11 posts tagged “google”

The folks at Google are showing their love for the Mac more and more as time goes by, most recently centralizing their Mac downloads onto this page. Very nice.

Even though I don’t see it happening, it would kinda fun if Google took a shot at Apple’s Spotlight by releasing Google Desktop for the Mac. Anything that can goose Apple into making Spotlight less sucky is a good thing. I’d like to see Picasa on the Mac as well, just to see iPhoto sweat a little.

Maybe someday.

If you’re like most BlackBerry owners, you generally carry your device with you all the time. For all that money you pay each month, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to pull up driving directions and traffic info right on your phone?

Well, your prayers are answered. Do yourself a favor and download the version of Google Maps for your mobile device. I’ve already used it to locate Starbucks in multiple states and avoid a Chicago traffic jam.

Priceless.

I just noticed this gem:

I thought, “ah, they haven’t made this work in Safari yet.” But the “all my services” link doesn’t wrap awkwardly in Google Calendar.

WTF.

I dig it, anyway, after using it for a while. In my mind, it’s kinda like Firefox with my favorite extensions pre-installed. In particular:

• The one that combines Stop and Reload into one button
• The one that puts a little close box on each tab
• The one that provides spellcheck in text fields

The one thing I’d like that it doesn’t provide out-of-the-box is a form filler-outer, if you know what I mean. But that’s a small quibble…I’m sure there’s an extension out there for that.

Speaking of extensions, the new Flock seems to have greatly increased compatibility with Firefox extensions, and even a way to “convert” Firefox extensions to work with Flock. I think this will really help adoption of Flock…lots of folks have a browsing itch that’s scratched by a particular extension.

The way it handles the search box is pretty nifty, as well: the top five Yahoo! search results are included in a dropdown as you’re typing, and if you select one of those you go straight to the result page. This dropdown also includes search results from your browser history.

I find it interesting that they struck a deal with Yahoo! instead of Google for this. Firefox gets a nice kickback from Google for throwing search business its way, and maybe Yahoo! ponied up more cash. I’ve also heard that some of the Yahoo! APIs are way better than what Google provides, and some kind of search results API would be necessary to provide the top five results right in the dropdown box. Though Google gets a lot of attention, Yahoo! is just fine for most searching and even has a few tricks up its sleeve.

Other random stuff I like about Flock…

• The Snippets feature, which provides a pasteboard of sorts where you can stick images, links, and bits of text you’re currently working with.
• The fact that the installer imports your bookmarks and settings from Firefox without any hiccups. Nicely done.
• The integrated RSS reader, which I would definitely consider using if I wasn’t using the NewsGator-NetNewsWire combo.

Overall, I give it a thumbs up. It’s the browser I use most often, since I’m using Windows at work again. (More on that later.)

My initial reaction to the new crop of web-based MS Office competitors was definitely positive. I won’t be giving any more money to Microsoft if I can avoid it, so I’m looking to other providers. The release of Google Spreadsheets (go here for a nice rundown) is a good example.

However, I recently received an e-mail newsletter from the folks at iRows, another online spreadsheet tool, which highlighted the updates they’ve made to the service in the recent past. Among these were:

• Scroll lock for header rows and columns
• Font name and size selection
• Added user preferences like size of list page and default currency

Default currency? Scroll lock?!? Hold me back! Al-right!

I’m being facetious, in case you can’t tell. Productivity software is boring, and there’s not much anyone can do about that.

Contrast this with the new “Get a Mac” ads Apple’s been running on television. The commercials mention that Macs run MS Office (right away, in fact), but iLife, and the hip stuff you can do with it, are highlighted as reasons why you want to get a Mac.

This makes total sense to me. Does anyone actually care about productivity software? They use it when they need to, and other than that, they don’t give it much thought. I suppose people that do give this topic a lot of thought are power users with lots of legacy data locked in MS file formats, and I would imagine they’d be the least likely to switch to a new web-based package.

The market is now flooded with both desktop and web-based productivity software…isn’t commoditized anything a bad business to be in?

If you develop Java-based web apps, you probably already know about Google Web Toolkit. It’s a GUI framework of sorts for developing AJAX web apps. Google’s own blog gives a nice quick overview.

It’s nice of them to offer this up, and it’s certainly quite nifty. But it’s not exactly a home run. In particular, I found myself scratching my head at the inclusion of some of the old-school, Swing style layouts.

If you’re looking for an alternative, you should check out Echo. In my opinion, Echo gives your web apps more of a desktop feel, and something like GWT gives it more of an AJAXy feel. There’s also a sweet visual editor plugin for Eclipse that makes GUI development a lot easier.

Disclaimer: I used to work with/for the lead developer of Echo, though I never contributed any code to the project. I don’t code Java full-time anymore and I don’t receive any compensation for recommending Echo.

John C. Dvorak can be a crazy bastard, but I completely agree with his opinion that people should stop hatin’ on Google. Google is a great company that’s released some amazing products and they’ve done nothing so far to betray our trust.

I’ve actually been thinking about this since the new Yahoo! Mail Beta came out and there was a prevailing opinion that it will clean Gmail’s clock. This makes no sense to me at all. I’d bet cold, hard cash that if you asked these same people what they thought about Outlook, or pretty much any other standard e-mail client, they’d all say it sucks. But so many people are all wowed that Yahoo! was able to emulate this UI in a web browser.

Who cares if they were able to make a web-based version of something that completely sucked in the first place? No one ever said Gmail was pretty, but it’s the first time in a long time anyone released something solid with the ability to change the way people use e-mail.

Right off the bat, I can say that I would never want to go back to an e-mail client which didn’t have such smooth handling of threads (or “conversations”, as Google calls them). Everyone knows how much it sucks to try to jump into the middle of an e-mail thread in which other people have e-mailed back-and-forth ten times already.

It was the unlimited storage that initially made big headlines, but the key to making that useful is the ability to effectively search and organize all that mail. Google knows how to handle searching, and since Folders Suck they gave us labels instead. The initial privacy concerns blew away, and there’s even useful stuff in the sidebar sometimes, like a link to the appropriate Google Map if there’s a street address in the message.

It’s true that not all their products are such a home run. But how could we possibly expect them to be? Every tech company has had at least one, and usually many, crappy products in their lineup at one time or another. I’d turn that comment around and ask how many have ever had a product with the impact of Google’s core search tool. Maybe five?

This recent dustup between them and the government over privacy issues just makes me like them that much more. For lack of a more technical term, I’d have to say I “trust” them as much as I trust any company.

And so I say, Google, don’t worry about the hatas. I’ve got your back.

Yesterday, Google bestowed upon us Google Local for Mobile, which, to oversimplify, allows you to access Google Maps (now re-launched as Google Local) on your Java-enabled cell phone. The whizbang feature is that you can view the actual, graphical map, zoom in and out, and so forth.

Oddly enough, I had occasion to use it yesterday, as I found myself in downtown Chicago unsure of which direction to go. So, this (to quote Ebert & Roeper) is an early review.

To avoid keeping you waiting, overall I give it a mild thumbs-up. It does a pretty darn good job of recreating what Google Local provides given the limitations of a cell phone. The maps themselves look very nice on my RAZR, though I imagine if your phone has a crappy screen you may be unimpressed. Also, I had never installed any third-party software on my phone before and that process went very smoothly. (I do worry, however, that the concept of installing software on your phone will confuse some people.)

On the downside, it was not able to correctly map my address. This, suffice it to say, is not a trivial problem. I entered 651 w washington chicago il and that mapped to the address 651 Washington St. in West Chicago, IL. Bummer. I realized later that if I would have entered 651 w washington blvd chicago il it would have given me the info I needed. Alas, it did not save the day, and we were forced to whip out a laptop and snarf an open WiFi connection to get our bearings.

So, a word to the wise…be as specific as you can with the address and you’ll be better off. Or plan ahead and don’t forget the frickin’ directions next time before you get on the train.

Another holiday is upon us, and you know what that means…another festive Google logo:

Pretty cute, I guess. I liked the one they had a little while ago for their 7th birthday a bit more.

Speaking of Google and images, Google Images needs an overhaul. I think the worst part is when you click on an image result and get the ugly-ass frameset with a little bit of Google on top and the source web page on the bottom. Put this in design in front of random people on the street and see how many can make sense of it. I mean, come on…frames? What is this, 1998?

Give me a tool where you can easily download the images you like in a variety of sizes without bothering with the source web page. (If you’re worried about copyright then watermark your images.) As a bonus, Google could provide a little file locker so you can store those files online. Or integrate with Flickr. Or something.

I’m thinking Google Images is languishing because it’s not seen as a big moneymaker. Hogwash, I say. Pay for it with ads based on the keywords I entered, like the regular web search. If I can come up with that idea in ten minutes I’m sure there are a hundred better ideas out there.

People need a good way to search for images online, and I think it would be worth it for Google or Yahoo or someone with a large web presence to build really great one, if only to drive more traffic to their site.

Ranting on your blog is fast becoming the “ranting at your local dive bar while people barely tolerate you” of the new millenium. But, I figure the world could use more good vibes so I’ll share a positive experience.

Cold weather is upon us here in Chi-town so the wife and I wanted to get some long sleeve T-shirts. I’d seen American Apparel advertise on The Onion’s web site and recall reading somewhere about the fact that they produce “sweatshop free” clothes right here in the good ‘ol U.S. of A. They have a slick-looking web site so I figured they’d generally have their, um, “stuff” together.

The checkout itself went smooth, but I frowned a little when the order confirmation e-mail had no info on shipping besides some boilerplate saying “orders usually ship in x days.” I waited about x+2 days and e-mailed their customer service people, asking for a tracking number or some kind of shipping info. The response I got back was more or less the order confirmation copy/pasted and some fragmented text that almost made it look like the person clicked Send too soon. I frowned some more, forgot about the whole thing, and the package showed up a few days ago.

Shortly thereafter, I got an e-mail asking me to rate my experience. I didn’t “rip them a new one” or anything…I merely gave them a score of 2 or 3 (out of 5) in the various categories and didn’t even type in any comments. (This is where it starts to get good.)

Luckily, a day or two later a nice person named Natasha from their customer service team contacted me asking why I had given the negative feedback, especially since I offered no explanation in the form of comments. I told her my story and she apologized, further adding that if I liked the garment they’d be happy to send me another at no charge. (Yay!) I responded in the affirmative to the offer of free stuff, and suffice it to say I plan to order from them again.

Something worth mentioning is that when I “told her my story” I did not use an angry or mean tone…I treated her respectfully and that made it that much easier for her to reciprocate. As someone who works in support I realize the importance of this. Plus, it’s just good karma.

And yes, this time, I got a separate e-mail with complete shipping info, including the tracking number…which leads me to today’s tech tip:

Did you know you can use Google to track packages? Simply enter the tracking number into the regular Google search box and it will return the link to the shipper’s tracking web site.

I find this much easier than pulling up the shipper’s web site, finding the “Track” link, accepting the Terms and Conditions™, etc. Just one more reason to love Google.