Why Safari On The iPhone Is Awesome

For a quick recap: Last Monday (June 11th) at WWDC 2007 (Worldwide Developer's Conference), Apple announced that the iPhone will not have an SDK (Software Development Kit). This means that developers will not be able to write software that runs natively on the iPhone.

Apple announced that instead of an SDK, they've brought Safari to the iPhone. Safari is a Mac Web Browser (recently Safari was released for Windows). This means that developers WILL be able to write software that runs in a browser, that will in turn run on the iPhone.

This announcement was met with a plethora of boos, like this post from Gizmodo:
Fast And Furious: No iPhone SDK Means No Killer iPhone Apps

The Digg article referencing that Gizmodo post has several comments expressing the Digg crowd's sentiment:

"Thank you Mr. Steve Jobs for helping me make my decision to buy a PS3." [link]

"That 'SDK' for the iPhone is a slap in the face to developers." [link]

[Steve Jobs] showed a lot of disrespect to all those people who came out there hoping to hear something exciting they could work on. He basically told a bunch developers waiting to build great apps to go build a html page. [link]

Steve Jobs should have listened to Ballmer. "DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS!" [link]

It's clear that many people were expecting Apple to release an SDK like Microsoft does for the Windows Mobile platform.

Months ago, when I first heard that Apple would not release an SDK, I agreed with these quotes. I thought the iPhone would be a joke, that it would flop, and that it would be undeserving of being called a "smartphone."

But after learning that the iPhone's Safari will be able to run full-fledged Ajax applications, I've completely changed my mind.

Honestly, why is it such a bad move on Apple's part? As a developer, I am much more willing to write a web application, which I have been doing for a living for the past two years, than learn another programming language so I can write applications that run ONLY on the iPhone. If you are a developer, which would you rather do? Perhaps Steve Jobs is thinking about "developers developers developers."

Software can be written right now that would run on the iPhone at release. Dozens of existing web applications will run on the iPhone at release.

My only gripe with Apple's decision here is this: I've always been reluctant to purchase a mobile data plan (they're too expensive). If all my apps must be web apps, and I don't have access to the web, it would seem that I'd be completely unable to run anything. So I'd be forced into a data plan.

But wait.

Didn't Google JUST release a product that helps take web applications offline? Yes, Google Gears promises to do just that. Currently, Google Gears is available for Firefox and Internet Explorer. But if you look at the fine print:


You can see that Safari support is coming soon. :-)

With Google Gears, it will be much easier to develop web applications that don't require a constant internet connection. I think this will be an awesome partnership that helps broaden the possibilities for mobile applications (at least for those of us who might be without an unlimited data plan).

Just one example is Google Reader. I've always wanted to be able to use Google Reader on my mobile phone while offline. Then after reading some of my feeds, to be able to sync back up, marking as read the feeds I'd seen, starring the feeds I'd starred, and keeping unread the feeds I hadn't yet seen.

With iPhone Safari + Google Gears, things like this don't seem too far off.

Google + Apple + AT&T

The official Google Blog today has a story about a new phone from Cingular, the BlackBerry 8800. This phone has GPS, so when using Google Maps for Mobile, the map automatically centers around your current location, with a blue flashing dot "exactly where you are!"

That's all really exciting, but does anyone else find it weird that The Official Google Blog is basically running an advertisement for Cingular (AT&T) that screams "Switch to Cingular!"

And what about Apple's iPhone being available only for Cingular customers? Probably more blatant than Google, Apple is screaming, "Switch to Cingular!"

To me it's awfully mysterious that these guys are pushing consumers to switch to a specific carrier. Do Google and/or Apple have any kind of partnership with Cingular?

Maybe it's just that Cingular is the carrier that's pushing the hardest to make these kinds of partnerships. Whatever the case, other carriers (T-Mobile, I'm looking at you) need to step it up or they'll start seeing mass exodus.

The Fox is Eating Lunch!

The Google Personalized Homepage is becoming more personalized. Google released 6 themes with which you can skin the homepage. The available options are Beach, Bus Stop, City Scape, Sweet Dreams, Tea House, and Seasonal Scape:
The cool thing about these themes is that they change the scenery of your homepage depending on the time of day and the weather. You simply type in your zip code, and Google does all the rest.

I chose the Tea House them. As I write this post over my lunch break, the fox is eating lunch:

Kid Does Something Amazing, Google Listens

If you haven't heard already, check this out. It's an absolute craze right now.

In short, somebody has some kind of business idea and desperately wants to pitch it to Google. Fed up with the lack of response he's received after using Google's online business proposal form, he's flown to Mountain View California uninvited and wishing for the best.

Not many people know what his idea is right now. But his site has been covered by Digg, and one digger has done some rooting around in the internet archives and found what he thinks might be the big idea.

Google's Valentine's Day Logo

Or should I say, Googe's Valentine's Day Logo?
Regardless, happy Valentine's Day!

Google Maps for Mobile App

Google today released Google Maps for Mobile as a Windows Mobile standalone application, not a Java midlet. It has GPS support, which is very cool for those with a GPS-enabled phone.

So far, in addition to this release, Google has released Google Maps as a Java midlet, and a Gmail app as a Java midlet. All of Google's other mobile offerings are in the form of mobile-friendly websites, such as Google Reader Mobile and Google News Mobile.

I hope Google's mobile development keeps picking up. I still haven't been able to find a mobile RSS reader that synchronizes well for offline reading support.

How to Add Google AJAX Search to Your Blogger Beta Blog

Do you use Blogger Beta? Do you want to use the coolest new search widget on your site to replace the conventional search? Well look no further! This post will explain how to do just that.

This method will style your search control to be absolutely positioned in the upper right of your site. There are three main steps:

1. Get a Google Ajax Search API Key.
2. Create the Search Control.
3. Style your Search Control.
   

I will outline each of these steps in more detail below.

Step 1: Get a Google Ajax Search API Key
Click here to visit the Google Ajax Search API signup page. All you need to do is enter your web site's URL in the box at the bottom, check the box saying that you've read and agree with the terms and conditions, and click the "Generate API Key" button. You will receive a key that looks something like this:


Do not close this page! In the next step, you will need the key that you just generated.

Step 2: Create the Search Control
When you are logged into Blogger Beta, go to your blog's settings. You'll see three tabs: Posting, Settings, and Template. Click Template. There are 4 subsections under Template: Page Elements, Fonts and Colors, Edit HTML, and Pick New Template. Click Edit HTML. You will see your blog's template. Scroll almost to the bottom (see screenshot below for help) until you see

<body>
<div id='outer-wrapper'><div id='wrap2'>

Replace <body> with <body onload='OnLoad();'>.

Now add a new line after
<div id='outer-wrapper'><div id='wrap2'>

On that new line, paste this:
<div id='searchcontrol' />

This screenshot shows what it should look like after you're finished, with the relevant parts circled in red.


Now scroll back to the very top of your template. At right about the 7th line of code in your template, you should see "<head>". See screenshot below for help. Enter a new blank line after <head>, and then copy and paste the following:


<link href='http://www.google.com/uds/css/gsearch.css' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'/>
<script src='http://www.google.com/uds/api?file=uds.js&v=1.0&key=YourKeyGoesHere' type='text/javascript'/>
<script language='Javascript' type='text/javascript'>

//<![CDATA[
function OnLoad() {
var searchControl = new GSearchControl();
var siteSearch = new GwebSearch();
siteSearch.setSiteRestriction("YourSiteGoesHere");
siteSearch.setUserDefinedLabel("YourLabelGoesHere");
searchControl.addSearcher(siteSearch);
searchControl.setLinkTarget( GSearch.LINK_TARGET_SELF );
searchControl.draw(document.getElementById("searchcontrol"));
}
//]]>
</script>

It should look like this when you're finished with that part:

Now you'll want to change a few things:

• First and most importantly, replace YourKeyGoesHere with your API Key. This is where you'll need to paste some of the code generated earlier (in step 1) when you signed up for the Google Ajax Search API Key.
• Replace YourSiteGoesHere with the name of your website (don't delete the quotes). I used cjmillisock.com
• Lastly, replace YourLabelGoesHere with a label for your search results (again, leave the quotes in the code). I used CJMillisock.com and you can see the results in this screenshot.
  

Step 3: Style your search control.
You're almost done! To position your search control in the upper right, scroll to where your template shows the style for your pages' body (see screenshot below for help). Look for:

body {
background:$bgcolor;
margin:0;
color:$textcolor;

You'll need to paste the following code into your template above the line "body {":

#searchcontrol
{
position: absolute;
top: 5px;
right: 10px;
background: #FFF;
border-left: 1px solid #CCC;
border-bottom: 1px solid #CCC;
padding-left: 5px;
padding-bottom: 5px;
font: 10pt Verdana;
}

It should look like this when you're done:


Finally, save your template. Click view blog and you should see the Google Ajax Search Control in the upper right! The search control will search only your site, and clicking a search result will open that page in the current window or tab. Now your website's visitors won't need to leave your page to search your site!

Should Google's Competitors Merge?

Economist.com has written a pretty interesting article comparing Google to Napoleon. Microsoft, Yahoo!, and eBay, are a lot like Russia, Prussia, and Austria. Some say a merger between two of the smaller powers would help prevent Google from gaining more search market share. Others say it would simply expedite the smaller companies' decline.

I don't think a merger between Yahoo! and Microsoft would be too helpful. Yahoo! is an Internet portal; Microsoft has an Internet portal. Thus, Microsoft offers a much broader scope of products and services, and the two companies overlap on every service common to Internet portals: email, chat, news, music, search, etc. It seems that the best strategy between Yahoo! and Microsoft is to partner together. They've already announced plans to integrate their chat clients. Deals like these are in both companies' best interest. The problem is, these small partnerships have minimal impact on Google.

Although I don't think a merger between Yahoo! and Microsoft would help either company very much, I do think either company would benefit from a merger with eBay. There would be no overlapping of services. A merger of that size would be so huge though, it seems that nothing like that will happen until drastic measures essentially require it to happen. Maybe these drastic measures will be realized when Google hits 90% market share for search. Only time will tell.

New Links in Gmail

Looks like Google is testing another UI upgrade inside Gmail:


Pretty convenient use of the precious and limited real estate, I'd say. Chance are, this is part of a gradual rollout; if you don't see these links in your Gmail right now, you will soon.

Official: Google Da Vinci Code Quest Winner

Finally, those of us who were finalists in Google and Sony's Da Vinci Code Quest can have a sense of closure. The official winner is Anthony N. of Collierville Tennessee.

Following section 9 of the rules, I sent a self-addressed stamped envelope to:

The Da Vinci Code Quest On Google
Grand Prize Winner's Name
P.O. Box 10301
Burbank, CA 91510

Today I received that envelope and a letter detailing the prizes won, and the winner's name. Congratulations to Anthony!

To me, this whole contest is still shrouded in mystery. How can an event so big, by companies so popular, with a grand prize so large, be completely forgotten about? Why hasn't Google, Sony, or Sullivan Compliance Company (the Contest Administrator) declared Anthony the victor publicly? Why isn't Anthony himself (or somebody who knows him) blogging about his success, his method to tackling the contest, etc? Some of us were anxiously awaiting an official word about the contest for over a month. Why did it take so long for the results to become available, and why did we need to send snail mail?

I would still like to know how I did relative to the other finalists. It's not too crazy to think that we will see a list with names and times, like Google does with its puzzle championship.

That being said, I'm glad that the contest winner has been revealed. Again, my congratulations go out to Anthony. I hope you enjoy the trips and prizes!

As for Google, I can hardly wait for your next contest. It's exciting to think about what kinds of online contests/experiences you might attempt next. Maybe a browser-based MMOG?

Google Wifi In Effect for Mountain View California

Google has just flipped the on switch and is now offering free WiFi to Mountain View California. Check out how many access points they have! I can't wait for this to become more widespread! Right now, only trusted testers have access. According to valleywag, there were some legal issues with Google's plans to release this everywhere.

Google just keeps on delivering. Over and over again, they surprise us with these things. I'm sure news will pour in tomorrow about the quality/speed of the connection and the coverage throughout the Mountain View area. For more information, there's plenty of news to read and links to follow on this Digg post.

Google Gadget Contest Ideas

Google is having a contest to see who can create the best Google Desktop gadget. The last day to submit a gadget is July 31st, 2006 and winners will be announced on August 21, 2006. First place gets $5000, second place gets $2000, and third place gets $1000.

Do you have an awesome idea for a gadget to create, but don't know how to program? Send me your ideas and I'll do my best to create it! If the gadget wins the first place prize of $5000, we'll split it evenly. cj.feedback at gmail dot com

Get Google Ajax Search For Your Site UPDATE

If you read my recent post, How to Get Google AJAX Search For Your Site, and used it to implement the Google Ajax Search control on your blog or website, this post is for you.

When I replaced the old Google Search box with the newer Google Ajax Search for my blog, I quickly realized that there was no way to clear the search results from the screen. That's why I wrote the function "searchControlClear()" that I described previously. Since writing that post, Google has included the clear functionality natively into the search control, so some changes could be made to make things work more smoothly.

These are the changes I made to use Google's built in function instead of my own. In your javascript, you need to make two changes: one at the beginning and one at the end. First, move this line of code:

var searchControl = new GSearchControl();

to the line above this line of code:

function onLoad()

So the beginning of your javascript should look like this:

//<![CDATA[
var searchControl = new GSearchControl();
function onLoad()
{
   function MyBlogSearch()
   {
   .
   .
   .

The second change you need to make is at the end of your javascript code. Inside the searchControlClear() function, replace everything with this:

searchControl.clearAllResults();

So your function should look like this:

function searchControlClear()
{
  searchControl.clearAllResults();
}

Try this on for size!

Fuzzy Clock Google Gadget Has New Options

A fuzzy clock user noticed some weird behavior when using the gadget with Google Desktop. If the text were long enough, the time might be displayed on two lines ("Twenty-five to Eleven", for example, is usually too long to fit on one line). Unfortunately, if a gadget has a specified height, Google Desktop won't let you resize the frame after the sidebar has been minimized and restored. As a result, you would only be able to see the first line of the gadget, and the rest would be hidden. To fix the problem, I've created a second gadget. The only difference is that there is no specified height in the new one.

The URL for the Google Desktop version is:
http://www.cjmillisock.com/gmodules/fuzzyclock-d.xml

If you've run into this problem with Google Desktop, add this module to your sidebar, but you'll want to use the original for your personalized homepage. This newly modified gadget allows you to resize the window when the text goes onto two lines, even after the sidebar has been minimized and restored.

Also, I've added (in both versions) the option to choose your font size. If you choose a small enough font size, you might be able to prevent the text from going on to two lines in the first place. Font size 12 should be small enough, even for lengthy times like "Twenty-five before Eleven".

You can add the Fuzzy Clock gadget to your Google Personalized Homepage with this:

As usual, if you have any suggestions, please don't hesitate to ask. This stuff is fun. :-)

Google, One Step Closer to Making the OS Obsolete

With the just-released Google Browser Sync, all of your browser settings are stored in your Google Account, and then shared across all computers that have the extension installed. This is great news for Firefox users, terrible news for Microsoft.

I can hardly wait to experiment with this thing.

This sounds an awful lot like a step towards making the computer's operating system obsolete. Next it'll be Google File System Sync, and I CAN'T WAIT. Come on, GDrive, hurry up already! This is an obvious pre-cursor to the GFS, which means it's drawing closer.

How to Get Google AJAX Search For Your Site

If you want some help getting the Google AJAX search control working on your site, here's a quick and easy summary of what I did.

UPDATE: Google has updated their search control, making some of this code redundant. If you are using the code below, I've written another post outlining the changes you should make. You can view the new post here.

A little HTML, a little CSS, and a little Javascript should do the trick. In my HTML, I used two divs, and a link to clear the results. One div is the search control div, and the other is a wrapper for the search control div. I put it near the bottom of my html files so it appears on top of the content on each page. Here's how it looks:

<div id="searchControlWrapper">
<a href="#" id="clearLink"
  onclick="searchControlClear();">Clear</a>
<div id="searchControl"/>
</div>

I also added an onload function to the body tag:

<body onload="onLoad();">

For the css, I styled the wrapper to have an absolute position in the top right corner of my site. You can put it anywhere you'd like. I made both the search control and the clear link float left so they'd be on the same line. I gave the clear link some padding on the right. Here are the css changes I added:

#searchControlWrapper
{
position: absolute;
top: 5px;
right: 5px;
background: #FFF;
border-left: 1px solid #CCC;
border-bottom: 1px solid #CCC;
padding-left: 5px;
padding-bottom: 5px;
}
#searchControl
{
float: left;
}
#clearLink
{
float: left;
padding-right: 10px;
}

Lastly, the Javascript. I found this "hack" from a post made to Google Groups, but I changed it slightly. This goes inside the header of your html file(s) ( you could also put it in an external javascript file). You just need to change where I have "www.cjmillisock.com" to your site's URL.

<script language="Javascript" type="text/javascript">
//<![CDATA[
function onLoad()
{
    // Create a search control
    var searchControl = new GSearchControl();

    function MyBlogSearch()
    {
              this.execute_=GblogSearch.prototype.execute;
    }
    MyBlogSearch.prototype=new GblogSearch();
    MyBlogSearch.prototype.setBlogUrl=function(blogUrl)
    {
              this.blogUrl_= blogUrl;
    }
    MyBlogSearch.prototype.execute=function(q)
    {
              if(this.blogUrl_)
                        q+=' site:'+this.blogUrl_;
              return this.execute_(q);
    }
    var blogSearch=new MyBlogSearch() ;
    blogSearch.setBlogUrl('http://www.cjmillisock.com');
    searchControl.addSearcher(blogSearch);

    // Tell the searcher to draw itself and tell it where to attach
    searchControl.draw(document.getElementById("searchControl"));
}
function searchControlClear()
{
     document.getElementById( "searchControlWrapper" ).innerHTML = "<a href='#' " +
           "id='clearLink' " +
           "onclick='searchControlClear();'>Clear</a>" +
           "<div id='searchControl'/>";
     onLoad();
}
//]]>
</script>

That's all there is to it. Now if only Digg would replace their site-search with this. . . .

Google AJAX Search API Update

I've replaced my site's search with the new Google AJAX Search in the upper right. Enjoy!

Google AJAX Search API

I'm experimenting with Google's new AJAX Search API. You'll notice I put the search control in the upper right. I don't quite see the usefulness for it on my site right now, but I plan on using it to replace the search control I currently use in the right sidebar.

Right now, it doesn't search just this site. I'm assuming Google will add that functionality some time. What other uses are there for this?

Google Calendar Access By Text Messages

You can now use text messages to access Google Calendar. Simply send messages to GVENT or 48368. The following commands are available:

• next : retrieve your next scheduled event
• day : retrieve all of today's events
• nday : retrieve all of tomorrow's events

You can also add events to your calendar by sending a message along the lines of:
Lunch with Sandra at Java Joe's 12:30 pm Saturday

Google's SMS service will interpret your event and add it to your calendar. To use any of these queries, you have to have your cell phone registered to your calendar. You can do that in the calendar's settings under notifications.

I wish they provided a way to retrieve the scheduled events for a specified day. A query like get 06/15/2006 would also be very useful. Oh well! I'm happy for the three commands they did provide. I'm sure I'll be using them some point.

The Da Vinci Code Quest Winner NOT Announced

Apparently the person at Google Blogoscoped that goes by the nickname FoneJone was talking about something else when he/she said that the winner of the Da Vinci Code quest on Google was announced. The winner is still unannounced as far as I can tell.

I'm starting to wonder if there is something crazy going on behind the scenes there at Google. I have the feeling that they made a mistake in the delivery of the final round, and here's why. The puzzles in the final round were supposed to be random so people would have a difficult time benefiting from those who shared their solutions. But when people started sharing their solutions online, it quickly became apparent that each person received the same puzzle.

Why weren't the puzzles random?

This was the url Google gave the finalists:
http://www.google.com/ig/davinci/puzzle.html?puzzle=100

Why would Google append the puzzle=100 parameter? Maybe the above URL was used for testing and they forgot to remove that parameter before sending the email. Their solution was to just ignore the parameter and give everyone the same puzzles.

It's hard to believe that Google would make a mistake like this. It's more likely that Google wanted the puzzles to be the same for everyone so that no one could complain that his/her puzzle set was significantly more difficult than someone else's.

Regardless of the randomlessness (:-D) . . .

The contest ended May 21st and the date of this post is May 31st. To me, it seems like ten days should be plenty of time to figure out who won. Then again, this was a 10,000-person race on the Internet. I don't know if any Internet race of this magnitude has ever been conducted. Maybe Google was just using this contest as an experiment for something bigger and better. I have an idea of what this kind of data could be used for, and I'll post about that later. Anyone else have any thoughts about this?

I guess we'll find out who the winner was soon enough. I'll post details of the winner here when I find out from Google or Sony.

Da Vinci Code Quest Winner Announced

According to FoneJone at a Google Blogoscoped thread, Jacob Millston of Georgetown, VA won the Da Vinci Code quest. I've been unable to find any other sources for this, but I don't see why FoneJone would have have any incentive to mislead anyone.

Looking back on the final challenge, I really wish Google would have made the puzzle generation random. Oh well. Congratulations to the winner, and better luck to everybody next time Google decides to put on an Internet quest!

Da Vinci Code Quest on Google Is Over

The contest is over, and the winner will be notified this Friday.

The first twenty-four challenges were fun, but I'm a little disappointed in how the final challenge was given. The final challenge consisted of 5 puzzles. Before the final challenge started, I was certain that people would post screenshots of their puzzles after they were done, but I was under the impression that each person would receive a random puzzle. I thought that Google wanted to see what kinds of programs would be written to solve the puzzles algorithmically. But instead, the only randomness was in the fifth puzzle. The first four puzzles were the same for each person. I was right in assuming that people would post their solutions online, but since everyone received the same first four puzzles, the contest went from "Who can write the program that will solve the puzzles the fastest and who can enter the solutions fastest?" to "Who can use a program to pre-record themselves solving the problem and play back that recording the fastest?" After using the macro recording program, the rest of the challenge was solely in solving the fifth puzzles the fastest.

This guy did that and solved it in around 5 minutes. Without using macro software, I think I solved it in about that time. I guess we'll see on Friday. I hope Google releases a list of people and their times. I would LOVE to see how I stacked up against the other 9,999 finalists.

Google Da Vinci Code Quest Begins!

It has begun! The Da Vinci Code Quest on Google is now underway. Good luck to all finalists! If you have any suggestions or tips, please don't hesitate to post them here! :-)

GWT Examples

I found an example that Google says displays every widget that the GWT has to offer. You can see it here. You can see a gallery of all of the widgets here.

I have the feeling that more and more pages are going to start looking Googly. :-)

Java to AJAX Conversion with Google Web Toolkit

Google Blog just announced their release of Google Web Toolkit. This is incredible! :-) I have yet to try it out, but I will ASAP and post my findings here. Stay tuned for more. For now, let me just tell you that this is HUGE. (Sorry to say this, but it's way bigger than Google Notebook!)

Google Da Vinci Code Quest Finalist

I'm one of the 10,000 finalists in the Da Vinci Code Quest on Google! I received my cryptex replica in the mail yesterday. It's pretty heavy for being so small! To open it, you need to spell the word GRAIL. Apparently though, you can modify it somehow to customize the passcode. Several cryptexen (:-D) are being sold on eBay right now, and the going rate is right around $100. Being the Google fan that I am, I would never sell mine! Although that would help bring me closer to saving enough money to buy a new computer. 129 are currently being auctioned at eBay. One has a starting bid of $10,000. Craziness I tell ya!

Google Notebook is Live

Google Notebook is live, and kickin'. The interface is really sweet. More on this later. :-)

Update To Fuzzy Clock Google Module

For those of you who like "quarter to six" or "ten 'til eight" or "twenty before one", you can now customize that middle word. :-) If you don't already have the module, you can get it here:

As always, if you have any suggestions, send 'em my way! Just post a comment to any blog post.

Google Da Vinci Code Quest

I just received the following email from Google regarding the Da Vinci Code Contest:

Thank you for participating in "The Da Vinci Code" Quest on Google.

This email is to confirm that you have completed all 24 puzzles within the quest and
successfully registered for a chance to participate in the final challenge. Well
done!

We will be contacting the 10,000 finalists on Monday 5/15 via
email regarding their cryptex shipment. Within that email the 10,000 finalists
will also receive instructions on how to participate in the final challenge.

All remaining players who finished the quest will also receive a
surprise message via email. Thank you all for participating in "The Da Vinci
Code" Quest on Google and making it such a success. We hope you enjoyed playing.

I dont' think this means that I'm definitely one of the 10,000 finalists. I think I'll find out on Monday. Has anyone else received any kind of confirmation beyond this email?

Google Reader is still in Labs

Google Reader's image in the upper left has changed, reminding us that it is still a part of Google Labs:



I wonder when Reader will graduate. It works great for me!

Google Integrates Google Reader with Personalized Homepage

Google has created a Personalized Homepage Module for Google Reader. You can now view your feeds on your Google Personalized Homepage. One of the coolest features is that you can add several copies of the module, and tell each module to display a certain label.

Here's a pic:

Pretty sweet. :-) Is there any reason to use reader.google.com anymore?

Google Calendar Thoughts

As I'm sure you've realized by now, Google Calendar is now live and well! Lots of features, events that can repeat basically any way imaginable, multiple calendar support, sharing, and more. Good work Google, it was well-worth the wait.

Before Google Calendar was released, I used 30boxes calendar. I truly believe that 30b is a great web app. The developers are very quick to release new features, and the calendar has a TON of features that Google Calendar doesn't have. They claimed that they'll do everything Google Calendar does, but better. I'm excited for the competition because it means a better product for everyone.

IMHO, Google's release of Google Calendar already gives 30boxes some catch-up work to do. I don't use any of the features that 30boxes has that Gcal doesn't have. Google's interface is more intuitive, cleaner, and more friendly to me. The only thing I don't like is that reminders can be attached only to events on your main calendar. Why the limitation?

As of the time of writing, there are still some features being rolled out, like deeper integration with Gmail. Over at Google Blogoscoped, there's some discussion about what users want Google to release next. Also at Google Blogoscoped, Philipp Lenssen compiled a list of public calendars you can add to your calendar. I'd like to see some Google Reader - Gmail integration, Google Bookmarks development, and I really want reminders for some events on some of my non-primary calendars.

Google Calendar Goes Live

It's here! http://calendar.google.com

The release date has come! April 13th, 2006.

More Google Calendar CL2 Screenshots

Nathan points to more Google Calendar (more like Gmail Calendar) screenshots. I've posted them here for your enjoyment. Still no word from Google as to the release date!







Looking good!

April First Comes and Goes Without Gmail Calendar

Because of Google's history of making great announcements on April 1st, (Gmail in 2004, double its storage space in 2005), April 1st has become "the new Christmas" for thousands of Google fans. Google Blogoscoped hosted a thread for predictions of what Google would announce this year.
Many thought that Google would unveil Google Calendar, codenamed CL2. Others predictions included a superior video search engine, GDrive, open registrations for Gmail, and GoogleTalk-AIM interoperability.

Sadly, none of these came true.

Today is April 2nd, and absolutely nothing useful was unveiled. Google Romance was funny, but will anyone visit it after a week? No. Some fans are so disappointed that they're abandoning Gmail and moving to Yahoo (4th post on thread linked above). Personally I think it'd be an overreaction to abandon Google. After all, we made April Fools Day out to be much more than it is. We made it the new Christmas.

Gmail Calendar will come when Google is ready, GoogleTalk-AIM interoperability will come when Google & AOL are ready, and GDrive will come when the world is ready.

People and Gmail Problems

Seems like lots of people are reporting Gmail problems lately. It's so drastic that some people are switching to back to Thunderbird or Yahoo. I sure am glad my account isn't giving me trouble. I'd hate to have to go back to sorting mail into folders and having to delete messages, and not having the conversation view.

DoJ Can't Have Google's Data

Just as Google's blog is proud to announce, the judge ruled that Google does not have to give any search queries to the Department of Justice, and that they have to hand over only 50,000 urls.

From page 20 of the official ruling pdf:

With these limitations, for the reasons stated in this Order, unless the parties agree otherwise on or before April 3, 2006, Google is ordered to confer with the Government to develop a protocol for the random selection and afterward immediate production of a listing of 50,000 URLs in Google's database on the following conditions:

1. In the development or implementation of the protocol, Google shall not be required to disclose proprietary information with respect to its database;

2. The Government shall pay the reasonable cost incurred by Google in the formulation and implementation of the extraction protocol;

3. Any information disclosed in response to this Order shall be subject to the protective order in the underlying case;

To the extent the motion seeks an order compelling Google to disclose search queries of its users the motion is DENIED.

So, according to the ruling, Google now has to write a program that will provide a listing of 50,000 random URLs and the DoJ has to pay Google for their development time. It might seem ironic at first because the DoJ could write a program on their own to retrieve a list of 50,000 random URLs from Google's databases, but I'm sure Google's engineers are able to write a much better program than the DoJ could write since the DoJ only has access to functions for which Google has provided a public interface.

All that being said, this is a great win for Google, and for the Internet users in general. It's sad that Yahoo!, Microsoft, and AOL gave in to the subpoena without fighting back.

Google and Writely

I agree with Gary Edwards' idea that the Google - Writely deal is Pearl Harbor to Microsoft. Google's acquisition of Upstartle (the makers of Writely) is a strong pull with applications in the left hand's grip and documents in the right hand's grip. Google and Writely as a team will encourage the advancement of the Open Document Format, which in turn will fuel the separation of application and documents. From Gary Edwards:

Here's something to think about. When you do a Google search, do you get applications or documents? Right. The power of Google lies in the reach of their computational forces and the open, robust digital life that is the Internet. For Google to thrive, information must be cut loose from their application ties and set free using open, Internet ready file formats.

Microsoft made their billzillions from tying information to specific application and platform versions, and tying those to hardware and API references, charging a premium for the licenses needed to facilitate the exchange and interchange of documents. Just the opposite of the Internet centric Google model.

...

Question: Will Microsoft respond by finally cutting their file format loose from the hardened application and platform dependencies so profitable in the past? Or will they let Google and ODF run off with both the monopoly base, and the future?

The 1901 pages of the MSECMAXML specification says just the opposite of what anyone with half a brain would advise Microsoft to do. Where ODF is a wrapper of Open XML technologies, MSECMAXML is a wrapper of XP/Vista dependencies and systems calls.

Looks to me like our friends in Redmond tried to squeeze a good thing for far too long.

The battle is heating up. What would you do if you were Microsoft?

Google Search for Google Calendar

If you do a Google search for google calendar, the third result on the third page is a link to http://www.google.com/cl2/. I'd say it's a pretty popular page considering that the login isn't working, and Google hasn't even linked to it yet.

Google Buys Writely

As Google's Blog proudly announces, they have officially bought Upstartle, the creators of Writely, the web word processor.

Google is building quite the alternative to Microsoft Office. Once they finish their alternative to Outlook (by releasing Google Calendar), will Excel be next?

Google Calendar Screenshots

Techcrunch reveals some Google Calendar screenshots. Alternately, you can see all the shots in one image here.

From the screenshots, it looks like a very useful calendar app, totally integrated with Gmail. Some features that Nathan points out:

• Arrington says that CL2 looks like it is a long way from being ready for launch.
• 200 people are beta testing, and sworn to secrecy.
• Yahoo briefly had access, but informed Google.
• CL2 is closely integrated with Gmail.
• CL2 has subscription feeds for iCal and XML.
• CL2 has event creation, search, sharing, notifications (including email, SMS, and popups).
• Google is not just creating personal calendars or group calendars, but creating a searchable events database. Included in that is a public webpage (for public events) to share details.
• CL2 has keyboard shortcuts.
• You can choose to make your calendar public or private, or just show what times you are busy.
• You can add other calendars by searching public calendars, friend's calendars, holiday calendars, or by entering a public calendar address (iCal or Atom).

Other features I've found from the pictures:

• There will a Weekly view and a Monthly view
• There will be an Agenda
• You can allow individual users to make changes to the calendar
• You can allow individual users to manage the sharing of the calendar
• When you are invited to events, you can choose how to receive those invitations

I'm pretty excited about the way Google decided to do the invitations. The options for receiving invitations are popups, email, and SMS. Invitations on the go. Brilliant!

The Agenda view looks very interesting. 30boxes is working on a "to do list" and it seems natural to include it within the calendar. It's apparent to me that Google is learning from 30boxes progress.

It also looks like Google is providing calendars for holidays.

I still haven't seen a monthly view. And I still can't determine what the scrolling is like.

Hurry Google Calendar and Hurry Fast

Gmail was released on April 1st, 2004. I've heard talk that Google Calendar will be released on April 1st, 2006. None of those sources have any credibility though. The only source that has any kind of reliability is Valleywag, (they predicted Google Page Creator) but they haven't said anything about Google Calendar's release date.

When Google Calendar finally does come out, I expect it to have almost every feature that Outlook's calendar has, or an improvement on those features. Right now, I use 30boxes.com for my online calendar, and its interface just doesn't cut it. It's nice because it's built with AJAX, and it has tons of features, but the scrolling on it is terrible. You have to click an up or down button and wait for the next week to load up. It doesn't take long, but that kind of thing should be prefetched in the same way that a Google Map prefetches offscreen areas of the map. 30boxes' scrolling mechanism is just like Yahoo! Maps' scrolling mechanism. It's the old way of doing things.

You can count on Google Calendar implementing it the same way they implemented Google Maps.

Gmail Chat Error

This is the first time I had problems with Gmail Chat. I got this nifty error message inside my quick contacts list. It was there for less than a minute, and then things went back to normal.

I really like the way Google implemented the error notification. To me, Google's GUI design is still top notch.

Has anyone else seen this error? How long was your outage?

Gmail Chat Becomes Available to Everyone

At least from what I can tell, Gmail Chat is now available to everyone. Where Google previously had a message stating that Gmail chat would be coming soon, they now have:


Still waiting on the calendar. . . .

More hints that Google Calendar is coming soon

Once again, Garett found some interesting hints in Gmail's source code that foreshadow features to come. Good work Garett!

So what does the integration of voicemail and evite to Gmail mean for Gmail's future? Garett thinks it is an indication that Google Calendar is soon to be released.

I agree, but I can't help but imagine what will happen to Microsoft Office's market share once Google's plan for Gmail comes to fruition. Calendar, voicemail, instant-messaging, web-based, free, and not-a-memory-hog. What more could you ask for in an email client?

Or an even better question: What does Microsoft Outlook do that Gmail doesn't do? If you asked 1000 IT managers that question, the most common answer would probably be, "Already exist on our servers."

If Google wants to convince corporations to use Gmail instead of Outlook, they'll need to help companies with the switch. I bet they'll think of an ingenious way to do that. If you were an IT manager, would you switch the company over to free Gmail with ads instead of a pricey Outlook? What criteria would your decision be based on?

Companies Can Use Gmail Instead of Outlook

Just like I predicted February 7th, and confirming the evidence that Garett Rogers discovered February 8th, Google is providing Gmail for custom domains. San Jose City College is on board right now, and more are soon to follow for sure.

Does anyone have any screenshots of the service? Is the interface skinnable or is the skin different from the original Gmail?

Now the question is, when will the calendar be released? Millions of people use Outlook and a large percentage use the calendar daily. If Gmail in the corporate world wants to stand any chance in this fight, the calendar needs to be in its corner.

Gmail integrated with Google Talk cont'd

This is a followup to my first post about Google's integration of Gmail and Google Talk. I am about to suggest the beginning of open war between you know and you know who else: Google vs Microsoft.

I work at a publishing company. Our company does business to business publications to help executives to their jobs better. For example, we have a publication geared towards IT Directors of other business. My boss, the IT Director where I work, proofreads the IT Advisor publication and sometimes asks the IT department for suggestions on subjects that he isn't familiar with. One such conversation arose yesterday and the topic was Instant Messaging. After reading the section associated with IM, I learned that Instant Messaging is making more and more networks susceptible to attack. Then today, I wake up to find the news of Google's integration. The integration of the web and instant messaging avoids the dangers that instant messaging software downloads bring to the table.

So IF (I confess, it's a very big "if") Google is bringing IM to the web for this reason, might this also be the beginning of Google's push to enter the corporate world? Is it too far-fetched to believe that Google might soon officially declare war on Microsoft by providing a (free?) alternative to every company's favorite product to spend money on, Microsoft Outlook and Exchange Server? Is it crazy to believe that this integration is just one of the features of Google's alternative to Outlook that will attract IT directors nationwide?

I don't think so. I can foresee Google providing a (free?) web service that allows IT heads to regulate everything MS Exchange Server does. For email addresses, they would be able to use a domain that they can prove is theirs instead of @gmail.com addresses. They would be able to add are remove users from the server, and it would all be done remotely.

The release of Google Calendar has been predicted falsely over and over. Could it be that Google is waiting to release the calendar to use it is more firepower in the upcoming war?

Gmail integrated with Google Talk

Gmail and Google talk have been integrated. Now you can chat with people that are signed in to their Gmail accounts. You'll get a chat box that looks like a chat window, except it's all done in the Gmail webpage using AJAX.

Remember Meebo? If you don't, it was an AJAX application that allowed users to chat over any of the four major IM networks. Looks like Gmail was the first of the four to do chat Meebo style. AOL has had AIM Express for a while, but they didn't use AJAX. I bet Google's AJAX chat will be much more successful.

I have some ideas as to why Google is doing this. More on that later.