Google Videos: Download or Watch Google Videos in any country

How to download google videos flv file from any location around the globe without downloading the Google Video FLV player.

Google Video has been about watching funny videos, bollywood movies and music clips online but Google users in China, UAE, Germany, Korea, France, India, Pakistan and other regions of the world cannot play videos directly from the Google Video page. When a viewer from any of these regions tries to play a Google video, he is denied access and gets the following message:

Thanks for your interest in Google Video. Currently, the playback feature of Google Video isn’t available in your country. We hope to make this feature available more widely in the future’, and we really appreciate your patience.

Google actually uses geotargeting to determine a visitors’ location but that can be easily bypassed with a proxy server

If you are staying in a location where playback is not available, you can read this workaround approach to watch Google videos live in any country. You can also save Google videos on your computer in AVI or FLV format for offline viewing. Rembember, this technique uses no proxy servers as they make the video playback process very slow.



1. Make sure you have installed the Macromedia Flash player plugin in your browser. If you are on Firefox, turn off Adblock that sometimes block SWF animations.

2. Open video.google.com and search for the video you want to play.



3. Once you locate the video, click on the video thumbnail to play the video. Since playback is not supported in your country, Google shows you an error message. Ignore that warning and click on the “Put on Site” link (see screenshot)

4. You will see a text box just beneath the “Put on Site” link containing some cryptic HTML. Don’t get frightened, copy the HTML code by clicking inside the text area and press Ctrl+C. Then open notepad or any text editor and paste the HTML.

5. Open the Find dialog (Ctrl+F) and type http://video.google

As you click find, you will see a really long URL starting with the above text. Select and copy the entire URL (select everything that’s enclosed in double quotes starting with http://video.googll… and ending with playerMode=embedded)

6. Just paste this URL in your browser address and press enter. Cool the video is now playing inside your browser just as a visitor in US would see it.

You can also change the the Video dimensions by clicking on the bottom right corner of the Google Video player (see screenshot)

Play Blocked Google Videos via Google Translate
Not just language translation, Google Translate can be also be used to access blocked websites. We can extend the Google Translate proxy trick to download or play Google Videos anywhere. Just append the full Google Video link and paste in the address bar:

http://216.239.39.104/translate_c?langpair=en|en&u=
http://google.com/translate?langpair=en|en&u=

How to play a Google Video FLV file
Download this free FLV Player - a standalone application to play Flash .flv files.

How to save the Google Video as AVI or FLV files on your computer
Copy the Browser URL in Step 3 above and paste the URL here. The FLV and AVI file can be easily converted to any of the following formats using a free convertor (download. It supports Video format: 3gp/3g2(Nokia,Siemens,Sony,Ericsson) asf, avi (DivX, H263,H263+, H264,Xvid,MPEG4, MSmpeg4 etc..), fli, flc, flv (used in Flash), mpg (Mpeg I,Mpeg II), mov, mp4, ogg, qt, rm, str (Play Station), swf (Flash), viv, vob, wmv Audio format: ac3, amr, mp2, mp3, mp4, ogg, ra, wma.

If you find some real funny Google videos, please share them here. You can create your own Google videos with an handycam or a digital camera that records video - just do basic editing with Windows Movie Maker or create a video from family pictures with Microsoft Photostory and upload it using the Google Video uploader. Simple. Have fun with Google Videos.

Display Microsoft .MHT files in Firefox

How to read MHT files exported from Microsoft Office in Firefox ?

Internet Explorer provides you a useful option to save Web pages including graphics, css, javascript and other embedded components as a Web archive single file, known as an MHT file (MIME HTML).

MHT files are much easier to export and share as all the associated HTML code and images are zipped in one file which can be directly opened in IE. Desktop Search programs like Google and MSN can index the content of mht files. Infact, most of the Microsoft Office programs like Word, OneNote, Powerpoint or Infopath can publish documents directly in mht formats. So an InfoPath 2003 document saved as MHT file can be opened even on a computer that doesn’t have Infopath installed.

How to read and write .mht file formats in Firefox ?

Though Firefox doesn’t provide native support for viewing or writing MHTML files, the Mozilla Archive Format (MAF) Firefox extension can help you. Once installed in Firefox, this extension lets you save Web pages in the open-source .MAFF format. It can also read and write .MHT files, which IE users can open.

However, the MAF Firefox extension requires Firefox 1.5+. If you are on a previous version, you can either install the View in IE or IE Tab extension.

In MHT files, all relative links in the Web page are remapped and the embedded content is included in the .mht file, rather than being saved in a separate folder. The absolute references or hyperlinks on the Web page remain unchanged and the .mht file is viewed using Internet Explorer.

Photocasting Tutorial without iLife iPhoto [PC or Mac]

While introducing iLife iPhoto 6 features at Macworld conference, Steve Jobs said Photocasting is like Podcasting for photos.

Photocasting is a new way of sharing photos. It’s like sending your photo album to your friends and family, and having it change automatically on their computers when you update it on yours. When your grandmother subscribes to your photos, she’ll see them in her iPhoto library just as you see them in yours. And as you add, edit or remove pictures in your Photocast library, iPhoto automatically updates them on her computer, thousands of miles away, via the internet.

To view Photocasts, one must have iPhoto 6 (Mac). If you don’t have iPhoto or are on a PC, you can still subscribe to Photocasts via any RSS-compatible browser or RSS reader on Mac or Windows PC. Just enter the URL (provided by the Photocaster) in an RSS reader to view the Photocast.

Photocasting with iPhotos sounds really cool but you can only create and publish photocasts only if you have are on Mac OS X since iPhoto has no PC version. Secondly, you have to buy a .Mac membership to be able to share photos with photocasting. (A one year .Mac account costs US$99.95.).

There is still no photo podcasting client for Windows yet but in some simple steps, you can also publish your own photocasts just like iPhoto. Read the following guide:

1. To being publishing your photos as in iPhoto, first create an account at Flickr - it’s free, no account is required to View photos, and since Flickr is owned by Yahoo, it’s like to stay alive forever. And Flickr requires no software as it runs from the web browser. So you can work with Flickr either on a Mac or a PC or even Linux.

2. Now upload your photos to Flickr that want to share with your friends or family. Flickr provides a host of uploading tools both for Mac and Windows PC. You can also upload photos via your cameraphone or email.

3. Once you have uploaded your pictures, open the Flickr homepage and click “Your Photos”. Scroll to the bottom of your screen where you see Feeds for Mr. XYZ photostream Right click the RSS 2.0 link and copy the location.

4. This is the last step. Open Feedburner.com and paste the feed address link you just copied in Step 3. Click Next, type in a feed address, user name, password and Activate the Feed. Feedburner will give now show your feed address. Your Photocast is ready.

What’s next: Announce the URL to your friends. Just like iPhoto, your Feedburner Photocast feed can be viewed in any browser or RSS reader. Even iPhoto users can subscribe to your photo feeds. You can also enable FeedBlitz in your Feedburner account so that your friends receive an email update whenever you post new pictures.

For some more fun, your friends can download a Flickr Screensaver like Flickr.Net or Slickr. These Flickr screensavers can be configured to show photos of any Flick user or group. As you upload new photos to your Flickr account, they will automatically be displayed on your grandma’s screen when her computer is idle. Cool.

Later, you can explore tagging photographs in Flickr. Tags are keywords, pieces of meta-data that describe the content and context of your photos. Tags help people identify photos that have something in common. Every time you upload a photo, you can tag it with multiple keywords. Tags are what make your photos searchable, so it’s important to put some thought into them.

Flickr provides a photofeeds for individual tags. You can go a step further and add transitions, animations, titles and commentary to your Photocasts using Microsoft Photostory, just like Screencasting.

Update: Dave is pointing to an Apple photocast RSS feed # that works in Safari but not in IE or Firefox. As a workaround (until Apple fixes it), just supply this feed to Feedburner and it then works like a charm.

MillionDollarHomepage eBay Auction ends in disappointment

Own The Last 1,000 Pixels on MillionDollarHomepage.com - The eBay Auction is now over but the closing minutes of the auction were a big disappointment atleast for Alex Tew - the creator of MillionDollarHomepage.com



Alex Tew was selling the last 1,000 pixels of MillionDollar Homepage in an eBay Auction. Yesterday, the highest bid amount for 1000 pixels was $160,000 but just minutes before the close of auction, all high amount bidders ($1,000,000+) either retracted their bids or were found to be fake.

Ebay user latentauthor who bid $153,000.00 retracted from the auction citing “Seller [Alex Tew] changed the description of the item”.

Two other users - lost.river.trader and ast1155td retracted saying they entered the wrong amount while bidding. Both had entered $160,000,00+ in their pixel bids. A $25m and another $6 million bid were cancelled as they were found to be fake.



The MillionDollarPixel auction was won by greatdealsdepot for US $38,100.00. He made the bidding on 05-Jan-06 and the auction received no “real” bids since then.

The MillionDollarHomepage made more than a million dollars (999,000 + 38,100) It was your Final Chance to Own a Piece of Internet History!

Update: Alex will announce the winner on the Million Dollar Blog once he receives the full payment.

Chitika is not adding Adsense style Text Ads

Chitika PPC Advertising is not expanding to include Text ads after eMiniMalls

Immediately after launch, Chitika eMiniMalls became the darling of bloggers. The interactive eMinimalls displayed product ratings, reviews, prices from various merchants and other comparison shopping related information in one neat format. Some website owners even experimented replacing Adsense units with PPC Chitika ads since Chitika was giving a much higher CPC than Google Adsense.

On the downside, Chitika ads reported lower Click-through rates (CTR) and were found to be more effective on product blogs like Cameras, Garments or Electronics. And the recent delay in Chitika audits, changes to eMiniMalls interface, and drop in CPC rates didn’t go down really well with many Chitika publishers.

Still, considering that the service is still in Beta, Chitika is still a good alternative to Adsense or YPN. And now, in a bid to restore lost publisher’s faith, Chitika is working on new Ad formats (see screenshot) that completely resemble the text ads offered by Yahoo Publisher Network or Google Adsense.

This screenshot shows a square 250x250 Chitika text ad displaying contextual ads from comparison shopping merchants like Dealtime or BizRate. The “Ads By Chitika" link takes you to the Chitika Inc. homepage. The Chitika Text Ad formats resemble ads formats offered by Google Adsense. The user clicks in Chitika Text Ads are tracked by ads1.chitika.net [eMiniMalls clicks are tracked by mm.chitika.net] It is not immediately clear when the Chitika Text Ads will be available to publishers.

Update: ChitikaNews.com confirmed with Chitika that it is only a rumour and Chitika have no plans to support the RealContext feature.

Chitika Google YPN Sandbox | Chitika eMiniMalls format | Google Adsense Formats

How to Track Visitor clicks in Adsense, Chitika and YPN with Google Analytics

Always Use Protection: Condom for Internet Explorer

The “Always use protection" Firefox ad, showing a condom wrapped with the Firefox logo, tried to associate Firefox with safe sex. And now, the developers of Registry Cleaner are trying a similar trick to protect IE - they have actually created a condom for Internet explorer.

This eCondom is a free utility that helps you to run Microsoft Internet Explorer in the safer user mode even if you are logged in under Administrator account. Generally, user accounts are prohibited by Administrator from installing new software or ActiveX control (IE Plugins) which are the prime entry routes for spyware, keylogger, rootkit or other malware. And if you still want to install a plugin - just run IE without the condom.

eCondom tries to block access to malicious web sites that use the latest, yet not fixed by Microsoft, vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer [ remember the WMF flaw ]

eCondom only complements and is certainly not a replacement for anti-spyware, anti-virus or personal firewall. Windows, Vista, is expected to address these issues through a Microsoft Internet Explorer Protected Mode. But until you can run Vista you can get a similar level of protection by using eCondom.

Download eCondom | Source AMUST eCondom

Law now prohibits annonymous blog comment or email

Annonymous comments in blogs may soon become a thing of the past. A new law in US states that when you annoy someone on the Internet, you must disclose your identity. Else, you can be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.

You are welcome to “flame” someone on a mailing list or in a blog as long as you do it under your real name. But annoying someone via the Internet while remaining anonymous is now a federal crime.

The provision, contained in the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), amends the existing law to create criminal penalties for anonymous e-mails and VoIP calls sent with the intent to “annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any person.”

VAWA was originally passed in 1994 to protect women from domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking. The new version of the bill adds a cyber stalking provision to the legislation that includes anonymous e-mail and Internet-based voice services such as Vonage.

Attorney Susan Howley of the National Center for the Victims of Crime, who helped shape the amendment added to the existing VAWA, said, “It’s another tool to stop someone’s harassing behavior. It only extends the current telephone harassment laws to the Internet. It extends the same protections to new forms of communications.”

Source: Create an e-annoyance, go to jail