How to Prevent Google From Using Your Profile Picture in Ads

Every time you Google something or click on an ad in a YouTube video, Google gets paid. They are estimated to make well over $100 million a day, and I honestly think that's low-balling it.

Of course, making more money than most countries do doesn't quite cut it for big bad Google. They recently announced integrating your personal Google+ profile pictures into their online ads, à la Facebook's Social Ads. That means that your face could be next to an ad for adult diapers without you ever knowing.

Pretty cool, right?

The Updated Terms of Service

If you've used Google in the past few days, you've probably seen the small disclaimer they've been running up top to inform people of their latest policy and terms of service changes. If not, you can check them out here. The most glaring change is the use of your profile picture in advertisements.

Google proclaims that the changes are being made to better recommend services and products to those people in your social circles.

It should be noted that your profiles and likes (+1s) will only be shown to people that you're currently connected to and have chosen to share certain information with, just like Facebook claims to do with their Social Ads.

Also, your profile will only appear next to ads or products that you personally have followed, commented on, or shared yourself.

NOTE: If you are under 18, you may see shared endorsements from others, but your own name and profile will not be paired with shared endorsements in ads and certain other contexts.

How to Protest Profile Picture in Ads

Even still, people do not like the fact that their face will be used to sell something without any form of compensation. Some people have taken to protesting. Using Google Chairman and former CEO Eric Schmidt's face in place of their own profile photo.

If you want to stick it to the man, that's the way to go, at least until they build an algorithm that deletes every likeness of Schmidt on Google+ except for on his own profile.

How to Simply Opt Out of Profile Pictures in Ads

If protesting is not for you, you can opt out of Google's new ad program. Thankfully, it's pretty darn simple.

Follow this link to visit the Shared Endorsements in Ads setting, and scroll to the bottom where you will see this message and a small check box underneath. Alternatively, you can get here by going to your Google+ Settings and clicking on Edit next to Share Endorsements.

All you need to do is un-check that box that says, "Based upon my activity, Google may show my name and profile photo in shared endorsements that appear in ads."

Google will try to dissuade you. Ignore them and click Continue.

Your settings will then save, and it should say "off" next to Shared Endorsements in your Google+ Settings now. Google knows how to make things easy at least, something Facebook still needs to work on.

Original man in a frame photo via Shutterstock

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How to search Google Maps for upcoming events near you

(Credit: Screenshot by Ed Rhee/CNET)




The latest update to Google Maps is rolling outsome important new features. Multiple destinations is the highlight of the update, finally adding back a feature that existed before the last major update. The new update also adds reservation searches for restaurants, flights and hotels, but the most fun new feature might be the Upcoming Events cards.

Using Google Maps, you can now search for your favorite venue and see what events are coming up there. What's even cooler is searching an entire area for upcoming events.



To search for upcoming musical events near you, search for "music venues" in Google Maps with your city or ZIP code. The venues in the area will then be plotted on the map for you to select.





Click to enlarge.(Credit: Screenshot by Ed Rhee/CNET)

Select one of the venues to display the venue's card. If that venue supports the Upcoming Events card, you'll see "Upcoming Events" at the bottom, along with the name of the next event.


Click to enlarge.(Credit: Screenshot by Ed Rhee/CNET)

If you click on the Upcoming Events card, you'll see a list of some of the upcoming events at that venue. Clicking on the event will take you to an external site for more details.


Click to enlarge.(Credit: Screenshot by Ed Rhee/CNET)

You can also search for comedy clubs and musicals, but sporting events seem to work best when you choose the specific venue.




source

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Extension lets you switch Firefox tabs with mouse gestures

You are either a keyboard shortcut person or a mouse/touch-pad person. If the latter describes you, I have a Firefox extension that may be of some interest. TabFlip lets you switch tabs with a flick of the mouse.
(Credit: TabFlip/Martijn Joosstens)

After installing TabFlip, you can immediately get to the flicking or, as the developer calls it, flipping action -- no restart is required. To switch tabs, hold down the right mouse button and give the mouse a flick horizontally. Flicking to the right moves you to tabs to the right, while flicking to the left does the reverse.

The same action can be performed on a touch pad, too, but with more difficulty and only if you are using a Windows PC. I had no luck with the extension on a MacBook Pro touch pad, and I found it harder to perform the right-click-and-flick gesture on a touch pad than actual mouse. And while the extension works on a Mac with a mouse attached, the right-click pop-up menu gets in the way. It pops up when you initiate the flick command and stays on the screen even after you arrive at another tab. The right-click menu doesn't surface when using TabFlip on a PC.
(Credit: Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET)




There are a few settings of note for TabFlip. Check the box for the Wrap setting, and you'll wrap around from either end of your tabs to the other side instead of hitting a dead end. The Scroll Flipping setting is tempting to enable because it lets you perform a two-finger swipe on a touch pad or touch screen to switch tabs. Unfortunately, it disables the two-finger vertical scroll function you likely use to scroll up and down Web pages. Lastly, if you find you the extension is too sensitive and switching tabs when you don't intend it to, you can adjust the number of pixels a flick must cover to register as a command.

The first two settings are enabled by default. They set the areas -- tab bar or Web page -- where the extension will read your gestures. I don't know why you'd want to use the tab-bar flipping. It's a narrow target to mouse to in order to switch tabs, and the right-click menu gets in the way there, which is doesn't do when performing the same gesture anywhere on a Web page.

(Via Ghacks)

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