Google+ Profiles, No Longer Required

After so many years of promoting Google+ and integrating it with other services, Google realized that Google+ doesn't mean a lot for many Google users and it started dismantling Google+. Google Photos is now a standalone service and other Google+ features will follow suit.

In a blog post, Google announced that Google+ profiles will no longer be required and YouTube will be the first service that will make this change in the coming weeks. "A Google Account will be all you'll need to share content, communicate with contacts, create a YouTube channel and more, all across Google. Your underlying Google Account won't be searchable or followable, unlike public Google+ profiles. And for people who already created Google+ profiles but don't plan to use Google+ itself, we'll offer better options for managing and removing those public profiles."

A lot of YouTube users complained when YouTube switched to a new commenting system which required Google+ profiles, but YouTube comments are much better today. Now YouTube comments will no longer appear on Google+ and Google+ posts that share a YouTube video will no longer be added as YouTube comments. "In the coming weeks, YouTube will no longer require a Google+ profile when you want to upload, comment, or create a channel," mentions the YouTube Blog.

Google reassures users that Google+ will continue to exist and will become "a place where people engage around their shared interests". It's a much smaller goal for a service that used to tie all the other Google services, add unified sharing and identity information. Google+ used to be more than a service, it was a layer that was supposed to make Google products work together.

Here's what Bradley Horowitz said back in 2011:

"Until now, every single Google property acted like a separate company. Due to the way we grew, through various acquisitions and the fierce independence of each division within Google, each product sort of veered off in its own direction. That was dizzying. But Google+ is Google itself. We're extending it across all that we do � search, ads, Chrome, Android, Maps, YouTube � so that each of those services contributes to our understanding of who you are."

Bradley Horowitz is now the Google VP of Streams, Photos, and Sharing. That's "Streams, Photos, and Sharing" and not Google+. Ever since it was launched back in 2011, Google+ meant 2 things: the stream and the sharing platform. It looks like Google+ now focuses on the stream, which was less successful than the sharing platform.

It's not clear how Google+ will continue to exist if Google removes important features like photo sharing and starts to remove the integration with YouTube and other Google services. It just makes it easier for Google to discontinue Google+, now that fewer people will use it.

Gmail's Mobile Site Promotes Inbox App

I'm not sure if this is new, but I've noticed that Google now promotes the Inbox app when opening Gmail in the mobile browser. "Get Inbox by Gmail, a new email app from the Gmail team," suggests the interstitial page, which still lets you "go to the mobile Gmail site".

Here's a screenshot from an iPad:

And another screenshot from a Nexus 5:

Google used to promote the Gmail app.

YouTube's Updated Notifications

YouTube has recently changed the settings for notifications. When you subscribe to a channel, there's a box that says "Send me all notifications for this channel". The settings page has a new label for the email digest checkbox: "Occasionally notify me of new videos and activity from my subscriptions" and you can choose if you want email notifications, mobile notifications or both email and mobile notifications.

Mobile apps for Android and iOS have a notification section in the settings, which lets you disable or enable notifications, customize notification types (subscription activity, recommended videos, comments and replies) and also see all your notifications.

Named Places in Google Maps

The latest version of the Google Maps app for Android lets you add private names for places. Search for an address or drop a pin on the map, tap the 3-dot menu icon and pick "Edit name". You can add a name that lets you quickly find the place on the map, just like you can find "home" or "work". The private name is saved to your Google account and you're the only one who can see it.

Here's an example for a local business (this feature is even more useful for places that don't have a name in Google Maps):

To edit a name or delete it, open the side menu and tap "Your places". At the top of the section, you can find the named places, including "home" and "work".

Google Maps also has a new interface for location history: it's called "your timeline" and it's available on the web and in the Android app. "Your Timeline allows you to visualize your real-world routines, easily see the trips you've taken and get a glimpse of the places where you spend your time. And if you use Google Photos, we'll show the photos you took when viewing a specific day, to help resurface your memories," informs Google. You can customize the timeline by removing places or adding private names. This feature still requires Location History, which can be enabled or disabled from Google Maps, Google Settings or My Account.

All Microsoft .NET Framework Offline Installer Setup | All Microsoft .NET Framework collection

Microsoft .NET Framework is an extremely important System Framework produced by Microsoft that operates on Microsoft Windows. It offers a large library and language interoperability across several development languages. Programmers produce software program by combining their very own source code with .Internet Framework along with other libraries. Microsoft .NET Framework will be utilized by most new applications designed for the Windows platform.

Programs written for .Internet Framework execute in a software program atmosphere (as contrasted to hardware atmosphere), referred to as the normal Language Runtime (CLR), a credit card applicatoin virtual machine that delivers services such as for example security, memory administration, and exception handling.


The course library and the CLR collectively constitute .NET Framework. Microsoft .Internet Framework's Base Course Library provides interface, data access, database connection, cryptography, web application advancement, numeric algorithms, and system communications. Microsoft also produces a development environment largely for .Internet software called Visual Studio.


Download Mirrors:

• Download Microsoft .NET framework 2.0 for 32 and 64 Bit
• .NET 2.0 for 32 bit OS 
• .NET 2.0 for 64 bit OS 
• Download Microsoft .NET framework 3.0 for 32 and 64 Bit
• .NET 3.0 for 32 bit OS
• .NET 3.0 for 64 bit OS 
• Read .NET 3.5 Features
• Read How to Install .NET 3.5 on windows 8 and 8.1
• Download Microsoft .NET framework 3.5 for 32 and 64 Bit 
• .NET Framework 3.5 for 32 and 64 bit - (197.11 MB)
• .NET Framework 3.5 (Service Pack 1) for 32 and 64 bit - ( 231.49 MB)
• Click here to Download Microsoft .NET framework 4.0 for 32 and 64 Bit - (48.11 MB)
• Click here to Download Microsoft .NET 4.5 version for 32 and 64 bit - (48.01 MB)
• Click here to Download Microsoft .NET 4.5.1 version for 32 and 64 bit - (66.86 MB) 
• Click here to Download Microsoft .NET 4.5.2 version for 32 and 64 bit - (66.75 MB)

Google Hangouts Photo Sharing, Powered by Picasa Web

Now that Google+ Photos is discontinued, Google Apps admins received a message which informs them that Google Hangouts will only use Picasa Web Albums for photo sharing.

"The photo-sharing functionality in Hangouts is changing. Going forward, the ability to share photos and other multimedia in Hangouts Chat will be set by the Picasa Web Albums service rather than by the Google+ service. If Google+ is enabled in your domain, no further action is necessary. Google+ requires Picasa Web Albums so you can continue to share photos using Hangouts Chat just like you always have. If Google+ is not enabled for your domain and you want to use the photo-sharing functionality in Hangouts Chat, you must turn on the Picasa Web Albums service in your Admin console."

This change also affects regular Google users, since photos shared using Hangouts aren't added to Google Photos and you'll only find them in Picasa Web Albums when Google+ Photos will shut down. The same thing will happen with Blogger photos.

Picasa Web Albums and Google+ Photos served as a central hub for almost all the photos uploaded using Google services. This was great, since you could find all your photos in one place, but it also cluttered Picasa Web and Google+ Photos with albums automatically generated by Blogger, Google Hangouts and other services.

It looks like Picasa Web Albums is here to stay, at least for now.

{ Thanks, Petr Man. }

The New Google Patents

There's a new version of Google Patents that's available at patents.google.com. The interface now uses Material Design, there's a checkbox that lets you search Google Scholar, advanced search options are available in the sidebar and you can quickly navigate between search results, which are now grouped by category. The prior art finder is now properly integrated and no longer uses a different interface.

You can now click the navigation icons at the top of the page to go to the previous or the next search result. Keyboard shortcuts also work: use the left/right arrow keys.

"The new Google Patents helps users find non-patent prior art by cataloguing it, using the same scheme that applies to patents. We've trained a machine classification model to classify everything found in Google Scholar using Cooperative Patent Classification codes. Now users can search for [autonomous vehicles] or [email encryption] and find prior art across patents, technical journals, scientific books, and more," informs Google.

Another change is that you can search for foreign patent documents using English keywords. Patents without English full text are translated using Google Translate, so it's easier to find them.

It's interesting to notice that the old Google Patents is still available if you use this URL: https://www.google.com/?tbm=pts.

{ Thanks, Florian Kiersch. }