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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."
Google isn't forecasting the weather, they're controlling it.
http://www.theplaceforitall.com/2005/03/report-on- gmails-basic-html-view.html
Dashboard Widgets
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...
My area is currently blue in the satellite photo... with a combo box error shaped cloud passing over me.
http://www.sandstorming.com
The National Weather Service at noaa.gov is excellent. Detailed local forecasts with NO ads.
Just in case you need it...
Clickie!
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...
The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F
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).
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.
This is quite cool, but I still prefer the ForecastFox extension for now.
The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F
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
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.
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.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
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.
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"
If you can't see the value in jet powered ants you should turn in your nerd card. - Dunbal (464142)