Charles Gnilka's Blog Laboratory

Testing Surveys! What Survey Tool Works Best?

2010-01-26T10:52:00.001-05:00

Let me dust off the cobwebs after leaving this blog blank for over a year.

I'm testing some survey tools.

First up is Survey Monkey. I signed up for a free account and made a simple survey.

Click here to take survey

Next up is Blogger. It appears I can't embed the survey directly into a Blogger post, so the survey appears in the sidebar.

Which one works best?

Google Apologizes For Gmail Outage While Twitter Spreads The News

2008-08-12T09:10:00.011-04:00

I came home late after a night at the movies and read the news that Gmail had been down for a few hours.

I use Gmail as my main mail service through Google Applications and checked to see what the fuss was about. Everything was working for me. No problem. I must have missed the outage. This morning, my RSS reader was buzzing with reactions.

The official Gmail blog features an apology from Google. "We heard loud and clear today how much people care about their Gmail accounts", says the Gmail blog. Google says they're reviewing what happened and are moving quickly to fix it.

The Blog Herald features the story "Gmail Outage: Why it Still Says Beta". Thord Daniel Hedengren thinks that the "beta" label at the top of Gmail is "ridiculous" and "it works well enough to replace a desktop mail client".

I found out about the Gmail outage through my Twitter account. Google mentions the impact of Twitter in their official apology. CNET's Webware blog reports on the impact of Twitter in reporting the news. According to B.L.Ochman's Blog, Twitter users were spreading news of the outage before news sites could report it.

I use Gmail as my desktop email and to manage a the multiple email accounts and my dozens of web app accounts. I wasn't affected by the outage, but I was at the movies last night. Had I been in the middle of something crucial or had a deadline, I might not have been so forgiving.

My main concern about Gmail has always been security. They're still working on that.

First look at Google Analytics For Blogger

2008-05-15T11:30:00.000-04:00

The Google Analytics Blog offers a first look at the new Google Analytics for Blogger. Based on Measure Map, an analytics tool for blogging, the analytics will be located on a new "stats" tab in the Blogger interface.

Google Analytics for Blogger is still in private beta, but should be out soon. Until then, you can still use traditional Google Analytics.

Google alters time and space for Gmail on April Fools Day

2008-04-01T08:54:00.005-04:00

When I signed on to my Gmail account this morning, I was greeted by a new Gmail feature.

The new Gmail Custom Time claims to send email back in time to save you from missed deadlines and anniversaries.

I was already impressed that Google was partnering with Virgin Galactic to send lucky space travelers to set up a colony on Mars. First space travel, now they can send Gmail back in time!

What is the date today? Oh yeah...April 1st.

Microsoft bids to buy Yahoo for $44.6 billion

2008-02-01T07:55:00.001-05:00

I just heard this morning that Microsoft wants to buy Yahoo.

This deal is focused on generating more advertising dollars, but what really intrigues me are the possibilities with Yahoo's and Microsoft's services intertwining if the deal goes through.

I use Google as my main search engine. I barely use Yahoo or MSN for search, but I do use their other services.

Microsoft's Live Search does have an amazing Birds Eye view of maps that Google Maps can't even touch.

I can't live without the Yahoo-owned Delicious service for social bookmarking and I just signed up for Flickr Pro for photo sharing.

Microsoft has been slow to adapt Microsoft Office to the Web 2.0 world of online document editing and cloud computing, while Google Docs and Zoho Office have been offering online word processing and spreadsheets.

I wonder if Microsoft could integrate Yahoo's web services into the next version of Windows and make the successor to IE7 more Web 2.0 friendly? Making the OS more seamless with web services would be cool, especially if greater security and support were included.

All I ask for is that Microsoft does not add new annoying features to Yahoo.

Don't trust anyone over 30...who uses Facebook or MySpace

2008-01-31T08:22:00.000-05:00

Are you over 30 and have a MySpace page or a Facebook account? If you do, many social media users under 30 feel like adults are crashing their party.

News.com.au reports that younger users of sites like Facebook now have their parents and grandparents snooping around their profile.

Gone are the days when adults didn't understand "this Internet thing". Mom and Dad are now visiting their kids pages and checking out their friends list. This is causing some tension because some young users feel that their social media sites are their own space.

The old complaint of "Mom, stay out of my room!" has now become "Mom, stop sending me friend requests!"

Blogger Play can hook you on images

2007-09-15T16:07:00.001-04:00

Blogger Play is a site that shows a slide show of photos uploaded to Blogger blogs. According to an entry on The Group Blog, the slide show can be addicting.

Problems with Blogger's RSS feed for comments

2007-08-27T22:49:00.001-04:00

There seems to be an issue with the RSS feeds for Blogger comments. I wrote before about how to embed a blog's recent comments into a blog widget, displaying recent comments for your front page readers.

It worked when I put it on this blog before. Now the blog date and author are the only elements showing up.

I thought I was doing something wrong, then I saw there were several Blogger users with the same problem on Google Group for Blogger.

I'm not sure what the issue is. Blogger has done something to the API that is killing the comment feeds. I'll just leave the widget up to see if it gets fixed.

While I'm at it, I do have a gripe with Blogger's comment RSS feed. I've received some comment spam on this blog. I deleted the spammy comments, but they still show up in my comment RSS feed. The only solution to get rid of them is to have newer comments push them out of the immediate posts.

If anyone has a solution to these issues, feel free to comment or email me.

Google Facebook Application - Share your searches with friends

2007-08-27T22:37:00.000-04:00

Steve Rubel posted a link on his Twitter feed to a Google Operating System about a new applicaion for Facebook.

You perform a Google search through Facebook and it is shared with all your Facebook friends.

I'm not so sure if I want all my Facebook chums to see what I'm searching for, and I can't see the immediate benefits this would have.

I could see sharing a Google search where you use a whole arsenal of advanced search operators, showing off your mad Google skills.

It is cool to see Google and Facebook starting to integrate.

Search this blog with the new search feature

2007-08-10T10:31:00.000-04:00

Blogger In Draft now offers a search box for Blogger. As usual, adding it to my Blogger page took only a few clicks.

The part I like is how the results appear at the top of the blog content without taking you to another page. You can search all you want without leaving the article you are reading.

Digg and my Google Reader Feed added to the Blog Laboratory

2007-08-09T10:35:00.000-04:00

I added my Google Reader Feed and RSS content from Digg.com on the far right column.

I share stories using my Google Reader account. If you are unfamiliar with Google Reader and RSS, you should check it out on your Google Account. It is the best RSS reader around. The share button adds selected stories to a page and an RSS feed that can be used on your blog or other page.

The stories from Digg.com come from the Digg Widget that I added to the sidebar. While there are ways to dress up a Digg feed, I kept it simple to blend in with the design of my blog and to keep the headlines from pressing on the sides of the column.

Ray Bradbury on the art of writing.

2007-08-03T23:23:00.000-04:00

I found this video on YouTube of Ray Bradbury talking about the art of writing. I posted this on my other blog, but it's such a great video clip I am posting it here too.

Ray Bradbury is in his 80s and still passionate about his craft. He's an amazing writer and an inspiration.

Another template change!

2007-08-03T23:20:00.001-04:00

I made more changes to this blog template. I was not totally happy with the topper and made some more tweaks. Now the test tubes look like they are filled with luminous substances.

I found the test tube images on StockXpert, a great resource for photos for blog headers.

Charles Gnilka is now on Twitter

2007-08-03T23:18:00.001-04:00

I just started a Twitter account and added the Twitter badge to this blog. It took less than a minute to get it running. Twitter did an excellent job of creating an easy-to-add badge to Blogger.

New template with two columns and wide background

2007-08-02T22:52:00.000-04:00

I just uploaded a new template with two columns. I also made a new topper graphic and made the background continuous. Uploading the new header was easy with the template editor.

Test Post

2007-07-24T08:14:00.001-04:00

Test Post!

Using the new Flock 0.9 Web Browser for blogging

2007-07-21T18:35:00.001-04:00

I'm writing this post from the Flock 0.9 Web Browser. Flock is based on Firefox and described as "The social web browser", meaning it interfaces easily with Blogger, Flickr, Photobucket and other (WARNING! Buzzword ahead!) Web 2.0 websites.

You can see from this screencap the extra buttons meant for specific services. Instead of having to log into Blogger to write this post, I pushed the feather button on the tab (second from the right) to open a posting window.

All the features are there: image placement, fonts...even tags.

I used an earlier version of Flock and found it useful for updating several blogs on different Blogger accounts. You can type your posts while your browser stays on the same page.

The downside was Flock was a bit slow and ended up bogging down on my machine. That may not have been Flock's fault, I was using it on a Windows 2000 machine that could use some more RAM. I use Windows XP Professional now on a more powerful machine. I also like Flock's new interface, which is more organized.

Now the real test. Will I learn to love this browser, or will I find that Flock makes my life more complex? After looking through Flock's capabilities, I see features designed to make accessing RSS feeds, video, blogs, and other web services smoothly.

I'll keep you posted. (No...that was not meant to be a pun.)

Blogged with Flock

Google News Bar and widget overload

2007-07-21T13:00:00.000-04:00

I have just added the Google news bar to this blog. I found the code on Google Code for the Google AJAX Search API - News Bar.

I picked topics for the news bar to search: blogging, blog marketing, RSS, Google, and more.

Then I chose if I wanted a horizontal news bar or a vertical one. If you get the horizontal news bar, it flashes headlines in a space using AJAX. If pick the vertical one, you get a bar with selector buttons for the stories your reads want to see.

Now I have so many widgets on the side of this blog that the widgets are longer than the content. I either have to add more content or start pruning widgets.

Let's see what happens after I post a few more entries.

UPDATE - I found that the vertical stretch of the news bar was too much for more content to overcome. So I made it a horizontal element at the bottom of the page.

The book bar and the news bar are nifty tools, but I don't think they are quite ready for prime time. They make great eye candy, but I think they would be too distracting for readers. When they are docked on the bottom of the blog, they aren't too offensive.

I've noticed that the YouTube widget seems to be having trouble. I wonder how many widgets you could cram on to a Blogger blog before it slows to a crawl and widgets start canceling each other out?

Added the RSS feed to comments and a search box

2007-07-21T12:42:00.001-04:00

I just added an RSS feed for the comments of this blog. I used the directions from Dummies Guide to Blogger Beta to find the feed address of my blog.

According the article, the feed for comments from Blogger blogs reads like this...

http://YOURBLOGNAME.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default

I took that feed address, modified with the name of this blog, and put it into an RSS feed widget from the Blogger dashboard. Now I have feed of all comments.

I signed into my blog from the Blogger in Draft page and found a new search widget. The widget allows reader to search my blog and displays the results at the top of the page. I can search the posts on this blog without being redirected to a new page. If you have a blog with many posts, this should come in handy for your readers who are looking for specific information.

YouTube widget added

2007-07-20T10:54:00.000-04:00

You can now search YouTube from this blog with the widget I found on Google Gadgets. The space is kind of small, but it works.

Google Book Bar is back

2007-07-20T10:23:00.000-04:00

The Google Book Bar is back. I removed a while ago because it was interfering with my template. Now that my template has white background again, it fits in nicely.

I wish Google had a way to edit the style and background colors of the book bar and other tools to make them mesh seamlessly with any blog.

Installed the Blogger video bar

2007-07-20T10:17:00.000-04:00

Just installed the Blogger video bar in the lower right corner of the blog. I put in the keywords Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Planets, and others.

Every time you press refresh on your web browser, new videos should appear in the bar.

The videos play at the top of the blog page, keeping reader on the front page instead of a redirect to YouTube or Google Video.

Recharging the batteries..this blog lives again!

2007-07-19T21:52:00.002-04:00

I'm finally posting here again. I've been away for a while, reading up on WordPress and other blogging platforms. There are new features on Blogger to play with, so I'm back.

Blogger now allows you to use a graphic for your blog header without having to get your hands dirty with that icky CSS code or HTML.

Now if you can make a topper in Photoshop and Fireworks, you can install a new header and to your blog as cute and purdy as you wish.

Blogger has also created Blogger In Draft, which features new tools like video upload and polls.

I'm going to get back to work on adding some more widgets and repairing some of the mess that switching templates caused.

Back to the lab.

This is a test post from the Flock web browser!

2007-06-13T13:55:00.001-04:00

I wrote this blog post using Flock web browser.

Blogged with Flock

Find books using Google Book Bar!

2007-02-13T10:22:00.000-05:00

I just installed the Google Book Bar on the top of the blog. I used this page to set up code for the top of my Blogger template.

You can set up the book bar to be either horizontal or vertical, and then tell Google what kind of books to show on the bar.

The Blogger template editor let me copy/paste the code I made into a space, just like the news feed I added.

I have set up my book bar to display books on blogging, CSS, web usability, writing, and other subjects.

Try it out on your blog!