Quick view of PDFs in your Google search results

During your search experience on Google you would have come across many links with PDF extension a click on which would have resulted in your Adobe or other PDF viewer application getting opened and you viewing the file. The catch here is that if you do not have any PDF viewer application, Google offered you an alternative which was to view the file as HTML in the browser itself. This though was a faster alternative it lead to loss of the formatting from the original PDF, such as graphics, tables, fonts and other elements.

Today, Google has added a new link to "Quick View" PDF documents in your browser itself with the formatting intact. The new links are based on the same technology that's available in Google Docs and Gmail. Google had rolled this technology out to the search results page since July, and as of today they have added "Quick View" links to more than 50% of the PDFs in their index.

For example, here is a search result for the term "Form 16"

A click on "Quick View" will open up the PDF right in your browser with graphics, formatting and tables preserved. Following is what it looks like after opening:

Will Gmail sink in the Wave?

On 27th May 2009 Google publicly demonstrated Google Wave for the first time at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco. This product was touted as "the email of the future". With Google Wave, Google tried to reinvent the inbox, blend e-mail, instant messaging and many more features. The very basic premise on which this product was born was how email would look if it was born today instead of 50 years back.

Now that the baby is born and we are looking at the possible present form of email service, would Google go ahead and kill Gmail? In the long run it would obviously not make any sense for Google to run 2 different websites. Promoting 2 separate brands offering the same core value is always gonna be a costly affair. Look at Android, after launching it Google decided to have Chrome OS. Eventually it will just have Chrome as their standard OS for all the platforms.

Make no mistakes, I am not suggesting that Google will replace our email ids to xyz@gwave.com coz replacing millions of email ids would be a daunting task. What we may end up witnessing is a convergence of Wave and Gmail. To make Google Wave universally acceptable, Google may discontinue www.gmail.com and force us to visit wave.google.com for login. This maybe the only change, but this one change may be bring up huge opportunities for Google. It may help them beat Yahoo, MSN, etc. in IM service. It may help them manage the increasing threat from facebook and twitter.

So is it time to say bye bye Gmail???

More Google Wave invitations expected before 31st October 2009?

Lets first try and understand how Gmail invitations evolved over the years.

Gmail
Gmail was a project started by Google developer Paul Buchheit several years before it was announced to the public. Initially the software was available only internally as an email client for Google employees.

The project initially was known by the code name Caribou, a reference to a Dilbert comic strip about Project Caribou.

For Gmail, Google started a unique way to offer access to public viz. through invites. To cut down on spam in the early days, Google used viral marketing by allowing only existing users to invite new users.

* On 21st March 2004 Google invited about 1,000 employees, friends, and family members to become beta testers.
* On 25th April 2004 active users from the Blogger.com community were offered the chance to participate in the beta-testing.
* On 1st May 2004 one round of invitations was sent out to all active users which they could extend to their friends.
* On 1st June 2004 another three invitations were given to all active members.
* By mid-June 2004, the number of invitations had increased, with many users receiving between three and five daily.
* On 2nd February 2005 the invitation interface was changed to make it easier to give invitations by simply entering an e-mail address.
* On 3rd February 2005 some Gmail users were awarded 50 invitations and later it was increased to 100 invitations
* On 7th February 2007 - It was made public and anyone could vist gmail.com and register for their Gmail account without the need for any invite.

Google Wave
Google Wave is "a personal communication and collaboration tool" announced by Google at the Google I/O conference on May 27, 2009.

* On 28th May 2009 started allowing developers to send requests for sandbox account.
* By July 2009 Google Wave had over 6000 sandbox account.
* On 30th September 2009 Google Wave was extended to about 100,000 users. Each of these users can invite 8 more users which takes the total strength to about 800,000 users. However, these users who do not have a direct invite from Google will not be able to invite anyone else.

Now if we try and draw a parallel between Gmail and Wave invites, its quite probable that before end of October 2009 Google may grant additional invites to all the existing 800,000 users of Wave and such grants may be given every month.