John Battelle appears to have scooped Google by releasing a draft of Google's Open Social press release. Google Operating System gives a pretty good rundown of what it's all about so I won't rehash that here. What I do think is interesting is the defacto social network that Google's just created.
The launch partners (Orkut, Hi5, Ning, Friendster, LinkedIn, ...) are an impressive collection of social networks that aren't Facebook or MySpace, but the biggest launch partner hasn't been listed.
Google already has a massive social graph, it's all your contacts in GMail and friends in GoogleTalk. Google already uses this social graph to show you a news feed created by your 'friends' in Shared Stuff. Google have said that the GMail contact manager is going to be migrated into Google's other services, and your Shared Stuff profile has already been re-used in Google Maps.
Now we have Open Social, and it doesn't take too much imagination to see iGoogle supporting Open Social widgets. Suddenly you can create an iGoogle tab that displays Shared Stuff feeds and Facebook style social apps that use your GMail contacts as friends. Want to know more about a friend? Just view their 'social profile', and with Open Social you've got a world of 3rd party developers ready to go.
Without having to release a 'new' social network Google already have. Friends, profiles, social apps, picture albums, news feeds, IM, inbox messaging -- just by adding a social layer on top of their existing properties, Google has scooped Facebook.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Could Facebook Hitting Critical Mass Lead to a Meltdown?
Having your siblings friend you on Facebook is one thing, getting poked by your parents is something else.
Then your boss comments on your weekend activities and Facebook's ubiquity gets a little creepy. It's not a new observation, people have been bemoaning Facebook's lack of domain separation ever since the platform expanded from college kids to the general public. It was then that the aforementioned co-eds realised their booze fueled girls-gone-wild party-pics might not play so well when they got friended by the CTO at their graduating 'first choice' investment bank.
Clearly just not friending these people won't work -- the solution, of course, is silos -- an invisible barrier that lets you put each friend in the right bucket. Friend. Family. Workmate. Then each posting / app / status update only gets pushed to the people who should be seeing it. It's perfect but it also adds complexity. Facebookers rarely go to the trouble of rotating portrait photos in their photo albums, you think they're going to think through the implications of each status update and photo post?
But what's worse than information leakage? Your mother uses Facebook. That's not just an insult my friends, that's death for any online application that values 'cool'. Trendy stores keep unwelcome adults out by playing loud obnoxious music and strobing their lights in a way sure to induce seizures in anyone over 30. MySpace works pretty much the same way. Part of Facebook's problem is its elegant design, the same feature that has helped its monumental growth may now be encouraging too many people to join.
How long before the sheer uncoolness of a social network your parents are part of and your boss reads daily leads hipsters to seek out a less 'parent friendly' alternative? Then again, the propagation of vampire-werewolf-ninja-pirate 'apps' might be enough to distract nosy parents and employers from the incriminating kegger photos.
Facebook wants to win market share from LinkedIn, but maybe we'd all be better off if our social networks and professional networks kept their distance.
It's hard to argue that a social network's astronomic growth is a bad thing. But how Zuckerberg and his increasingly talented team are going to deal with these issues should be of supreme interest to those looking to invest in Facebook's estimated 15b valuation.
Then your boss comments on your weekend activities and Facebook's ubiquity gets a little creepy. It's not a new observation, people have been bemoaning Facebook's lack of domain separation ever since the platform expanded from college kids to the general public. It was then that the aforementioned co-eds realised their booze fueled girls-gone-wild party-pics might not play so well when they got friended by the CTO at their graduating 'first choice' investment bank.
Clearly just not friending these people won't work -- the solution, of course, is silos -- an invisible barrier that lets you put each friend in the right bucket. Friend. Family. Workmate. Then each posting / app / status update only gets pushed to the people who should be seeing it. It's perfect but it also adds complexity. Facebookers rarely go to the trouble of rotating portrait photos in their photo albums, you think they're going to think through the implications of each status update and photo post?
But what's worse than information leakage? Your mother uses Facebook. That's not just an insult my friends, that's death for any online application that values 'cool'. Trendy stores keep unwelcome adults out by playing loud obnoxious music and strobing their lights in a way sure to induce seizures in anyone over 30. MySpace works pretty much the same way. Part of Facebook's problem is its elegant design, the same feature that has helped its monumental growth may now be encouraging too many people to join.
How long before the sheer uncoolness of a social network your parents are part of and your boss reads daily leads hipsters to seek out a less 'parent friendly' alternative? Then again, the propagation of vampire-werewolf-ninja-pirate 'apps' might be enough to distract nosy parents and employers from the incriminating kegger photos.
Facebook wants to win market share from LinkedIn, but maybe we'd all be better off if our social networks and professional networks kept their distance.
It's hard to argue that a social network's astronomic growth is a bad thing. But how Zuckerberg and his increasingly talented team are going to deal with these issues should be of supreme interest to those looking to invest in Facebook's estimated 15b valuation.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Anyone for Cricket?
Both forms of the World Cup are over and the Northern Winter looms over Great Britain. But for those of us you a little further South, a sensational summer of cricket is just getting started.
Domestic competitions have kicked off in Australia, South Africa, and The West Indies (and starting soon in Pakistan); and one-day and test series are already underway in South Africa, Sri Lanka, India, and Australia. With so much cricket spread so far around the world, what better time to launch a mega cricket maps mashup?
Live Cricket Map
See exactly where every game is being played with links to live ball-by-ball commentary.
Cricket Calendar Map
Shows you all the upcoming cricket fixtures, mapped out around the world.
Cricket Venue Map
Find out more about cricket grounds around the world. These lists are updated and growing every day as we get more details about more grounds around the world. Want to help? Send us the details on a ground near you.
iGoogle Gadgets
All the cricket-map goodness in convenient gadget form. Add the Live Scores Map Gadget and Cricket Schedule Map Gadget to your iGoogle homepage.
Hit for Six was written entirely in the Google Mashup Editor with data coming from Dapper, Google Calendar, and Google Spreadsheets. It makes use of a few cool new GME tricks (like real-time geocoding) so I'll write a follow up post early next week explaining some of the tricks I learned putting it together.
Domestic competitions have kicked off in Australia, South Africa, and The West Indies (and starting soon in Pakistan); and one-day and test series are already underway in South Africa, Sri Lanka, India, and Australia. With so much cricket spread so far around the world, what better time to launch a mega cricket maps mashup?
Live Cricket Map
See exactly where every game is being played with links to live ball-by-ball commentary.
Cricket Calendar Map
Shows you all the upcoming cricket fixtures, mapped out around the world.
Cricket Venue Map
Find out more about cricket grounds around the world. These lists are updated and growing every day as we get more details about more grounds around the world. Want to help? Send us the details on a ground near you.
iGoogle Gadgets
All the cricket-map goodness in convenient gadget form. Add the Live Scores Map Gadget and Cricket Schedule Map Gadget to your iGoogle homepage.
Hit for Six was written entirely in the Google Mashup Editor with data coming from Dapper, Google Calendar, and Google Spreadsheets. It makes use of a few cool new GME tricks (like real-time geocoding) so I'll write a follow up post early next week explaining some of the tricks I learned putting it together.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Google Finance Gets More Financials
As of this morning Google Finance is providing price information (including pricing graphs) for stocks listed on the Australian (ASX) and New Zealand (NZX) stock exchanges. Great news for market sleuths in the Great Southern Land (and its neighbor).
This comes a week after Google Finance started providing real-time pricing information on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges in China.
Google Finance still lags a little behind Yahoo Finance, both in terms of global coverage and userbase; but these updates, and a promise of real-time updates on the US exchanges as soon as the SEC gives them a green light, suggest they've not given up the chase.
This comes a week after Google Finance started providing real-time pricing information on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges in China.
Google Finance still lags a little behind Yahoo Finance, both in terms of global coverage and userbase; but these updates, and a promise of real-time updates on the US exchanges as soon as the SEC gives them a green light, suggest they've not given up the chase.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Google Updates Its Mobile Offerings
While we're yet to see a real-life GPhone, Google's mobile development team has just released a flurry of updates.
Monday saw GMail for Mobiles get bumped up to version 1.5. The shiny new version is 30 to 80% faster, lets you save drafts, and supports GMail keyboard shortcuts. The most impressive feature in the new version is a 'Contact Manager'. It displays your contacts' GMail pictures and their (click-to-callable) phone numbers -- as well as email addresses of course. Download on your phone from http://gmail.com/app.
Saturday saw Google Maps for Mobile get tricked out with version 1.6, with the bonus of native app support for the S60 OS toting crowd (Nokia, SE, etal). This is particularly cool as it provides GPS support for S60 phones (like the Nokia N95). Other updates include a touch-screen friendly zoom in / zoom out and menu options.
Today we get to view our Google Docs on our phones as Google release a mobile friendly view of Google Docs. Google Blogoscoped has the scoop, but in a nutshell mobile Docs supports a read-only view of both documents and spreadsheets (no presentation view yet).
We've now got Maps, GMail, Docs, Picasaweb, Reader, iGoogle, News, and Calendar all available on our mobiles. GPhone or not, Google is serious about moving to the mobile.
Monday saw GMail for Mobiles get bumped up to version 1.5. The shiny new version is 30 to 80% faster, lets you save drafts, and supports GMail keyboard shortcuts. The most impressive feature in the new version is a 'Contact Manager'. It displays your contacts' GMail pictures and their (click-to-callable) phone numbers -- as well as email addresses of course. Download on your phone from http://gmail.com/app.
Saturday saw Google Maps for Mobile get tricked out with version 1.6, with the bonus of native app support for the S60 OS toting crowd (Nokia, SE, etal). This is particularly cool as it provides GPS support for S60 phones (like the Nokia N95). Other updates include a touch-screen friendly zoom in / zoom out and menu options.
Today we get to view our Google Docs on our phones as Google release a mobile friendly view of Google Docs. Google Blogoscoped has the scoop, but in a nutshell mobile Docs supports a read-only view of both documents and spreadsheets (no presentation view yet).
We've now got Maps, GMail, Docs, Picasaweb, Reader, iGoogle, News, and Calendar all available on our mobiles. GPhone or not, Google is serious about moving to the mobile.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
NBL Ladder Gadget
My infatuation with the Google Mashup Editor continues. This time I've used Dapper to turn the Australian National Basketball League (NBL) standings ladder into an Atom feed, which I'm using to power the NBL Ladder Google homepage gadget.
The GME hosts (and lets you edit) your gadget's XML definition file, and your gadget can feature any of the tags and themes supported by the GME -- so it becomes a 'one stop shop' for creating rich mashup gadgets.
The GME hosts (and lets you edit) your gadget's XML definition file, and your gadget can feature any of the tags and themes supported by the GME -- so it becomes a 'one stop shop' for creating rich mashup gadgets.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Google 'Shared Stuff' Social Bookmarking Service
Google is quietly launching a new service today called 'Shared Stuff'.
It's a service that lets you bookmark pages, add comments and add tags in a similar way to how Google Notebook works, but with an emphasis firmly on sharing. As well as a 'shared stuff' page, your friends can add your Shared Stuff as a Google Homepage module, or subscribe to your RSS feed.
Once you've 'shared' an item, Google will tell you how many times it's been shared (like every social bookmarking site ever) but also how many times it's been viewed.
It looks like they'll be building this in to all the Google services that allow sharing (Maps, Video, YouTube, Reader, Picasaweb, Blogger, ...), but at the moment it's only supported in Google Video and via a browser (Share This) button. This suggests this is the mysterious Mocka-Mocka social service suggested in the Google Reader training video that was leaked earlier this month.
It's still not properly launched,so I expect we'll see a 'home' page for the service, similar to the Digg or Del.icio.us front pages that show us what's getting shared and viewed the most, before too long. but you can still see the 'most popular' items, or you can see the most popular items by tag.
As it is, it's a very workable replacement for sending emails of cool stuff you've found online (or having a blog for the same).
For those playing at home, this accounts for the mysterious Google service 'S2'.
It's a service that lets you bookmark pages, add comments and add tags in a similar way to how Google Notebook works, but with an emphasis firmly on sharing. As well as a 'shared stuff' page, your friends can add your Shared Stuff as a Google Homepage module, or subscribe to your RSS feed.Once you've 'shared' an item, Google will tell you how many times it's been shared (like every social bookmarking site ever) but also how many times it's been viewed.
It looks like they'll be building this in to all the Google services that allow sharing (Maps, Video, YouTube, Reader, Picasaweb, Blogger, ...), but at the moment it's only supported in Google Video and via a browser (Share This) button. This suggests this is the mysterious Mocka-Mocka social service suggested in the Google Reader training video that was leaked earlier this month.
It's still not properly launched,
As it is, it's a very workable replacement for sending emails of cool stuff you've found online (or having a blog for the same).
For those playing at home, this accounts for the mysterious Google service 'S2'.
Javascript API for Google Calendar
Google has just released a Javascript API for Google Calendars.
The client side library supports full authenticated read/write access the the user's calendars, letting you create calendar mashups that insert and change a user's calendar entries.
It was the Maps Javascript library that drove the explosion of Maps Mashups, so it'll be interesting to see what the development community comes up with.
Interestingly, yesterday on Joel on Software, Joel Spolsky predicted the next paradigm for development will be an online SDK that lets developers create powerful Ajax applications that can interact with each other and have consistent interface elements. A 'NewSDK',
Windows made it easy for developers to create applications that looked and behaved consistently and provided a level of application interop. With Javascript APIs and tools like the Google Mashup Editor and GWT may be trying to do the same thing with web development.
The client side library supports full authenticated read/write access the the user's calendars, letting you create calendar mashups that insert and change a user's calendar entries.
It was the Maps Javascript library that drove the explosion of Maps Mashups, so it'll be interesting to see what the development community comes up with.
Interestingly, yesterday on Joel on Software, Joel Spolsky predicted the next paradigm for development will be an online SDK that lets developers create powerful Ajax applications that can interact with each other and have consistent interface elements. A 'NewSDK',
"...which combines a great portable programming language that compiles to JavaScript, and even better, a huge Ajaxy library that includes all kinds of clever interop features. Not just cut ‘n’ paste: cool mashup features like synchronization and single-point identity management..." - Joel SpolskyWith the Google Mashup Editor and a library of full access Javascript APIs, Google may be well on the way to creating 'NewSDK'. The Google Maps API has helped make it a ubiquitous online map. Will the same thing now happen with Calendar? Then Spreadsheets, Docs, Picasaweb, GMail, ...?
Windows made it easy for developers to create applications that looked and behaved consistently and provided a level of application interop. With Javascript APIs and tools like the Google Mashup Editor and GWT may be trying to do the same thing with web development.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Easy Come, Easy Go(ogle)
There's never a shortage of speculation surrounding future Google releases. With rumours flying around at breakneck pace it's easy to loose track.
With Google presenting at TechCrunch40 later today, let's take a moment to review some of the biggest, longest running, and most eagerly anticipated Google product rumours: Google Television, GDrive, the GPhone, GoogleTalk-to-Phone, Google's Social application, and Google Office.
The Google Phone
Alias: GPhone
Speculation on the GPhone started as early as 2005, and it's been regular blog fodder since then, with the rumour mill hitting overdrive in August thanks to reliable reports of an impending post-Labour Day release.
Early speculation suggested a hardware device similar to the iPhone, but recent comments from Google's head of research, Peter Norvig, suggest it won't be a Google created handset. The smart money now is on a Java-based Google powered phone OS along with a suite of mobile Google applications available on 3rd party hardware, with Business Week claiming just last week that a gPhone mobile phone platform is nearing release.
Original Speculation: December 2005.
Last Heard From: September 2007.
Suggested Release Schedule: Post Labour Day, 2007.
Trending: Peaking.
Likelihood of imminent release: High.
GDrive
Alias: Platypus, Google Drive, WWW10
Rumours of a Google powered online storage solution started in 2005, but it was the inadvertent release of suggestive power point slides in early 2006 that really got people's attention.
After a massive bout of online speculation things died down until July 2007, when CorsinCamichel discovered an internal Google GDrive client codenamed Platypus. More recently Tony Ruscoe found that 'GDrive' was available to some users as a service within Google Apps, fueling speculation of a possible public release.
Original Speculation: March 2005.
Last Heard From: September 2007.
Suggested Release Schedule: Unknown. Likely to be part of Google Apps.
Trending: Stagnant.
Likelihood of imminent release: High.
Google's Social Application
Alias: Makamaka, Ninianne Wang's Social Project, Google World
Google's decidedly underwhelming Orkut service has led to speculation that Google intends to release an alternative social application that takes a radically different approach. Revelation's in May 2006 that star Googler Niniane Wang was heading up a new project in the social space led to speculation that the project might be a killer combination of Facebook and Second Life leveraging Google Earth.
More recently Google Operating System highlighted Google's investment in SocialStream (a social networking aggregation project), and the accidental leak of a Google training video described the 'big social effort' at Google (Makamaka), as the framework for Google's social efforts.
Original Speculation: April 2005.
Last Heard From: September 2007.
Suggested Release Schedule: Unknown.
Trending: Upwards.
Likelihood of imminent release: Low.
GoogleTV
Alias: Google Television
Google TV has been rumour fodder since before the launch of Google Video in January of 2005.
In March of 2006 job openings for an Interactive TV Product Manager and Software Engineers with experience in 'emerging TV standards' and 'deploying robust, high-volume applications for consumer devices' fueled speculation that a GoogleTV set-top-box might be on its way.
In January 2007 an brilliantly spoofed 'how-to guide' to register for the GoogleTV Beta program was released on YouTube sparking a surge of interest as hope overcame common sense before the hoax was revealed.
In March Google announced a television AdSense trial, and in August Vint Cerf (VP at Goolge) suggested that television is approaching it's 'iPod moment', when most users will be downloading their television.
Original Speculation: 2004.
Last Heard From: August 2007.
Suggested Release Schedule: Unknown.
Trending: Stagnant.
Likelihood of imminent release: Low.
GoogleTalk Phone-Out
Alias: Google Voice, Google SIP
When Google launched GoogleTalk in August 2005 with audio conferencing using the open source libjingle library,there was wide-spread expectation that a Skype style PC-to-phone service would follow.
In July of 2006 GoogleTalk was updated to provide 'voice mail' for missed audio calls and in May this year the accidental release of a Google slideshow including a screen-capture of an updated GoogleTalk client including a 'dialpad' renewed speculation that GoogleTalk would soon be upgraded to include a PC to phone service. A month later Google acquired GrandCentral, a 'one number for life' phone management startup.
Original Speculation: August 2005.
Last Heard From: June 2007.
Suggested Release Schedule: Unknown.
Trending: Stagnant.
Likelihood of imminent release: Moderate.
Google Office
Alias: Presently, Google Wiki, JotSpot
The Google Office suite (or MS Office killer) has been a target of speculation GMail's release in 2004, but only really grabbed hold in March of 2006 when Google purchased collaborative online document editor Writely. Since then Google has added a Calendar and Spreadsheets to there Office suite, and has packaged all three tools as 'Google Docs' and embedded them with the Google Apps service.
More recently Google has acquired business focused wiki JotSpot, and online presentations software creator Tonic Systems. Neither acquisition has yet resulted in a Google offering, though Information Week suggests that the release of Presently (Google's PowerPoint offering) is a dead certainty for Tech40 today.
Speculation continues regarding an offline component to Google Docs, and the release of a JotSpot powered wiki component.
Original Speculation: 2004.
Last Heard From: September 2007.
Suggested Release Schedule: September 17, 2007.
Trending: Upwards.
Likelihood of imminent release: Near certainty.
With Google presenting at TechCrunch40 later today, let's take a moment to review some of the biggest, longest running, and most eagerly anticipated Google product rumours: Google Television, GDrive, the GPhone, GoogleTalk-to-Phone, Google's Social application, and Google Office.
The Google Phone
Alias: GPhone
Speculation on the GPhone started as early as 2005, and it's been regular blog fodder since then, with the rumour mill hitting overdrive in August thanks to reliable reports of an impending post-Labour Day release.
Early speculation suggested a hardware device similar to the iPhone, but recent comments from Google's head of research, Peter Norvig, suggest it won't be a Google created handset. The smart money now is on a Java-based Google powered phone OS along with a suite of mobile Google applications available on 3rd party hardware, with Business Week claiming just last week that a gPhone mobile phone platform is nearing release.
Original Speculation: December 2005.
Last Heard From: September 2007.
Suggested Release Schedule: Post Labour Day, 2007.
Trending: Peaking.
Likelihood of imminent release: High.
GDrive
Alias: Platypus, Google Drive, WWW10
Rumours of a Google powered online storage solution started in 2005, but it was the inadvertent release of suggestive power point slides in early 2006 that really got people's attention.
After a massive bout of online speculation things died down until July 2007, when CorsinCamichel discovered an internal Google GDrive client codenamed Platypus. More recently Tony Ruscoe found that 'GDrive' was available to some users as a service within Google Apps, fueling speculation of a possible public release.
Original Speculation: March 2005.
Last Heard From: September 2007.
Suggested Release Schedule: Unknown. Likely to be part of Google Apps.
Trending: Stagnant.
Likelihood of imminent release: High.
Google's Social Application
Alias: Makamaka, Ninianne Wang's Social Project, Google World
Google's decidedly underwhelming Orkut service has led to speculation that Google intends to release an alternative social application that takes a radically different approach. Revelation's in May 2006 that star Googler Niniane Wang was heading up a new project in the social space led to speculation that the project might be a killer combination of Facebook and Second Life leveraging Google Earth.
More recently Google Operating System highlighted Google's investment in SocialStream (a social networking aggregation project), and the accidental leak of a Google training video described the 'big social effort' at Google (Makamaka), as the framework for Google's social efforts.
Original Speculation: April 2005.
Last Heard From: September 2007.
Suggested Release Schedule: Unknown.
Trending: Upwards.
Likelihood of imminent release: Low.
GoogleTV
Alias: Google Television
Google TV has been rumour fodder since before the launch of Google Video in January of 2005.
In March of 2006 job openings for an Interactive TV Product Manager and Software Engineers with experience in 'emerging TV standards' and 'deploying robust, high-volume applications for consumer devices' fueled speculation that a GoogleTV set-top-box might be on its way.
In January 2007 an brilliantly spoofed 'how-to guide' to register for the GoogleTV Beta program was released on YouTube sparking a surge of interest as hope overcame common sense before the hoax was revealed.
In March Google announced a television AdSense trial, and in August Vint Cerf (VP at Goolge) suggested that television is approaching it's 'iPod moment', when most users will be downloading their television.
Original Speculation: 2004.
Last Heard From: August 2007.
Suggested Release Schedule: Unknown.
Trending: Stagnant.
Likelihood of imminent release: Low.
GoogleTalk Phone-Out
Alias: Google Voice, Google SIP
When Google launched GoogleTalk in August 2005 with audio conferencing using the open source libjingle library,there was wide-spread expectation that a Skype style PC-to-phone service would follow.
In July of 2006 GoogleTalk was updated to provide 'voice mail' for missed audio calls and in May this year the accidental release of a Google slideshow including a screen-capture of an updated GoogleTalk client including a 'dialpad' renewed speculation that GoogleTalk would soon be upgraded to include a PC to phone service. A month later Google acquired GrandCentral, a 'one number for life' phone management startup.
Original Speculation: August 2005.
Last Heard From: June 2007.
Suggested Release Schedule: Unknown.
Trending: Stagnant.
Likelihood of imminent release: Moderate.
Google Office
Alias: Presently, Google Wiki, JotSpot
The Google Office suite (or MS Office killer) has been a target of speculation GMail's release in 2004, but only really grabbed hold in March of 2006 when Google purchased collaborative online document editor Writely. Since then Google has added a Calendar and Spreadsheets to there Office suite, and has packaged all three tools as 'Google Docs' and embedded them with the Google Apps service.
More recently Google has acquired business focused wiki JotSpot, and online presentations software creator Tonic Systems. Neither acquisition has yet resulted in a Google offering, though Information Week suggests that the release of Presently (Google's PowerPoint offering) is a dead certainty for Tech40 today.
Speculation continues regarding an offline component to Google Docs, and the release of a JotSpot powered wiki component.
Original Speculation: 2004.
Last Heard From: September 2007.
Suggested Release Schedule: September 17, 2007.
Trending: Upwards.
Likelihood of imminent release: Near certainty.
Friday, September 14, 2007
Google Mashup Editor Goes Social
Isn't it great when you get exactly what you ask for?
The latest release of the Google Mashup Editor lets your mashups share data between users, letting you create real social apps within the GME. So My Travel Maps now includes 'Their Travel Maps', a tab where you can see your friends' Travel Maps.
Sign in and add your friends' GMail addresses to the 'Their Travel Maps' tab, then select a friend to see their trips (and their Picasaweb albums). Add me as a friend -- my GMail is Reto.Meier at gmail.com -- to see the result.
Along with social application support this release has a bunch of new features, including the ability to add labels and rating to external feeds, support for editing HTML and CSS project files within the editor, plus better styling and CSS support along with general performance improvements and bug fixes.
It's an impressive new release that's moving the GME further along the path to full-blown online GoogleOS development IDE.
The latest release of the Google Mashup Editor lets your mashups share data between users, letting you create real social apps within the GME. So My Travel Maps now includes 'Their Travel Maps', a tab where you can see your friends' Travel Maps.
Sign in and add your friends' GMail addresses to the 'Their Travel Maps' tab, then select a friend to see their trips (and their Picasaweb albums). Add me as a friend -- my GMail is Reto.Meier at gmail.com -- to see the result.Along with social application support this release has a bunch of new features, including the ability to add labels and rating to external feeds, support for editing HTML and CSS project files within the editor, plus better styling and CSS support along with general performance improvements and bug fixes.
It's an impressive new release that's moving the GME further along the path to full-blown online GoogleOS development IDE.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Massive 7.9 Earthquake Hits Sumatra
A massive earthquake registering 7.9 on the Richter scale has been recorded just off the coast of Sumatra in Indonesia.
Earthquake! illustrates the size and scale of the quake, the light red 'felt' region extends over much of south east Asia as far away as Sri Lanka and Myanmar and the dark red damage zone covering a fair chunk of the Sumatran coast line.
There's currently a Tsunami alert in effect for the surrounding region.
Earthquake! illustrates the size and scale of the quake, the light red 'felt' region extends over much of south east Asia as far away as Sri Lanka and Myanmar and the dark red damage zone covering a fair chunk of the Sumatran coast line.
There's currently a Tsunami alert in effect for the surrounding region.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
My Google Library
Wow. Google has just announced an incredible new service on the official Google Blog.
Book lovers rejoice, you can now create a virtual library of your book collection using Google's Book Search. You can maintain your entire collection by adding books using ISBNs, using Book Search, or copying from other people's libraries.
Once added, books can be rated, tagged, and reviewed, and you can browse in cover view, detail view, filter by tag, and search your library. Viewing a book's details gives you a varied wealth of information, including book publishing details, online reviews, online references, references from other books, regularly quoted passages, related books, and in some cases even a map of places mentioned within the books pages.
Your library is public (my library) so you can share your collection with your friends, or use your friend's collections as inspiration for your own reading. There's even an RSS feed of new additions and an XML feed of your collection to download or mashup in your own applications. The XML feeds include ISBN, author, title, your tags, reviews, and rating -- the RSS feed also includes the cover art.
At the moment it's a little US-centric, with cover art and detailed book details missing for books published overseas -- which is a bit of a problem for those of us in the UK or Australia. That's not going to stop me from importing my 1000 book database into My Library later tonight though!
I hope they extend the data feeds further. I'd dearly love to be able to add books to my collection (and rate, review, and label them) using a GData feed like PicasaWeb; I'd also love to have access to some of the wealth of book information Google have aggregated for each book. In fact, while we're at it, I think they should extend 'My Library' to include music and movies I own as well as books.
I don't know many people that were big users of Google Books, but just about everyone I know with a collection of more than 100 books has some way of cataloging their books (Excel spreadsheets, custom software, etc). I think this is a wise move precisely because it gives people a new reason for regularly visiting the site.
Book lovers rejoice, you can now create a virtual library of your book collection using Google's Book Search. You can maintain your entire collection by adding books using ISBNs, using Book Search, or copying from other people's libraries.
Once added, books can be rated, tagged, and reviewed, and you can browse in cover view, detail view, filter by tag, and search your library. Viewing a book's details gives you a varied wealth of information, including book publishing details, online reviews, online references, references from other books, regularly quoted passages, related books, and in some cases even a map of places mentioned within the books pages.
Your library is public (my library) so you can share your collection with your friends, or use your friend's collections as inspiration for your own reading. There's even an RSS feed of new additions and an XML feed of your collection to download or mashup in your own applications. The XML feeds include ISBN, author, title, your tags, reviews, and rating -- the RSS feed also includes the cover art.
At the moment it's a little US-centric, with cover art and detailed book details missing for books published overseas -- which is a bit of a problem for those of us in the UK or Australia. That's not going to stop me from importing my 1000 book database into My Library later tonight though!
I hope they extend the data feeds further. I'd dearly love to be able to add books to my collection (and rate, review, and label them) using a GData feed like PicasaWeb; I'd also love to have access to some of the wealth of book information Google have aggregated for each book. In fact, while we're at it, I think they should extend 'My Library' to include music and movies I own as well as books.
I don't know many people that were big users of Google Books, but just about everyone I know with a collection of more than 100 books has some way of cataloging their books (Excel spreadsheets, custom software, etc). I think this is a wise move precisely because it gives people a new reason for regularly visiting the site.
Distances on Google Maps
As of today Google Maps will display the length of any line you draw on a map (you can add lines in the 'My Maps' tab). Just click on any completed line to get a total distance.
Finally I can see exactly how much longer the 'scenic route' to work is.
They didn't invent this, Yahoo! has done it for a while and I know of a couple of mashups that do the same thing, but still -- it's pretty handy!
At the moment all distances are shown in yards and miles -- maybe the next release can show us some metric love?
Finally I can see exactly how much longer the 'scenic route' to work is.
They didn't invent this, Yahoo! has done it for a while and I know of a couple of mashups that do the same thing, but still -- it's pretty handy!
At the moment all distances are shown in yards and miles -- maybe the next release can show us some metric love?
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Google Reader UI Update
I noticed a general update of the Google Reader UI this morning.
There's now a gray arrow button between your list of subscriptions and the reading panel, just like the one in Google Maps between your map and the search results. Just like in Maps, clicking it will hide your subscriptions list, replacing it with a 'My Subscriptions:' dropdown.
It's a nice UI tweak that gains me an extra 30% - 50% of horizontal reading space when I'm going through my feeds in the morning.
They've also updated the blue 'loading' dialog, replacing the blue beaker with a smaller orange loading message that sits at the top of the page.
I've seen this update come-and-go all morning, so it looks like they're in the process of testing / rolling it out.
Update (6 Sep 2007): They've also added search functionality! You can now search through any of your folders to find specific feed items. Neat.
There's now a gray arrow button between your list of subscriptions and the reading panel, just like the one in Google Maps between your map and the search results. Just like in Maps, clicking it will hide your subscriptions list, replacing it with a 'My Subscriptions:' dropdown.
It's a nice UI tweak that gains me an extra 30% - 50% of horizontal reading space when I'm going through my feeds in the morning.
They've also updated the blue 'loading' dialog, replacing the blue beaker with a smaller orange loading message that sits at the top of the page.
I've seen this update come-and-go all morning, so it looks like they're in the process of testing / rolling it out.
Update (6 Sep 2007): They've also added search functionality! You can now search through any of your folders to find specific feed items. Neat.
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