Official Google Blog: Google+: Popular posts, eye-catching analytics, ph...

Official Google Blog: Google+: Popular posts, eye-catching analytics, ph...: We think Google+ should get better every time you use it. It’s not enough to obsess over community feedback (which we do); we also need to s...

Google Trader Comes to Kenya

   

After the pilot launch in Uganda and the exciting launch in Ghana, Google Trader has launched in Kenya.
Google Trader is a free classifieds service that allows people to buy and sell products and services, search for jobs or just about anything else they are looking for.


During the last few weeks, thousands of businesses have posted tens of thousands of listings across different categories. There is a rich and growing collection of jobs, cars for sale, phones, electronics, books and a lot more. Anyone, individual or small business, can post for free and reach millions of Kenyans who search online for products, services or jobs.


This will provide SME businesses an online presence at no cost and they can market their products, reach more markets and also learn the market demand based on the searches. 


This come barely a month after Google launched Getting Kenyan businesses online another product where businesses can create free sites and get a free domain. www.kbo.co.ke


To check out Google Trader in Kenya, visit www.google.co.ke/africa/trader on your computer or mobile.

10 things you didn't know about Gmail

 today is still the same easy-to-access, easy-to-use product that Google first created six years ago as a faster, cleaner, and more intuitive approach to email. But Google has also improved Gmail in many ways since it first launched. While there are hundreds of things that make Gmail a better emailing experience, here are ten things you may or may not have tried:

Video chat from your inbox. Sometimes reading "LOL" doesn't deliver the same punch as actually hearing your friend laugh at your jokes. Voice and video chat lets you hear and see that laugh from within Gmail. Download the plugin from http://gmail.com/videochat.

Set up filters to keep your inbox under control. Click ‘create a new filter’ on the filters tab under Settings and Gmail will file your messages automatically for you into labels to read when you’re ready.

Use Gmail even when you don't have an internet connection. There are many situations in which you need information from your email but cannot get online. For example, trying to access an e-ticket from your email when the train station doesn't have internet. For times like these, we've built Offline Gmail as a tool in Gmail Labs, our experimental feature playground. Read and write messages, and use Gmail's familiar features like search and labels, all without an internet connection. To enable this feature, go to Settings > Labs > Offline Gmail.

Keep your to-do list online with Tasks. Just click and type to add new tasks, set due dates or add notes, and (most satisfyingly) check them off as you're done. Your Gmail task list is also available on your mobile device or your iGoogle page. Enable Tasks from the Labs tab under Settings.

Improve your email searches. Gmail is powered by Google's search technology. Just like web search, there are special search tools you can use to make it easier to find the email you’re searching for. For example, you can use a colon like ‘from:Jamie’ or 'to:Jamie' to make your search more precise. If you don't want to write queries, simply click on the ‘search options’ link next to the Gmail search box.

Stay connected on the go. Gmail for mobile is available for the most common devices in over 35 languages. Toggle between multiple accounts, save mobile email drafts, view attachments - and of course, tap into Gmail goodness like spam filtering, search, labels, filters, stars - and storage space.

Organize your inbox with coloured labels. Labels do all the work folders do and give you an extra bonus: you can add more than one to a conversation. Using the colour swatch next to each label, you can colour-code your labels to better organize your email and make important messages easy to find. If you don't like the preselected colours available, you can always make your own colour combinations. (To create custom-coloured labels, you'll need to enable the Labs feature in the Settings > Labs menu.)

Spice up your inbox with colours and themes. Choose from more than thirty themes to customize Gmail's look and feel. There's a shiny theme with chrome styling, a retro notepad, nature themes that change over time, and fun characters to keep you in good company. Visit the Settings > Themes tab.

Set up canned responses, email for the truly lazy. If you're sick of typing out the same reply to the same question, compose your reply once and save the message text with the "Canned responses" lab. Later, you can open that same reply and send it again and again. To enable this feature, navigate to the Settings > Labs > Canned Responses menu.

Stop sending mail you later regret with Mail Goggles. At pre-set times of your choosing (like late Friday nights), Gmail will ask you to solve a few simple math problems and verify that you're in the right state of mind before it will allow you to send an email. To enable this feature, go to Settings > Labs and enable Mail Goggles.

And finally...if you want to keep up-to-date with what’s new in Gmail then keep an eye on the Gmail blog at
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com. To chat with other users or get tips for solving problems visit the Gmail Help centre at http://mail.google.com/support/