14 things you can learn from the Google story
http://digitalsamurai.co.za/blog/2006/09/16/14-things-you-can-learn-from-the-google-story/

Quote :

" 1. Connections - human, computer, biology - are everything. Life = networks. 2. Never compromise your ideals because someone said it’s impossible, stupid, or a waste of time. 3. Do focus on changing the world, don’t focus on the money. If you provide value, the money will come. 4. Have a healthy disregard for the impossible. If someone hasn’t done it yet, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. 5. Money is a problem, not a solution. Money cannot solve your problems, but your solutions can solve the money problem. 6. Value creativity, not money. View creativity as your company’s true bottom-line, or your company will stop growing and die. 7. Go against the grain. Don’t believe in other people’s visions for you, believe in your own. 8. Speed is more important than looking good. A shiny, beautiful car isn’t impressive when it gets overtaken by an old jalopy; the same applies to software. 9. Organic growth is best. Only grow as fast as you need to, don’t waste money on advertising a product you won’t want your mom to use. 10. Focus on users above all else, e.g. don’t do something that might annoy your users just to make more money, they won’t forget. 11. Never betray users’ trust, or anyone else’s. 12. Spend 20% of your time on blue-sky ideas without worrying about how they will make a profit. If it might change the world for the better, it needs to be done, even if it can’t make money. 13. Don’t make enemies of your competitors to stay driven. Be driven by your own values and mission. 14. Beat your own path through the wilderness. These are the flashes of insight I had while reading The Google Story ( http://tinyurl.com/rvzut ), please add your own in the comments. "

9/18/2006 1:07:20 PM

haha this is fucking awesome
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ballsy Google Kicks Belgian Newspapers’ Asses
http://tinyurl.com/h4e3h

By Nathan Weinberg

Sometimes Google just makes me jump up and pump my fist, yelling, “Yes! You show those motherf-ers!” This is definitely one of those times. Google responding to Belgian newspaper’s complaints about being included in Google News and the Google cache, as well as a court ruling that they remove those newspapers from their services, decided to show them who’s boss and banned the newspapers outright ( http://tinyurl.com/jbca3 ) from Google Belgium’s search results.

Take a look at this search ( http://tinyurl.com/z62hc ). It returns zero results, just this message:

Quote :

"In response to a legal request submitted to Google, we have removed 1237 result(s) from this page. If you wish, you may read more about the request (http://tinyurl.com/khnrg) at ChillingEffects.org."

That’s right: those Belgian newspapers wanted Google to pay for the privelege of sending them readers, so Google is going to take their greed and use it to cut off their legs. Want to bet those papers lose tens of percentages of their traffic? All statistics say yes, and I’ll bet the Hitwise blog is working up a real pretty chart to prove it.

Old, dying media, here’s your lesson for the day: Google doesn’t steal your content, it just points its millions of users at you. That is to your benefit. Don’t blow it next time.

Oh, and Google can basically argue to the judge that it isn’t using dirty tactics, because it simply followed the awful wording of the judge’s ruling:

Quote :

"Order the defendant to withdraw the articles, photographs and graphic representations of Belgian publishers of the French - and German-speaking daily press, represented by the plaintiff, from all their sites (Google News and “cache” Google or any other name within 10 days of the notification of the intervening order, under penalty of a daily fine of 1,000,000.- € per day of delay;"

Uh, whoops. Yeah, don’t screw with the Goog.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

9/19/2006 3:01:59 AM

interesting. kinda reminds me of http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/2006/08/27/blogger-says-its-ok-to-steal-if-they-use-rss/

9/19/2006 9:28:05 AM

now this is what i'm talking about - a new and improved Google Reader - http://www.google.com/

short write up on techcrunch - http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/28/google-reader-steps-it-up-with-new-version/
i'm sure there will be dozens more by tomorrow.

looks like they finally got the memo and implemented the 2-frame feed viewer popularized by Bloglines (basic, simple 2 frames. Hierarchical navigation frame on the left, reading/browsing/scrolling frame on the right) and improved upon by Newsgator (by using AJAX instead of actual HTML frames).
I'm psyched they finally got a clue from the Gmail team an fashioned a Gmail-conversation-style layout for reading lots of news items. You can read just the headlines and click on each item to expand it, like a piece of a Gmail conversation, or view them all expanded and scroll down.
looks very promising so far - will have to reconfigure all my feeds and give it a shot.

9/28/2006 10:41:11 PM

^^^^ Here here.

9/28/2006 10:42:35 PM

ummm.... hear, hear?

9/28/2006 10:53:46 PM

I'm sorry. What?

9/28/2006 11:39:46 PM

it's about freakin time. i greatly look forward to trying this out tomorrow

edit: right away i don't like the expanded view. i prefer the list view b/c it shows more content and less visual presentation of the content. and in the list view, they should make it so when you press p/n the previous/next item gets expanded, rather than having to do p/n+enter.

[Edited on September 29, 2006 at 12:28 AM. Reason : .]

9/29/2006 12:23:14 AM

^^the correct phrase is "hear, hear"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hear_hear

9/29/2006 12:24:12 AM

^^ i should have known. j/k does what i want, instead of n/p

[Edited on September 29, 2006 at 8:37 AM. Reason : desperately needs drag/drop reordering]

9/29/2006 8:26:13 AM

yeah, the keyboard navigation is nice - very fast and responsive. I can see a new pattern emerging for me - instead of getting a page a mile long and scrolling (like in Bloglines or Newsgator), go to List View in GReader, use N to highlight the next headline, then enter to open/close the items I want to read, or J to read all items in a particular folder.
I agree about drag/drop feeds and folders - newsgator does this.

but there are lots more little hidden features. One being you can create a bookmarklet called "next". you just click the bookmark and it will take you automatically to the next unread item, bypassing GReader. (and what happens if you don't have any unread items left? http://google.blognewschannel.com/index.php/archives/2006/09/29/google-reader-easter-egg/ )

more on features here - http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-09-29-n33.html
including easy subscribing to "bundles" and reverting to the old interface (i assume just in case you forgot how terrible it was).
The Sharing feature looks promising too. You can mark any item as shared, then anyone can go to a specific URL to see your shared items. They can also, of course, subscribe to your shared items in their own feed reader. e.g., here's mine with a couple items from this morning -
http://www.google.com/reader/shared/14232805291270520957
The Shared page needs some work. There's a ton of wasted space in the right column, and like in Newsgator, wide images are simply cut off instead of allowing horizontal scrolling.

9/29/2006 9:43:07 AM

Quote :

"You can read just the headlines and click on each item to expand it, like a piece of a Gmail conversation, or view them all expanded and scroll down."

You can do this in bloglines too.

9/29/2006 10:13:51 AM

^ as far as I can tell, you can only collapse on a per-feed basis in bloglines. GReader collapses/expands on a per-item basis. Not to mention, Bloglines still looks like it was created in 1998. They've made some small improvements, but overall, the frames and table based layout just feel old

9/29/2006 10:31:39 AM

the expanded view is growing on me, since i've started using the j shortcut

just add drag/drop and i'll be a happy blog addict

9/29/2006 10:34:23 AM

Quote :

"GReader collapses/expands on a per-item basis."

I'm not sure what you mean, you can set the feed properties to only show headlines, then click the "+" sign to expand the item

before

after

9/29/2006 10:38:08 AM

just in case you miss it on your Reader Home page, here are the keyboard shortcuts. I like "v", which opens the original item in a new window/tab. If only you could force it to open a tab in the background....

* j/k: next/previous item
* n/p: scan down/up (list only)
* o/enter: expand/collapse (list only)
* s: star item
* <Shift> + s: share item
* v: view original
* t: tag item
* m: mark item as read
* r: refresh
* <Shift> + a: mark all as read
* 1: switch to expanded view
* 2: switch to list view
* <Shift> + n/p: next/previous subscription
* <Shift> + x: expand folder
* <Shift> + o: open subscription or folder
* g then h: go home
* g then a: go to all items
* g then s: go to starred items
* g then t: open tag selector
* g then u: open subscription selector

^ oh, ok. hadn't seen that. either way, meh

[Edited on September 29, 2006 at 10:41 AM. Reason : .]

9/29/2006 10:40:34 AM

heheh

i understand some people need their stuff to "look good"

As long as it doesn't hurt my eyes when I read it (which is generally a colors/layout issue of which tables is fine for me) then it suffices to pass information from the screen to my brain and thats all I need.

9/29/2006 10:43:31 AM

usability and performance makes a big difference in how effectively you can get that information passed to you though. i never really liked bloglines b/c it was often unresponsive, slow w/ frequent reloads and just plain looked rough. it was the best (to me) for a while, but i'm blazing through my feeds today with google's reader

[Edited on September 29, 2006 at 11:23 AM. Reason : and yes, google's reader before was horrendous]

9/29/2006 11:20:45 AM

google is experimenting with some advanced search features on a new site, http://www.searchmash.com

http://google.blognewschannel.com/index.php/archives/2006/10/03/google-running-searchmash/

10/3/2006 3:02:00 AM

Google Code Search - seach for and inside open source code
http://www.google.com/codesearch
http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-10-05-n44.html
http://google.blognewschannel.com/index.php/archives/2006/10/05/google-launches-code-search/

and an updated Google Groups with new interface and features like Pages and file uploads
http://groups-beta.google.com/intl/en/googlegroups/tour3/index.html
http://google.blognewschannel.com/index.php/archives/2006/10/05/another-google-groups-beta/

10/5/2006 11:33:13 AM

wouldn't it be awesome if they has translation feature right in side of gmail to convert foreign email to english?

10/5/2006 1:45:13 PM

you can use the google toolbar to translate if you have it installed

10/5/2006 1:47:09 PM

i don't install toolbars

10/5/2006 1:48:41 PM

^^^i can't imagine there is a lot of demand for that type of feature. at the very least there are many other features that lots of their users would be able to use.

10/6/2006 12:24:46 AM

yeah, i would think that for 99% of the cases if you're getting foreign language emails, you 1) know the foreign language and can read it yourself, or 2) it is spam. Otherwise, why would you be getting these emails....

10/6/2006 12:26:29 AM

I'm about at the fuck Google Reader point. The interface looks like ass but more importantly it's seriously slow as piss.

I'll take bloglines being a little bit dumber about updated items (which I imagine they will probably fix eventually) over not having to wait 4-5 seconds to get a feed to display the items.

[Edited on October 6, 2006 at 11:36 AM. Reason : make that 13 seconds.]

[Edited on October 6, 2006 at 11:58 AM. Reason : upwards of 30 seconds on some feeds now...this is retarded...back to bloglines I go]

10/6/2006 11:35:19 AM

i haven't had any problems with reader. everything loads plenty fast. and what's wrong with the visual design. i mean, bloglines has a very 1997ish look to it if we're comparing looks here

[Edited on October 6, 2006 at 1:02 PM. Reason : <3 bloglines]

10/6/2006 1:02:27 PM

and what's with the youtube-google rumors. seems like a little bit of crazy to me

http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/10/06/completely-unsubstantiated-googleyoutube-rumor/

10/6/2006 1:04:30 PM

Everything is fine in reader for me.

And in addition to blogs, I've subscribed to several photo pools on flickr, and am usually on wireless.

10/6/2006 1:06:23 PM

i'm sticking to GReader too. many of the reasons why are written about here
http://www.lifehacker.com/software/google-reader/geek-to-live-from-bloglines-to-google-reader-205786.php

my 2 favorites

Quote :

"Marking items as read Perhaps the biggest difference between Google Reader and Bloglines that took me some time to get used to was the way each app marks a feed item as read. See, in Bloglines, if you click on a feed and it loads in the right panel, automatically all its items are marked as read - whether you've scrolled down to read them or not. Google Reader, on the other hand, only marks items that you've scrolled down to view as read. At first I thought it was a bug (why does that feed still have unread items? I looked at it already!), but it's actually a fantastic feature that ensures you haven't missed a thing. Headline view The other thing that Google Reader does well is offer a list view of items. Much like a Gmail list of email messages with the subject and a short preview of the body, you can easily scroll through a long list of just headlines and expand the ones you're interested in, especially nice for link feeds like from digg. (Click to enlarge)."

10/6/2006 3:24:31 PM

Quote :

""Marking items as read Perhaps the biggest difference between Google Reader and Bloglines that took me some time to get used to was the way each app marks a feed item as read. See, in Bloglines, if you click on a feed and it loads in the right panel, automatically all its items are marked as read - whether you've scrolled down to read them or not. Google Reader, on the other hand, only marks items that you've scrolled down to view as read. At first I thought it was a bug (why does that feed still have unread items? I looked at it already!), but it's actually a fantastic feature that ensures you haven't missed a thing."

Eh, for me, I usually keep my new items down to a manageable enough number that when I click on a feed it might have 10-20 new items and 95% of the time I'll manage them on the spot. I'll either scan the headline and not care about it, or fire a middle click for a new tab to read it in its own window.

If something happens where right after I click the feed and I decide to attend something else, its easier for me to just click the "keep new" button and come back and clean them again later.

Quote :

"Headline view The other thing that Google Reader does well is offer a list view of items. Much like a Gmail list of email messages with the subject and a short preview of the body, you can easily scroll through a long list of just headlines and expand the ones you're interested in, especially nice for link feeds like from digg. (Click to enlarge).""

And bloglines does this just fine. The shitty thing in Greader is, you clicked the feed and it popped up 10-20 new headlines. They are all still marked as new. Maybe I am subscribbed to boring blogs but I can scan the headlines faster than I can hit 'j' to cycle through to clean them out. I'd rather have to positively opt to keep an item new, rather than to positively opt to make an item 'read' because I imagine of all the blogs I am subscribed to, I am reading less than 50% (probably on the order of 20%) of the news items. So it's less clicks and actions for me to let bloglines automagically mark them read when I click the feed, than to have to take additional action.


And I don't care what you guys think, the greader interface is pretty bland. Bloglines might look a little dated and tabley, but its still better than greader (though I don't really care either way).

10/6/2006 4:02:54 PM

I'M RIGHT. YOU'RE WRONG

10/6/2006 4:17:37 PM

Quote :

"automagically mark them read"

shift+a = not hard

[Edited on October 6, 2006 at 5:02 PM. Reason : but to each his own, i don't care]

10/6/2006 5:02:27 PM

i don't know how you guys survive without blogbot

everything in the outlook window ftw

i usually don't read my feeds unless i have time and i only have time at home or at work so mobility is not a big problem. even though, it stays in sync with bloglines so if i wanted to read it would still show me the latest ones it has not downloaded to my PC.

10/6/2006 5:24:02 PM

youtube deal is for real - 1.65billion in stock

http://money.cnn.com/2006/10/09/technology/googleyoutube_deal/index.htm?cnn=yes

10/9/2006 4:35:42 PM

lot more talk about gootube. should lead to some good integration
http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/pressrel/google_youtube.html
http://battellemedia.com/archives/002968.php
http://google.blognewschannel.com/index.php/archives/2006/10/09/its-done-google-gets-youtube/
http://google.blognewschannel.com/index.php/archives/2006/10/09/googleyoutube-conference-call/
http://google.blognewschannel.com/index.php/archives/2006/10/09/more-details-on-the-google-youtube-deal/
http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/2006/10/09/google-acquires-youtube-for-165/
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061009-7942.html
http://techdirt.com/articles/20061009/140940.shtml
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061009-7942.html

10/9/2006 9:51:59 PM

Picture regarding youtube acquisition in N&O article today:

Quote :

"What does the Guiness World Record for most T-shirts worn at one time look like? A YouTube video gives a glimpse. Courtesy of Youtube"

This is how you explain youtube to the common people, apparently.

10/10/2006 3:20:11 PM

Writely is now officially "Google Docs" - http://docs.google.com
actually, it's "Google Docs and Spreadsheets"...... wtf. So when they add another app, it'll be "Google Docs and Spreadsheets and Presentation" or something? Come on - just go ahead and name it Google Office.

so far, it looks like Writely with a Google interface overhaul and some collaboration features. Not much interaction between Docs and Spreadsheets so far, or with Gmail for that matter. And the little Quick Access bar in the upper left is getting more and more cluttered, especially with stupidly named products.

http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-10-11-n18.html
http://google.blognewschannel.com/index.php/archives/2006/10/11/google-docs-launches/

10/11/2006 9:24:34 AM

here's a greasemonkey script to put "Feeds" in your GMail folder list to view your Google Reader feeds directly inside GMail
http://persistent.info/archives/2006/10/13/google-reader-redux

the author of that blog is on the Google Reader team, so he can make very tightly integrated scripts. he's written some other very slick GM scripts in the past
http://persistent.info/archives/2005/12/23/greasemonkey
http://persistent.info/archives/2005/08/20/gmail-preview-bubbles
http://persistent.info/archives/2005/03/01/gmail-searches

10/13/2006 1:12:41 PM

Colbert's getting in on the action
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjZDM_4JKN8

[Edited on October 13, 2006 at 3:07 PM. Reason : raises serious issues though]

10/13/2006 3:06:49 PM

^not really

10/13/2006 8:34:32 PM

the inevitable upcoming GDrive client leaked
http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-10-13-n53.html

10/13/2006 9:38:07 PM

for those of you who aren't jumping ship from Bloglines to GReader ***coughChancecough***, at least you can have a decent looking Bloglines now http://www.hicksdesign.co.uk/journal/os-x-skin-for-bloglines

10/13/2006 10:38:56 PM

having used Google Reader now for about a week, i practically tripped over myself to go back to using NetNewsWire. Google Reader is certainly easy to use and well organized, for sure. However, it's just not polished enough. It's sluggish, and elements jump all over the place. I can see why it's not even in their "eternal beta" program yet.

10/14/2006 12:53:12 AM

Website Optimizer - an Adsense tool to help optimize your landing page for search results and ad revenue
http://services.google.com/websiteoptimizer/
http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-10-18.html#n72

10/18/2006 5:36:02 PM

hey seedless

Quote :

"wouldn't it be awesome if they has translation feature right in side of gmail to convert foreign email to english?"

http://translate.google.com/translate_buttons?hl=en

10/23/2006 11:39:08 PM

hmm.... "custom search engine".
i'm gonna have to let someone else figure out how to use this and what good use you would put it to
http://www.google.com/coop/cse/overview
http://www.google.com/press/annc/custom_search.html

http://battellemedia.com/archives/003006.php

10/24/2006 12:44:43 AM

look to see an official Google wiki engine soon - they just bought JotSpot
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/spot-on.html
a lot of links at the bottom of that post

10/31/2006 10:53:48 AM

thoughts on Mark Cuban's blog post the other day?
http://www.blogmaverick.com/2006/10/30/some-intimate-details-on-the-google-youtube-deal/

11/1/2006 7:43:15 PM

they added roads for Africa in Google Maps. so..... you can use it next time you're trying to outrun a lion in the bush
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&z=6&ll=-30.334954,26.872559&spn=8.207722,20.610352&om=1

i don't know when they did this, but it looks like most of Brazil is covered too, but not the rest of south america, central america or even Mexico yet.

11/10/2006 11:21:36 AM