Eye on Google

Google is sending me to Mars!

2008-04-01T10:05:00.001-04:00

Google announce Virgle! A join venture of Google and the Virgin Group. The goal open source planet.

I read the Virgle web site, took the survey, and laughed at the cute pictures. Now I am just waiting to hear when to pack my bags! My family might miss me, but they'll understand! This is so cool thanks Google and Virgin Group..

Off to Mission Control read up on all the details! Hope to see you on Mars!

Enabling GMail 2.0 changes in Google App's

2008-01-22T14:23:00.001-05:00

I have blogged before about wanting Gmail Updates in Google App's. My main desire is to enable color labels for my corporate email. Well I found a solution and wanted to share it.

Once your in to the dashboard choose the domain settings from menu bar. At bottom of the screen in the Control Panel section check box that says "Turn on new application features to my domain before they are rolled out to all Google App's customers". Save your changes.

It took a day or two for my settings to take effect, but now my corporate email has all the great features that are available to GMail.

Gmail Update for Google Apps

2008-01-10T10:20:00.001-05:00

I have grown to love color labels in Gmail. As well as the other great features recently added. Google Gmail rocks!

Now I also use Google Apps and as a part of that of of course is Gmail for my domain. I need color labels for that account please! I know your working on it, but can you give a time frame? I'll plan a little party!

Make it available to premium accounts and I will upgrade! I love them that much.

DoubleClick deal can continue

2007-12-20T20:12:00.001-05:00

Google announce the FTC has approved of their acquisition DoubleClick. This great news for Google in to ongoing on line advertising business.

I am glad to see that it can continue. The FTC had no issues, so hopefully this is a done deal.

Congratulations to both Google and DoubleClick.

I Love FlightStats and apparently Google Does to!

2007-12-19T10:04:00.001-05:00

I have been using FlightStats.com for a well a over a year and become very dependent on them. I had even added their Co-Op search to my Google Account.

Google apparently did to. Google announced the inclusion of FlightStats.com data with out the subscribing to FlighStats Co-Op Search.

Congratulations FlightStats, nice to see you received such great recognition. You deserve it.

Have you seen GMail v2 yet?

2007-10-31T13:53:00.001-04:00

I still have not seen the much talked about update to GMail. The GMail blog mentions it. The Google Operating System guys have screen shots in their blog. So I guess it's true.

The only thing I can't figure out is the roll out schedule. I'm not a patient person. So I keep checking for the new features link. To no avail.

Any one else seen it?

IMAP in GMail

2007-10-24T09:43:00.001-04:00

Gmail is in the process of rolling out IMAP. This is big news for you Outlook and other fat client users. Will do a much better of keeping everything in sync.

When you label in Outlook, or your phone, or your GMail web client all the others will follow. No more put resorting on multiple devices.

GMail - 6 GB by January 2008

2007-10-15T08:37:00.001-04:00

Last week I blogged about GMail increasing their storage quotes. I was expecting a 5% increase or something like that.

I was way off. We are going to 6 GB by January! I noticed that my standard GMail account was growing very rapidly.

So I Googled and found a Blog entry on the Google Operating System blog that really sum it all up and what we can expect.

Keep in mind these increases also will be seen by the Google Apps standard and Education editions. That role out has start from what I see and read. I have few domains on Google Apps standard and the oldest and most heavily used, has started to grow.

The one on the Education Edition, has not start to grow yet. From what I have read there is no obvious rime or reason to who grows first, except GMail users. I am sure Google will get us all caught up though.

GMail - Doing their part for the economy

2007-10-12T16:16:00.001-04:00

Gmail has announced today that they will be help the hard drive producers meet their projections on sales. How, you might ask. By adding even more storage to GMail.

The counter is going move faster. Plus, they are going to match GMail storage quotas for Google App users. Or at least the Education and Standard editions. That's a lot of big mailboxes to support.

As to the enterprise customers, they go from 10 GB to 25 GB at the same cost. That is amazing.

I don't know how they do it. I know most don't use nearly as much space as their quota. But Google App users must be racking up the space. My company uses it and I don't throw away much. So my usage keeps going up. Same with all the accounts in my domain. In a few years that will be a lot of storage.

Oh well, so far so good. Google keep up the great work.

Alerts - Why no RSS?

2007-10-12T10:01:00.001-04:00

I love Google Alerts I have a couple terms that I like to watch. Like tlaughlin so I know when my content makes it to Google. I also love Google Reader, it organizes my worlds information.

So my questions why doesn't alerts allow me to subscribe to an RSS feed of my alerts. Would be a great feature in my humble opinion.

It been a since we have seen an update to Alerts, can we get the team back together and expand the service? Please!

Thanks
Tim

Street View Video

2007-10-09T21:03:00.001-04:00

Okay, so today is my official blog everything day. Promise last one for today.

You got to see the Maps Street view video.

Good night.

I said I would and I did!

2007-10-09T20:17:00.001-04:00

No, I didn't solve the worlds problems. Instead I added Adsense Video Units to this blog, why? I am not exactly sure.

I don't spend much time a YouTube, So guess I can now catch some video here. Besides, I said I would.

Enjoy the videos.

Later

More Street views!

2007-10-09T12:32:00.001-04:00

Those Google Map folks have been busy with their digital cameras again. They added 5 more cites.

And you can look toward sky!

Enjoy finding your way with real pictures of the intersections. If only my TomTom had that!

Video's and AdSense join forces

2007-10-09T08:11:00.001-04:00

Google AdSense has added Video Units to their offerings. Basically a really nice YouTube player with some ads around it and across the bottom of the screen.

Here is their video.

At this time my AdSense account wasn't updated, so I was not able to create my own player. I will post again when it works. We can see how easy it is.

Bye for now

Google - 501(c)3 friendly

2007-10-03T12:10:00.001-04:00

Google has always been very giving to Non-Profits. In last couple of weeks they have expanded that even more. There three services that 501(c)3 organizations should be looking at, in my opinion.

Google Checkout - Donation made easy from the Checkout team. Plus Google has waived all processing fees on donations through 12/31/08.

Google Apps for Domains - Non-Profits qualify for the Google Apps for Domains Educational Edition. If you already use Google Apps for Domains Standard Edition and are 501(c)3 you can upgrade.

YouTube Nonprofit program - You can setup a channel dedicated to your cause. Add to that Google Checkout donations and a great combination for the video oriented web user.

Over all, Google is very generous to Non-Profits, as the webmaster of myself I am very appreciative.

Thanks Google!

Mediascrape

2007-09-25T20:35:00.001-04:00

Mediascape has done an amazing mashup of Google Maps and video! Very slick interface with a ton of video. This is great example of what the web is becoming!

Nice job!

Docs adds Presentation

2007-09-19T09:11:00.001-04:00

Wow! Google has add Presentation to the Google Docs suite.

In a word Wow!

Try it for yourself it's free and it's cool. If you user Google Apps for Domains you have access well.

Reader leaves the Lab

2007-09-19T09:02:00.001-04:00

Google Reader has left the lab and become a non-beta product. At the same time multi-Language support was added.

Hopefully reader will continue to grow and expand. I have found the addition of search to be a huge asset.

Keep up the good work Reader Team

Webmaster Tools - RSS subscribers - Not all it could be.

2007-09-16T20:52:00.001-04:00

The Webmaster Tools group has added subscriber counts to the set of tools.

This will give you a count of how people are using Google Reader to subscribe to you sites RSS Feeds. Would seem pretty cool, but not super inclusive.

Two big problems.

Only shows Google Reader subscriptions.
If you user FeedBurner, which Google owns, you feeds loose their association to your site.

Oh well, nice try needs some work. I would suggest to use FeedBurner and their stats are pretty inclusive.

Maybe version 2 will be a little more accurate.

Google want to go to the moon?

2007-09-16T20:36:00.001-04:00

Google is sponsoring the Lunar X-Prize. Why you might ask? I sure did.

But with some thought I realized Google is a bunch of science and math geeks. So why not try and instill science and math into our youth? We going to need more Googlers!

Space was of big interest in the 70, but not so much any more. Well, looks like Google wants to change that.

Good luck to all participants.

Duplicates! I don't want no stinking duplicates!

2007-09-12T13:35:00.001-04:00

Duplicate content bad. But the Webmaster team has given the content developers of the world a few guidelines.

Nothing new of shocking here, or at least not me. Having worked on a few commerce sites this has bitten me before and made think.

So listen to warnings, watch your Query Strings and code away.

Enjoy and have a good day.

Cricket! - Why not Baseball?

2007-09-12T13:26:00.001-04:00

Okay so this one baffles me. Google has done some custom results for Cricket! I ask, why Cricket? Or I guess really ask why not Baseball, Football, Hockey, Basketball, and Cricket?

Equal opportunity sports here please.

All kidding aside, cool stuff, but why start with cricket. Maybe it's just the self centered American attitude, but wouldn't a more world popular sport be a good place to start. In that case, why not Soccer?

Oh well in time it will all come together.

Google Alerts - Feature Request

2007-09-10T08:54:00.001-04:00

First off a disclaimer. In this blog I try to keep my readers up to date about the latest Google Announcements and my thoughts.

However, today I am requesting a feature from Google and the Google Alerts team. Ready Drum roll please...

RSS feeds instead of emails! - Original I doubt it, I am sure someone has thought or requested this already, but I'm adding my name to the list.

Now that Google Reader has search, what a great place to keep track of all the latest info on my areas of interest, with out filling up my mail account.

I'm sure there are issues around the amount of processing power needed for so many RSS feeds, etc. But hey, it's Google, they don't care about no stinking process limitations! That where the fun of engineering comes from.

Google Alert Team - RSS feeds for our alerts please!

In advance, thank you!

Google Reader finally has search!

2007-09-06T20:40:00.001-04:00

The Google Reader team has finally added search to the the Reader Interface. It looks and works great!

No more throwing stars on things I think might want later or the Maybe Later label I have been applying. Surprised it took so long for search, but very happy to finally have it.

Well, I am off to find all those lost blog entries I have been missing.

Enjoy!

AdSense and Zlio

2007-08-31T20:44:00.001-04:00

The AdSence blog had an entry about AdSence on Commerce Site. They showcased Zlio.com. I must admit and nice integration of AdSence and Zlio.

This was my first introduction to Zlio. An interesting concept. I am not sure how successful anyone can be at building these Zlio sites, I suppose like AdSense you can make a few dollars.

The concept behind Zlio, best I can tell, is that the site advertises products available by other online retailers. The retailers pay commission on sales. I just don't know how likely you are to drive traffic to the Zlio sites to encourage people to purchase from your site.

Would a non-profit be able to ask their members to use the site? Thus the organization could raise some money. I suppose that is an approach. However, to build a store with Zlio that would have to use that broad range products would take quite some time to add to the store.

I am going to play with this some more and see what happens. I will try and report back.

Have a nice weekend.