5 Obscure Google Services

Google Fast Flip:

Google Fast Flip is a service that lets users browse news, blogs and popular topics in a print magazine format. As the name suggests, flipping through content is very fast, so that users can browse through multiple articles until they find something they like. Fast Flip aggregates content from many top newspapers and magazines providing a seamless browsing experience. Apart from browsing various articles, users can also search for their favorite topics to get relevant articles. Fast Flip also has a mobile version that can be accessed at (http://fastflip.googlelabs.com/mobile) and it comes with tactile page flipping. The mobile version works well across most of the Android land iPhone devices.


Google Insights for search:

Google Insights is an interesting tool for comparing search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, time frames and properties. It helps in comparing search interests for products, movies,sports and almost anything that people search using Google. The user enters two or more search terms, which are each represented by different colors. The search volume data for those terms is then presented in the form of a neat graph; the Y-axis representing the search volume in percentage, and the X-axis representing the years from 2004 to 2011. A rising line indicates that the popularity of that particular term has risen over time. Besides the graph format, Insights shows a small map depicting regional interest for the term. The map is useful for gathering various types of statistics be it country-wise or city-wise.

Google Panoramio:

This is a great service that was acquired by Google in 2007. Panoramio is a community-powered site for exploring places through photography. It allows users explore cities, monuments, natural wonders and almost everything picturesque. However, the site should not be confused with services like Flickr and Picasa that allow users to post all types of photos.  Registration is free and anyone can submit the pictures they take, provided it doesn't include too many people in them. A mobile version of the site is available for iPhones and Windows 7 phones (third-party).


Google Patent Search:

As the name suggests, this service lets users search for patents on different topics. Particularly useful for research, Google Patent Search also allows users to explore and download patents from a variety of fields including Technology, Medicine, Physics, Chemistry and more. Users can read and download the patents in PDF format. Non-technical users might not find this particularly useful; however, exploring interesting patents like pacifier, Monopoly, and golf club is a great way to know more about simple devices we now take for granted.


Aardvark:

Aardvark is a social search service that helps people get their questions answered by connecting them to their friends or friends-of-friends via live chat. The user posts his or her question, and then Aardvark finds the perfect person to answer the question in the user's social network. Questions can be submitted via email or instant messaging. The Mechanical Zoo, a San Fransisco-based startup, originally owned aardvark before being acquired by Google for $50 million in 2010. The service appears very much similar to Quora; however, Aardvark, unlike Quora, works bests for subjective questions for which human judgment or recommendation is required.

SQL Azure : Import & Export data easily

SQL Azure database users have a simpler way to archive SQL Azure and SQL Server databases, or to migrate on-premises SQL Server databases to SQL Azure. Import and export services through the Data-tier Application (DAC) framework make archival and migration much easier.

The import and export features provide the ability to retrieve and restore an entire database, including schema and data, in a single operation. If you want to archive or move your database between SQL Server versions (including SQL Azure), you can export a target database to a local export file which contains both database schema and data in a single file. Once a database has been exported to an export file, you can import the file with the new import feature. Refer to the FAQ at the end of this article for more information on supported SQL Server versions.

A DAC, introduced in the Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 R2 data management software and the Microsoft Visual Studio® 2010 development system, is a self-contained unit of deployment that defines and bundles database objects, SQL Server instance objects that are associated with the database, and deployment requirements of an application. Using DACs, developers and database administrators can automate and facilitate common operations and practices in the lifecycle of database systems.
Importing and exporting data between on-premises SQL Server and SQL Azure just got a lot easier, and you can get started today with the availability of the Microsoft SQL Server "Denali" Data-tier Application (DAC) Framework v2.0 Feature Pack CTP.

There are 3 important things about the update to the DAC framework:

1. New import & export feature: This DAC CTP introduces an import and export feature that lets you store both database schema and data into a single file with a ".bacpac" file extension, radically simplifying data import and export between SQL Server and SQL Azure databases with the use of easy commands.
2. Free: This functionality will be shipping in all editions of the next version of SQL Server "Denali"-including free SKUs-and everyone will be able to download it.
3. The Future = Hybrid Applications Using SQL Server + SQL Azure: Freeing information to move back and forth from on-premises SQL Server and SQL Azure to create hybrid applications is the future of data. The tools that ship with SQL Server "Denali" will use the DAC framework to enable data movement as part of normal management tasks.
The Data-tier Application (DAC) framework is a collection of database schema and data management libraries that are strategic to database management in SQL Server and SQL Azure. In this CTP, the new import and export feature allow for the retrieval and restoration of a full database, including schema and data, in a single operation.

Convert mp4 to mp3 ... Extract Audio from a Video file or a part of it

Pazera Free Video to 3GP Converter is the freeware application which converts the most popular videos (AVI, DivX, XviD, MPEG, MPG, WMV, ASF, MOV, QT, FLV, SWF, MP4, M4V, 3GP, 3G2, MKV, VOB, DAT) into mobile phone video format (3GP or 3G2). The application allows you to convert full movie or selected range only. You can limit output file size and set many parameters used by encoder: audio and video BitRate, fps, resolution, sampling Frequency and other.

The most important features: 

Conversion from AVI, DivX, XviD, MPEG, MPG, WMV, ASF, MOV, QT, FLV, SWF, MP4, M4V, 3GP, 3G2, MKV, VOB, VCD DAT to 3GP or 3G2. 
Supported video codecs: H.263, MPEG-4 AVC, XviD. 
Supported audio codecs: AMR-NB (AMR Narrowband) and AAC. 
Large number of options. 
2-pass encoding which will Improve the video qaulity. 
Saving and restoring encoder settings. 
Don't need any installation. Just Extract ZIP archive and click videoto3gp.exe. 
Portability. This program can be run from portable devices. 
Supported languages: english, polish. 
100% freeware! - for private and commercial use. No limitations, no watermarks, no adware, no spyware.