it was just rolled out today.
the bus stop theme that you have will change based on the weather of your default location

3/20/2007 9:14:50 AM

Yeah thats what I saw.

Neat idea if you ask me.

3/20/2007 9:34:51 AM

^ go check your mail duder! that's a lot of messages to read.

3/20/2007 11:40:47 AM

^df-
That actually is not that bad...check out my inbox count:



Needless to say I gave up somewhere along the line...maybe one weekend I will go through and clean that damn thing up...

3/20/2007 12:52:32 PM

hah

3/20/2007 12:56:25 PM

Quote :

"How does Google transfer data between distant cities at a rate of 1 GB per second? By truck, of course. http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,73007-0.html via reddit: http://reddit.com/info/1bx63/comments How do you get 120 terabytes of data -- the equivalent of 123,000 iPod shuffles (roughly 30 million songs) -- from A to B? For the most part, the old-fashioned way: via a sneakernet. It's not glamorous, but Google engineers hope to at least end the arduous process of transferring massive quantities of data -- which can literally take weeks to upload onto the internet -- with something affectionately called "FedExNet" by the scientists who use it. Chris DiBona, the open-source program manager at Google, just returned late last week from Washington, D.C., where he met with Hubble researchers at the Space Telescope Science Institute to set the stage for what will be the largest data transfer for the project ever: The near totality of all the astronomical data and images that Hubble has ever collected -- about 120 terabytes. Chris DiBona Photo: Julian Cash The project comes out of DiBona's efforts last fall to put together an informal system in which Google acts as both a repository and courier for large data sets between teams of scientists. Now, he leads a team that sets up small form-factor PCs, hooked up to drive arrays that can store up to 3 terabytes of data. The process lightens the load, but it isn't simple: DiBona ships both the PC and array to teams of scientists at various research institutions, which then connect their local servers to the array via an eSATA connection. Once the data transfer is complete, the drives get sent straight back to Mountain View, where DiBona and others copy the data to Google's servers for archival purposes. The idea then is that if other scientists around the world needed access to such a large quantity of data, Google would simply reverse the process. "Right now, we're just acting as a conduit," DiBona says. "We make a copy of it, and then we can use the hard drives for something else. They'll get banged around a little bit too much (to store the data directly on the drives). They're not intended to be a long-term storage medium -- they're like envelopes to us." For now, the program is only working in one direction -- data being sent from the field straight back to Google. But that should change later this year. Also, for the time being, the data is largely limited to astronomical data, such as Arizona State University's nearly 6 terabytes of thermal infrared images of the surface of Mars. Noel Gorelick, a member of the research faculty in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University, says that a complete electronic transfer of its Mars data with the outside world normally take more than a month of constant, painful, uploading. "We stopped doing it because that's not pleasant," Gorelick says. With a set of Google drives, Gorelick (who came up with the FedExNet moniker) can copy his team's data in about 24 hours or less, something that can make a big difference when the time comes to collaborate with other research groups. "Faster is better," he says. "The sooner you get your data, the sooner you can start processing it and start finding out what it is that you don't know." ASU's data, like that of the STSI's, is already made available online to the public. But both entities are limited to how much they can transfer over the public internet. In theory, they both could send their own hard-drive arrays out without the help of Google, but that takes time and money -- two things that the science community is typically short on. "We can't afford (to send) a huge number of disks to people," says Carol Christian, deputy of the Community Missions Office at STSI. "We're not in a position to just mail out a terabyte disk to anyone who wants it." But beyond simply letting Google do the data transfer for them, Christian says that she believes that by helping the company make Hubble data more easily available to the public, it may profoundly alter the way astronomical science is conducted. "The more people that look at the data, and the more people that have large amounts of the data, then there is a change of thinking: 'Wow, I could have almost all the Hubble data attached to my laptop,'" she says. Christian also said she has been working with Google to help the company create a new way to access their astronomical data -- simply typing in a star's name into a traditional search field simply won't do. And this raises the question of what Google intends to do with such a large amount of data, beyond just lending a helping hand. While the company remains cagey about its future plans, it's conceivable that it may be working on a more science-oriented search engine, along the lines of Google Scholar. "

lol he was trying too hard in that picture

3/22/2007 4:30:31 AM

sweet, a Picasa Web Albums (time to change the name - Google Pictures, plz!) API - http://code.google.com/apis/picasaweb/overview.html

now we should start to see lots of ways to integrate your Picasa Web albums and pictures into your own website, like a lot of Flickr programs/plugins let you do.

__
wow - check out http://www.picnik.com/
It uses the Flickr and Picasa APIs to allow you to view, manage and edit all your online photo albums in one place in a really nice interface

[Edited on March 22, 2007 at 9:29 AM. Reason : .]

3/22/2007 9:19:55 AM

Grrr.. Opera isn't a supported browser for gmail anymore.

3/23/2007 11:15:18 PM

Google releases TiSP - Free home broadband wireless service Sign up now for the beta kit!



http://www.google.com/tisp/

4/1/2007 9:14:49 AM

i never thought to use the sewer system - SMART!

4/1/2007 9:47:01 AM

Gmail Paper
http://mail.google.com/mail/help/paper/more.html

Quote :

"Yes. The cost of postage is offset with the help of relevant, targeted, unobtrusive advertisements, which will appear on the back of your Gmail Paper prints in red, bold, 36 pt Helvetica. No pop-ups, no flashy animations—these are physically impossible in the paper medium."

4/1/2007 11:11:30 AM

google wins the april fools day i think

4/1/2007 12:15:20 PM

Google always wins.

4/1/2007 12:24:14 PM

April 1: the day when Google forgets that their homepage isn't part of slashdot.org.

(or maybe it is ...)

4/1/2007 2:44:39 PM

looks like they're still working on Google Notebook
http://google.blognewschannel.com/archives/2007/03/30/google-notebook-leaves-beta-gets-facelift/
might be time to try it out again.....

also nice to see their UIs are starting to become a bit more standardized across applications (gmail, calendar, notebook, reader, etc)

4/4/2007 1:08:09 PM

Google Maps now has "My Maps" - maps you can create and save in your account that you can place markers, shapes and text on. This is a huge step forward for Google Maps. It's a feature that MS Live has had for a while and Ask.com too, but this immediately surpasses all the other offerings. It's very fast and easy and quite flexible.

lot's of cool features. the maps are saved as KML so you can view them automatically in Google Earth, and they are searchable (if you want them to be). Right-click to add a marker now works (unfortunately still no right-click to add "start/end route here"). RichText or HTML in the marker description boxes.
now if we could embed these into another website and have them pull mapping data from another source (like a Google Spreadsheet), this would really be a killer app.

http://maps.google.com/
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/map-making-so-easy-caveman-could-do-it.html
http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2007/04/my_maps_new_google_m.html
http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2007-04-05-n84.html

4/5/2007 2:53:54 PM

it's about damn time

4/5/2007 3:01:08 PM

Yeah- saw the my maps feature today! ^ You're right, about damn time

4/5/2007 3:03:13 PM

from Google Labs is Google Local Voice Search - http://labs.google.com/goog411/
you call a number (800-GOOG-411) and speak your query. I've tried a couple and it works pretty good. Sounds like a good free alternative to 411 or whatever service your cell provider offers.

4/7/2007 12:03:34 PM

It's be much nicer if I could actually access any of this stuff at work

SOX = bah!

4/7/2007 1:15:30 PM

^ they block Google? and TWW is ok? wtf

4/7/2007 1:43:25 PM

Oh google search products are fine -

They just block gmail and pretty much everything else that allows external collaboration.
Theoretically every corporation is required to either block webmail - or audit it completely due to Sarbane-Oxley.

I just happen to work for a large investment bank where we take regulation and security near to the point of absurdity.

4/7/2007 3:49:59 PM

Quote :

"audit it completely due to Sarbane-Oxley."

really? what does that mean - they have to specifically intercept and cache all webmail sites like gmail, yahoo, hotmail, etc? what are they supposed to do when you access it via https?

4/7/2007 3:54:16 PM

ho-ly crap. google to buy doubleclick for $3.1 billion
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/04/13/google-spends-31-billion-for-doubleclick/

4/13/2007 8:11:48 PM

^ yeah, i think that's a terrible sign of things to come from Google. In the early 2000's, Google was supposed to be the antithesis of Doubleclick..... plus, this has to raise some serious antitrust issues, as this would give google >80% of the online advertising business. here's some good, critical thoughts on it
http://google.blognewschannel.com/archives/2007/04/15/google-says-we-gots-money-lets-buy-everybody/
http://google.blognewschannel.com/archives/2007/04/16/has-google-crossed-the-line-microsoft-yahoo-att-say-yes/


other bad news is that apparently, really not very surprisingly, is that sometimes after Google acquires a startup, the technology just sits there and they don't attempt to improve or re-release it
http://google.blognewschannel.com/archives/2007/04/17/dodgeball-story-ends-ugly-as-a-cautionary-tale-to-startups/


but some good news, I suppose, is that Google Office is nearing completion, with Presentations coming this summer, after having bought Tonic Systems
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/were-expecting.html
http://google.blognewschannel.com/archives/2007/04/17/google-announces-plans-for-online-presentations-tool/
http://google.blognewschannel.com/archives/2007/04/17/video-demo-of-google-powerpoint-tool/
this is good, i guess, but they still have a lot to do to make Docs and Spreadsheets more functional and usable. the main bad thing about this is that it will just trigger another eye-rolling round of news stories about "MS Office Killer" or "Google going after Microsoft" or whatever.

4/17/2007 5:59:08 PM

Just noticed the "Call" feature on Google Maps- details at:
http://maps.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=52512&topic=1467

Most surprising is:
"Am I charged to connect to the business?

No. Google pays for all calls, both local and long-distance. However, if you give us a mobile phone number, the normal airtime fees or other fees charged by your phone provider may apply."

Pretty neat!

4/17/2007 6:51:18 PM

embarrassed by something on google?
ask them to take it off
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/04/requesting-removal-of-content-from-our.html
http://searchengineland.com/070417-213813.php

4/17/2007 10:54:53 PM

awesome - Google Spreadsheets does Charts now!
http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2007-04-18-n41.html

4/18/2007 7:49:52 AM

^ upon looking into it, the Charts options are so limited, it's really not even worth it for me.

But now - Google Search History is now Google Web History. If you enable Web History, Google will index EVERYTHING you do online, not just your searches.
This one should make the privacy activists happy….. The key thing to note, though, is that this is an opt-in service. You have to install the newest versions of Google Toolbar, and you should be fully aware if you are activating this service
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/your-slice-of-web.html
http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2007-04-20-n17.html

4/20/2007 11:12:34 AM

renaming froogle i liked the pun

4/20/2007 11:16:04 AM

Does the spreadsheet do URLs yet? That seems brain dead dumb to me, that you can't put a URL in an online app, durr.

4/20/2007 11:17:26 AM

^^yeah, product search is kinda lame after froogle, what made them change it?

4/20/2007 3:27:48 PM

well, apparently Froogle was one of their least used products, and I heard a LOT of hate for it too, although i thought it was decent.

But the name probably just doesn't fit any more with their new "grown up" attitude. And I don't imagine the name really helped with driving people to it either - i mean, who says, "hmm, i need to search for a product. i wonder if Google can do that. Ohh, 'Froogle', that looks like exactly what i need!".
Plus, the pun was probably lost on a lot of people, especially since it's something that you read and don't really say out loud (which would help cement the pun).

4/20/2007 3:46:31 PM

even if they said it out loud most people wouldn't know what frugal meant

4/20/2007 4:13:22 PM

that is sad on many levels

4/20/2007 8:45:48 PM

i don't know enough about mySQL to know what any of this means, but it look like Google is releasing several patches/upgrades to mySQL 4 that they use on their own implementation, with the intention of them being rolled into the main branch.
http://google-code-updates.blogspot.com/2007/04/google-releases-patches-that-enhance.html

4/24/2007 7:47:10 AM

impressive, that's a really good move on their part.

4/24/2007 9:16:24 AM

i just lost my igoogle setup

i thought they fixed this
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2007/04/homeless-internet-citizens.html

[Edited on May 1, 2007 at 10:56 AM. Reason : a few days old]

5/1/2007 10:43:36 AM

igoogle?

5/1/2007 10:47:23 AM

that's what the personalized google homepage is called

http://www.google.com/ig?hl=en

[Edited on May 1, 2007 at 10:50 AM. Reason : as of yesterday]

5/1/2007 10:50:35 AM

sweet - a completely new interface for Google Analytics started being rolled out yesterday. Should be available to everyone within a month. It has been redesigned based on the acquisition of MeasureMap. Looks MUCH better and more functional than before
http://services.google.com/analytics/tour/index_en-US.html

Even more important, though, it looks like the previous owner/designer of MeasureMap is now the lead UI Designer at Google. He says in his blog he now "responsible for the user experience of Google's web applications. We're working on Gmail, Calendar, the Office-like tools, Blogger, Orkut, Picasa, Talk and a bunch more." Meaning that hopefully under his supervision, all the Google applications will get spruced-up and more consistent interfaces
http://www.veen.com/jeff/archives/000965.html
http://google.blognewschannel.com/archives/2007/05/09/yes-measuremap-was-behind-the-google-analytics-redesign/



Also, if you have a Wii, looks like Google Reader has a feed reader specifically for the Wii
http://google.blognewschannel.com/archives/2007/05/09/google-launches-wiider-uh-reader-for-wii/
http://www.google.com/reader/view/?ui=wii

5/9/2007 10:25:24 AM

Quote :

"renaming froogle i liked the pun"

GAH just discovered this today-- i didnt use it that much but i was crazy confused for a minute-- "I KNOW they didnt get RID of it...."

5/14/2007 3:04:56 PM

bunch a stuff...
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/05/16/searchology-event-at-google-today/

Quote :

"First announcment: UNIVERSAL SEARCH. integration of search. Books, local, images, news and video will be integrated into main google search. second announcemnt - google video search is now integrating beyond youtube and google videos, integrating other properties like metacafe. includes metacafe plus others. 5 or 6 total Next announcement: Google Universal Navigation bar: nav bar that goes across all google properties. get to gmail, etc. with one click at any time. next: Google Experimental. google.com/experimental. can see all the latest experiments on google. sign up to any and it adds to your default google search experience. "

5/16/2007 4:47:35 PM

do not like

5/16/2007 6:13:03 PM

yeah i'm not a big fan of opera either

5/16/2007 8:36:18 PM

^ nice

5/16/2007 9:04:23 PM

>.<

5/16/2007 10:05:14 PM

^^^ ha, that's what I thought too.

but on the new interface standard. I like it. It could be better, but it is a hell of a lot better than before. I have complained many many times in this thread before that I didn't like what they were doing with the little half-assed menu on the upper left of certain google pages. but with this, where you get a distinct and consistent "menu bar" across all your Google Applications which open in the same window, it feels like all your Google Apps are much more tied together. Now I would like to see a lot more application integration (like a lot more integration between Gmail and Calendar), but this is definiately a move in the right direciton.


ok, playing around with it some more.... definately needs some work, immediately. I notice now it is not consistent across apps. Google Reader doesn't contain the bar, and the order of the items in the bar changes, but only sometimes. e.g. in Gmail, "Mail" is the first item and it is not linked (because it's the current App you're in). When you go to the searches like Web, Images, and Video, though, the order stays the same, and the current App is highlighted, instead of moving to the front of the list. I understand the difference - you interact with web searches differently than stand-alone Apps, but still.... it creates inconsistency.

and there MUST be a way to customize the bar. Like in Gmail, I want links to Gmail, Calendar and Reader only. I want Documents and Photos in the "More" menu, instead of wasting space in the menu bar with Apps I never or rarely use.

[Edited on May 16, 2007 at 11:26 PM. Reason : .]

5/16/2007 11:20:55 PM

^ i don't understand why you would want a link to Gmail when you are in Gmail...

5/17/2007 7:19:55 AM

you know what i mean. not a link, but leave "Gmail" in the navigation bar, but bolded and unlinked to indicate that's where you currently are. just like it is now. Then The main point being i want to customize the other items in the bar.

5/17/2007 7:48:55 AM