Tag Archive for 'the googles'
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I love how Google decides to publicly test new features without issuing a press release. I guess they figured that the blogosphere notices anyway so why bother with the fanfare? But here’s something rather nice: they’re using Already President as far as I’m concerned Barack Obama’s channel to test out their new ability to download YouTube videos from the site.
But Zacqary! There have been lots of tools that let you download YouTube videos for years!
That’s a valid point, Helvetica Bold 10.5 Dark Orchid, but all of those have required you not only to download an extra program or Firefox extension, but they grab the crappy, compressed Flash Video version that you’d see anyway on YouTube. Now, not only do you click a little link below the video, but you also get to download it in H.264 format! That’s the same encoding that they use on Blu-Ray. BLU-RAY! (Though, granted, the YouTube download has a lower resolution and bitrate than a Blu-Ray, but seriously, it’s an improvement)
I grabbed one of the Obama videos to compare, and yes, it’s quite nice:
H.264 is better than standard YouTube FLV
If you view that full size, you can see that the downloaded video has better contrast and is a lot less fuzzy. Keep in mind, though, that it downloads at 480×270; I resized it to 640×360 so it would be the same size as the video on YouTube. But the YouTube video is probably scaled up too.
Sadly, it isn’t the same quality as YouTube HD:
The download is still lower res than HD, unfortunately.
Again, I scaled the download up. At this level of scaling you start to see where the downloaded copy loses detail. Though the contrast still looks better…maybe that’s Firefox’s fault?
Now, this is still only available for Obama’s channel, but in the coming weeks, Google claims that everyone will have the option to enable their videos to be downloaded. Personally, for the sake of the common Internet user, I’m hoping that it’s an opt-out system. That way the only reason someone would have to stop being lazy and edit their videos is if they want to be an asshole or a corporation.
Speaking of which, when do I get to replace my old videos with HD versions? They’re all ready to upload as soon as you let me, Google.
[Source: Ars Technica]
Dave Winer maintains one of the first blogs ever, and though he didn’t exactly invent RSS, he’s pretty much the reason the entire Internet uses it. He also effectively made podcasting possible. And he can cure cancer with his mind. Needless to say, this is a man who knows what he’s talking about. Now, despite all that, the fact that Google really, REALLY needs to clean up their URLs could have been said by Sarah Palin and it would have been just as correct.
Continue reading ‘Google URLs Are Too Ugly, Says Dave Winer, Who Is Always Right’
If you only have 30 seconds to read my explosion of words, here’s the synopsis: Get Ubiquity. Now. It’s still in Alpha and therefore has some rough edges, but despite that, it is the best thing to ever happen to Firefox. And if you don’t have Firefox, why the hell have you not gotten Firefox yet?
Now for the long version. Ubiquity, according to Wikipedia, “allows web users to create mashups of other web services without requiring much technical background.” Thank you, Wikipedia, for this accurate description which completely and entirely misses the point. They also state, “Ubiquity is a collection of easy and quick natural-language-derived commands that allow users to get information and relate the same to current and other webpages.” That’s more like it. Yeah, I should really edit the article to clarify those two sentences. Brb.
"Goo"gling with Ubiquity - OMG AWESOME!
Okay, there we go. Now that Wikipedia agrees with me, it must be true, so Ubiquity is a Firefox extension that lets you type natural-sounding commands at your browser to make it do things that would normally require 3722438 clicks. And it is the best thing like ever.
Continue reading ‘Ubiquity for Firefox: OH MY GOD THIS IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!11111eleven’
Arr, Google Me Timbers
In the recent Pirate Bay Trial, which the defendants “lost”, the argument was frequently made that The Pirate Bay does nothing more than Google: they post links to stuff, some of which happens to infringe upon copyright, but they don’t have a lot of control over what links are in their database. The Pirate Bay just happened to be completely disinterested in removing any links to anything that wasn’t a virus. It’s techically not illegal, which is why their conviction is such an outrage, and why Google does pretty much the same thing. To drive that point home in protest of this silliness, The Pirate Google has appeared.
It’s nothing more than a Google Custom Search which adds “filetype:torrent” to the end of each query, which is doable on regular Google searches as well. Even if The Pirate Google is taken down by someone or other, that functionality will still be available in Google. Of course, given Google’s track record of being a pussy when it comes to defending themselves against Big IP Whoring (because “Big Entertainment” is kind of a stretch), it’s possible that this won’t last. Or it could catalyze Google’s growth of a spine.
Continue reading ‘Arr, Google Me Timbers’