Google just introduced another one of the cool side-projects of its software developers to the world. Dubbed Schemer, the new service aims to let you make better use of your spare time by sharing fun ideas with people around the world.

Here is what Schemer should, ideally be all about, according to the developers:

"Whether it’s exploring a new city, checking out a friend’s movie recommendations, or just finding new activities for your weekends, Schemer lets you discover new things to do, share schemes with friends, and make the most of your day."

Google announced today via its YouTube blog that it has purchased New York-based startup RightsFlow to manage its music licensing efforts. This move could help boost YouTube as a hub for music videos, adding to the content that it already offers through its partnership with Vevo. This could also speed up licensing for Google own music store.

RightsFlow, which already has a 30-million-song database, has been at the forefront in handling the complex licensing business to ensure proper copyrighting and payment to artists and labels. With this acquisition, Google will have a dedicated team to help accelerate the growth of its own licensing and premium content offerings.

Starting from today, a new feature on Google+ which works inside the photo app that will make it much easier for you to tag the friends in your photos that Google recognition engine believes match those you have already tagged.

This feature is completely opt-in and wont tag anyone unless you flip the on-switch, and as is natural this day and age, Google has made it abundantly clear that they do not mean to try to swallow your identity up with a barrage of I KNOW YOU alerts. You will upload your photos as normal, see that Google+ has some suggestions for you, and say yes or no to each of them.

YouTube received a more polished design yesterday that focuses the user attention on the channels he/she follows and adds a video feed that reminds slightly of a twitter feed. The new homepage consists of a predominating gray background, bigger video thumbnails and a cleaner video watch page.

The redesign comes with a fresh homepage that has a dedicated channel bar on the left, displaying the ones you are subscribed to, trending, popular, music-oriented and entertainment ones, and ones that YouTube suggests to you based on your viewing activity.

You can also link your Google+ and Facebook profiles to get suggestions based on your friends activities. In the center of the new YouTube page you get a video feed from the channels you are currently subscribed to, displaying videos sorted by channel.

Demo Below!

If you are a fan of the Google Chrome browser you will appreciate this. Chrome is said to be getting an update that will add some new support to make gaming on the browser more fun. The browser will be getting support for gamepads. The tip comes from Paul Kinlan, the Google developer advocate. Kinlan made the statement at Develop Liverpool.

The update is set to land in Q1 2012 and will bring with it not only support for gamepads, but a couple other tricks as well. The update will allow Chrome to support cameras and microphones without needing plug-ins for them to operate. Kinlan apparently hinted that the games for Chrome might also get augmented reality and player tracking.