Caffeinated Gonzo!

This is really hard for me to admit especially since one of my greatest guilty pleasures is reading the Sunday edition of the New York Times but I rarely have the time or space to sit and read through a print newspaper. To add to my guilt, the livelihood of three of my family members depend on the success of the print edition of the local paper they work for. But the facts are this: although I may want to read the paper every day and I may watch the local T.V. news halfheartedly around 11:00 p.m. every night, I inevitably get most of my fix news from an online source.

I have tried my best to read the Buffalo News more often since my cousin Denise Jewell Gee started writing for the paper her husband is a photographer, and works for the paper as well). My family does subscribe to the Sunday edition of the Buffalo News delivered and I browse through other days of the week when the opportunity is presents itself (i.e. I am in a waiting room somewhere). Forgive me, Denise, Derek, and (gulp) Mom…. but lack of time, economics, and a desire to lessen the unused clutter in our house has meant that we don’t get the paper on a daily basis because it will only collect dust in the living room while we surf for entertainment and news on the PC in the office or the laptop on the coffee table.

Despite all of that there are some decent articles written my that I have missed a lot of good articles written by Denise and the photography by Derek is often very good. There are a lot of good articles written for the Buffalo News. I am biased of course and feel bad if I miss a particularly good piece of work by Derek or Denise. I really hate missing out, so it is time for me to look for a solution that will work for me.

Being that I spend more time in front of any number of computers than I do at our breakfast table where I can comfortable read a paper, it only makes sense for me to look for an online solution to my problem. Returning to the ever-reliable Google Toolbox I have created Google News Alerts to alert me when there are new articles by Denise online or any articles posted that feature Derek’s photography. This solution may not pay for a lot of print advertising for the Buffalo News, but so far this process has worked out pretty well for me. Now I am no longer out of the loop when proud family members are talking about Denise or Derek’s latest work.

Now if I could only figure out how to combine these alerts to send a tweet to my twitter account along with my email, then I really will be on top of things.

Somewhat tongue in cheek in intension, but not entireley is this article on Damien Mulley’s blog: “How to use Google to get a girl and get laid.” Finally!  Someone has put it all together.  Google’s gurus are in it all to get laid. All those cool tools and features in the googleverse have a real purpose.  Knew it all the time didn’t ya?

Google.com is in my opinion for one good reason: I don't have to wade through a load of crap or wait way-way to long for a page to load before I can begin my search. Yahoo, MSN and others cram way to much stuff onto their pages in my opinion. Anyone who pokes around Google long enough knows that they offer many more options than those that appear on their default start page and that's just fine by me ~ I use a lot of them. All that I ask though is that they resist the urge to change the clean interface on default page. Otherwise I will be forced to use the tool bar even more than I do now.

When it comes to search sites I agree with Bokardo who writes on his Social Web Design blog:

Consider where Search is going: away from the home page. An increasing number of folks search on engines from the search box in the top right corner of their browser, without ever reaching the Google homepage. And with Microsoft planning on doing the same with IE7/MSN, it is clear that the homepage is becoming less and less important over time. Do people who use search from other starting points care whether they can find other stuff from the homepage? No, the thought never crosses their mind because they’re too busy searching for something of personal value.

Note to Google, et al: PLEASE keep it simple!

For more of this I suggest reading Bokardo's post raising the question: Does Google Succeed Despite-Bad Design?

Mac users may appreciate knowing about Gcal.app, a simple Google Calendar Client for the Mac, which uses Apple Computer's WebKit Framework. This freebie was developed by Chip Cuccio.

Google Trends is the latest offering by Google Labs. This web tool can be used to "see what the world is searching for" at least in the "World according to Google." Stats and graphs are offered based on comparisons such as "beer vs. wine" or "good vs. evil", as well lists of items etc. Trends that can be gleamed include search patterns over time, by region, major cities, language and more.

Tutorials on adding Google Maps to your blog or Web Site:

1. in Blogger
2. using PHP

and many more here as well.

Rumors are spreading the Google may be developing a souped-up version of Google's search history feature which will be their foray into social bookmarking.

read more | digg story

Google Page Creator is a free online tool that makes it easy anyone with a Gmail account to create and publish web pages.

Frankly this is not the most orginal idea to come out of Google Labs but it may be an attractive idea to some.

read more digg story

Using GMail to view other e-mail accounts? Then you might just find this new feature handy. GMail will now handle replying in such a way that when you reply to a message that was sent to an email address other than your gmail.com address it will now that use the "outside" address as the "from address" when replying.

read more | digg story