Marziah's Google Blog

The day after Thanksgiving marks the traditional start of the holiday shopping season for Americans. If you battled the crowds to find that perfect computer for your favorite someone, you might also want to think about the software to go with it. For budding animators and cinematographers, iClone 3.1 might make a nice gift. It is software that lets you make your own 3D animated movies complete with digital characters, camera effects, environments, and props.

I first met Reallusion last year at a trade show, and I liked what I saw, except that you could not create YouTube optimized video directly from the software. They assured me that this function was coming. It was, indeed. Now you can even import objects from Google SketchUp's 3D Warehouse with an add-on package called 3DXchange.

• Review of iClone 3.1 With 3DXchange

Now that's something you don't see every day. Every year, Macy's has a Thanksgiving Day parade in New York, and a lot of Americans make a tradition out of watching it on TV. The Cartoon Network's float had a hidden surprise this year. Rick Astley himself showed up to Rickroll America.

Of course it wasn't long before the Internet joke was back on YouTube. Some people mark it as the official end of a joke that was on its way out. I thought it was hysterical.

• What Is a Rickroll?
• How to Embed a YouTube Video

This is probably one of the funnest things to ever happen to Gmail. Gmail now has themes! They started rolling out the service last week, but it finally made it to my mail box last night.

I've been having fun with the ninja theme, but there are other colorful, serious, or just silly themes to choose from. It appears that themes have not worked their way into Google Apps accounts, but that's probably because they might interfere with custom business logos. Too bad. Business people deserve a little silliness too.

To use a theme, just select Settings from the upper left side of your browser window and choose the Themes tab.

• What's So Great About Gmail? - Gmail Review
• Gmail Gets Video Chat

Google announced a new feature on the main Google search page, SearchWiki. When you are logged into your Google Account, you'll see buttons on your search results to rank items higher or lower and comment on results. Your ranking theoretically only affects your personal results, but the notes are visible to others.

Overall, this is a strange feature, and I'm not really sure how useful it is. If I'm searching for something, I'm going to be too busy trying to find it to go back and rank my results, and viewing other people's comments doesn't seem very helpful either. The public notes I've seen are very silly, like "test" or "Google is evil." Um, thanks.

Maybe I'm just missing the point. How useful do you find SearchWiki?

According to this Times Online article, Google may start negotiating deals to promote Chrome by having computer manufacturers pre-install the Web browser on new computers.

The other interesting tidbit from that article is that Chrome is expected to be out of beta in January. Chrome hasn't made a dent in the Web browser market at all. Mostly because it's still pretty unstable. There's no real advantage to using it if it's not stable, and there were a few security flaws and privacy concerns about the built in suggest feature.

It will be interesting to see if there really is a stable Chrome around the corner, but I'm not holding my breath that there will be any large erosion of Internet Explorer use.

• Review of Chrome

Google is pulling the plug on Lively. The 3D chat world was not an instant hit, and Google says they need the resources elsewhere. The idea always seemed like an odd fit for Google, so it's not a huge surprise that Google has backed off the project, but it is a surprise it happened so fast.

If you like Lively, you have until the end of the year to enjoy it.

• Review of Lively

The latest version of SketchUp is out of beta and ready for downloading. SketchUp lets you make 3D models compatible with Google Earth. You can also share your creations in the Google 3D Warehouse. With version 7, they've enhanced collaboration tools.

Pro users get even more new features, like dynamic stair cases that stretch by adding more steps instead of just getting bigger.

• Review of SketchUp
• Is There a Google Tool For Kids With Autism?
• Is There a Way to Export SketchUp Models Into Second Life?

Google voice search is finally coming to phones. Maybe even today. It looks like iPhones will beat the T-Mobile G1 to the punch on this, but Google phones will eventually get voice recognition, too.

Users can bypass the funky onscreen keyboard and just ask their questions using an application they download from the iTunes store. Google's voice recognition technology will interpret their question and display the results.

I don't have an iPhone, so if you have one, please let me know how well this works with a comment to this entry. Is it as easy as typing things into Google, or do you find that it takes two or three tries to say something before you're understood?

• GrandDialer - iPhone App for GrandCentral
• Tour of T-Mobile G1 - the Google Phone

Google Talk is pretty boring. It's an instant messaging service, but there are a ton of others out there. Gmail lets you use it to message other users as you check your mail, but I can do the same thing with my Facebook account. Voice chat was only available for PC users, and it wasn't as powerful as cross-platform Skype.

Mac and PC users will both get to enjoy video chats from within Gmail within the next couple of days. You'll have to download a client the first time you use it, but after that you can video chat with your webcam or just voice chat with a microphone. I can't wait to try it out.

• What's So Great About Gmail

MGM is going to start experimenting with YouTube by posting some full-length old movies and TV shows. CBS announced a similar deal earlier this year.

While neither company is embracing the idea of using YouTube to host all their content, it's still an improvement over just showing advertising clips.

The main competition for YouTube for full length content is Hulu. I do love Hulu, but it's lagging behind YouTube in ease of use. I can watch lots of movies and TV shows on Hulu, but the only place I can watch is on my computer. I can easily watch YouTube videos on all sorts of devices on my TV, like Wiis, Playstation 3s, AppleTVs, and soon Tivos.

• YouTube on AppleTV
• Viacom Sues YouTube
• How to Embed a YouTube Video on Your Blog