? I realise it could take some time for the results to change.

(I'm almost certain that this is easy, but whatever terms I'm searching for this afternoon aren't showing me what I need to know...)

Google search with exact phrase and multiple variables?

Mrs. Buck Turgidson — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:20:25 -0800

Is it possible to run a google search with an exact phrase and multiple variables? I'd like to see if a fixed search term (an exact phrase) returns any results when paired with a number of variables. I have approximately 200 variables and rather than run 200 seperate searches, would it be possible to run the search in one go? Something along the lines of "exact phrase" AND ( n1 OR n2 OR n3...). The variables will be exact phrases as well.

How to game my Google search results?

citron — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:59:42 -0800

What are some good IT-related, or editorial-related, blogs and sites on which to comment, so that if my name is Googled by potential employers, these comments will show in the search rankings? I'm not trying to get my name out there, what I'm trying to do is: kick some old and irrelevant Google search results down, so that relevant and current interests show up first. I'm doing copy editing work at the moment and have some background in web development, though my skills are not as sharp as they should be, and I'm trying to learn more. Ideally, early next year, I'd be searching for a job that requires more web editing and/or development.

But in today's job search process I'm well aware that potential employers will Google me, and while my social media profiles are professional and fine, I don't have much else that shows aside from a few arts section reviews I wrote for a college journal, years ago. They're not the worst thing in the world, but way too snarky, so I don't like them now and they probably don't present me in the best light. I'm embarrassed of the attitude I've had in the past, basically.

What are some sites I should be reading and commenting on now, just for talking shop? I need sites that would 1) be useful places to comment and ask questions about web development and design processes, user experience, social media, web editing and where I could comment under my own name, where comments are Google indexed & thus show up if someone Googles me? For instance, I used to read A List Apart religiously, but I am out of touch, the web moves so fast! There must be more sites to recommend like this. Thanks!

Bamboozled by Google

londongeezer — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 11:49:49 -0800

Why does Google Alerts add stuff like this to the end of the URLs it sends me every day by email: &ct=ga&cd=eOGlPN9EEgs&usg=AFNjCNGPR1lLrp7KJVpHt-2HktLYhtBMQg I guess Google has its reasons. So what I really mean is, why does Google do this when most of the time it breaks the link? The result is that, whenever I click on such a link, 90% of the time I get a "page not found" result and I then have to reload the page with the gibberish stripped away. I know that's not a huge chore, but it still seems daft. Can I put a stop to this? No illumination on wikipedia, from Google, or anywhere else that I could find.

Can I temporarily stop Google Reader?

pdb — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:18:01 -0800

Is it possible to temporarily stop Google Reader feeds from updating? I'm going on vacation for a week sans any technology whatsoever except an emergency cell phone, and I don't want to come back to eighty bazillion unread Google Reader items.

I know I can "mark all as read" when I get back, but I'd just as soon turn off the information spigot entirely, if that's possible, and turn it back on when I get home. I have about 150 subscriptions, so I'd rather not unsubscribe/resubscribe to them all individually.

I'm not one of those people who will care what I miss while I'm gone, so I have no desire to see the vast number of unread items that will await if there's a way to avoid doing so. My search of Greader help and of the askme archives didn't uncover any ideas, but I'm not the most effective searcher in the world so I thought I'd ask.

Jeez Google pt. 2 - We still want clean URLs

cashman — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:11:33 -0800

Remove these crappy ultra-long links from my Google Search Results when I right-click! What's the best way to get rid of these ultra-long Google urls that pop-up when you right-click a link in Google search results? It's basically a rehash of this AskMe from 2008.

I don't use greasemonkey. I had customizegoogle installed but that was abandoned and no longer works - does optimizegoogle do this? I just want to get my right-click links back. I tried removing web history, logging in or out doesn't matter, and deleting cookies, etc - nothing seems to stop it, and I hate it.

Lil help?!

Gmail Contacts Restore from Sent?

moedym — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:12:07 -0800

I accidentally (long story) deleted all my Google contacts. They are all just sitting there in my Sent and All Mail folders, however. Is there an easy way to re-add them to My Contacts in Gmail. Or do I have to just patiently email everyone over time?

How do I create a RSS feed for my Amazon Web Store?

Aegean — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:44:56 -0800

I'm trying to figure out how to create a XML / RSS feed of my Amazon web store products so I can update to Google Merchant. There doesn't seem to be many functions / plug-ins offered by AWS and their help isn't very helpful. I've done a fair amount of searching and have come up empty handed. Would anyone have an idea how I might go about creating this feed?

Google forms auto-notification when updated

jmd82 — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 07:36:51 -0800

Looking for a way to have Google forms/spreadsheet send an e-mail notification when a form has been filled out. We're thinking about using Google Forms to collect data from stakeholders. These forms would be updated at random intervals, completely unknown to those who needs the data. However, far as I can tell, there's no easy way to notify the form's owner that an update has been made. Anyone know of a way to make this happen? Bonus points for highlighting new responses.
--Yes, I know people can just manually check the spreadsheet for updates, but that doesn't always work out very well.

I've got a syncing feeling this may not be possible.

dan g. — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:19:33 -0800

Are there any verizon non-smart phones out there that could syc via bluetooth (or some other non-internet way) with a google calendar? Wife and I are looking at replacing our very old school verizon phones with new non-smart phones. we don't want any data plan or internet function on the phone but would like to be able to sync up the calendars on the phone with a google calendar we share.
Has anyone else tried to do something like this?
I'm not opposed to a hack of some sort to get it working, but the day to day syncing would need to be pretty straightforward or I think it would become an annoying burden.

Any and all advice welcomed and appreciated.
Thanks!