Tag: Google

Best Feeling by Keller Williams
[audio:http://www.archive.org/download/kw2007-07-24.c42.flac16/kw2007-07-24t13_64kb.mp3]

Follow up to GUpdate and Don’t Be Evil

So I’ve been using Google for nearly five months now, and it has replaced most apps I used to use on a daily basis. I’ve been extremely satisfied with it: GMail now handling 7 different email accounts; Google Documents handling both business, school, and personal documents; Google Reader consolidating 36 feeds into one place; Google Calendar keeping me on the same page as my business partners; and iGoogle displaying all that and more when I open my browser. But again, what makes it all worthwhile is that they work with each other and can be accessed anywhere with an internet connection.

I’m posting this update now (likely the last, I doubt I’ll become suddenly unsatisfied with it, unless they go and lose all my shit) because Google Reader has added the one feature that I’ve been longing for. A search, so I can run through my feeds quickly for something specific.

If you haven’t tried using Google’s slew of online apps, you should.
This is Web 3.0, and its here now, and its wonderful.

After Midnight by moe. w/ John Medeski, Trey Anastasio, Sam Bush, and Jennifer Hartswick
[audio:http://www.archive.org/download/moe2005-02-10.DPA4021s-splt.v3.flac16/moe2005-02-10d3t06_64kb.mp3]

Follow up to Don’t Be Evil

So for about a week now I’ve been using Gmail for all of my email (5 addresses, one place to get em all), Google Reader for my RSS feeds (34 of them), Google Calendar for events (there isn’t much happening, so there is very little there), and Google’s startpage as one stop for all of that. Google has some other nifty services, but either I already used them or I don’t need them (like Google Earth and Maps, which I’ve used since they came out).

As a startpage, Google works pretty well. I’ve got semi useful widgets and links to places I want to go. One cool little thing they’ve added is page themes, which actually change with the time of day. I like that.

Gmail is incredible. I don’t know what more I can say about it. That’s untrue: I recieve email from 5 different email addresses (three of which Google checks and recieves via POP3, the other two are fowarded), automatically sort them with filters, and can search through them easily. I can also send email from each one of those email addresses, including my uconn address. And all this is available to me anywhere with an internet connection. I only wish I had done this earlier.

Reader is another story. Google Reader needs more work before I can sing its praises. It does adequately replace Sage (the firefox extention I had previously used to view RSS feeds), lets me organize feeds into folders and allows me to read more posts quicker than before. But it is in sore need of some features. I’d like to see a search, so I could find specific things in my feeds quickly. Maybe even a smart folder feature (a la OSX).

But my main complaint about Reader is one that I’ve already complained about before. I feel even more distant from the sites I’m reading. Even more so than when I was using Sage. As a result I read my feeds less. I don’t know what Google could do to help this, or if there is anything they can do. But that doesn’t make it any less of an issue.

Google Calendar seems nice, but I haven’t had too much of an opportunity to play with it, being summer and all. It will be tested more in the fall.

As for the other services Google offers, they mostly don’t do anything for me. I don’t use blogger because I’ve got a blog that I can hack here, I don’t much like Picasa (viva Flickr!), and although SketchUp is fun, I have no use for it.

I’ll make new posts concerning this as things change.

I’ve also tussled a little bit with the Google Apps Suite. Since that is a bit more niche, you’ll have to check the extended to read about that.

Continue reading “GUpdate”

I spend a lot of time on the internet. That’s no secret.
I like to think that I’ve optimized and streamlined everything as much as possible. I’ve fiddled with Firefox and gotten it to do exactly what I want and need it to do, to the point where it is the most important application on my computer.

Backtrack, it is July 2004 and I’ve just registered for GMail. I’m really pumped about this, because I’m a huge nerd. I use it frequently until the end of highschool, and for that time it is a great tool. Then I stop using it. I honestly don’t know why, maybe I forgot about it, maybe something else, whatever the case, I didn’t use it anymore.

Now some two years later, I logged in to one of my GMail accounts. I’ve used my Google ID for a couple of their other web apps like docs.google.com (which I used to write a couple papers this last semester), but I hadn’t actually signed in to GMail. So I did that today.

No, this isn’t about the messages I found from years ago (which were pretty fun to read) or the spam that somehow got in there. What drove me to write this post is how incredibly tight Google has tied together all of its apps. I’ve paid attention over time as Google churns out nifty web app after web app, but I hadn’t taken the time to see how they worked together, and that’s what makes them valuable. Lets move back to my original point.

I’m considering a massive shift in the way I use computers. I can do this with Google Apps. Google Reader replacing Sage (Firefox plugin for RSS feeds). GMail replacing Thunderbird. Google Calender replacing 30boxes (I like 30boxes well enough, but the integration with Google is so handy). Hell, even iGoogle replacing my homepage. I’m not sure about Picasa replacing Flickr, but I’ll play around with it.

Yes, I’m a bit apprehensive about putting all of my information in the hands of one company. But their privacy policy and terms of service are solid, so I think it should be alright.

I think I’m going to try and go through with this. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.