Google Weather Service And GMail Improvements

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."

Comments

You misunderstand Google Weather

[Anonymous Coward]

Google isn't forecasting the weather, they're controlling it.

Re:You misunderstand Google Weather

[game kid]

I wouldn't mind that, as long as they have a cache of good weather during storms. Or at least alert GMail users.

Coverage of New Gmail Feature

[sammykrupa]

Here is a link to screenshots and coverage of the new plain-html-only-view Gmail has gotten:

http://www.theplaceforitall.com/2005/03/report-on- gmails-basic-html-view.html

Looks nice

[nefele]

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...

Re:Looks nice

[WhatAmIDoingHere]

Yes, use google "Convert (degrees)F to C) and it converts it.

Re:Looks nice

[Anonymous Coward]

...and Celsius isn't arbitrary?

Ooo I'll bite the troll for this one.

Celsius is in fact, NOT arbitrary. Celsius is a scale where the phase change of water sets the zero (freeing) and 100 (boiling) marks.

Kelvin and Celsius are the same scale, but Kelvin has the zero set at the absolute point (-273 deg C).

Re:Looks nice

[Hektor_Troy]

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.

Re:Looks nice

[spike2131]

Not everyone in the US knows how to interpret this horrible abomination that is the Fahrenheit scale...

What, did you skip that day in the third grade?

Re:Looks nice

[MMMDI]

0F = It's freezing cold outside. Good think you're sitting on your computer with the heater cranked up.

50F = It's quite nice outside (though you may want to wear a light jacket), but you don't know such since you're sitting on the computer reading /..

100F = You could fry an egg on the sidewalk. Thankfully, you're inside on the computer with the A/C cranked up.

There, we now have a foolproof conversion chart.

Microsoft also have one in beta test...

[sandstorming]

My area is currently blue in the satellite photo... with a combo box error shaped cloud passing over me.

yes but it pales in comparision to NOAA

[bsdpanix]

The National Weather Service at noaa.gov is excellent. Detailed local forecasts with NO ads.

Here's a cache

[imag0]

Just in case you need it...

Clickie!

Google maps

[rbarreira]

This should be even more interesting when they integrate it with Google Maps :)

Am I the only one who dislikes having to do a search to get some information? Of course it can be bookmarked but it just feels a little weird. Maybe it's just a matter of habit...

Yahoo copying Google again!

[Anonymous Coward]

Yahoo has been providing a similar service for quite a while.)

Here we go again, Google innovating and everybody else copying them and claiming to be innovative. As usual.

Google weather: zip codes work

[imag0]

Looks like zip codes work as well. Nice.

Here's mine, 64119.

Re:so what?

[Nuclear Elephant]

I don't think that's quite true. You log into a portal and all that crap is surrounding what it is you really want to get accomplished. Google, on the other hand, is a simple and elegant interface where you only get what you ask for. If you're not looking for the weather, it's not going to clutter your screen with it. Now if only they could make my weather report accurate (it says we're having thunderstorms all day, but it's sunny and clear - typical forecast).

Konqueror

[bogaboga]

I am happy that Gmail/Google have listened and added support for the Konqueror. Or, is it that the KDE programmers have added support for Gmail? I say this because I am now using KDE's latest Konqueror release candidate (3.4rc1) which works on Gmail just like other browsers do. Any Slashdotter sees this as positive I know.

In-line signalling can be bad

[Eternally optimistic]

I don't like the method of well-meaning interference with a search. When you enter "weather east podunk, NY" they first give you the current weather - with very little knowledge that this is what you are looking for. It's just as likely you are looking for historical climate data, or your friend Karl Weather living in Podunk. This clutters up search results, and adds another kind of meaning to the search words. It has all the disadvantages of in-band signalling, and the signalling isn't even defined for the user.

Re:In-line signalling can be bad

[NeoSkandranon]

If you're looking for historical climate data, "weather" is about the vaguest search term you could pick. No sympathy from me (or i suspect google) if you don't get what you were looking for.

Google, if anyone, is in a position to say "hey when people search for 'weather' and a city they often want weather reports"

Re:Ah Gmail, now if only...

[aleclee]

That's what the "Archive" feature is for. It'll appear under the label and under "All Mail" but not in your inbox.

New features and the final frontier

[saitoh]

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.

Why can't they add it to my home Google?

[Drunken_Jackass]

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.

For Firefox users...

[rbarreira]

This is quite cool, but I still prefer the ForecastFox extension for now.

Not only SMS

[The Hobo]

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

(GOOGLE on the telephone)

Gmail beta forever

[teslatug]

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.

Google: GUI vs CLI

[malarkey]

It's interesting that Google is taking the CLI approach, which gives a lot of functionality without adding clutter to the interface.

Slashdot users, as a whole, might be more comfortable with that approach than the GUI approach, like Yahoo.

At what point does Google make a Yahoo-style frontend for the "newbie" users, just as an option, of course.

Gmail's forced "basic HTML view" - and a solution

[WIAKywbfatw]

Google's latest changes to Gmail include the introduction of a "basic HTML view" for people who's browsers cannot display the default view properly. This includes MSIE 4.0+ (pre 5.5), Netscape 4.07+ (pre 7.1), and Opera 6.03+, which previously couldn't be used to access Gmail.

Unfortunately, the new browser detection code they are now using seems to have been put together in a rather sloppy manner, which means (amongst others) Opera 8.0 users are forced to this "basic HTML view" when the fully-featured default view works perfectly well with that version of Opera. (Indeed, one of the many new features of Opera 8.0 is XMLHttpRequest support, which allows Gmail to work in full.)

Any Opera 8.0 user who logs into Gmail as usual will no longer be able to do some basic things, including create filters, amend their settings, check spelling, access keyboard shortcuts and autocomplete addresses. Fortunately, there is a workaround, which is to use the URL http://gmail.google.com/gmail?nocheckbrowser, which solves the issue.

This issue doesn't only affect Opera 8.0 users: users of MSIE 6.x, Camino and other browsers have reported the same problem on the relevant Google group. I don't use any of those browsers but I'm fairly sure that the same workaround will work for them too.

Poor HTML coding

[neoform]

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

Re:Poor HTML coding

[ceejayoz]

Google has never shown much interest in validating code.

Even the Firefox Start page they host doesn't validate.

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

Beating spam the Gmail way

[NaDrew]

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.