This Chrome extension brings back Google's "View Image" button
Sometime last month, Google removed the "View Image" button in Google Image Search to help curb image copyright infringement. This unfortunately removed a very useful button feature in their image search to simply view the image requested without visiting a website. Now, a handy Google Chrome extension brings that button back.
In search of people with your name
So weird. I was just talking about this idea with a friend the other day and here I come across an article about this exact thing. In an article for The Atlantic, writer Julie Beck describes her quest to seek out as many people as possible with her same name.
Using the website How Many of Me, you can do a quick and dirty search of how many people share your name according to US Census data. For me, that's 3 other Herman Yung's living in the United States. That's news to me since the only person I've come across so far -- at least online -- with my name is a young man living in Hong Kong.
The only reason I know this, and Julie describes this a bit in her article, is because the internet has sort of become this "land grab" of identity plates, and the one I am currently not in possession of is the Instagram handle "hermanyung". It doesn't matter too much to me I guess (although I still would like that Instagram handle) because if anybody searches for me, they will undoubtedly find me as the first search result on Google.
This brings to light something I've considered to be increasingly important to me as I get older and as the digital age wraps itself ever more tightly into everyone's daily life. The idea is, essentially, how I would name my children in the future. Granted, the last name Yung isn't that common, but giving my children common first names will certainly increase the odds that some other Yung out there (unrelated to me) will also give their child that name. No Marks, Jessicas, Graces, Davids, or Johns I guess...
My new favorite screensaver: Google Trends
First things first: I didn't know Google Trends had this amazing grid display of current search trends. Upon first viewing, I immediately saw the potential for this to be an awesome screensaver due to its alternative colored slides and fast-changing text.
Well, it turns out, this is available as a screensaver. Download and turn it on now and watch as Google search trends proliferate your screen. You can add rows and columns (or take them away) and set the search language to any region you want.