Google Plus: What you need to know

Jul 1, 2011 by Dan Taylor    6 Comments    Posted under: News, Social Media, Technology

You may or may not have been one of the lucky first or second round of invites to Google’s newest attempt at social. I happened to catch the second train to somewhere-other-than-Facebook, and even with the search giant’s former attempts at social in mind (Wave, Buzz), I’m quite impressed with what I’ve seen so far.

With that said, there are plenty of places and articles floating around the web outlining some of the features now available in the still-in-beta “project” from Google, so I’ll spare you the rehash. Instead, I’d rather focus on what you can be doing right to get ready for when your Google+ invite arrives.

First and foremost, it’s important to keep in mind that you already have a major portion of your Google+ profile filled out if you’re using an @gmail.com email address. Remember those changes that Google’s been rolling out over the past few years? Your YouTube address was associated with your gmail address, if you had hosted images at blogger, they were all moved to Picasa, etc. All of these are now tied to your Google+ account, if you join the network with your primary gmail address.

Now for me, I have a pretty obscure and outdated email address. It held relevance when I first ventured away from Hotmail, but today, it’s a jumble of numbers and letters that, to be honest, is a bit difficult to remember. So with that said, I’m currently testing Google Plus with my old account details, but once the invite button goes live again, I’m going to switch over to an address I’ve had kicking around for some time, but haven’t really utilized. Why you might ask? Well, as we all know, branding is everything. And normally, I could care less about my email address, given that it’s most probably copy/pasted, and very rarely needs to be remembered. All that changes with Google+.

Remember that mad “land grab” when Facebook custom URL’s went live? I for one was up at 6am Central European Time in order to grab facebook.com/dantaylor, only to be beaten to the punch by another Dan Taylor. Ok, so I ended up with dantaylor1. Certainly better than dantaylor253 or some other derivative, but you start to see the importance of your custom URL. With Google+ your custom URL is directly tied to your Google profile name. And with that name, comes along your entire Google identity.

As with any writer, I had to cut my teeth somewhere, and waaaaay back in the day, I too had a blogspot.com blog in operation, tied to my Google account. Since launching turnthescrew.com some 4 years ago, I hadn’t really touched that old blog. In fact, I pretty much forgot that it was still in existence. Needless to say, Google+ dragged all those “My god…what a piece of garbage. Did I really write that?” memories out of the closet, and suddenly at my feet yesterday. So much so that I took the drastic step of exporting the blog (safety first) and deleting it altogether.

Why? Well, first and foremost, the content was by no means focused. Posts ranged from, literally, what I had for dinner last night, to found humor images, to YouTube repeats. Not awful, but certainly not the way I’d choose to represent myself today.

Likewise, a quick poke around the “Your Albums” section brought up a host of images that I’d virtually forgotten about, and as with the blog, didn’t necessarily want to have linked to me. Thankfully, there’s a feature within G+ that allows you to completely hide the albums from public view. As with the blog, I’m not 100% ready to delete this album, but I’d rather lock it down.

So…to get prepped for the day when your Google Plus invite arrives:

• Ensure that the account you want associated with your Google Plus identity is one that is memorable and speaks to who you are. Yaddabla184 is probably not the best representation. No, that’s not the account I used.
• Login to Picasa and Blogger under this account, and double check that you’re not confronted with mountains of yesteryear images and text. Unless of course you’re 100% happy/comfortable with your archives being on display.
• Head on over to your Account Overview and start adding the details about yourself that you’d like to be on display to the world

Speaking of your Account Overview, one thing I found particularly interesting was how search results will be affected my Google Plus. From Google:

Your name and any other fields you make public in your profile are searchable on the web and may appear in Google Search results.

This is a crucial bit of information that I believe will truly change the way people present themselves on the internet. As you can see from my screenshot (I’ve blocked out the specific URL, and you’ll see why in a second), my location, work title, bio, and the top three links I’ve added to my profile are displayed. For me, the links are the most crucial of the entire bit. Bios and titles are one thing, but pointing to other examples of your internet presence is huge.

And as I draw to a close, I myself am at a bit of a crossroads. As stated above, the email address that I entered Google Plus with holds no particular relevance to me (or anyone else) any longer, and it’s time to phase it out. With that said, as soon as the invite switch is returned to the ‘On’ position, I think I’ll invite my other, more meaningful @gmail account to the project, and then repeat the process of adding people to my circles – which might be a whole lot easier thanks to Google Takeout. A grind, for sure, but in the long run, a wiser, more focused approach to what I believe is the first service to give Facebook a run for it’s money in quite some time.

Google announces global science fair with $50,000 top prize

Jan 16, 2011 by Dan Taylor    5 Comments    Posted under: Technology

Say good-bye to the diorama and baking soda and vinegar science fair, as Google has recently announced their own spin on the classic childhood practice. Based on the premise of “how many ideas are lost because people don’t have the right forum for their talents to be discovered?” the search engine giant is inviting budding Einstein’s from across the globe to impress us/them.

Launched in conjunction with CERN, The LEGO group, National Geographic and Scientific American, the Google Science Fair is the world’s first global online science competition. Any scientist between the ages of 13-18 with access to a computer, the internet and a web browser is eligible to share their projects to the world. Future Teslas and Curies are free to build and submit up to three individual projects, either as a solo effort or collaboratively in a team of 2 or 3.

Google is promoting the Science Fair as a true opportunity for youths from Canada to go head to head with brains from Cambodia; Irish scientists will be challenged by Israelis, etc. No longer are students bound to regional/national restrictions on just how far their idea can go. A nod from Google can’t hurt either.

And it’s not just a blue ribbon and a pat on the back that winners are competing for. Prizes range from a full trip to the Galapagos Islands accompanying the National Geographic Expeditions team (a visit to Dawin’s living laboratory included), to a 12 month subscription to Scientific American, and include a host of goodies along the way. Visits to CERN, Google, The Lego Group, and Scientific American are all on tap and up for grabs, as well as a $50,000 Google backed scholarship.

Students may enter and register online, and must use a Google Site to submit their project. All submissions must be received by April 4th, 2011, and a parent or guardian must provide consent in order to be eligible to compete. Semi-finalists will be announced in early May, and the public will have a chance to view and vote on their “people’s choice” award (a $10,000 scholarship provided by Google). 15 finalists will be invited to Google’s HQ in Mountain View, California on July 11th for the final judging. Amongst the finalist judges are Rolf-Dieter Heuer, Director General of CERN, Google’s Director of Research Peter Norvig, and Kary Mullis, a Nobel Laureate in Chemistry.

So there you have it budding brains. Google’s offering a trip to the Galapagos, or a $50,000 head start on college bills, real-world work experience at CERN, and a plethora of other top prizes. The only downside I see to the Google Science Fair is that I’m far too old to enter. For us old folks, Google’s set up a range of social networking channels, Facebook, Twitter, Buzz, and Blogger so that you can follow the progress of events.

HTML5 puts Google Gears offline permanently

Apr 15, 2010 by Dan Taylor    4 Comments    Posted under: Technology

With all the hoopla surrounding Monday’s announcement of a new and improved version of Google Docs, there’s one little phrase at the bottom of the announcement that may have passed by the average office worker: Gears is going offline. For good.

Google Gears is/was a plugin that allowed users to access their Google Docs sans internet connection, i.e. an ‘offline’ mode. Starting May 3rd, this option will no longer be available to Google Docs users, with functionality being “temporarily removed” … at least according to the official blog announcement. The same announcement does however, cite that Gears support will still be available for Gmail and Google Calendar.

So what gives? Why is Google taking the toys away? Well, the plain and simple answer is: HTML5. If you’ve not already familiarized yourself with HTML5, now would be the time, as these changes are likely to effect you. HTML5 is the next version of the markup language used to code the web (in one form or another). Note the phrase here: to code the web. Looking at Google Gears, we see the suffix: plugin. What we have here is a web standard vs. a plugin. Which one do you think is more attractive to developers?

By utilizing a new web standard, Google is freeing itself from the compatibility problems that can often arise when using plugins. For example, Apple’s Snow Leopard OS and Safari 4 introduced some new features that effectively squashed the ability to use Gears on newer Macs. Internet Explorer users were never able to view spreadsheets offline, and ‘other’ browser users either had zero Gears functionality, or had to jump through a ring of fire to obtain even minimal functionality.

Likewise, by switching to an HTML5 standard, Google is preemptively removing itself from the current shitstorm surrounding Apple’s decision not to allow the Adobe Flash plugin. In other words, they’ve found a clever, and competent, workaround to Apple’s sometimes draconian control of what makes it, and what doesn’t make it to their platform(s). With the inclusion of a new web standard, all Google has to do is conform Docs to this standard, et voilà, a cloud based document creation tool that will work in both off and online modes … internet connected or not.

While Google is remaining tight lipped on when exactly the HTML5 implementation will go live, they are hosting a webinar on 4/20 to further outline details of the ‘new’ Google Docs and all it’s functionality.

Google admits Buzz privacy fail

Feb 17, 2010 by Dan Taylor    4 Comments    Posted under: News, Social Media, Technology

Google officially admitted yesterday that it’s testing procedure surrounding their new offering Buzz was less than sufficient. Since it’s February 9th appearance, Google has had to do some serious retooling of the product, amid privacy concerns that sprang up almost immediately. Google says that they’re working “extremely hard” to fix the problem. “We’re very early in this space. This was one of our first big attempts,” Todd Jackson, Buzz product manager, told BBC News.

But how could one of the world’s largest online service providers overlook such a detail? It comes down to a simple lack of widespread testing. Buzz was only tested internally at Google, something the company normally does NOT do. Most often, when Google wants to bring a new product to market, they’ll tap into their unofficial “Google Trusted Tester” program, a network of family and friends of Google employees who have proven track records and are trusted with a high degree of confidentiality. These “Trusted Testers” are in exchange, given early access to a soon to be launched Google product. Unfortunately, Buzz did not receive the same treatment. “We’ve been testing Buzz internally at Google for a while. Of course, getting feedback from 20,000 Googlers isn’t quite the same as letting Gmail users play with Buzz in the wild,” comments Jackson.

To battle the negative buzz now surrounding Buzz, Google has set up a “war room” at their Mountain View, CA. headquarters that is strictly devoted to sorting out the Buzz issues.

“If it becomes clear that people don’t think we’ve done enough, we’ll make more changes,” said Jackson.

He acknowledged that many of the networks “tens of millions” of users were “rightfully upset” and that the firm was “very, very sorry”.

“We know we need to improve things.”

The Changes

Only three days after launch, Google team members called a meeting to make the quick fixes. With obvious holes open in the “who do they communicate with the most?” format, Google pulled the plug on the “friend” matching process, and is now only suggesting friends that the Buzz user may be interested in following back (how they determine this, like all things Google, remains a mystery). They’ve also announced that they’re implementing a feature that should make it easier for Buzz users to shut the service off entirely. Jackson says that “transparency and control” are “top priorities” and that users will “continue to see improvements”. And while it seems “transparency” is top priority on paper at Google, that isn’t always the case in the physical world.

Additional changes that Buzz users can look forward to include a better preferences menu that should allow users more control over what’s arriving in their inbox, as well as a more prominent “Mute” button that would switch the service off altogether. Further illustrating the flub at Google, Jackson adds that the idea has been discussed to make Buzz a service independent from Gmail.

“We think that integration with Gmail was absolutely the right way to go – we wanted to make Buzz easily accessible to people,” Jackson said.

“We also want to give people who don’t use Gmail the ability to use Buzz, so we’re exploring the idea of offering a separate destination site.”

Google reps expect the changes to Buzz to go live sometime this week.

It looks like Google has heard what the audience has said, and is making the appropriate changes. However, with the recent ‘what is this? I don’t get it.’ crash-n-burn surrounding Wave, coupled with the Buzz ‘wanna know who I talk to most?’ blowup, Google’s going to have to pull some magic out of the proverbial hat to get me excited about a new product launch.

MTV/Viacom support ‘No to Prop 8’

Oct 25, 2008 by Dan Taylor    2 Comments    Posted under: News

MTV Networks/Viacom joined the growing number of businesses that have stood to be counted in the war against California Proposition 8.  The company has officially joined the Equality Business Advisory Council to show their opposition to Prop 8.  California Proposition 8 stands to eliminate the fundamental right of same-sex couples to legally marry in the State of California, by amending the State Constitution.

“On November 4th, Californians have the unique opportunity to go to the polls and stand up for what makes this a great country and a free society inclusivity, freedom and respect for all. Proposition 8 is antithetical to those principles and a vote for ignorance, hatred and inequality,” said Judy McGrath, Chairman and CEO, MTV Networks. “MTV Networks and the Equality Business Advisory Council urge all Californian voters to send the right message and uphold the rights of same-sex couples in California, by voting ‘NO’ on Prop 8 on Election Day.”

MTV’s certainly not in this alone, with other prominent businesses and firms including PG&E, Levi Strauss & Co., Google, Sweet, the Morgan Hotel Group, San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, California Black Chamber of Commerce, San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce, Valley Industry and Commerce Association, and the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce have thrown their support behind the Council.

“We are thrilled to welcome MTV Networks/Viacom as one of a growing number of national and California businesses leaders that have become part the NO on Prop 8′s Equality Business Advisory Council,” said Geoff Kors, NO on Prop 8 Executive Committee Member.

For more info about Prop 8, and a full list of committed ‘NO’ voters, visit www.noonprop8.com.

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Google: now with beer goggles

Oct 8, 2008 by Dan Taylor    3 Comments    Posted under: Technology

C’mon…we’ve all been there.  I know, it’s tough to admit, but we’ve all done a bit of drunk dialing somewhere around 3am, because you REEEEAAALLLY want to talk to him/her right now, and just because you’re awake and blitzt, they’d be more than happy to take your call right now.  Right?  Right.

Well, our good friends from Mountain View recently released a feature for everyone’s favorite email program.  Yes that’s right – Google is not giving you the option to add beer goggles to your google.
The Gmail labs released a feature a few days back that will (hopefully) stop you from sending the “Hey…you know…I REALLY like you.  I think you’re an absolute goddess, and I simply can’t live without you” 3am alcohol inspired bravery email.

The mechanism is simple enough: once you’ve enabled the ‘Please stop me from making an ass of myself’ feature in the gmail ‘settings’ tab, Google’s going to ask you to solve 5 simple (while sober) mathematical equations.  By default, this feature will only be active on late nights during weekends and Friday night.  Of course, if you’re a raging alcoholic, or plan on getting plastered at Wednesday’s lunch meeting, you can modify the active times under the ‘settings->general’ tab.

Clearly, this new feature coming out of the Google labs is more for fun than a serious feature, but one that could clearly save a lot of ‘esplainin’.  Now, if Google can bundle this feature in combo with a breathalyzer in the soon to hit the streets Android phone, they just might have a shot at cracking the mighty iPhone.

Thanks Google…this Bud’s for you!

Read the official Gmail Blog post here.

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Ballmer to Yang: WTF Mate?

May 5, 2008 by Dan Taylor    1 Comment     Posted under: Technology

In case you’ve been living in a cave for the past few days (or on one heckuva drinking binge) Microsoft withdrew it’s offer to purchase Yahoo! on Satuday.

Not surprising, as this merger had red tape written all over it, but what really gets me is even as he’s trying to be polite in his letter to Yang, Ballmer still manages to end up sounding like a douchebag. In his official letter to Yang, Ballmer slams Yahoo!/Yang for considering outsourcing search advertising to Google (which is a whole other can o’ worms in itself), sighting that it would cause Yahoo! engineers to run for the hills, ultimately raising prices for advertisers (douchebag).

While I’m no huge Yahoo! fan, Jerry’s gotta be thinking; Hey Steve, “Go F#( yoruself!”

The whole letter:

May 3, 2008

Mr. Jerry Yang
CEO and Chief Yahoo
Yahoo! Inc.
701 First Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94089

Dear Jerry:
After over three months, we have reached the conclusion of the process regarding a possible combination of Microsoft and Yahoo!.

I first want to convey my personal thanks to you, your management team, and Yahoo!’s Board of Directors for your consideration of our proposal. I appreciate the time and attention all of you have given to this matter, and I especially appreciate the time that you have invested personally. I feel that our discussions this week have been particularly useful, providing me for the first time with real clarity on what is and is not possible.

I am disappointed that Yahoo! has not moved towards accepting our offer. I first called you with our offer on January 31 because I believed that a combination of our two companies would have created real value for our respective shareholders and would have provided consumers, publishers, and advertisers with greater innovation and choice in the marketplace. Our decision to offer a 62 percent premium at that time reflected the strength of these convictions.

In our conversations this week, we conveyed our willingness to raise our offer to $33.00 per share, reflecting again our belief in this collective opportunity. This increase would have added approximately another $5 billion of value to your shareholders, compared to the current value of our initial offer. It also would have reflected a premium of over 70 percent compared to the price at which your stock closed on January 31. Yet it has proven insufficient, as your final position insisted on Microsoft paying yet another $5 billion or more, or at least another $4 per share above our $33.00 offer.

Also, after giving this week’s conversations further thought, it is clear to me that it is not sensible for Microsoft to take our offer directly to your shareholders. This approach would necessarily involve a protracted proxy contest and eventually an exchange offer. Our discussions with you have led us to conclude that, in the interim, you would take steps that would make Yahoo! undesirable as an acquisition for Microsoft.

We regard with particular concern your apparent planning to respond to a “hostile” bid by pursuing a new arrangement that would involve or lead to the outsourcing to Google of key paid Internet search terms offered by Yahoo! today. In our view, such an arrangement with the dominant search provider would make an acquisition of Yahoo! undesirable to us for a number of reasons:

•    First, it would fundamentally undermine Yahoo!’s own strategy and long-term viability by encouraging advertisers to use Google as opposed to your Panama paid search system. This would also fragment your search advertising and display advertising strategies and the ecosystem surrounding them. This would undermine the reliance on your display advertising business to fuel future growth.
•    Given this, it would impair Yahoo’s ability to retain the talented engineers working on advertising systems that are important to our interest in a combination of our companies.
•    In addition, it would raise a host of regulatory and legal problems that no acquirer, including Microsoft, would want to inherit. Among other things, this would consolidate market share with the already-dominant paid search provider in a manner that would reduce competition and choice in the marketplace.
•    This would also effectively enable Google to set the prices for key search terms on both their and your search platforms and, in the process, raise prices charged to advertisers on Yahoo. In addition to whatever resulting legal problems, this seems unwise from a business perspective unless in fact one simply wishes to use this as a vehicle to exit the paid search business in favor of Google.
•    It could foreclose any chance of a combination with any other search provider that is not already relying on Google’s search services.
Accordingly, your apparent plan to pursue such an arrangement in the event of a proxy contest or exchange offer leads me to the firm decision not to pursue such a path. Instead, I hereby formally withdraw Microsoft’s proposal to acquire Yahoo!.

We will move forward and will continue to innovate and grow our business at Microsoft with the talented team we have in place and potentially through strategic transactions with other business partners.

I still believe even today that our offer remains the only alternative put forward that provides your stockholders full and fair value for their shares. By failing to reach an agreement with us, you and your stockholders have left significant value on the table.

But clearly a deal is not to be.

Thank you again for the time we have spent together discussing this.

Sincerely yours,
Steven A. Ballmer
Chief Executive Officer
Microsoft Corporation

Douchebag.

Google Blackout

Oct 22, 2007 by Dan Taylor    No Comments    Posted under: News

BigBlueBottle sent this one over to me with the heading…it’s a puzzle, hint…Javascript. So, doing what any self respecting geek would do, I turned off Java and hit refresh, only to find something even more perplexing: 37* 25? 38?, -122* 5? 57?

The 37* 25? 38?, -122* 5? 57? didn’t take me long to figure out, Longitude and Latitude coordinates. Find a reverse geocoder and plunk them in, and go figure….the coords are an exact match of Google’s headquarters, 1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View, CA 94043. OK, so now for the number countdown. This one took me a bit longer. Obviously it’s quite a large number, and running in reverse. So a quick trip to el calculator, divide by 60 to get minutes, again my 60 to get hours, next by 24 to get days, then a quick Google search of “How many days are left in this year“, and low and behold…the numbers match.

So in essence, what we’ve got here is…a dual function expression, one an expression of time, the other an expression of location. But what does it all mean?

Given the recent Lights out SF, and Google’s commitment to it, perhaps they are going to stage another? Perhaps this has something to do with Google’s phone? Perhaps this has nothing to do with Google at all, and the private registrant is having a great laugh watching blog posts and site visits shoot through the roof?