Mediascrape

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

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

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.

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?

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!

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?

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

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!

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!