How to Download Auto Awesome Photos

Auto Awesome is one of the best features of Google+ Photos. It's a good reason to upload your photos to Google+ instead of choosing a different service: you get something in return. Auto Awesome photos and videos use your photos and videos to create something new. Some of them improve your photos, others are funny, while some of them would normally require professional software.

Just because they're so nice, I decided to backup my Auto Awesome. Here's how to download them:

1. open this page: https://plus.google.com/photos/search/%23AutoAwesome (or go to Google+ Photos and search for #AutoAwesome)

2. click "show all" below the first photos from that page

3. select the first photo: mouse over the photo and click the tick icon.

4. use your browser's find-in-page feature (Ctrl+F or Command+F on a Mac) and search for from your circles. That's a different section which shows Auto Awesome photos from your circles and that's where your Auto Awesome gallery ends.

5. Shift+click the last photo above the "From your circles" section and you should see a message like "230 selected".

6. click "more" in the navigation bar and select "download".

7. You'll get a Photos.zip archive with both photos and videos. The filename includes the type of AutoAwesome effect. The archive should also include the "year in review" video titled 2013-MOVIE.m4v.

Google Contacts Shortcut

If you want to quickly open Gmail's address book, you can bookmark google.com/contacts or type the URL in the address bar. Another option is to add a shortcut to the standalone Google Contacts page in Google's app launcher:

1. go to google.com/contacts and sign in

2. click the app launcher icon

3. click "add a shortcut" next to the Contacts icon

4. you can move the icon using drag and drop

You can add similar shortcuts for other Google services: Google Keep, Google Sites, Google Groups, Google Play Music, Webmaster Tools, Patent Search, Google Voice.

Go Back to a Specific Date in Google Web History

For some reason, Google Web History no longer has a way to navigate to a certain date, at least not from the UI. Fortunately, you can change a URL parameter and go to a certain date. Here's how to do that:

1. use the Unix epoch time converter. Scroll to the "Convert date to epoch timestamp" section, enter the date, enter 0 for hours, minutes and seconds and then click "Convert". You'll get a number like 1305072000. This is the number of seconds that have elapsed since January 1st 1970.

Copy the value you've obtained and add six zeros to convert the number from seconds to microseconds. For example, 1305072000 becomes 1305072000000000 (this corresponds to May 10, 2011).

2. go to https://history.google.com/history/lookup?st=web (you may need to sign in)

3. add the following parameters to the Google Web History URL:

&lts=MICROSECONDS&fts=MICROSECONDS

You'll need to replace MICROSECONDS with the value you've obtained previously. For example:

&lts=1305072000000000&fts=1305072000000000

Search Tips for Chrome's App Launcher

Chrome's app launcher has an interesting way to match results. Let's say you want to open Google Play Music. You can search for google play music, play music or you can just type the the first letter from each word and search for gpm. It also works if you type the first letters from the first word, followed by the first letters from the second word and so on. For example, you can also search for goplm, gplam, gmu.

Another example: launch Mahjong Solitaire by searching for ms.

{ via François Beaufort. }

Chrome Bandwidth Stats

Chrome has an internal page that shows the amount of data transferred this session and the total amount of data transferred ever since this feature was added or you first used Chrome. Just open a new tab, paste this in the address bar: chrome://net-internals/#bandwidth and then press Enter.

Check the Original (KB) row of the table, where you can find bandwidth consumption data in kilobytes. For example, I used 40,024.5 KB since launching Chrome. The Savings values are only useful in the mobile Chrome for Android and iOS if the data saving proxy is enabled.

Savings = Original - Received

Bring Back Forum Search, Recipe Search and More

Google Search used to have an option that allowed you to restrict results to forum pages. You'll often find helpful discussions and it's nice to be able to exclude blogs, news sites, videos, shopping sites when searching for a software bug or other tech-related issues.

Fortunately, you can still restrict results to discussions: just add &tbm=dsc to a Google Search URL.

This also works for:

- recipe search: add &tbm=rcp
- local search: add &tbm=plcs
- blog search: add &tbm=blg
- patent search: add &tbm=pts

Here's a screenshot for recipe search:

Blog Search and Patent Search also have standalone sites, while Google Maps is a good place for local search.

You can also bookmark these URLs:

Google Forum Search - https://www.google.com/?tbm=dsc
Google Recipe Search - https://www.google.com/?tbm=rcp
Google Local Search - https://www.google.com/?tbm=plcs

Another option is to visit those pages, right click the search box and select "add as search engine" (Chrome), "add a keyword for this search" (Firefox) or "create search engine" (Opera). I added the keyword "forum" for Google Forum Search, so I can type "forum" in Chrome's Omnibox, press Tab and enter the query.

Quickly Enable Google SafeSearch

If you want to temporarily turn on Google's SafeSearch, you can do that without opening the settings page. Just click the gear icon and select "turn on SafeSearch". When SafeSearch is enabled, you'll see a message next to gear button: "SafeSearch on". To disable it, click the same button and select "turn off SafeSearch".

"With SafeSearch, you can help prevent adult content from appearing in your search results. No filter is 100 percent accurate, but SafeSearch should help you avoid most of this type of material," explains Google.

If you're logged in, search settings are saved to your account and used for all devices. You can also go to the settings page and enable "Filter explicit results"

More System Gmail Labels

Back in 2007, I posted a list of shortcuts for system Gmail labels. For example, instead of searching for [issue in:inbox], you can use [issue label:^i.] or [issue l:^i]. Instead of searching for [receipt in:spam] or [receipt label:spam], you can use [receipt l:^s].

Mihai Parparita found other system labels and some of them don't have documented alternatives:

^g: muted conversations (just like is:muted or label:muted or label:mute)
^p: messages marked as phishing
^op: messages automatically marked as phishing by Gmail
^os: messages automatically marked as spam by Gmail
^vm: Google Voice voicemail messages (just like is:voicemail or label:voicemail)
^io_im: important messages (just like is:important)
^unsub: messages that include unsubscribing options. Gmail offers to unsubscribe on your behalf
^cff: messages from your Google+ circles (just like has:circle)
^p_esnotif: Google+ notifications

For example, you can find messages you've marked as spam by searching for [l:^s -l:^os] or [label:spam -l:^os]. From all the spam messages you exclude the messages automatically marked as spam by Gmail.

You can also restrict Gmail results to Google+ notifications: [Christmas l:^p_esnotif]. If you search for [l:^unsub] and mark a message as spam, Gmail will show this dialog and unsubscribe on your behalf if you click "unsubscribe and report spam". Use [l:^unsub -l:^p_esnotif] to exclude Google+ notifications.

How to Delete Auto Backup Photos

If you've tried the Auto Backup tool and you want to delete your photos, it won't be easy. You can go to the Auto Backup section of Google+ Photos, mouse over a photo, click the "tick" icon, select photos one by one and click "Delete". You can also select photos by dragging a "lasso", just like in your favorite file manager. You can also select a photo and Shift+click the last photo you want to select or Ctrl-click photos for non-contiguous selection.

That's great if you only have a few photos, but not if you have thousands of photos. Fortunately, there's a better way:

1. go to Google+ Photos, click "More" and pick "Albums"

2. add /camerasync to the URL in the address bar and press Enter. You should get something like:

https://plus.google.com/photos/+YourName/albums/camerasync

3. click "Select" below "Photos from Auto Backup". After a few seconds, Google will select the last 2000 photos uploaded to Auto Backup. If you have less than 2000 photos, all of them will be selected.

4. click "Delete" at the top of the page. This only moves the photos to Trash, so they're not permanently deleted. If you change your mind, click "undo" after they're moved to Trash.

5. you may need to manually refresh the page (press F5) to see the remaining photos. You'll have to go back to step 3 and select the next 2000 photos and then go to the step 4.

6. to permanently delete your photos, go to the Trash, click "Empty trash now" and confirm this action.

Search by Camera in Google+ Photos

Google+ Photos has a sophisticated search feature, but some of the features aren't easy to find. For example, you can search photos by camera. Use queries like #canon, #nikon, #sony, #apple, #panasonic, #samsung, #nokia to find photos taken using a phone or camera from one of these companies. You can also use the name of the phone or camera, but not all of them work. These worked for me: #iphone4s, #iphone5s, #canonpowershots95, #canoneos, #dsc-w150, #k800i.

Chrome Download Tips

These features aren't new, but they're pretty useful and they might help you become more productive when you download files in Google Chrome.

1. Do you want to open a file immediately after Chrome downloads it? You don't have to wait, just click the file in the download bar and you should see something like "opening in X minutes".

2. If you always want to open certain files after Chrome downloads them, click the arrow icon and check "always open files of this type". You can use this for .mp4 files or .torrent files, for example.

3. How to move to the desktop a file you've just downloaded? Just drag it from the download bar and drop it onto your desktop.

4. Some files open directly in Chrome: PDF documents, MP4 videos, MP3 songs. How to download them? Use a keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+S or Command-S for Mac. Another option is to right click and select "save as". You can also right click the link to the file and select "save link as".

5. Don't worry about closing the Chrome window accidentally while downloading some files. Chrome shows a warning: "download in progress".

6. Manage your downloads by clicking "Downloads" in the Chrome or pressing Ctrl+J (Command-J for Mac). Use the search box to find a file you've downloaded last month, right-click the URL and you can copy it, click "Show in folder" to locate the file. You can also clear all the downloads.

Keyboard Shortcuts for Google+ Notifications

The Google+ notifications box has a few keyboard shortcuts you might find helpful. Here are some of them:

* up/down arrow keys help you select a notification from the list. Notice the blue line, which shows the currently selected notification. After opening a notification, use the same arrow keys to scroll.

* Enter (Return for Mac) opens the notification you've selected. You can also use o

* press the down arrow key after the last notification and then press Enter to open the list of previously read notifications

* right/left arrow keys let you go to the next/previous notification. You can also use j/k

* u - go back to the list of notifications or to the main screen

* d - mark as read the notification you've selected

* Esc closes the notifications box.

Unfortunately, there's no shortcut that opens the Google+ Notifications box, so you still need to click the bell icon. How to quickly read your notifications? Press the down arrow key, then press Enter and go to the next notification using the right arrow key.

Sometimes Page Up/Page Down and Space/Shift+Space work, but only after you use the arrow keys. If you find other keyboard shortcuts, please let me know in the comments.

Google+ also has a list of keyboard shortcuts.

Move Gmail Attachments to Google Drive, Save Space

Mail services are inefficient when it comes to storing files because of the MIME encoding overhead. "This encoded size is the actual size of the message as it travels over the Internet and is always larger than the raw size because of the MIME overhead and because binary attachments are generally encoded using base64 encoding.  Base64-encoded files are usually about 137% the size of the original files," says Erik Kangas.

If you want to use Google's storage more efficiently, you can find some old messages with large attachments, save the attachments to Google Drive and delete the messages. To keep the messages, you can forward them to yourself, remove the attachments, add Google Drive links and remove the original messages.

I've tested this by saving 2 FLAC attachments from 2 messages (about 43 MB) to Google Drive and deleting the associated messages from Gmail, including from the trash. Here's what I got:

* 1.58 GB used before moving files to Google Drive:

* 1.56 GB used after moving files to Google Drive:

To find Gmail messages with large attachments, you can use these operators. For example, search for [larger:5M] to find messages larger than 5 MB (that's the total size of the message).

Change the Language of a Google Page

This is a very basic trick that's pretty old, but it still works in almost any Google service. If you want to change the interface language of a Google page, just add:

&hl=LANGUAGE_CODE

or

?hl=LANGUAGE_CODE 

to the URL of the page and press Enter. Replace LANGUAGE_CODE with the code of the language: en for English, fr for French, de for German, ru for Russian, es for Spanish. Here's a list of other language codes.

Google usually tries to detect your language, but sometimes it makes mistakes. A few months ago, I visited Gmail's help center and all the text from the page was in Russian. Fortunately, there's a drop-down that lets you change your language at the bottom of the page, but not all Google services offer this feature.

For some reason, the "hl" parameter doesn't change the interface language in Gmail and Google Drive, while YouTube shows a link that lets you change the language.

This trick only changes the language of the Google page you've opened. To permanently change the language used by Google services, check this page. Services like Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Drive let you change the language in the settings.

Classic Google Maps URL

If you've switched to the new Google Maps desktop interface, you can quickly go back to the classic interface by clicking the gear icon and picking "Classic Maps" or by clicking "Help & Feedback" at the top of the page and picking "Return to classic Google Maps". You'll see a message that asks you if you want to permanently go back to the old interface or temporarily switch.

Another option is to bookmark this URL: Classic Google Maps (https://www.google.com/maps?output=classic). It will always send you to the standard Maps interface and you won't have to open the new interface first.

Why would you switch to the old interface? Maybe you need to use the more advanced directions that let you add more than 2 destinations, maybe you like the terrain/photos/webcam layers or Maps Labs features like the distance measurement tools or the LatLng tooltip, maybe you miss the Pegman icon you could drag and drop to switch to Street View or you want to customize the printing format for directions.

You've probably noticed that the new maps style (with new colors, icons, labels, tooltips) is now also available in the classic Google Maps. If you hide the sidebar, you can make it look more like the new Google Maps.

Tips for Google Bar's App Launcher

Google's new navigation menu is useful for visiting some of the most popular Google services, but did you know that you can still use it to find search results? This only works when you use your browser's search box. For example, you can search for [bogota], click the grid icon and select "YouTube". Instead of sending you to YouTube's homepage, Google's menu uses your query and sends you to YouTube's search results page.

Here's a list of services that show search results: YouTube, Play, Maps, Translate, Books, Shopping and Finance. You can middle-click or Ctrl-click the icons to open pages in a new tab.

Unfortunately, this feature is buggy: if you try another query, the links from the drop-down menu send you to the search results for the first query. That's because the feature doesn't work in the AJAX interface.

Useful tip: you can quickly open Google's list of "even more" services by middle-clicking the grid icon. You can also right-click it and select "open link in new tab".

Another tip: instead of clicking "more", you can scroll down.

Fun fact: Google's code includes icons for some other Google services. One of them is Google Reader. Other services: Google Groups, Google Video, Google Image Search, Google Contacts.

Speaking of Google service icons, you can find more icons here.

Restrict Chrome's Omibox Suggestions to Web Searches

What to do if you only want to see web search suggestions in Chrome's omnibox, not suggestions from Google's top results, your bookmarks, your browsing history or previously typed URLs. Type ? in the omnibox and then start typing your query. You can also use these keyboard shortcuts: Ctrl+K or Ctrl+E for Windows and Linux, ⌘-Option-F for Mac.

Chrome will still show suggestions from your previous searches. If you use this trick in the incognito mode, Chrome will only show suggestions from your search history.

Add a Keyboard Shortcut for Chrome's App Launcher

I'm not sure why Chrome's app launcher doesn't have a keyboard shortcut, but it's pretty easy to add one. For Windows XP, right-click the desktop shortcut for Chrome App Launcher and select "Properties", go to the "Shortcut key" field and enter a keyboard shortcut. If you use Windows 7 or 8, press Shift while right-clicking the colorful grid icon from the taskbar, select "Properties", go to the "Shortcut key" field and enter a keyboard shortcut. I picked Ctrl+Shift+A.

Now I can just press Ctrl+Shift+A and the launcher will show up. I can type a Google query, the first letters from a Chrome app or just use the arrow keys to pick an app.

Google now even shows suggestions from the Chrome Web Store, so you can quickly install apps without visiting the store. I wouldn't recommend doing that, unless you really trust the app. For example, you can search for "gmail" and quickly install Gmail Offline.

Faster Google Maps Navigation

The new version of the Google Maps app for Android made turn-by-turn navigation more cumbersome. Google removed the navigation icon and integrated the navigation feature in the Maps app, instead of using a separate app. The new interface is more difficult to use because it requires more taps and buttons are really small. There are also many missing navigation features: layers, Street View, alternate routes.

Fortunately, the Google Maps app lets you start the navigation mode a lot faster. "Select a place, then tap and hold on the transportation icon. This will automatically open voice guided turn-by-turn GPS navigation and you'll be ready to go," informs Google.

It's not an obvious feature, but it lets you skip 2 screens. You first had to pick a route, see the list of directions and then tap "Start".

This tip also works in the Google Maps app for iPhone and iPad, so it's not limited to Android.

Google Keyboard Themes

If you use the stock Android keyboard, which is also available in the Play Store, you can change the look and feel of the keyboard. Google Keyboard has a few themes you can choose, but they're not available in the settings.

Here's a quick way to pick a different theme, assuming your device runs Android 4.0 or later:

1. you first need an application that lets you create shortcuts to app activities. Some apps that let you do that: Nova Launcher and Apex Launcher, probably the best Android launchers. The following instructions assume you've installed Nova Launcher or Apex Launcher, but you can also use simple apps like Activity Getter.

2. long press the homescreen and pick "shortcuts" and then "activities".

3. scroll to the Google Keyboard entry, expand the list of activities and pick "Android keyboard debug settings".

4. you'll create a shortcut for this activity. Tap the new shortcut and you should see this settings page:

5. tap "Keyboard theme" and pick one of the themes: Basic, Basic (High Contrast), Stone (normal), Stone (bold), Gingerbread. IceCreamSandwich is the default theme.

Basic:

Stone (normal):

Gingerbread:

6. use the shortcut you've created to change the theme.

{ via Android Police }