Hasta La Gadget!

Just last week, Google upgraded its Blogger platform to integrate it more with its social network, Google+. With the new feature, blog posts would feature both direct comments, as well as comments in the Google+ status the Blogger link was featured in. Not only did it consolidate all the comments into one system, users were also able to filter out what types of comments they wanted to see. For example, they could choose to see only comments from certain circles, or they could see comments from everyone.

The developer for Cloud Hero was inspired by the Blogger/Google+ commenting system integration and decided that WordPress needed one as well. And voila, he managed to develop a Google+ comments plugin for WordPress. Since it’s not an official release from Google, it still has some kinks in it, but it still manages to integrate nicely with WordPress. It has similar features to the Blogger plugin, where you can choose to view comments from everyone, or just from certain circles.

As of right now, the plugin is only available through Cloud Hero and you will have to install it manually, however, Cloud Hero has submitted the plugin to WordPress and it should available in its plugins database shortly. Cloud Hero has the plugin up and running on its website, and so far it seems to be working appropriately. You can see how many +1′s a comment has, if a user edited their comment, quotes from other people, and much more.

This is a nice step forward into making blogging more social as well as making Google+ more popular. At the end of February, Google+ finally joined the ranks of Twitter and Facebook, and allowed users to sign into 3rd party apps, or register for accounts using the “Sign in with Google+” button. While this plugin may not be from Google directly, it is certainly helpful in making its Google+ platform more convenient.

Developer brings Google+ commenting system to WordPress is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

In a continuing effort to further integrate its services with one another, Google has announced that they’ll be integrating Google+ with its Blogger blogging platform. After enabling the feature in your Blogger Dashboard, you’ll be able to view direct comments on a blog post, as well as comments about your blog post on Google+

Essentially, if there’s a public Google+ discussion about one of your blog posts, those comments and replies will automatically appear on the blog post on Blogger. Furthermore, your readers will now be able to control how their comments are shown on Google+, by selecting which circles can see their comment specifically.

Readers will also be able to filter comments by including all comments, or filtering out certain Google+ circles, such as only viewing comments from your close friends or co-workers. If you have a Blogger blog, you can enable Google+ comments by clicking on the Google+ tab in your Blogger Dashboard, and checkmark “Use Google+ Comments.”

Previous comments will still remain visible, so don’t worry if you think that past comments will disappear after enabling Google+ integration. This move by Google is just one of the steps that the company has taken to integrate its various services together. The company recently integrated Gmail with Google Drive, and we’re guessing that today’s announcement isn’t the end.

Google brings Google+ comments to Blogger is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Rumor has it that Google is planning on unifying all of its chat services into one, single and efficient chat service. The new service was reported to be called “Babble”, however now it appears that the spelling has been modified to “Babel”. Some new screenshots released by TechRadar shows what may in fact be the chat service in action, but of course, the source of the screenshots is unconfirmed, so lets take this news with a grain of salt.

In one of the screenshots, the user is hovering over the feedback button and the message, “What do you think about Babel in Gmail?” message pops up. In another screenshot, it shows that you have to sign into your Google+ account in order to share photos through Google Talk, and you are able to initiate a quick Hangout through the G-Talk chat box. There are also hundreds of emoticons you can choose to express your feelings, or represent your zodiac sign.

The major reason why we’re skeptical about these screenshots is because TechRadar states that the source isn’t able to verify their identity, and he/she sent the screenshots through a generic email address. The source states that he/she is a Google employee and they seem to have in-depth knowledge about Google’s communication services and Babel in general.

Nonetheless, if these screenshots are the real deal, it looks like we’re finally going to have a single application that we can use to chat with all of our Google contacts. There’s also speculation that Google will be purchasing WhatsApp for $1 billion and may be integrating its services into Babel. We’ll most likely hear all about Google Babel and Google’s supposed plan to purchase WhatsApp soon, possibly at the Google I/O conference next month.

[via Android Community]

Is this really Google Babel? is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Today Google has updated apps for both the iOS and Android universe for their social network Google+, showing first and foremost an expansion of each post made by members. What you’ll be seeing here is not only updates in the way you view Google+ on your smartphone or tablet, but in the way you share and interact as well. It would appear that Google is taking the mobile initiative here once again, enhancing this space so that it makes the most sense to experience Google+ in mobile mode!

Post Size

Though it’s not entirely possible to show a post as expanded as it would be in desktop mode on a display that’s inevitably smaller than your desktop computer, Google has enhanced how you’ll view a post on your smartphone or tablet. Google+ is made to allow you to interact with your colleagues and contacts on-the-go, but Google also wants you to be able to see what they’re sharing in brief as well as in an expanded way when you want to get more in-depth.

• Posts include more text up front—from the original message, and from comments
• Tapping video, photo or link attachments takes you directly to a watch page, lightbox or website
• Image previews are rarely cropped, so you’ll see portrait photos (for instance) in all their glory
• Key actions like +1, reshare and comment are displayed more prominently in each post
• You can swipe through photo albums inline

The list of changes above comes straight from Google where they also remind us that the Post Size update only comes to Android this week. This is sad news for iOS, but remember: the two user interfaces are already different in some rather large ways.

Snapseed Photo Filters

There’s a collection of in-app photo filters being added to the iOS app – not the Android app – that’ve been part of the desktop app for a while. While it’s baffling that the Android app wouldn’t get this update first, we must remember that Google’s developers don’t just work for the greater good of Android – and the Google+ developer team for iOS is a totally different group of people from the developers for Android.

• Do basic edits like rotate and crop, as well as select filters like Drama and Retrolux
• Adjust saturation, contrast, brightness and lots more by sliding your fingers up-and-down, then left-and-right
• Single tap at any time to compare your creation with the original

What you’ve got with this “award-winning photo enhancements” suite is part of a bigger push this week for photo excellence, another being the Nik Collection by Google, this being a set of plug-ins for Photoshop, Lightroom, and Aperture for a cool $149. Both Android and iOS users are also able to download Snapseed as a separate app for many of the features you’re seeing here in this Google+ integration.

Communities

If you’ve never joined a Community on Google+, now’s the time: check out our good pals at Android Community and let us know if you need an invite! Most of the updates this week to the app for both iOS and Android come on our end of the party, controlling the Community from the back-end.

• The ability to adjust the volume of community posts in your Home stream
• The option to invite people to a community, or reshare items with a community
• Member search, content moderation, and report-remove-ban support for community managers

You’ll be able to control your own Community in a greater number of ways if you wish as well – let us know if you’ve got a Community you’d like all your best pals and SlashGear team-members to join now!

Profile Tracking

Now you’ll be able to share with the whole world exactly where you are at all times! Sounds entirely scary! What you’ll be doing here is enabling this option if you wish – you’re not automatically opted-in, and you’ll never have your location shared unless you activate this on your own. According to Google:

• If you enable this option, you’ll then decide who can see your best-available location across Google
• Like always, you can be as public or as private as you want to be
• When someone with permission visits your profile, for example, they’ll see your current whereabouts underneath your name

Joyous day! You’ll be seeing this option showing up on both iOS and Android right away! You’ll be activating this option in either desktop or mobile mode, and you can shut it off at any time. Watch yourself!

Google+ app update: 4 reasons iOS and Android apps are now boss is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Google‘s Jeremy Ng has dropped another announcement on Google+, this time introducing Hangouts Capture, an app that allows Google Hangout users to take snapshots during a conversation. This makes it easy to record those here-now-and-then-gone moments of hilarity or other situations you’d like to record as a digital memory.

While there are several options for taking screenshots using either the rather primitive PrntScrn button or a third-party screenshot tool, Hangouts Capture is an integrated solution designed specifically for use with the service. Because of this, it has been tailored to make taking snapshots simple during a Hangout, and also offers features you won’t find in other tools.

Taking snapshots involves only a single click, so users won’t have to worry about the perfect moment ending before they get a chance to take a screencap. Once a snapshot is taken, it is saved as a picture into an album that is shared with the other individuals in the Hangout, which can then be viewed as part of your Google+ photo albums, or by pulling up the Hangout post.

Those paranoid about having images taken of them without their knowledge, however, have no reason to fear. If you’re part of a Hangout, you will receive a notification when the Capture app is pulled up or if it is already active when you join a Hangout. Likewise, you’ll also receive a notification every time someone takes a snapshot. Effects are available that can be added to images, which you can see a sample of in the image above.

[via Google+ (Jeremy Ng)]

Google rolls out Hangouts Capture to make taking snapshots easy is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.