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15/4/2020 0 Comments How to tell Google to only search for 'recent' content, or only Australian content When Googling to get answers to your questions, or to search for a variety of online content, you often want to limit the results that you see to be only recent posts - whether that be posts from the last month, year, or some other period.
A perfect example came up today during a client visit. This client who wanted to find an ABC Podcast that was broadcast within the last month. His Google search returned a lot of results that related to past content on the topic, but not the one he was looking for. How could he ensure that he only saw results from the last month? And for cases where you only want to see results from local businesses and services, how can you limit the results to show only Australian posts and pages?
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22/3/2020 0 Comments How to ensure your child can't see inappropriate content in Google Search - especially on a school-provided computer With so many children schooling from home at the moment - and therefore on their computers for many more hours of the day - it is important to ensure that they cannot access - either deliberately or accidentally - inappropriate content, particularly through Google searches and Google Images.
Many school-provided computers will not allow you to set up parental controls, especially in Google Chrome. But you can at least set up something called SafeSearch. SafeSearch stops inappropriate content from being presented to children when they do a Google search. Here are the steps involved in setting up Google's SafeSearch: 22/3/2020 0 Comments How to stop Google from backing up Desktop, Documents and Pictures folders and filling up your storage If you are a Google Drive user, you have the capability to sync your Google Drive files to your computer - so that they are accessible from your Mac Finder or Windows File Explorer, even when you don't have internet.
I love this feature, as it allows easy editing of Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents using my Desktop apps. To do this, you download and install the Google Backup and Sync service. However, it is important to understand the settings associated with this service once it is installed.  When you download the Google Photos app to your mobile device, you may inadvertently turn on a feature that causes your device's photos to automatically sync to your Google cloud.
If you already use iCloud Photos on iOS, or some other sync service like Dropbox or OneDrive, there may be no real need to do this (unless you intend to use Google Photos to share with family and friends, etc.). If you no longer wish to backup your device's photos to the Google cloud, you need to adjust a setting in the Google Photos app - and turn off the Backup & sync setting that is causing this upload to Google. 6/3/2020 0 Comments How do I delete all of the photos or files that I have accidentally uploaded to Google If you have installed the Google Photos app on your mobile device, or the Google Backup & Sync service on your computer, you may find that you have inadvertently been uploading and storing your photos and/or files in your Google Cloud.
This is what happened to two clients this week, who were both getting messages that their Google account was full. 
A parent at one of the two Keeping Kids Safe on iPad and iPhones sessions run by iTandCoffee at Melbourne schools this week asked a really good question - the answer to which I figured was worth including in this blog for other parents.
We were talking about how the Limit Adult Content setting of Screen Time on iPads and iPhones can be used to not only limit their access to 'adult' websites and images, but to also stop a child from clearing their browsing history - in case you want to do any checks of where they have been on the internet and what they have been searching. The question from this parent was around the DuckDuckGo search engine and whether it can be used by children to avoid tracking of browsing history.  I, like many iTandCoffee clients who have contacted me, received an email from Google+ yesterday - as shown in the image above.
The questions I have been asked are "Is it legitimate?", "What is Google+", "Do I have this Google+' and "What should I do?". Here are some answers.
 Several weeks ago, I shared an article about Google's new accounts for under-13's. These accounts allow parents to monitor and control their child's use of their Android device using something called Family Link. Unfortunately, at that point, these accounts were not yet available in Australia. The good news this week is that Family Link is now available in Australia. So, for those of you who are interested in exploring how you can keep an eye on the kids' activity and usage of their mobile devices, here is an article on the topic from the Sydney Morning Herald. Related handy hints and articlesHandy Hints (for iTandCoffee Club members)
 Just this week, iTandCoffee presented at a Tourism conference in the Yarra Valley, Victoria. During the presentation, we raised the question with delegates "How safe are your files and photos". Are you backing up your precious files, especially those photos? Please don't wait until a major disaster to think about protecting your 'digital life'! Make sure you are backing up to somewhere - and do it now! In the past week, Google has released an exciting new tool that is worthy of consideration when looking at whether to backup to a physical device, or to a 'cloud' service (or both). This new product allows you to choose to back up some or all of your computer's files and folders to your Google 'cloud'. The great thing about this new service is that you don't need to choose to put your folders and files in a particular area on your computer for the backup to work. You can leave them exactly where the are, and just 'tell' the Backup and Sync Tool which folders should be backed up. Here is an article that describes this new tool. I'll be looking into this one further over the next few weeks, to see if I add another layer of 'protection' for parts of our business and personal digital life. Related Handy Hints and Articles
Handy Hints (for iTandCoffee Club members)
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