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September 24, 2012

14 Special Google Searches That Show Instant Answers

14 Special Google Searches That Show Instant Answers, Published on September 23rd, 2012  |  Written by: Chris Hoffman, another great article from the howtogeek.com .



Google can do more than display lists of websites – Google will give you quick answers to many special searches. While Google isn’t quite as advanced as Wolfram Alpha, it has quite a few tricks up its sleeve.
We’ve also covered searching Google like a pro by learning the Google search operators – if you want to master Google, be sure to learn those.

Calculator

You can use Google as a calculator – just type in a quick calculation and Google will provide an answer. Google now offers a clickable calculator tool when you search for a calculation, so you can use Google like you’d use a calculator application on your desktop or smartphone.
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Unit Conversions

Google can also convert between a variety of units. Just type a search in the form X unit to unit. For example, 40 degrees f to c converts 40 degrees Fahrenheit to Celsius.
As with the calculator, the unit conversion tool is clickable.
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You can also combine unit conversations and math. For example, the search two miles plus 500 yards in kilometers will return a valid answer.
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Currency Conversions

Google can also do currency conversions for you. You can do a search such as usd to cad to see the exchange rate between two currencies, or do a search such as 500 usd to cad to see how much a certain amount of currency is worth in another currency.
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Your IP Address

You can determine your current public IP address by typing what is my ip into Google – or just search for my ip.
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Weather

To see the weather in a specific location, search for weather location – for example, search for weather new york to see a weather forecast for New York. If you enter weather without a location, Google will show you the weather for your current area.
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Sunrise and Sunset

You can also view the sunrise or sunset times for a location by typing sunrise location or sunset location. Like with the weather search, searching for sunrise or sunset without a location will show you the sunrise or sunset times for your current location.
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Times

View the current time for a location by typing time location – for example, searching for time paris will show you the current time in Paris, France.  Like with the weather searches, searching for time without a location will show you the current time where you are.
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Package Tracking

If you want to track a package, you can enter a UPS, USPS, or Fedex tracking number directly in the Google search box. Google will link you to the appropriate package-tracking page.
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Dictionary Definitions

To view the dictionary definition for a word, search for define word – Google will show you the definition of the word, along with a button you can click to hear the word pronounced aloud.
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Flight Tracking

View the status of a flight by typing an airline name followed by a flight number.
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Flight Schedules

Search for available flights by searching for flights from city to city. Google will show you a list of available flights along with their prices, durations, and airlines – you can enter your dates and locate flights right from the search page.
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Movie Schedules

Want to see a movie in a theater? Search for movies followed by your postal code to view a list of movies playing near you.
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Data

You can view many types of data for different cities and countries, such as the population and unemployment rate, by searching for them. For example, searching for population location will show you the population of that location, whether it’s a city, state, or country.
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Stock Information

View about a stock, including its price and a graph of its price history, by searching for any stock symbol on Google.
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Source: http://www.howtogeek.com/125101/14-special-google-searches-that-show-instant-answers/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=240912

September 19, 2012

Google to drop support for IE8 on Google Docs on Nov. 15

Significant impact on Windows XP, which cannot run newer IE9 or the upcoming IE10

September 15, 2012 02:58 PM ET

Computerworld - Google will drop support for Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) for its online apps and services in mid-November, effectively ending support for many users of Windows XP.
"Internet Explorer 10 launches on 10/26/2012, and as a result, we will discontinue support for Internet Explorer 8 shortly afterwards, on 11/15/2012," the company wrote on a Friday blog. "After this date, users accessing Google Apps services using Internet Explorer 8 will see a message recommending that they upgrade their browser."
Because IE8 is the newest Microsoft browser that runs on Windows XP, and because Google had previously abandoned IE7 and IE6 -- the other versions that run on XP -- the move significantly impacts Windows XP users locked into Internet Explorer by corporate or organization policies.
 


Neither IE9, which Microsoft launched in March 2011, or IE10, which will debut alongside Windows 8 in late October, runs on Windows XP.

After Nov. 15, users running IE8 may have trouble with some features in Google Apps. And if past practice is any clue, other sites and services, including Gmail and Google Calendar, may also be affected. At some point, those apps may stop working entirely in IE8.
This wasn't the first time that Google has warned users to upgrade to a newer browser. In July 2011, the company said it would dump IE7 from its list of supported browsers; in January 2010, it announced it would no longer support IE6, Microsoft's 2001 browser.
Google's policy is to support only the current version of a browser, and its immediate predecessor.

Giving up on IE8, however, is markedly different than dumping IE7.
Last year, when Google said it would stop supporting IE7, that edition accounted for just 7% of all browsers used worldwide, according to Web analytics firm Net Applications.
IE8, on the other hand, was the most widely-used browser edition in the world last month, with a usage share of 25%. Of those who ran one version or another of IE, nearly half, or 47%, ran IE8 in August.



Windows XP faces its own end-of-life cutoff; Microsoft will serve users with that operating system's final security update in April 2014. But like IE8, Windows XP remains a major presence. Last month, Net Applications measured XP's global usage share at 42.5%, just behind the three-year-old Windows 7's 42.8%.

Google is the first major online software maker to drop 2009's IE8 from a support list. Microsoft, for instance, has committed to supporting IE8 on Windows 7 until 2020.
IE8 users, particularly those running Windows XP, can switch to another browser, including the most recent versions of Mozilla's Firefox, Google's own Chrome or Opera Software's Opera, to run Google Apps.
The end-of-support plan for Google Apps will not disrupt access to its search site using older browsers.


covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at Twitter @gkeizer, on Google+ or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed Keizer RSS. His email address is gkeizer@computerworld.com.
See more by Gregg Keizer on Computerworld.com.
Read more about Web Apps in Computerworld's Web Apps Topic Center.

Source: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9231316/Google_to_drop_support_for_IE8_on_Nov._15

August 27, 2012

Firefox 15 Available 08-28-12

ghacks.net: Firefox 15 launches tomorrow, downloads already available

If everything goes as planned, Mozilla will released an update for Firefox 14.0.1 that will bring the version of the Internet browser to 15.0. The stable version of the browser won’t be the only version that will receive an update in the coming days. Firefox’s extended released support version will be updated tomorrow as well, followed by updates for Firefox Beta on August 30, and Firefox Aurora on August 31 (you can check out the regularly updated Mozilla Firefox Release Schedule to find out about future Firefox releases).

For a general overview of what is new and hot in Firefox 15, check out our initial coverage from June of this year which looked at the version when the Firefox Aurora version was upgraded to it.

firefox 15

When you look at the beta changelog you will notice the following changes in Firefox 15. The most important changes for users are listed at the beginning:
  • Optimized memory usage for add-ons
  • Preliminary native PDF support
  • Support for SPDY networking protocol v3
  • WebGL enhancements, including compressed textures for better performance
Developers benefit from the following new technologies and features
  • JavaScript debugger integrated into developer tools
  • New layout view added to Inspector
  • The CSS word-break property has been implemented.
  • High precision event timer implemented
  • New responsive design tool allows web developers to switch between desktop and mobile views of sites
  • Native support for the Opus audio codec added
  • The <source /> element now supports the media attribute
  • The <audio> and <video> elements now support the played attribute
Firefox users who install add-ons may benefit from the memory optimization technologies that Mozilla added to Firefox 15. This basically does away with a certain type of memory leaking by add-ons so that you may notice a reduced memory usage, or at least no increase of memory usage during a session anymore.

The changelog does not mention several other features that have been included in Firefox 15. Background updates are for instance one of the features not mentioned in the changelog. The change affects the speed in which updates are installed. Instead of applying the update on the next start of the browser, it is not applied to a copy of the program, so that the files only need to be copied over to the Firefox program directory on start which speeds up the time it takes to update during start of Firefox significantly.

If you are using the browser’s search form you may also notice that search has become faster thanks to connection improvements. You can read up on that technology here on this blog post. Additional performance related improvements include the comportment-per-global change, and caching improvements where items are simultaneously verified and loaded.

The click to play and in-content preferences features are still disabled by default and need to be enabled by the user of the browser in the about:config preferences before they can be used.
As far as downloads of Firefox 15 go: the official Mozilla ftp server and worldwide mirrors are already hosting Firefox 15. You can alternatively download the new release from third party download sites, or wait until tomorrow for the final release. Since there is always the chance of last minute changes, I’d suggest you wait until the release is made official by Mozilla.

You can download Mozilla Firefox here: http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/

Source: http://www.ghacks.net/2012/08/27/firefox-15-launches-tomorrow-downloads-already-available/


August 30, 2012, 7:06AM

Mozilla Releases Firefox 15 With New Invisible Updater

FirefoxBoasting a new silent updater and an optimized memory management system, Mozilla pushed out Firefox 15 this week, the latest build of its flagship browser. Following similar steps taken by Adobe and Google with its Flash, Reader and Chrome products, Firefox’s new updater will now perform updates in the background, saving users from those pesky, sometimes intrusive notifications.


Mozilla debuted a silent update mechanism for the browser in April when it released version 12 of Firefox. While that method allowed Firefox to update while the browser was running, installing that version, during its next restart, would take slightly longer. Firefox 15’s background updates are different than silent updates in the sense that when an update is installed in the background, the browser will take the same amount of time to start up as it usually would.


Firefox’s new memory management system should help prevent add-ons from hogging memory after a user has already closed a browser tab. The new mechanism apparently notices when extra versions of websites no longer need to be held onto and recaptures the leaked memory, according to Asa Dotzler, Mozilla’s Product Manager for Firefox, in a blog post detailing the new system.


 “Many users should experience greatly reduced memory consumption, particularly on long browsing sessions,” wrote Nicholas Nethercote, a Firefox developer who previewed the functionality in a blog post last month.


The update also fixes a laundry list of bugs and 16 vulnerabilities, seven of which the Mozilla Foundation deems critical. Among the critical vulnerabilities addressed by the update is a “new tab” escalation of privilege bug, memory corruption via WebGL and an issue with the SVG buffer overflow. For the full list of vulnerabilities, head to the Mozilla Foundation’s list of Security Advisories.

 Source: http://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/mozilla-releases-firefox-15-new-invisible-updater-083012

July 20, 2012

Browser Speed Tests from LifeHacker-Firefox 13 Wins

Browser Speed Tests: Chrome 19, Firefox 13, Internet Explorer 9, and Opera 11.64
Firefox 13 is the Winner.

Firefox 13 is out and it's all about speed, and with Chrome and Opera also introducing new versions of their browsers, we thought it time for another browser speed test. So we've once again pitted the four most popular Windows web browsers against each other in a battle of startup times, tab loading times, and more, with some shocking results.

We've been testing browsers for awhile, and we've refined our method pretty well. It's a good mix of both manually timed user experience measures and hardcore JavaScript and CSS benchmarks, plus some new tests aimed at features like Chrome's prerendering or Firefox's on demand tab loading can really do. All tests take place on Windows (which is why we didn't test Safari—it isn't very popular on Windows, and testing the Mac version wouldn't give it equal footing. We'll do a Mac-wide browser speed test the next time around).

As always, remember that speed is not the only thing each browser has to offer. Each browser has a number of unique features and characteristics, all of which you should factor into making your choice of which to use. However, while most features can be listed on their home pages, you can't easily compare their speed just from each browser's changelog, and that's why we've put this together. It's just one more way to compare the browsers as you make your decision. Also keep in mind that everyone's computer is different, and your numbers may differ from ours, but the comparison between the numbers should be the same.

Cold Boot-Up Winner: Opera!

Once again, we've slightly tweaked how we measure cold boot-ups, this time measuring until the moment you can actually type in the address bar and start visiting pages (since that's when most people will consider the browser "usable"). Coupled with all the new updates, this produced some very different results, with Opera coming out way ahead of the competition, ready to use in less than 2 seconds. Chrome came in second at about 4 seconds, the other browsers trailing further behind.

Tab Loading Winner: Opera!

Our test of loading nine tabs, from Lifehacker to Facebook to Hulu and Gmail, Opera continues to rock our socks with seriously quick tab loading times. Firefox seriously improved this time around, but not enough to catch Opera, while Chrome stayed agonizingly slow once again.

URL Loading Winner: Chrome!

Not surprisingly, Chrome took home the prize for visiting sites from the address bar, thanks to its awesome prerendering feature. While most browsers were pretty quick, Chrome was near instantaneous, as long as you had visited that page once during that session. Firefox and IE took second and third place, with Opera nearly doubling their times.

Cold Restore Winner: Firefox!

In an effort to test the benefits of Firefox's new on demand tab loading, we took the same nine tabs as above, saved them in a session, and did another cold boot of the browser on restart, timing the time it took to automatically restore that session of tabs. We measured until the browser had stopped its loading process, which meant after one tab loaded in Firefox or after all tabs loaded in other browsers. Of course, Firefox users will have to wait for those tabs to load later on, but the idea was to measure how much quicker Firefox was at being usable when you restored from a large session—something you really feel the weight of when you load 9 tabs at once—and it didn't disappoint. Opera came in a pretty close second, with Chrome trailing far behind due to its slow tab loading times. Internet Explorer was left out for lack of an automatic session restore feature.

JavaScript Winner: Chrome!

Not much changed in the JavaScript and CSS realms this time around. Chrome once again took home the gold in JavaScript performance, with Firefox coming in a distant second, not far from the other browsers.

DOM/CSS Performance Winner: Opera!

Like the JavaScript tests, there's nothing new here. Opera once again obliterates the other browsers with seriously awesome CSS performance.

Memory Usage (with Nine Tabs Open) Winner: Firefox!

Firefox continues to work on memory usage improvements, but all the browsers seemed to be on equally bloated footing this time around, at least without any extensions installed. After a few minutes, the memory usage of most browsers leveled out around 400MB, while Firefox was closer to 310MB.

Memory Usage (with Nine Tabs and Five Extensions) Winner: Firefox!

This was the really shocking result this time around: Firefox may not have improved a ton without add-ons, but when you pile on five different add-ons, it's memory usage doesn't change all that much. The other browsers had their memory usage jump nearly 200MB, while Firefox's only jumped up by 60MB, making it a very clear first place winner. Its UI may still feel a little laggy, but when it comes to actually conserving memory, Firefox kicks butt.

Overall Scores

We debated ditching "overall scores" this time around, since it becomes harder and harder to tally them up fairly, and it's more important to look at each individual category than it is some arbitrary score. But everyone likes a winner, so we've kept this section at the end for those of you handing out trophies, and the scores are:
  1. Firefox: 75%
  2. Chrome and Opera: 66%
  3. Internet Explorer: 45%
Firefox's new tabs on demand feature brought it into first place, above last time's winner, Chrome. Opera caught up to Chrome with some serious speed improvements, while Internet Explorer once again took a fairly distant last place. As we said, you should look at the individual scores above to see which browser is faster in the areas you care about—if you don't like Firefox's new tabs on demand, for example, Chrome and Opera would still be the fastest in your world. As usual, we're seeing that each browser is focusing on specific areas of improvement: Firefox with memory management, Opera with tab loading and CSS, and Chrome with its JavaScript and prerendering features—so wherever you're feeling the weight of your current browser, that might be a good place to see who's a faster choice.

Our tests aren't the most scientific on the planet, but they do reflect a relatively accurate view of the kind of experience you'd get from each browser, speed-wise. Let us know if your experience differs-or if the speed losses are worth the browser's other features-in the comments.
Contact Whitson Gordon:
Source: http://lifehacker.com/5917714/browser-speed-tests-chrome-19-firefox-13-internet-explorer-9-and-opera-1164

Related Stories

June 15, 2012

50 Best Firefox Addons

On this page, you will find the best 50+ Firefox plugins for all your browsing needs. We’ve taken the effort to categorize the extensions and picked only those we believe to be the best ones and which will most likely be useful to you.
By Category:
Custom Interface Custom Web Downloading Reading
Shopping Social Sync Security
Developers Research Others


Custom Interface


Stratiform
Make your own colour scheme and theme with an easy to use interface. Download
All-In One Sidebar
Access bookmarks, history, downloads, add-ons and more from a sidebar. Download | Full review
Omnibar
Combine the redundant address and search bars into one, just like in Google Chrome. Download
Tab Utilities
Feature-packed extensions for getting the most out of your tabs. Download
Vertical Toolbar
Move icons to the left of the browser to save vertical space Download | Full review



Custom Web


GreaseMonkey
Access to thousands of user-made scripts that make the Internet better. Download | Full review
Adblock Plus
Never see an online ad again. Also useful for blocking malware. Download | Full review
AdBlock Video
Watch videos online without watching ads. Works with Hulu and most networks sites. Download | Full review
Flash Block
Block every and all flash files until you want to see them. Download | Full review
NoScript
The ultimate security extension: only run scripts on sites you trust. Download | Full review
Thumbnail Zoom
See full size images by hovering over thumbnails on Facebook, Amazon and more. Download | Full review
AutoPager
Make websites and blogs keep scrolling forever and ever and ever. Download | Full review



Downloading


DownThemAll
Download all links or images on any website and accelerate downloads. Download | Full review
Download Statusbar
Watch and manage your downloads at the bottom of your browser window. Download | Full review
DownloadHelper
Download and convert videos from a variety of websites around the web. Download | Full review
Ant Video Downloader
Download videos from around the web and watch them, offline, from your browser. Download
Skip Screen
Avoid the wait pages on Rapidshare, Megaupload, zShare, Mediafire and similar sites. Download | Full review



Reading


Feedly
Your own online magazine, with stories from your favorite sites. Download | Full review
Brief
Simple and elegant RSS reader designed to just let you read. Download
Readability
Save articles to read later, or read them now without ads and sidebars. Download | Full review
Read It Later
Save articles from the web for reading later, when have time. Download | Full review
EPUBReader
Open and read EPUB (ebook) files in your browser. Download



Shopping


Invisible Hand
Find the best price out there for anything your search or shop for. Download | Full review
Boo.ly
Search for an item; see a breakdown of prices in the results. Download
Amazon Add To WishList
Add items you find online to your Amazon wishlist, whatever site you find it on. Download
Windowshop
Compare prices for over 140 million products. Works in the US, UK and Germany. Download



Social


StumbleUpon
Click a button; see a random website relevant to your interests. Great time waster. Download
Shareaholic
Quickly share websites you find with your friends on any social network. Download | Full review
Firestatus
Update your Twitter or Facebook status by clicking a button on your toolbar. Download
Echofon
Complete Twitter client built into your browser so you can Tweet while you surf. Download | Full review
Rapportive
Social CRM for Gmail. Collects and shows information about your contacts in the Gmail sidebar. Download | Full review
Wisestamp
Add social network links to the signature of your Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail accounts. Download | Full review



Sync


XMarks
Your bookmarks and passwords, synced across all your computers and browser. Download | Full review
LastPass
Securely store your passwords online. Encrypts passwords locally before uploading. Download | Full review
FEBE backup
Backup all of your Firefox extensions so you can quickly install them again. Download | Full review
SurfOn
Easily move any set of tabs from one computer or browser to the next. Download | Full review



Security


HTTPS everywhere
Encrypt your web usage whenever possible to keep your private information safe. Download
Ghostery
Track the services trying to track you, and maintain your online privacy. Download | Full review
Track-Me-Not
Sends random queries to search engines to obscure your searching habits and protect your privacy. Download | Full review
Better Privacy
Protects against long-term “Super-Cookies” that track you for market research. Download
Web Of Trust
Shows you which websites can be trusted, based on feedback from millions of other users. Download | Full review



Developers


Firebug
Inspect the web. Find out what code makes up bits and pieces of any webpage. Download
Web Developer
A cornicopia of web development tools added to your browser. Download
FireFTP
A full-featured FTP client built into your browser. Upload and download files. Download
Colorzilla
An eyedropper for detecting colors on the web and other colorful goodies. Download | Full review
SEO Blogger
Discover sought-after search terms for your post as you’re writing. Download
MeasureIt
Put a ruler on any site to measure the pixel width or height of objects. Download



Research


Zotero
Collect, manage and cite the sources for your latest project. Download | Full review
Diigo
Bookmark sources, then highlight what’s important and leave notes, all within your browser. Download | Full review
gTranslate
Quickly translate text with Google by highlighting and right-clicking it. Download
TinEye Reverse Image Search
Find similar images to the one you found with this reverse image search tool. Download



Others


FasterFox
Tweaks and speeds up your browser, and the entire web. Download | Full review
FlagFox
See flags representing the country any website is hosted in. Download
User Agent Switcher
Trick websites into thinking you’re using another browser. Perfect for some IE-only services. Download
Session Manager
Save your current session, including open tabs. Open these sessions later. Download
Lazarus: Form Recovery
Resurrect information you added to a form only to lose to a browser crash. Download | Full review
NoSquint
Change the zoom settings for text or the entire page. Perfect for high-resolution monitors. Download | Full review


Source: http://www.makeuseof.com/pages/best-firefox-addons