Google Instant Previews for mobile - Its Cute!

Google announced its Instant Previews couple of months ago. Though Google claims that this feature will assist the users in finding better search results, it received a mixed reaction from the user group. And, I belong to the category of people who hates Instant Previews. In fact, I have written a GreaseMonkey script to turn off Instant Previews permanently. However, I doubt I will write one for the mobile version of Instant Previews which was announced couple of days ago. The mobile version of Instant Previews looks cute and its very convenient to use.

Highlights

• Less Accidental clicks. A small magnifying glass icon appears next to the search results. The preview icon does not interfere with the results and it is less likely that you will click on it accidentally.
• Visual Search result page. Clicking on the preview icon will open up a preview page where in you can swipe through the search results visually. This makes it different from the web version where in an annoying pop-up shows up on clicking the preview icon.

Low Lights

• Unlike its web version, the mobile version of Instant Previews does not highlight the section of the page which contains the search result.

Google Instant Previews is available on mobile for Android (2.2+) and iOS (4.0+) devices across 38 languages.Technical details about this feature is not yet available. Shall make an update on that once I play around with it.  Source: Google Mobile Blog

-- Varun

Google Docs – Mobile edits, AutoCorrect and more

Google Docs has added a bunch of new features. Two things which will stand-out among these features are AutoCorrect and Mobile edits. With AutoCorrect, you can type faster with fewer mistakes. Google Docs new documents editor supports editing on your mobile browser.

AutoCorrect

A feature to substitute text automatically. For example, if you type (c), the docs editor will replace it to ©. You can even add your own custom auto-corrects. To add custom auto-corrects, from your Google Docs editor go to Tools > Preferences. Add the word to be replaced in the ‘Replace’ field and the word to be used as replacement in the ‘With’ field. This feature is very much similar to what Microsoft Word offers except that there is no support for formatted replacement text yet. More details here.

LaTex in equations

Many LaTex shortcuts have been added to the equations editor. If you are familiar with the LaTex format, you will get to enjoy this feature. Check out the list of shortcuts added. Microsoft Word has good support for LaTex formatting with the help of plug-ins. More details here.

Mobile edits

Google Docs new documents editor supports editing documents on the go from your mobile browser. This is a much needed one and I no longer have to depend on any of the third party providers for this. This feature will be rolled in the next days to Android devices with Froyo (2.2) and iOS (3+). More details here.

-- Varun

[Webinar] Google Mobile for Businesses

Yesterday, I have attended the web seminar aka webinar organized by Google Apps for Mobile team. Mayur Kamat and Raghu Kota from Google gave the presentation. Most of the discussions revolved around Google Apps, Google Apps for Mobile, Messaging and Collaboration on mobile platforms, devices supporting Google Mobile, etc. Watch out this space to know more about the upcoming webinars. Click here to watch the on-demand recording of the webinar. 

Here is the presentation I have captured from the webcast.

-- Varun