Blogger has added integration of the AJAX news bar and YouTube/Google Video bar as an easy drag and drop addition to your template. The bars are available for every website, as well as blog and web search bars, but Blogger’s addition makes it easy for less advanced users to configure and just drop in.
Also, Anothr is making it easy to receive RSS feed updates in Google Talk. Read more at Download Squad.
Finally, Google released today a version of Google Desktop for the Mac. Desktop, which is already being accused of duplicating Windows Vista features (and thus more useful on XP), also duplicates Mac OS X’s excellent desktop search. Presumably it will eventually also do what it does on Windows, that is duplicate the Mac’s widget feature. Still, Desktop is free and has many features (and is in many ways faster and more efficient) than the Mac’s built-in search, so it will no doubt appeal to many users.
The Mac version of Google Desktop has:
- A Quick Search box (just double-tap the ⌘ key)
- Launch programs from the search box
- Search Gmail and Web history
- Search email from Apple Mail and Microsoft Entourage, iChat transcripts, Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files
- Previous versions of files
- Search results integrated into Google search
April 5th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Blogs, Talk, Blogger, Products, Desktop, Services, General |
3 comments
Randy answered a meme called “Why I blog”, and unfortunately 
he tagged me, so here goes:
Why do I blog? Well, I can’t answer that without saying why I started blogging. Almost three years ago, I felt like I needed a way to keep track of this great Google company, and I was just barely into LiveJournal communities at the time, so I figured I would start a Google community, convince others to contribute, and sit back and read the news as it came in. Well, the contributers never showed up, I wrote all the news, and moved, first to BlogSpot, then to my own address.
Along the way, I discovered RSS (far better than LiveJournal, obviously), Google Blogoscoped (which, had I discovered properly before I started, probably would have stopped me in the first place), got married to a wonderful woman, became disillusioned with the newspaper business, and somehow blogging became my full-time job. You know, I used to think I was going to be a big-time newspaper reporter, now I can’t picture myself in that role ever again.
So, I’m pretty much stuck on some odd path, traipsing through the tech community, with a meager salary, a wife who always wants new clothes, and a lack of technical skills or industry contacts to move up to a job that pays the actual bills I face every thirty days. I have no idea how I’m going to conquer this one, but I have faith that good things happen to good people, and that somehow I will find a way to support the two of us enough, because I really wish I could afford a baby to bring into this world.
You know what’s the weirdest thing about this journey? I’ve applied to only one company, all through my travels, for a job, a chance at my dream. That company? It’s not Google, it’s Microsoft. And I get the feeling that as long as I keep trying, I’ll get there. Why am I reaching for Microsoft and not Google? Even I don’t know, but maybe that’s a story for another day.
I’ll tag:
Philipp Lenssen
Miel Van Opstal
Andy Beal
Barry Schwartz
Tamar Weinberg
April 5th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Blogs, General |
9 comments
