This feature allows user to create virtual fly-throughs of any location on Google Earth. Google has compiled some of the tours in their gallery. Go a head and install the plugin(on the gallery page) to enjoy some of the beautiful fly-throughs like the Mars Exploration tour or the Flight 1549 landing in the Hudson River Re-enactment tour.

Currently the plugin is available for Windows (Firefox, Chrome, IE6 and IE7) and Mac users only.

The OS features a dock that looks like the Mac OS X dock and a Linux kernel that boots in seconds. Strangely the browser looks similar to Google’s Chrome Browser although there is no official connection between the two companies.

There are number of applications on the dock for quick access, like Skype, YouTube, Google Docs, etc,.

Unlike the standalone gOS, the gOS Cloud is not meant to replace the Windows Operating System altogether, but to live along side it. There is an option to fire up to Windows Operating System right from the dock.

The Operating System is primarily meant for Netbooks, considering the fact that the Netbooks have a low-end configuration. The gOS is very useful for checking emails, and do necessary things on the Internet without waiting for the Operating System to Boot.

Good OS demonstrated the Operating System at Netbook World Summit in Paris yesterday. The company says the touch-screen Netbooks running the Cloud OS along with Windows will be released next month at CES show.

Google is constantly upgrading Gmail since the last one month, voice chat and video chat have already been added to the Gmail, now 30 new themes are added to Gmail allowing the users to add a little personal touch to their inbox.

Anne Chen from Google describes the latest update stating:

There’s a shiny theme with chrome styling, another one that turns your inbox into a retro notepad, nature themes that change scenery over time, weather driven themes that can rain on your mailbox, and fun characters to keep you in good company. There’s even an old school ascii theme (Terminal) which was the result of a bet between two engineers — it’s not exactly practical, but it’s great for testing out your geek cred.

The newspaper search is not new, there was an option to search from the newspaper archives in the Google News site. This new service is an extension to that option where a separate website is dedicated for exclusively searching the newspaper archives, even the ones printed decades ago.

The newspapers and magazines include The New York Times, The Washington Post and Time.

Marissa Mayer of Google demonstrated the new Google News Archive Search at TechCrunch50. She explained:

This is built on scanning technology we built for Google Books, but with some new features. We?ve already started this with books and maps, now we will do it with newspapers. Viewers will see it in their original context, can pan around and search. We will widen the user base and readership of news archives. We already have News Archive search. You will see an interface similar to Google Books search. But our engineers have built in new algorithms to figure out [things like] what is a headline. As I mouse over the page, headlines are highlighted in blue, indicatingtheir clickability. When you click on something, it centers the story, and zooms in. You can do a snapback to the original article. In the sidebar, in addition to sponsored links we have related articles you can click on.

On the web: Google Newspaper Search

Yahoo launched a new site today for women between the ages 25 and 54. The Website contains information for women on topics like Fashion, Health, Parenting, Parenting, Food, Money, Career, and all those interesting gossips(for women of course). Yahoo intends to close its Food site over time.

It seems some consumer package goods companies asked Yahoo for more ways to reach their consumers. Yahoo’s answer is the site “Shine”, with which the struggling Internet company hopes to shine by selling targeted advertisements.

Yahoo is working with some famous media companies like Rodale and Hearst Communications for providing exclusive and fresh content for Shine site.

[Website: Yahoo Shine]

FileDropper is a new Website that offers free file sharing of up to 5GB. The file can be uploaded in one go, there is no limit on the file size up to 5GB. However, the drawback is that you can’t see the upload progress. This is the only Website that allows the largest upload limit of 5GB, as of now.

TimeBridge is a free web tool that can save you lot of time on planning a schedule. The tools allows you to create a meeting and propose up to five meeting times and send the invitation via email. The recipients(who need not to be a member with TimeBridge) can choose the times they are comfortable with and times they are not comfortable with.

The tool then automatically analyzes all responses and suggests the times which work for all of them. TimeBridge can tie in with your Google or Outlook calender and display all the existing entries when you create a meeting through TimeBridge. Also, you and all the attendees get a confirmation E-mail that lets you download a calendar that can add the even to their favorite scheduling program such as Outlook, Google, Apple iCal.

So, Why not try this great little tool the next time you are planning a meeting.

[On the Web: TimeBridge]

Google Code now allows the users to take a quick look at the code for any project. The source code viewer is a Ajax-powered tool that allow the users to highlight syntax, see revisions, browsing directory in the tree-view, easier navigation through Subversion repository and lot more. Thanks to Jenan wise, an intern from Google who is responsible for this great tool.

World’s leading online travel company Expedia started its services in India. With this launch Indians can now pay using Indian rupees. Expedia(India) offers services dierctly via the Website or by Phone.

Website: www.expedia.co.in