LozBlogger

Happy Birthday Google!

2008-09-27T12:49:00.004-05:00

Google turns 10. That's a life time on Internet years.

Google has managed to greatly impact the Internet and the way we interact with it. Personally: I don't know how many web searches I perform daily, and I can't think of using another mail service.

And there's a long list of other little (and not so little) things that free Google services help me with.

Indeed, I wish thee a happy birthday!

When will Android land in México?

2008-09-23T13:15:00.001-05:00

As we know, the first Android based mobile phone is here, sold in a two year contract with T-Mobile in the US.

How long will it take to arrive to México? Will it come unlocked and free of exclusive contracts?

Anyway, I've said it before: I still think there's a not so minor Personal Information Manager application missing in Google's Apps: a task list manager. I know there are quite a few third parties, like Remember the Milk, or Ta-da Lists, but I'd like to see an official, Google-account-linked, app coming from the Big G.

I've read once in a Google Apps group (miss the link! Sorry) gossip of an in house app in the works, but can't confirm it. Evenmore: some say that Google will sooner or later ~~drink up~~ acquire Remember the Milk, or any of the other independent startups.

What verification number (in gMail signup)?

2008-09-17T16:16:00.002-05:00

Google has posted a post about What to do if you can't access your gMail and I think all advices are great, but I have one question though...

If you read that post, and probably if you created your account recently, you'll notice that there's a ~~new~~ verification number thing going on for your account, but, when I created my account back in 2004, I don't remember I got any verification number sent anywhere. So how do I get one?

I believe this verification number is supposed to act kind of like a secret question / answer for recovering your account / resetting your password.

More on Chrome

2008-09-11T16:05:00.005-05:00

Well, now that a few days have gone and while the hype is still on, I'll share some rants on my Chrome experience.

First of all, I need to admit that Google's browser has become my default browser for RSS reading (and yes, actually with Google Reader). You don't really notice all the available space in a big screen (17+ inches), but when you are in a small screen'd laptop, it becomes evident. And the fact is, that in my current screen resolution (which is not that small either, only the height: 1280 x 800 px) the folders I have just exactly fit into a maximized Chrome's window.

But besides that, it still has a long way to go before it replaces Firefox in my daily needs. One of my main complains is that, when you search for a keyword in Chrome, (control or command + F) you are not taken immediately to that keyword, after you remove focus from the search (pressing escape). In Firefox, when I perform an inline search (or whatever that is called) , after I press escape in the keyboard, focus is automatically passed to the current keyword result, and if its a link, I just have to press enter to follow that link, (or control/command + enter to open it in a new tab). I do love keyboard shortcuts, they can really make a difference.

In other complaints: I just discovered that Chrome does not play nice with a CSS layout I designed a few weeks ago (Fiery Cosmic beta theme, used on LozBlog). This is really beginning to become a bigger issue: if a lot of people start using Chrome (which I wouldn't dare to assure now, a few weeks more, past the hype and we'll see), and when IE8 comes out, how many important browsers we'll be needing to hack up for the sake of our beloved standard compliant projects?

About the drag-out-tab-to-new-window, I think it's cool, but (always a but)... I'm usually dragging and dropping all kinds of things into new tabs (or into address bar, or search bar) in Firefox. Just dragging an image and releasing it on the tab bar will open it in a new window. I'm also used to do this with links, or selected text. And I'm also used to do this with tabs, between windows and even between browsers (right now I only remember it working between Firefox and Flock), I would drag a tab, move the cursor to the windows task bar (still dragging the tab), place the cursor on top of the desired window name (in the windows task bar) for a few seconds, switch focus to this other window (which would be obviously a browser), and release the tab into the tab bar. It also works if you go alt/command + tab while holding the dragged tab, but I usually do this dragging procedure when I'm holding a beer with the left hand. All this crazy thing is not currently supported by Chrome.

And that lack of functionality thing with the middle mouse click is really annoying.

A not really important rant: in Windows, sometimes I use to switch windows by clicking on the title bar of an application, which if maximized, should be at the top of the screen, so I move the pointer all the way up (no need to loose time with precision pointing here) and click (also: the desired window should be on top of other maximized windows for this to work). But in Chrome, which lacks said bar, most times I end up switching to another tab.

I realize that most of this issues are not used by everybody, but hey, nowadays PC's, OS's and gadgets are all about personal user customization, right? Anyway, maybe you'll find these rants useless but then again, maybe you just learned something new.

Chrome

2008-09-04T09:41:00.003-05:00

Well, everybody is talking about the new Google browser. Here´s my experience so far.

Yesterday I gave it a try and at first I thought it was a bit strange, having so much room for the content, it felt like something was missing.

One of the first things I noticed was the lack of status bar, which I then realized that appears magically when you hover a link, for example.

I´m used to middle click (with the mouse scroll button) and glide up or down with the mouse, and this is not currently supported.

But it convinced me when I started browsing Google Reader with my small laptop screen, and saw all this additional and beloved space for content.

And the program startup does feel faster (than FF3, IE6), and also (though not that much) in overall browsing.

Anyway, I don´t think it will be replacing Firefox as my main browser, at least not anytime soon, and not even Flock as my second browser, but I'll be using it when I need to do quick surfing.

But it does raise some concern as a Web Designer (mostly CSS related), I don´t think that we need yet another browser to test and hack for.

Experimental search under experiments?

2008-08-22T09:44:00.003-05:00

Google's shortcut search experiment seems to be under maintenance or something, 'cause it ain't working as it is supposed to.

A few weeks ago, I released a Firefox search plugin to trigger it from the search bar, and today I discovered that the shortcuts are not working as expected: keyboard keys J and K are used to navigate forth and back in a search result page, but now it seems that pressing these keys will go forward a complete result page, and not browsing through individual results.

Does anybody know what is happening?

Update! (23/08/2008, 16:04) Looks like it's fixed, don't know for how long.

(Google's) Free the airwaves (what about other countries?)

2008-08-18T11:15:00.005-05:00

I've heard about freeing the airwaves, a Google initiative (with it's own dedicated website) that will help achieve wireless broadband nationwide Internet, taking advantage of unused airwaves between broadcast TV channels. The Federal Communication Commission in the US has a pending decision concerning new rules on aforementioned radio spectrum broadcast channels.

I have no doubt that this will surely benefit the US, and that it will pave down the way for other countries to follow this example, but the first question that comes into my mind is: what is the real short term benefit (if any) for other countries in supporting this initiative? Guess it's up to each country and each country's laws (and law-makers), and of course, each country's current radio spectrum set.

I certainly support it, and I believe it is a good first step, just wondering...

Personalized Google top bar

2008-08-14T13:58:00.003-05:00

I like the way Google links to more of their services at the top, but I think it will be more useful if it was personalized and linked to what each user uses the most, based on clicks or user logins to each particular service.

For example: if the services I use the most are gMail, Calendar and Reader, I want those to be displayed in the top bar, and if I hardly ever use Picasa, I want it out of it. I actually use all of these, and more (like Notebook, Analytics, Web Master Tools, Adsense, to name a few), but I think each user has different needs.

Actually, I think I will finally be able to switch from Outlook to Google completely when Android (an open source Mobile Operative System, well for cell phones, or something like that) comes out, and when Google goes live with a "to do list" service, which I've heard it's in the works now.

gMail's 7

2008-08-07T08:59:00.003-05:00

I don't know exactly when, but a few days ago, I noticed Google Mail (as it is called in Germany) had reached a new Integer: 7 GB. That is seven thousand mega bytes. I remember when we only had 2 MB in hotmail...

What will happen to the the additional storage Google is currently offering once gMail reaches 10 GB? They now charge 20 USD per year if you want to upgrade your account to 10 GB, but it enables both gMail and Picasa Web Albums to share the storage. Currently Picasa offers a very small single GB. And if you want to get heavy, you can pack in 400 GB for 500 USD. That's bigger than my Hard Drive.

Anyway, me: I never go beyond 30% of gMail's storage capacity, guess my mail and attachments grow at the same pace as gMail's.

adSense for Feeds

2008-08-07T08:37:00.002-05:00

I am starting to get serious about Google adSense (an advertising revenue program you can implement in your website or blog), with my not so new site: Academic Lozbo, in which by the way, the template is still in beta, though it already offers a couple of posts.

So I started optimizing every little detail, setting up Analytics, Feedburner, for both content and comments, and adSense, with their respective WordPress plugins, among other heavier stuff (like developing a theme from scratch and even some WP plugin).

So I also wanted to add advertisement in my feed, as I know that it can also be an important way of monetizing my efforts, but I found that currently there is no adSense available for feeds :( . There seems to be a private beta going on, but since 2005! I read in the adSense Help Center that the beta is closed and they are no longing accepting new applications, though the form is still available online.

I hope it gets out of beta soon! Not that I'm planning to become rich with adSense, it is still more important the content and my (currently non existing but this hopefully will change soon :) readers. For me, even the graphic design is more important than monetizing the site, so I have not even included advertisement yet on my template as I am still wondering where to put it so that it looks good :) , but to be fair: I would like to earn a bit if I can from the time spent on the development and writing there.

So Google adSense: we are still waiting!

Google Reader updates me on the world

2008-08-01T15:26:00.003-05:00

It's not just Google Reader, it could actually be any reader, but for me, it was particularly this free Google service that helped me.

I know what happens in México, even if I'm living in Germany. I don't have to buy a newspaper, or watch TV. It's all online... Though I must admit I have been never too interested on the news, most of them are sad anyway (except cultural or sports news), but I want to know. But the fact is that, it has become so easy to know...

This is possible because a lot of things, not only Google, but the ever growing blogging community, the syndication technology adopted by sites publishing content, and other global developments. The world becomes bigger and smaller at the same time.

And it's not just news, but blogs and all kinds of different sites sharing their stuff on the evil Internet.

Bug: replying in gMail with keyboard shortcuts

2008-07-22T06:41:00.003-05:00

I love optimizing small tasks and saving the most time I can, even if they are seconds. I love keyboard shortcuts.

There is a keyboard shortcut for replying to messages in gMail, R, I try to move around in gMail as much as I can with the keyboard only, it's a bit faster. But I've noticed than from some time ago, weeks or perhaps months, don't know for sure, Every time I press "R" to reply to a message, it seems as if I had pressed "A", which is the shortcut for Reply to All, and if the message has been sent to more than one recipient (for example, with copies to others), then I find myself writing a reply to a lot of persons.

Normally I notice this and correct it as soon as I can, but I've missed it a few times, so far I haven't had any real issues or big embarrassment, just sent unsolicited or irrelevant messages to people sometimes I don't even know, but for sure this is something it should not be happening, it's certainly a bug. I'll report it to gMail staff...

Wait, I've been trying to reproduce this bug again but I can't, either this has been fixed or I can't reproduce the exact context in which I get it. I think it only happened when I had a new message in a new conversation, and I hadn't read it before (brand new), so I'll wait and see, is anybody else having this problem?

Monitoring gMail Activity, arrives to my account!

2008-07-10T03:26:00.003-05:00

I have it and I love it! I don't know exactly when did this feature became available but it's nice to already have it...

There was a button that read something like "Sign out all other accounts", though a message above stated "It looks like there are no other sessions currently opened in this account". I will update my password nevertheless...

gMail login details for the paranoid!

2008-07-07T16:59:00.002-05:00

If you are paranoid like me, you will love this new feature Google is slowly starting to roll out! Now you can check if your gMail account is opened in another place (browser, mobile POP3...) simultaneously, and it's IP address.

Read more about it in the official gMail blog.

You can even sign out remotely your account from the footer of your gMail, and view some details of the other sessions. Nice!

Firefox Add on messing up gMail

2008-07-06T12:13:00.003-05:00

There is an extension in Firefox that messes with my gMail, but I am too lazy to search one by one to discover which one is it.

Actually, I think I already identified it, it must be either Web Developer or Tab Mix Plus (which by the way is not yet available, at least from the official site, for Firefox 3 and this is why I haven't installed the latest version of Firefox on my main PC).

The problem is when it comes to download things; while downloading files, sometimes (I think always or at least very often) when I try to download an attachment from a message the page goes blank... you can download the file but then the window doesn't display anything (like if it was an empty website, in white background and no text). Firefox continues to work normally, I can switch tabs and everything, even if I click on reload, it goes to that very same conversation (message), but this is not supposed to be and is very annoying.

I thought it was a problem with the not so new gMail interface, but the other day I was browsing in a computer from the school and I noticed that I didn't have that problem there, so I assumed it must be an extension.

Then, in another PC, which had installed only these two aforementioned add ons (which are essential for me in Firefox), the problem was there again. I think I should send this message to the developers of these plugins, maybe later on.

Youtube time optimization while uploading a video

2008-06-23T17:50:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I was uploading a video to Youtube and I have a rant.

I think Youtube should ask all the video meta data after you upload the video. Or better yet: while it's being uploaded. Because I didn't want to think of a description (which I know can be edited later) and just leave the file to upload, because I had a heavy file (almost half GB) and I wanted to start uploading it while I thought of the description and meta data, but, at least in the web based uploading interface, this doesn't seem to be possible.

I love gMail, now I want folders!

2008-06-14T12:10:00.001-05:00

I love gMail, but... there are a couple of things missing that would make gMail perfect for me: label hierarchy (different levels) or folder view, and more powerful filters (and the actual limit be raised, because last time I tried, I was only allowed to have like 10 or 20 filters, which sucks, though I don't really know if there is a limit now and if so, what is it).

But I will be happy with the folders, that would be enough for me. I like the idea of labels as an option, but I find my inbox far more organized with folders and hierarchies.

And there is one more thing... which actually has nothing to do with gMail but with Hotmail; I would like them to offer free POP3 access (and not limited only to Outlook or Outlook Express), so that I could manage all my email in the same place: my beloved gMail.

Android Contacts Management

2008-06-08T06:00:00.002-05:00

I am looking forward to the release of Android, the new Mobile Operative System.

Whenever this goes "live" (and as soon as Google launches their long awaited Google Tasks) I will be able to finally migrate from Outlook to Google Apps. Well I am not talking about all Google Apps, but at least those similar to Outlook, because there is obviously tons of advanced features missing in, for instance, Google Docs (like foot notes, for academic writing).

Anyway something I would like Android to do, regarding contact management, is that it should be able to filter contacts, specially to sort out those who do not have a mobile number (which might be the majority in some cases, as some people often tend to have lots of unknown people in their gMail contacts). When using the mobile device to make a phone call, you only need contacts with mobile numbers, not email or other unrelated contact info.

Still waiting Google and co! Keep up the good work...

What to do

2008-05-06T05:52:00.003-05:00

I wanted to use this blog as a Google news related one, but I I think there's no use.

I don't like publishing stuff that's already going around everywhere, I like original content, and I think that original Google news will be hard to post here, so unless I have something really unique, or if I think what to publish in this blog, I'll do it.

Because I also have my personal blog, which is related to personal stuff only, and not really too much about tech things.

So, let's see what happens.

Google Docs redesign!

2007-06-28T00:34:00.000-05:00

Google Documents and Spreadsheets (and upcoming slide shows) looks great! I just noticed though they released the redesign a couple of days ago. It is not only a redesign, more functionality has been added, like folder organization and "display by shared" which displays documents ordered by who are you sharing with.

If you ask me, I love it. Go and try it out! Google docs (for those who ignore it) is an Office suite that lets you edit documents online (like Ms Word and Excel). The top reasons I like Google docs over any other suite are:

It's free (no license required)
It's online (no need to install, nor saving it on hard drive - it's all online!)
Docs can be downloaded in most popular formats (.doc, .rtf, .html, .txt, .pdf, open office)
Docs can be shared and edited by many (collaborating with partners!)

There are tons of stuff to talk about, but go check it out! Let it become your new Office suite! If you have a browser, you already have your Office suite with you! Linked to your existing gMail account!

20 mb gMail

2007-05-24T09:36:00.000-05:00

Google just launched a new feature in gMail! You can now send 20 mb attachments! I found out when I logged in this morning to gMail and saw this on top of the screen:

So I got directly into "gMails what's new". Wonder if this 20mb also applies for Google Apps... Now I don't know why would anyone in the world would like to pay for a "MSN Hotmail Plus", if all features they offer are free in Google's Mail... actually, more...

2.8 (and growing) GB storage
Custom filters
Free mail redirection
Free pop access
Access to external pop accounts from within gMail
20 mb attachment

Not to say all those services attached (free) to your Google account (the exact same account as your gMail).