Bay Area Tech Pros» Google

Remove Google Web History for better privacy

Aleksandr Oreshkin — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 21:31:19 +0000

Go ahead, click it.

Google’s web history tracks your searches history and allows you to view it at any time in the future. It gives you a choice to delete certain searches, it also gives your mom, the police, and hackers an ability to explore this diary. Whether they use it for blackmail or prosecution, its not good for YOU.

So what gives with it being enabled by default on all new Google accounts (even non-gmail accounts)? This should really be something you opt-in to.

Rest assured, there is a way to remove this feature. Head over to your Google account’s center and click edit services and then click this magic link. There you go, that wasn’t so hard.

Fight back spam with Gmail

Aleksandr Oreshkin — Wed, 12 May 2010 05:48:03 +0000

Here’s a short post for getting back at companies who insist on sending you junk and offer no options to unsubscribe, or force you to jump through inconvenient hoops.

What you will need to do is find the corporate (optional: and personal) mailboxes of head people at the said company, The Consumerist runs a fairly decent directory.

Now that you have the emails of these people head over to gmail and login:

Click on settings in the top right
Click on filters tab
Click create new
In the from field enter the email address of the spammer (ie: news@acclaim.net)
Click Next
Check Skip the Inbox, Delete it
Check Forward To and enter the email address(es) you earlier acquired (ie: MMackin@acclaim.net)

Great Success! Now every single piece of spam that used to annoy you will no longer show in your mailbox, and maybe it will even get past the spam filter of the villain you are forwarding it to.

Google search: redesigned

Aleksandr Oreshkin — Thu, 06 May 2010 20:02:52 +0000

As of at least 2007 Google has been pushing design tests to designated users. The new Google layout you see is nothing new, it has been appearing intermittently in searches, though substantially less polished. As you can see here, the contrast between the 2007 version and the 2010 version is in the visual design, while functionality remains largely unchanged.

New logo: Bottom

Additionally, Google has taken steps to redesign their logo (right).

Having read an article years earlier, which I do not have time to research and link back to, I can speculate with certainty that a long time (months) was taken on simply deciding the strength of the bevel or the tone of the blue (or green, red).

For further reading check out the official google blog.

YouTube phases out old accounts

Aleksandr Oreshkin — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 09:08:23 +0000

If you signed up for YouTube prior to Google’s acquisition you may be displeased to see that you are no longer allowed to use your YouTube account independent of your email. The change merges your YouTube account with whatever email was associated with it at the time.

The qualifying conditions are as follows:

You’ve signed up for their original YouTube account before May 2009.
You’ve joined your YouTube and Google Accounts together.
You’re still signing in with your original YouTube password.

It has long been apparent that YouTube is not generating anywhere near its $1.6 billion price, with additional server and employee upkeep costs.

Apparently Google figures they can make money by linking your email with your YouTube habits, and, dare I say, build a psychological profile. Maybe it will have something to do with the ads in Gmail, or the suggested videos on YouTube; or maybe Google plans to take over the world.

Stay tuned for further developments on the situation.

Google FAQ

How To: View archived messages in Gmail

Aleksandr Oreshkin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:49:07 +0000

No labels, no workarounds. Archived all your messages and want to view them in chronological order, from latest received?
A simple URL change is all you need!

Now, some bloggers suggest creating a filter; this is fine and dandy if you like doing extra work and having useless filters. Google’s auto suggest suggests typing in:anywhere in the search bar, which is ok if you don’t mind sifting through spam.

The simplest solution is a simple URL change:

Simply edit your URL to https://mail.google.com/mail/#all and, behold, corn your archived messages together with your inbox, in chronological order, just like it should be.