Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Google Weather Service And GMail Improvements

Posted by Zonk on from the good-money-after-good dept.

Philipp Lenssen writes "Google has added US-only weather forecasts to their web search. Type e.g. "weather palo alto, ca" (zip codes work too) and you get a small illustrated weather forecast on top of the search result. (Yahoo has been providing a similar service for quite a while.) You can also send your query as SMS to 46645 (GOOGL), as the official Google blog reports." Relatedly, Shachaf writes "Looking at my GMail account, I see that Google has added two new features: integration with Picasa and plain HTML support. Now you can 'Log in to Gmail directly from Picasa and send the photos from your Gmail account', and view your email from any web-browser."

21 of 346 comments (clear)

  1. Looks nice by nefele · · Score: 5, Interesting

    But does anyone know how to make it display the temperature in Celsius degrees? Not everyone in the US knows how to interpret this horrible abomination that is the Fahrenheit scale...

    1. Re:Looks nice by Registered+Coward+v2 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Sure - open up your phones calculator, subtract 32 and multiply the results by 5/9ths.

      Or to do it on your head - subract the accerleration of gravity and take 1/2 of the result - a good quick and dirty.

      --
      I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
    2. Re:Looks nice by rbarreira · · Score: 2, Interesting

      You managed to confuse me because of units again lol. In the units used by all physics, the acceleration of gravity is 9.8, commonly rounded to 10.

      So I had to google it and concluded you were using feet/second...

      On the other hand, a bonus to you americans for having a power of 2 as g's value :)

      --

      The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F
    3. Re:Looks nice by I+Be+Hatin' · · Score: 1, Interesting
      Celsius is in fact, NOT arbitrary. Celsius is a scale where the phase change of water sets the zero (freeing) and 100 (boiling) marks.

      And Fahrenheit is a scale where the zero point is attained by mixing equal parts of water, ice, and salt, and the phase changes of water are at 32 (freezing) and 212 (boiling). So it is no more arbitrary than Celsius.

      --
      I know god exists. I read it on the internet, so it must be true.
    4. Re:Looks nice by jez9999 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Isn't that a more stupid and complex measurement, not particularly useful for any kind of scientific reference, than just using pure water?

      --
      == Jez ==
      Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
    5. Re:Looks nice by Hektor_Troy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Actually the reason Fahrenheit has such "odd" numbers, is that the two points you chose have no baring on how it was scaled.

      As I understand it (and there are numerous ides on how it was done), 0 was chosen as the freezing point of salt water (as in what you find in the local ocea). That's fine and all.

      The oddity comes from where he set 100 to be. The natural temperature of a healthy horses blood.

      Now, that's as natural a set of points as night and grass.

      If he had chosen two points on the same items temperature scale, then it'd be a lot simpler. He didn't, so it's not.

      --
      We do not live in the 21st century. We live in the 20 second century.
  2. trolls suck my dick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Name me one benefit of the Fahrenheit scale.

  3. New features and the final frontier by saitoh · · Score: 3, Interesting

    One thing I submitted a while ago was the ability to import your POP3 box (say from Outlook, or Apple Mail), thus make that transition to webmail and still have all your stuff which seems to be a real focus for google.

    It seems that nobody really has solved the email transferal problem have they? (please correct me if I'm wrong) And while I'm biased, it would be an interesting marketing ploy for those who wanted to switch, one that Apple has used with Apple Mail.

    --
    We don't need an "overrated" so much as we need a "you completely missed the parent's point, dumbass..."
  4. Why can't they add it to my home Google? by Drunken_Jackass · · Score: 4, Interesting

    That's what i'd like to see. Your default google.com page would display your weather, and a check box for a local.google search. I mean you can save your location preference in local.google already. And how hard would a link to gmail be? And news? Why not display the top headline for categories that you choose? Why not put everything you want together? Put some settings in our preferences, and call it what it's becoming - a Portal.

    Then again, i don't consider google a "portal". Wired just had an article about google vs. Yahoo!. It's quite an interesting read.

    --
    There are 01 types of people in this world. Those that understand binary, and me.
  5. Not only SMS by The+Hobo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You can also use a web browser and send your queries to google by visiting them at http://466453.com/

    (GOOGLE on the telephone)

    --
    There is another kind of evil which we must fear most, and that is the indifference of good men. -- Boondock Saints
  6. Is it just me... by webcrawler · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ... or am I the only one who's been logging into gmail through Picasa and sending pics? If I understood correctly, this particular feature has been offered ever since Picasa 2 came out.

  7. Gmail beta forever by teslatug · · Score: 3, Interesting

    When is Google going to "release" Gmail to the public? I know that for all intents and purposes anyone that wants to can get an account, but I won't consider it open until I see a link on their homepage. It's not like they couldn't have a beta and a released Gmail.

    On an aside, I have a feeling that they will have to redesign their homepage soon as it's starting to get crowded.

  8. While we're talking about google... by Roguelazer · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I've just noticed something interesting. I'm at a public computer and was browsing google when all of a sudden some text appeared below the searchbox asking me if I'd like a GMail account. When I clicked it, it brought me to a page which mentioned that google was expanding their GMail services and was offering accounts to a "random percentage" of their visitors. Between this and my neverending supply of invites (50 now, 50 before, 50 forever!) I'm starting to think that Google might be going public with GMail pretty soon. Thoughts?

    PS: Is this a new feature too?

    --
    My Systems
    1. Re:While we're talking about google... by mabu · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Did it ocurr to you that Google has been public since it made invites available? It's a brilliant scheme to offer invites mainly via referrals. This allows Google to build a huge "degree of separation" database between people and use it for data mining. When Google knows who your friends are, and who their friends are, this becomes an extremely powerful markting and research tool.

  9. Google playing catch-up? by GoogleAdvisor · · Score: 2, Interesting

    While looking through all of the recent services Google has added, it occured to me that they really haven't come up with anything original - I mean, all these new services, weather included, have already been nearly mastered by Yahoo! It almost seems like Google is playing catch-up with Yahoo!. The question is, are they taking away resources from their foundamental goal of building a simple, powerful search engine, in order to create these fairly unnecessary additions? Google Advisor

  10. Poor HTML coding by neoform · · Score: 3, Interesting

    i would have thought Google would have better HTML than that.. "" i got 40 errors with the W3 Validator.

    --
    MABASPLOOM!
    1. Re:Poor HTML coding by JimDabell · · Score: 2, Interesting

      They probably save untold gigabytes just by not putting a doctype, type attributes, alt tags, etc.

      Doubtful; last time I looked, there were plenty of other places they could save on bandwidth easily and they don't bother. Mistakes in HTML are usually due to ignorance or apathy, not bandwidth reduction. You don't have to look very far to find a prime example :).

  11. Re:what? by RevMike · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Sooner or later, if you like it or not, the US will be metric country as well.

    No we won't. It's not that there's anything wrong with metric, it's just that Carter tried to do it. If a useful president had tried, we'd be done by now.

    Actually, we're already a metric country in any way that matters. Does miles per hour on a highway sign or measuring a recipe in cups and tablespoons really matter all that much. HELL NO!. What matters is machine tools, and they've been converting over for quite a while now. What matters is that a transmission manufactured in Detroit can be mated to an engine block manufactured in Japan.

  12. Gmail lost all of my January email by freelunch · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I logged in on January 30 to find that all of my inbox mail for the month of January was gone. It wasn't in my trashcan, etc.

    I exchanged emails at a Very slow rate with gmail staff. Mostly just responding to their form letters and taking whatever action they requested.

    Not until nearly a month later, on Feb 24, did I receive the following pathetic response:

    Hello,

    Thank you for your reply.

    We have completed a thorough investigation of your Gmail account, and can
    confirm that a technical problem did not cause the behavior you reported.
    We apologize for any inconvenience you might have experienced.

    Sincerely,

    The Gmail Team

    I have never lost email on Yahoo or Hotmail.

    The good news? I have 100 gmail invites.

  13. Works with Lynx!! by cytoman · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Nobody seems to have noticed this... gmail now works with text-only browsers like Lynx ! :-).
    Now, that is COOL!

    Neither Yahoo nor Hotmail have this feature!

  14. Beating spam the Gmail way by NaDrew · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I guess this is as good a thread as any to post about how I'm beating spam in my personal inbox using Gmail's powerful filtering, without changing my email address.

    Gmail now offers every member 50 invites. Millions of users and the power of a single spam database have made Gmail's spam filter one of the best. Gmail also offers POP3/SMTP access to the service. Combined, these provide a perfect method to utilize Gmail's powerful spam filtering on my primary email address--without the trouble and fuss of actually changing addresses. Here's how I did it.
    1. Create a new Gmail account, using an invitation from one of my existing accounts.
    2. In the "Forwarding and POP" tab of the "Settings" section, set the following:
      • Disable forwarding (default)
      • Enable POP for all mail
      • When messages are accessed with POP, archive Gmail's copy
    3. Redirect your primary email account to your new Gmail account. Note that this usually requires administrative access to your mail server, or a friendly mail administrator.
    4. Configure your email client (Here are settings for Opera's M2 mail client). Note that I am using my existing SMTP settings, and am only using Gmail for POP3.
    Now mail coming in to your primary account is automatically bounced to your Gmail account, where the Gmail spam filters are applied. Then your mail client downloads your mail from Gmail to your local inbox, just like normal. Since you didn't change your outbound settings, replies and new mail are not affected.

    I set this up a couple of weeks ago and so far Gmail has filtered almost every spam message I would have received. That's spam I didn't download!

    You'll want to log in to the new Gmail account once a week or once a month to check the spam folder. This is just to check for false positives--"good" messages which may have been filtered as spam. It won't happen often but it's worth checking once in a while to make sure.
    --
    Vista:XPSP2::ME:98SE