Final exams are around the corner and I can’t help but think how useful Google Docs has been for me this year. They may not have implemented the print layout view (although it is surely nearby) I have been longing for, but Google has completely turned Docs around since their acquisition of Writely in March 2006. Continue Reading »

Based on this Google Experimental Search page, it seems as though Google is testing out a prospective feature for search results - voting. The SERPs show an “up” icon and an “X” icon. If a search result is completely irrelevant for what you were searching for, clicking the Continue Reading »

If you’re anything like me, for the past few days you’ve been checking the settings page of your Gmail/Google Apps Gmail account hoping to see an IMAP settings page. Google is slowly rolling out free IMAP access to all Gmail accounts. This is huge. IMAP support has generally been ignored by free email providers Continue Reading »

With the release of the highly-anticipated Google Presentations (click New » Presentation), Google is one step closer to becoming a complete online office productivity suite and stealing many of Zoho’s users. Similar to Google Docs, Presentations can only do basic things and stays away from animations, sound, video and complex image manipulation. However, the most Continue Reading »

Chances are that if you use Gmail or Gmail for your domain, you are also a devout user of Google Notifier to let you know when your inbox needs your attention. Also, chances are that if you read this blog you have been on your neighbor’s Wi-Fi an insecure Wi-Fi network a few times before. Continue Reading »

I logged into my Google Docs account this evening to organize some school documents when I noticed that the Docs Home was revamped. The new structure, which I rather enjoy, makes it easy to view all of your documents as well as organize them by type, folders and collaborators. Overall, Google Docs now has a feel close to that of GMail. Continue Reading »

My friend Dimitry has a post detailing the newest Google Maps feature - Street View. As the name implies, you can see an area at the street level as opposed to up above with traditional satellite views. At the moment, Street View is only for Denver, Las Vegas, Miami, New York and San Francisco. Continue Reading »

More high-end phones, particularly smartphones, are coming with built-in GPS capabilities that coalesce with powerful applications to provide unparalleled utility. Case in point, the Google blog mentioned today that the GPS-enabled Cingular/AT&T BlackBerry 8800 supports advanced features of Google Maps for mobile. Continue Reading »

In addition to Google unveiling Hot Trends, an expansion of the Trends service which displays popular search terms for each day, Google will be upping the GMail file attachment limit. Currently, GMail users are limited to attaching files totaling no more than 10MB. The Continue Reading »

Dear Google Docs & Spreadsheets Team,

I am an active Google Docs user. I have been around since the Writely days and know everything there is to know about using Google Docs. For me, the collaborative writing feature is top-notch and I have given you many new users due to this feature alone. Whenever I have to form a group for some class or another, the first thing I do is set everyone up with Google Docs and Continue Reading »

Google has added traffic status information to select cities on Google Maps. This is the first substantial Google Maps update in quite some time and it seems as though Google is playing a bit of catch-up with Yahoo! Maps. Yahoo’s mapping Continue Reading »

The Official Google Blog reported last night that they will stop accepting new questions for Google Answers later this week. Google Answers has been around for 4 years and has remained relatively primitive compared to the successful Yahoo! Answers. The Google blog also states that more than 800 people have used worked on getting the answers for Google Answers over the years. That’s it? I would be shutting it down too. But at least they’ve realized this and are cutting their losses.

When Google updated their Reader not too long ago, I started using it full-time instead of NewsFire. I’m always using my browser, so why not have my feeds in it too? That was also my argument for using online office suites like Google Docs; everything pretty much revolves around the browser for me. As such, I thought I’d let you know about the unofficial Google Reader notifier created by a reader. Version 0.38 is out and bug-free. Congrats to troelsbay - his Google Reader notifier has been mentioned on many sites already.

Google has released a mobile Java application that dramatically speeds up Gmail. The unique helper application resides on the user’s J2ME-enabled mobile phone and adds usability improvements to the Gmail interface alongside speed enhancements. The most powerful feature of the application for me is the ability to make email attachments mobile-friendly - for example, it would dynamically resize an image for displaying on the Continue Reading »

Reading an article by Om Malik in this month’s Business 2.0 magazine earlier today, I began thinking of the successful web application and the future of the web. As broadband connectivity becomes cheaper and faster, there will be an undeniable movement towards the flurry of web-based applications that are sprouting up everywhere. The computer might evolve into nothing more than a terminal to your Continue Reading »

Google has merged its separate Writely and spreadsheets web applications into Google Docs & Spreadsheets. The new service will further Google’s strength as an online office suite, currently competing with Zoho.

In Google’s eight year history they have never spent as much in an acquisition as they did today. Google announced earlier today that they have completed the agreement process and have bought YouTube for a whopping 1.65 billion dollars. Continue Reading »

Google, who has been rather quiet on the AJAX Search API front, has unleashed an updated beta release today. Most notably is the feature inclusion of GnewsSearch which allows you to attain Google News results for your web applications. The new API makes it easy for you to put the Google AJAX Search widget on your site, as well as other widgets. [Hat Tip]

Google has just updated their web-based RSS aggregator, Reader, and guess what.. it’s actually usable. I really could not stand the first version Google Reader, which was launched almost 1 year ago. The recent update brings the user interface design up to par with Gmail’s offerings. Continue Reading »

In an uphill battle to compete with extremely popular personalized homepages like Netvibes, Pageflakes and Wegwag, Google has expanded their own offering today. The recent trends of people keeping track of their favorite sites with syndication modules has led to these personalized homepages Continue Reading »

Poking through my feeds this late night I saw that Ron wrote up a little piece about the future of Google Talk. It turns out that Google has made an agreement with Skype, allowing the services to work together (soon). Continue Reading »

According to MSNBC and the entire blogosphere, Google will be releasing a set of Office tools as an extension of the whole “for your domain” service (remember how there was gmail for your domain?). The free bundle of online applications being unrolled today include gCal, gmail, gTalk and Page Creator as Google Apps for Your Domain. It’s only a matter of time until they add Google Spreadsheets and Writely to the mix.

Tech startup Calgoo has just released the “First Draft” of their innovative software that allows you to manage your Google Calendar account in a full application. There are several advantages of taking your calendar from a web-based experience into an application. First and foremost, you can keep track of Continue Reading »

It seems like I’m announcing some new Gmail feature every month, but they are definitely welcomed features. This month Google adds the ability to play mp3 audio files attached in emails. This feature adds-on to the recent news of the updated version of Google Talk which allows for voicemail messages; now gTalk users can listen to their voicemail messages within Gmail. Continue Reading »

To keep up with new Google properties like gCalendar, Google has ditched the popular Gmail Notifier for a revamped application aptly dubbed Google Notifier. The new Mac application adds a calendar icon to your menubar (you can hide it in preferences) and a Mail.appetizer-esque notification system. When you get a new email or Continue Reading »