Google Public DNS

Google has just launched its Google Public DNS service, freely available for you to use. Another free Google service, yaay!

Wait, what is DNS?

DNS is something that ideally, you wouldn’t even know what it meant. Actually, it stands for Domain Name System, and is the system of computers and registries around the world that convert your delightfully easy to remember www.vishalkumar.in or www.orkut.com to get to your website.

What happens in the background is that your computer asks the DNS on which server www.vishalkumar.in is being hosted, and then downloads the data from that server. And you didn’t have to memorize the IP address (a delightful number like 74.125.45.100 (which incidentally, is Google’s homepage), and can surf the net that much easier.

The benefit will be apparent when you start browsing, as things will start moving faster, with the site and images and content loading faster (especially on sites where content is pulled from other sites). Overall, switching to Google Public DNS is a good idea, and unlike some ISP’s DNS servers, you don’t get pulled into an ad filled search page if your site is wrong, saving on bandwidth too.

Here’s a screenshot filled tutorial on how to set it up with your BSNL Router, or normal connection.

How to connect with your Router: (Scroll down to see how to set it up with Dialup)

1. Login into your router. This is done by typing 192.168.1.1 in your browser.

Login to your Router

2. Check out your Router screen. You should see something like this:

You should see this. Click on Advanced Setup.

3. Click on Advanced Setup. Again, you should see something like this:

Clicking on Advanced Setup

4. Click on DNS. You’ll see the following. Uncheck the Automatic Assigned DNS, and type in the values 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 in the given place.

Click on DNS and type in the servers 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

5. Click on Save. Thats it you’re done.

Some of you may be using a manual dialup, or broadband dial up. No worries, you can also put the DNS to use in the following way:

To use Google Public DNS on your normal dialup (or dial up BSNL too):

1. Go into your connections. Either its in Show All Connections in XP, or Network Connections, in your Network and Sharing center.

Click on Show all Connections

2. You should have something like this. I have my Broadband connection here. You should be disconnected to update any settings, so disconnect now, if you have to.

Select the Connection you wish to modify

3. Right click on it, and click on Properties.

Click on Properties

4. Check the tabs. Click on Networking.

Click on Networking

5. Select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), and click on properties on the left side.

Select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), and click Properties

6. Select the Use the following DNS server addresses, and type in 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

Type in the DNS Addresses: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4, and click OK

7. Click a bunch of OK’s, and reconnect.  You should be whizzing while surfing now.

In conclusion, Google Public DNS appears to be very useful for people around the world (DNS servers within the U.S. are fast enough). Google doesn’t serve any ads on failed sites, so you don’t end up wasting bandwidth.

You may also be wondering why Google is giving this service for free. Google has a lot to gain from the overall statistics. That said, Google won’t record anything personally identifying. (Your IP address will be in the buffer for 24-48 hours to address individual problems). But Google would get a lot of insight into how various websites around the world are being accessed.

Also, Google’s primary field is online applications, many of which depend on connections being as fast as possible. If Google improves on this aspect of web surfing, it will also improve the accessability of its own services too. The Google Public DNS shows improvement of anywhere from 30 to 50% (from ~250ms to ~110ms), compared to its competitors (one of which would be your default ISP’s).

Anyway, check it out, and let me know what you think.

Shiny shiny Chrome, now also an Operating System

Google has created another stir in the technology community again with the announcement of the launch of their new Chrome Operating System.

Thats right. Operating System. Like Microsoft-makes-Windows-Operating-System Operating System.

The details are pretty sketchy, but here’s what we know so far…

• Its not out yet
• Its going to be an extension project of their already super fast Chrome Browser
• Its designed for to appear in netbooks (that is, small laptops without optical drives, meant for wireless surfing) near  (or far from) you
• It’ll run on your PC
• Google’s been working with a lot of hardware manufacturers like Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba (as of July 12th), to get their OS on devices.
• You’ll probably see them from the second half of 2010
• You’ll be able to use GMail, Google Docs, and a lot of other of Google’s tools via Chrome OS, brilliantly.

My Take:

That last point is significant here, and probably explains Google’s rationale behind working on an OS, after they already have Android (for smartphones, for now).

Now, we know that Google has developed a very rich user experience by making use of AJAX technologies backed by their own Cloud Computing servers all around the globe. Lets just simply say that they’re a big big Online only company. (Alright, I know, Google Earth, Google Desktop, and enterprise products are there, but Google still makes most of its money online, right?)

So it makes sense, that you would want to create the framework that allows the most direct interaction to all those web applications that you have created. And which hardware device is optimised for the web experience? Why, the netbook of course. In face, from their blog, they’re trying to design it so:

Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web.

Makes sense, doesn’t it? Get the ‘OS’, to run as lightly as possible, so all the real work will be online.

Some technicalities:

• It’ll probably be based on some Linux build
• It’ll be open source
• It’ll be free
• It’ll have Flashbuilt in (probably, since they’re working with Adobe too – see the list above)

In fact, I believe this blurs the defintion of the Operating System, as a simple interface between the Hardware and the User and software. This Google Chrome OS seems to be sort of a highly optimised web browser OS, a gateway to Google’s real delicacies: Online applications.

Delicious, isn’t it?

To find out (just a little bit) more, you can read their official introduction.

Comment below if you have any questions or anything interesting to add.

“Where are my car keys?” “I don’t know, google it, maybe under your bed?”

Then I saw this video.

Just took that concept to a very relevant perspective.

My take: If you know anything about Google and Bing, watch it and show it to your friends.

(If you’re new here: Google‘s a search engine from Google, Bing’s a search engine from Bing Microsoft.)

Google Chrome. Shiny shiny.

GMail Inbox Preview
First of all, for those of you who use Gmail, you know it can be a real pain in, well, a pain, when it comes to loading your inbox, which for you geeky folks, is nothing but the entire AJAX like program for your mail.

There’s simply nothing as slap-on-your-face-ish as waiting for 4 minutes to load your Gmail inbox, and then only to realise that you have only 2 emails, one from a free Colon Cleaner and some other mail with a whole lot of Chinese (Ok, I’m kidding, they’re in my Spam).

Anyway, Google has blessed us with a new Gmail Labs feature called Inbox Preview.

Gmail's Inbox Preview

Here’s how it works: Right after you sign in, and you start getting that Loading Gmail progress bar, during which time you usually leave the room to make some hot tea and come back, you can now see the latest 10 of your emails. You can now decide within nanoseconds (Ok, I exaggerate), whether or not you want to continue.

“I want it, how do I get it?”:

1. K, first of all, you need to endure that Gmail loading thing (I promise, just this once).
2. Go to Settings (that’s in the top right of your screen)
3. Go to Labs. You’d need to enable the Labs features to continue.
4. You’ll see a whole lot of Labs features, which will probably change the way you look at Gmail.
5. Anyway, scroll halfwayish till you find the Inbox Preview option (its right above the Multiple Inboxes, look for the big red M with little child M-lings on the right)
6. Enable, and then scroll down and save.

There you go. If you want to test, I’m going to advise you wait until the next time you need to check your mail.

Also, while we’re here, if you always use the same computer for checking your mail, you might consider Gmail Offline, which installs itself into the browser, allowing you to access your mails even when offline, and spare you the downloading time.

Google Chrome 2
For those of you who like fast things (Lamborghini, ASUS Graphics Cards, me running towards chicken), you certainly won’t be disappointed in the brand new Google Chrome 2.

Google Chrome 2

Features:

• Holy crap, middle mouse scrolling. Yes!
• Full Fullscreen. Press F11. Go ahead, I dare you. Yup. Now thats Real Fullscreen alright.
• Its still super hyper fast at loading up. Its still like opening up notepad. And that, I like.
• It loads things faster. Uhh…thats what they said here. (Times like these when I don’t feel like doing an independent javascript benchmark suite, I take their word)

Chrome really is super fast. In fact, its javascript engine (the part of the browser that does cool animations and stuffs), is hyper fast. So fast, that in fact, there are some javascript programs that can only be run in Chrome.

A wobbly monster rendered in Google Chrome

Check out more wierd, fun, and useless things you can do with Chrome at the ChromeExperiments.com site (yes, thats the site)

Click here to go to the Google Chrome Site.

Otherwise just be seated in your comfortable seat and click here to download the complete installer here. This is probably what you want if you are downloading at your friend’s (with unlimited broadband) place.

Google SMS Channels

Google's SMS Channels

Alright, this may be old news to some, but I‘ve only just heard about it, so I figure since nobody mentioned this to me, then nobody I know knows about it. Or something like that.

Anyway, Google India has launched, quite recntly, a pretty nifty (and free) service: SMS Channels.  With this, you can now receive (free) SMS updates from various live feeds that have been created, or you can create yourself.

So check this out, I’m now getting (for free), a couple of sms everyday, from the latest Google News Technology updates, another set from BBC International News (yes, its true, shoot me). There’s a whole lot of other channels for other SMS jokes, etc, so be sure to check it out.

Useful? Well, its an Opt-in service. This means that while you can certainly address a large group of people for free via sms, and even automate it through smsing an RSS feed, you need to get people to sign in and subscribe first. Just an little initial setting up difficulty for some, but otherwise cool.

Check it out here.

A Good Night

Found any of the above useful? Found anything betterly useful? Please do let me know in the comments.  : )