Over the past few years, YouTube has gained a strong presence in the video world. It’s one of those services that Google has bothered to develop versus others which have been neglected post acquisition. Yesterday, YouTube announced the launch of paid channels as a pilot programme with a small group of partners that will offer paid channels on YouTube. There are currently 53 channels available for subscription including Big Star with subscription fees starting at $0.99 per month. Every channel has a 14-day free trial, and many offer discounted yearly rates. I don’t see anything that tempts me yet to…

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Ever since the introduction of Google Keep, the tech world has been abuzz, as it usually is when Google introduces a new feature that is expected to compete with a highly popular company, program or app- in this case, it is Evernote. When I first heard of Evernote, I must admit, I wasn’t impressed. There were already several great note-creating services around. It wasn’t until I tried it that I realized just how much more Evernote actually can do. And it has grown to be one of the most popular cloud services around. But Google has created what some have…

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In today’s day and age where most of our information is online, including banking information and more importantly emails, it is essential to think about what happens to this data in case of an untimely passing. Similar to making a will to bequeath your belongings to your near and dear ones, planning your digital afterlife is essential. Yesterday, Google launched a new feature called Inactive Account Manager that helps you in this regard, at least in the case of all things Google. You can now choose what happens with your data if your account goes inactive after a set period…

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If you’ve wanted to prevent your site from appearing on Google Shopping or Google Advisor, you now have a chance to do so within Webmaster tools. Webmasters can now opt out of having content that Google has crawled from their site displayed on: Google Shopping Google+ Local Google Flights Google Hotels Google Advisor To do so simply visit the Opt-Out page and you will be presented with the following option. Simply click the big red button to exclude your site from showing up in the Google properties. After choosing this option, content crawled and sourced from your site via Googlebot…

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After axing Reader a few days back, Google unveiled Google Keep. Integrated with Google Drive, Google Keep aims to help you keep track of your notes. The interface is very basic on the browser and straightforward on your phone. A few clicks and you’ve saved a note which is automatically synced across all your devices. With Google Keep you can: Keep track of your thoughts via notes, lists and photos Have voice notes transcribed automatically Use homescreen widgets to capture thoughts quickly Color-code your notes to help find them later Swipe to archive things you no longer need Turn a…

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By now, most of the web is abuzz with news of Google axing its Google Reader, which is a platform that most bloggers, including me, identify with. I’ve lived with Google Reader open while I worked for several years, either via FeedDemon and also directly. With the demise of Google Reader, Nick has also decided to kill FeedDemon, most of you might already be hunting for alternatives. Three popular names doing the rounds are Feedly, Newsblur and Netvibes. And, you even have a petition created on Change.org that has over 75,000 signatures at the time that I signed it. I…

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Over the past few weeks I have been using Google Currents to read the latest news. Available for Android and iOS, Google Currents delivers beautiful magazine-like editions to your tablet and smartphone for high speed and offline reading. If you’re running your very own blog which publishes an RSS feed, then adding your blog to Google Currents is extremely simple. You’ll need Google Chrome to login to the website so download the software before proceeding. Once you have downloaded Google Chrome, visit the Producer website at https://www.google.com/producer. Once you sign into the website you’ll be prompted to create a new publication….

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The Google Adsense team has been working behind to scenes to give publishers better control on their sites. Your single Adsense account can be used to display your ads across several websites. This is an excellent feature since you don’t need to manage multiple accounts for multiple sites. In the new feature released, you have much better control via the “Site Management” section. While this feature is being rolled out to users globally, other users can still authorize which sites they want to display ads and earn revenue from. To add and claim which sites you wish to show ads…

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Last month, Gmail rolled out the new compose interface. Today the Gmail team released a new feature to compliment this. If you’re using the new compose window, within the next few days, you should be able to see a new button that lets you quickly link to files stored in your Google Drive. The current limits are around 25MB, so this will allow you to send files up to 400 times the size! Your recipients will always have access to the latest file since this is stored in your Google Drive. The interface is smart enough to check for permissions…

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It’s that time of the week again where most of us have some time to kill. This post will will look at five of the latest trending games available for free. Together these games give you hours of playing time that can easily eat up this weekend as well as the next! Shipwrecked You and the other members of your party are stranded! But is that such a bad thing? Now it’s up to you to build a beautiful and thriving civilization on the Lost Island! Adventure, magic, and romance await as you explore the mysterious jungle, discover hidden secrets,…

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