Happy Holidays

Well folks, this will be my last post for the next week, I'm traveling to the west coast of Newfoundland for the holidays and my internet connection will be very limited. Happy Holidays and go enjoy the cloud!!

Dear Facebook: It's Time For A Change

Facebook, the great cloud computing social networking app., has allowed people to connect  with friends from many locations and time periods.  But,  since its  pop culture status, things really haven't changed much (except for the "new  Facebook" adjustment, basically tabs were added and somethings were reorganized on the page). So, here are a list of things that should be changed/fixed:

1. More Customization: I am getting so sick of the facebook colors, please allow users to at least change the colors of their homepage, and possibly fonts. With the advancement of cloud webpage editing apps., more customization should be easy to add. 
   
   
2. Better Messaging: Personally, I find the messaging system very primitive, maybe they could start with the ability to have drafts of a message. 
   
   
3. Photo Tagging: Picasa Web uses a system whereby a person is tagged in just 1 photo, face recognition software tags them in the remaining photos. This would make facebook life so much easier, I get really sick of tagging the same person over and over.
   
   
4. Feed Errors: It really annoys me when someone does an update and it doesn't show up until days afterward, or doesn't show up at all. I am not a programmer, but I'm thinking its not that difficult to solve this problem. 
   
   
5. Photo Viewing: Facebook often loads photos extremely slow and sometimes not at all. Again, this is basic and shouldn't be that hard to fix. Also, how about the ability to simply view the photos as a full screen slideshow.
   
   
6. Calendar: Sure you can add events, but how about having your very own calendar, maybe something like Google calendar. 

I'm not the only person feeling this way. I 've chatted with friends (online and in person) about the need for these changes, people are getting bored with facebook, its become very static. When facebook came along, it was a revolution for social networking, it did things that other apps. like myspace or hi5 couldn't do. If another social networking app. could come along, and offer something new, like social networking across multiple websites (Google's OpenSocial is attempting to do this) or some of the ideas above, I think that people will switch and facebook will become another hi5. 

Google Docs + Desktop

Google Docs had teamed up with Desktop! There is now a   Google Docs Gadget for Google Desktop. So, once this gadget is installed, all you have to do is type in the search box, and your docs will be searched, amazing!! Files can be dragged and dropped into this, so instead of having to upload 1 file at a time via the uploader within Google Docs, many can be uploaded with this gadget. This is a great example of how cloud computing can be integrated with a desktop application, hopefully more of these will be released to help bridge the separation between the cloud and desktop. Also, it really seems that Google is pushing the development of Google Docs, this is my 2nd post about them in 1 day and on the Official Google Blog, there is a posting about refining image searches for specific types of photos (i.e., clipart) which will make finding and adding these to Google docs that much easier. 

Google Docs: What It Needs To Be Great.

         Well after posting a comment on the Official Google Docs blog about the future of Google Docs and hearing nothing back, I've decided to predict what the future of Google Docs will be. 

          First of all, lets begin with the near future, maybe what Google Docs will be able to do in 1 year. It can import and export most of the common file formats, although there is no support yet for .docx. The word processor, Documents, is in badly nead of page view. Fixed-width view is now available, but margin changes in printer settings are not reflected on the screen, there are no page breaks unless the user inserts them, and alignment of text varies depending on zoom level. All of this really needs to be fixed up. I checked out Zoho writer and they do have a page view, but margins did not seem consistent and again text alignment varied with zoom level. Another thing needed by Documents is an equation editor, science geeks like myself are constantly writing documents that contain equations and not having one in our word processor is a major pain. The only way for me to solve this problem is to use an online equation editor and then copy and paste the equation into my documents. Another feature that should be added is the ability to copy and paste pictures from the computer to a document. This can be only be done with online photos, any photos on the computer must be inserted by going through the whole insert photo process. More photo formats besides the two (JPEG and possibly TIFF) should be allowed to insert into a document.

         Now lets look at spreadsheets. Out of the three applications, I have used this one the least. Last week (early October, 2008) the interface was updated, which was much needed. For smaller spreadsheets, its speed is on par with desktop based applications, but when they get larger, especially when extra sheets are added, it sure does slow down, this definitely needs to be fixed up. Besides that, more numerical formats should be available. Currently, the number of places after the decimal place can only be defined to 2, this is a major inconvenience for number crunchers like myself. Also, the graphing needs to be improved, and trendlines (line of best fit) should be added. As far as I know, these features aren't available on other online spreadsheet applications, but if they are, let me know. 

The final application to be discussed is Presentations. This application is extremely easy to use and offers basic presentation editing. Youtube videos can be easily inserted, along with photos, and some basic shapes. The only animation available is incremental reveal, but what I've realized lately is that the more fancier ones are distracting. Powerpoint files can be uploaded and slides inserted into a presentation, and I absolutely love having a chat window within the viewer, it works very well for getting students involved in discussions. So, the big things that this app. needs are: a few more animations, increase the number of available shapes, ability to upload videos from desktop, editing of html and css, use of special characters, and subscript/superscipt. Maybe they can produce something similar to sliderocket if they can get the Native Client technology working. 

Right now I would classify Google Docs as good. It has a good set of basic features, and offers excellent collaboration features. With the deveopment of teachnologies such as Native Client, Docs will hopefully be classified as great, and will have a full set of features similar to desktop apps. I can't wait for the future!!

New Google Docs Help Forum

For all of you Google Docs users out there, there is a new Help Forum. I gave it a try and the new question and answer format is a great improvement. Also the ability to add a picture to your profile is and the ability to vote for the best answer are also great additions. Hopefully more Google Help forums will follow this format. 

A Zoho and Google Partnership

It looks as if Zoho and Google are teaming up to create a powerful 1-2 punch in the fight of cloud computing vs. traditional desktop programs. For those of you who don't know, Zoho is a cloud computing company that offers cloud apps. similar to Google Docs. They are somewhat more versatile than Docs, but still not at the same level as desktop applications. So, on December 16th, Zoho announced that applications created with it's Creator Web Database Application tool will run on the Google App Engine. The beauty about Zoho Creator is that the average user (not a programmer) can use drag and drop tools to make Web applications that can be added to sites. Probably due to its easy and versatility, more than 130 000 apps. have been made. This is an excellent move to promote cloud computing, hopefully more people will become aware of the power of the cloud and enjoy endless collaboration possibilities and save money.

 

More Google Docs and Gmail Mashing

Gmail and Google Docs have come together once again. Now, emails can be easily converted into documents with the click of a button. This is a Gmail labs feature, and once enabled, simply click on "Create a document" and an email is easily converted into a document. With all of these great features, why would anyone not use Gmail? 

New Cloud Apps. with Google Web Toolkit

Google Web Toolkit (GWT) is an open source Java software development framework that allows web developers to create Ajax applications in Java. As noted on the Google Code blog, since its release there has been many excellent applications. Below are some videos of a few of these and it shows how powerful the cloud is becoming. 

Gmail has PDF Viewing!!

Gmail has added yet another excellent option, the ability to view .pdf files within the browser, complete with all of the graphics and formatting (see photo below). The viewer is like what is seen in Google Docs which also allows the sharing of .pdf files with others, and the Gmail version also has a 100 page limit. It is accessed by simply clicking on view in the attachment section of the email. This feature is an excellent addition, allowing people to access their .pdf's from anywhere within the cloud. 

New Blogger Features

Yesterday there was a new option added to Blogger: Import and Export. This feature is able to merge at least two blogs into one, individual posts can be moved from blog to blog, blogs can be easily exported to the hard drive for backup, and it allows blogs to be easily moved to other blog providers. To use all of these features, all you have to do is go into settings. For more details on this, check out the Blogger blog. 

No more Beta for Google Chrome!!!

Update: It looks like the rumors were true, Chrome is now out of beta!! I think this is the fastest time that a Google product has come out of beta. You can get the details on the Official Google Blog posting, highlights include its speed increasing by 1.5 since its initial release, Mac and Linux versions on the way, eventually extensions will be available, and this latest versions has most of the bugs worked out. This looks like another winner for Google. 

According to rumors, Google's Chrome Web browser will be coming out of beta. There is no word on when this is happening, but people are expecting it soon, possibly as early as Thursday at the Add-on-Con, which is a conference about browser extensions. This timing would set up computer makers to bundle Chrome with their systems in the New Year. Before this occurs, there are still a few bugs in Chrome that must be worked out such as  errors with some Java scripts, general website incompatibility issues, and the biggie for me, only being able to resize an image by going into the HTML (this really sucks for Google Docs users). Also, there are no versions of Chrome for Mac or Linux. Personally, I find Chrome the superior browser over FF and IE. I find it extremely fast and easy to use. Occasionally I have to switch back to FF or IE, waiting for the long webpage loads is like watching paint dry. So, if the Google Chrome People can get their product out and 99% bug free, it will definitely strengthen their position in the web browser war.

Gmail labs ALMOST has SMS Text Messaging

Update: This feature is finally available!! Check out the Official Gmail blog for more details. Note that it is only avialable in the US so far.  

Gmail labs just keeps rolling out the features....almost. After a very short release, SMS text messages will soon be able to be sent from Gmail chat. Its an amazing idea, being able to contact your contacts no matter where they are as they will receive messages as texts. The Gmail people are saying that this feature will be available within 2 weeks. 

Google Magazine Search

Google has partnered with publishers to help bring more magazines (both current and archives) onine.  Searches are done through Google Book Search and magazine hits will be tagged with "magazine." Magazines currently available for searching range from Popular Science to New York Magazine but the number will grow with time and eventually magazine results will appear alongside Google Search results. I tried a couple of searches but came up with very few magazine hits, hopefully this will grow fast and people will be able to read any magazine in the cloud. 

Native Client = Google Operating System?

Native Client is an open-source project recently launched by Google. The goal of this is to create "a technology that aims to give Web developers access to the full power of the client's CPU while maintaining the browser neutrality, OS portability and safety that people expect from Web applications," (Brad Chen, Google's Native Client team). This is still at the research stage, but once fully developed it would be similar to Java, Silverlight, or Flash, but have that special Google touch. Dare I say "Google Operating System?"

Gmail Has Tasks (aka To-Do list)

Gmail is becoming such a powerful app and at a fast rate. The newest addition is the ability to add a task (aka to-do) list. 

This is a labs feature and once enabled adding a new task is as simple as clicking the list (or + symbol) and typing away and emails can be converted into tasks. In the past I would I have a work task list on my work computer, and an at home one on my home computer. Now I can have it in Gmail, and have access to it from anywhere. This is the beauty of cloud computing, it just makes life a lot simpler. 

Salesforce-Google Partnership

Today, it was announced that Salesforce.com would team up with Google for a cloud computing partnership. Just in case you didn't know, Salesforce is a cloud computing company dealing with business applications. This agreement sort of builds on their 2 year relationship and will allow developers at Salesforce native access to Google's distributed storage system, and any Google App Engine developers access to the Salesforce platform. How will Microsoft counter this?

Fire in the house!!

Hello everyone, the Google house has burned down, it's time to rebuild with a new blog name, Google's Cloud, and focus. I started this blog, The Google House,  in June with the goal of covering major news in the world of Google. After six months, I realized that Google is an extremely big company with major news occurring too often for me to do a good job with, I'll leave that for the excellent bloggers at Google Blogoscoped and Google Operating System. So, I'm going to refocus my efforts, and concentrate on Google centered cloud computing. For those of you who don't know, the cloud is a metaphor for the internet, basically programs are ran through the internet and not the desktop. I find this whole concept very interesting, and have switched most of my work as an university instructor to the cloud. I really enjoy having access to my files anytime or anywhere, and not having to rely on backups such as USB memory sticks. These cloud based apps. are bringing people together on projects, creating a very social network, and changing the world of everyday computing. I'll be talking about apps. such as Google Docs, Google Sites, Blogger, YouTube, and also web aspects of desktop favorites like Picasa Web Albums. So, keep coming back to this blog for news, reviews, and discussions in the world of cloud computing.

Sliderocket: A PowerPoint killer?

About once a week I'll do some nternet searching for new cloud computing applications. This past week I discovered an excellent online Presentation app. called Sliderocket which is a rich internet application (RIA). In case your wondering, RIAs are apps. that are pretty close in features to desktop rivals. So, I decided to Sliderocket a try and signed up for a free account. Getting used to the layout took a while, but after ~15 mins I could locate most things. The layout of templates and presentations is done very well, the use of a black background took a while to get used to but I like it. Since there is so much in this application, I've decided to sum it up with a bulleted list:

• Flash movies and videos can be uploaded.
  
• Shape selection is limited, but they can be rotated and edited.
• Various charts/tables can be added and edited, tables can be linked to Google Spreadsheets (super cool). 
• Ability to adjust object opacity
• Excellent selection of font editing options. 
• Various effects such as reflection can be added to objects
• Animations, referred to as builds, can be added. The selection is limited but the better ones are available. 
• Custom bullets (excellent selection)
• PowerPoint slides can be imported. They are working on the ability to export to .ppt
• Editing is fast with minimal delays (done with Google Chrome).
• Ability to see revision history (not available with free version)
• Offline player (not available with free version)
• Ability to share and collaborate with others.
• Viewing/usage stats for each presentation.
• Storage of 250 MB, paid versions increase to 1 GB

I think this can definitely take down Microsoft PowerPoint. It has everything and is done online, from any computer. All thats required is Adobe Flash Player 9, which is free. Sliderocket is definitely a hit, go give it a try and let me know what you think. 

YouTube and the Classroom

Most of you have probably already heard that YouTube increased the page width to 960 pixels, and most are probably thinking that a lot more full length films will be available for viewing on YouTube. What I've been doing for the past3 months with this wonderful product of the web is showing videos, which may be short video clips or animations, to the group(s) of student that I teach. There is just a ton of good educational content on there, and its all free, which is much better than paying $90 for a 15 minute film through an educational science supply store. I created a playlist, which I made public, then embedded this on the course website which is done with Google Sites. Some of the videos aren't allowed to be embedded, so I just added a link to the playlist. Now the students can watch whatever videos they viewed whenever they want to instead of only being able to view it just in class. Way to go YouTube!!!

Official Google Blog: Lively no more

Just got this from the Official Google Blog, Lively will be canceled at the end of this year. I tried it when it was first released, but never went back afterwards, I guess a lot of people did the same. It was sort of slow and clunky, and maybe some "facebook-like" features should of been added.

Updates to Google Docs Spreadsheets

There has been a few updates to Google Docs Spreadsheets. These include a new View menu on the toolbar that has an option to view the Formula bar (see screen below), new options in the edit menu (move column/delete column), new color coding of cells for copy/paste, new revisions formatting, plus some bug fixes. Keep the updates coming Google Docs (we need some in Presentations!!). 

Sketchup 7 and Layout 2

Today, new versions of Sketchup (3D modeling) and Layout were released, and they look amazing. I started using Sketchup this past summer, it is easy to get started, has many advanced options, and there is a great 3D warehouse of models. If you are an educator, you maybe able to get an educational discount, which means you'll get the $500 pro version for free, which I have. I just love how Google supports the educational system. My plans for Sketchup and Layout are to create 3D models and figures for my lab manual (replace the 2D ones), and hopefully avoid the use of the advanced, but very confusing Corel Draw. Check out the video below for the new Sketchup features. 

Price of Oil

I am totally amazed by the downturn in the world's economy. It is sort of like a snowball effect, when things go bad, they get really bad, when things go good, they get really good. One major part of this snowball is crude oil. The price has dropped by ~90 bucks since mid-July, and to help people keep track of this I added a crude oil price gadget that I obtained from Oil-Price.net.  To install this, I just copied the code from the Oil Dashboard menu and pasted it into a Java/HTML gadget in blogger layout. I have it placed on my blog just below the blog archive. Enjoy!!!

Visit the Romans with Google Earth

Google is about to add an ancient Rome as a layer in Google Earth. This layer contains 6700 3D buildings (wowzers!!) and 250 placemarks, all created by the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities!! Along with this, Google has created an Ancient Rome 3D Curriculum Competition. Check out the video below to see this in action.

Gmail Has Voice and Video Chat!!

Gmail just keeps getting better and better!! Today, Gmail has voice and video chat built available inside of it. First of all, you will need to download the plugin. After this you will need to click on the "Video and More" button, the rest of the details on actual chatting are given in the video below. It should be noted that this video chat uses standards such as XMPP and H.264, and that it should be available to all users within the next day (not available on my account yet). 

Is YouTube Going to Stream Full Major Motion Pictures?

Yes, according to anonymous entertainment execs that spoke to CNET news. Apparently, it is supposed to be very similar to the Hulu site which allows users to view ad-supported movies, note that this is only available to people in the US. The informants also hint that it may be available by January 2009, which means we'll get it up here in Canada in January 2012. 

Update (10/11/2008): MGM has just signed up with YouTube to provide films. It should be noted that YouTube already has deals with Lionsgate and CBS. 

A Win for White Space

It looks like Google's rallying to open up the "white spaces" has paid off. The FCC voted and agreed with a 5-0 shutout vote that the unused airwaves between broadcast TV channels will be opened up for wireless broadband service for the public. In the official Google blog post, they mention about future Wi-Fi and how it will have greater coverage and refer to this as Wi-Fi on steroids. Hopefully we will see a similar think up here in Canada. 

Google Earth on the iPhone

Most of you have probably already heard this,  Google Earth is now available for the iPhone. Watch the video below, you'll definitely feel like myself and want to get rid of that old crappy cellphone and get an iPhone. For a complete review of the Google Earth on the iPhone, check out the Google Earth blog. 

Google Provides Advice for Saving Energy

One of the main reasons I am a fan of Google is their environmental attitudes. On a recent blog post, they posted a link to an energy saving calculator and also a list of tips to save money. They also posted the point that if 80% of Americans closed their fireplace flue instead of leaving them open, $6 billion could be saved in 1 year. Heres some more Google new/links:

• Gmail  now has new labs feature called Canned Responses. This allows you to save those common replies and send in other email messages.  

• Blogger  now has an embedded comment form, check out the pic below and the official blogger post. 

• With the new iGoogle, there is a Blogger Post Gadget that allows publishing directly from iGoogle. 
• Google Earth: click on these awesome lings: (1)Ocean related data for Google Earth, (2)paraglider simulator  and the (3)landscape tour at EarthSwoop. Also, in the Sky mode of Google Earth, planets can now be searched in the "Fly to" search panel. 
• Google Sites  now has support for 37 more languages, and there has a been a few minor layout changes. In just 4 months, over 1 million sites were created. 

New Gadget for Google Docs Spreadsheets

Just got this from the Google Docs blog. The folks over there have been working with a company called Viewpath that deals with project management solution. Anyways, they have added a Gantt chart gadget which is a  bar chart that illustrates a project schedule. Check out the video below.

Gmail Has Emoticons!!

It has finally happened, Gmail  finally has emoticons, and a good selection. Check out the pic below. Gmail just keeps getting better, especially if you have the labs option selected. Way to go Google!!

New Gmail for Mobile 2.0

If you own a Blackberry or J2ME-supported phone, your in luck. There is a new version available for you that makes Gmail for Mobile faster, more reliable, and has basic offline support for most of the above mentioned phones. To find out more details on this, check out the official Gmail blog post  and also the video below. To download it, just visit m.google.com/mail. Now I want a phone that can actually run this, maybe Santa will bring me one. 

Adsense + Google Analytics

Just read this from the Adsense blog, Adsense users will now be able to look at more data with Google Analytics.All users do not have this feature yet, but will so in the near future. Since I am too sick with a cold to type anymore, check out the original post for more details. Enjoy!!

Project Draw: Another Advancement in Cloud Computing

The photo above is taken from the online vector graphics editor called Project Draw. This program is free, and to save the project all you need to do is set up an account, it may take a maximum of 2 minutes to setup and it requires the use of Google Gears. When compared to desktop based graphics editors, Project Draw is somewhat basic. There are a limited number of shapes present, a few line styles (i.e., dashed, solid etc), line width and colour can be varied, curves can be drawn and connected, and objects can be placed as layers. There a few more features but these are the major ones. Hopefully more advanced editing options will be added and people can move away from their desktop and enter the cloud.

New iGoogle Interface + More News

The coolest news item of the week is the revamped iGoogle (iG)  design. This now features full canvas views for gadgets and support for full feed reading (check out the Reader gadget). So, in the pic below, when I click on Google Docs, the gadget panel will switch to just Google docs. As you will notice, the tabs are gone and replaced with a navigation panel. I am a huge fan of this new design. Now for the rest of the news in the world of Google. 

• Google Earth:  New 3D cities have been added, a Canadian election KML file which is superb has been created or check it out with the Google Earth plugin , the  Earth Atlas plugin has also been updated, and take a look at these 360o  panoramas of various cities.
• Google News:  From the Google News election page,  you can actually listen to what the candidates have to say by using the Google Audio Indexing technology. Check out this post  for more details. 
• Google Adsense:  I wasn't aware of this but publisher data updates may sometimes take up to 24 hrs to be updated.
• Webmaster Tools: If you want to find some of those broken URLs on your webpage, go to Webmaster Tools Crawl error sources.
  
• Google Chrome:  The Chrome blog has a post on reasoning behind their UI. Basically, "chrome" refers to the toolbars, titlebars, and buttons in a browser, the Google people have tried to eliminate as much of this as possible with Chrome and focus on the content. I really like it and find it very difficult going back to chrome-heavy browsers such as IE or FF.

Unable to Access Google Apps!!

Well folks, it has happened again, some people have gone again without access to Gmail and Google Apps. On August 12th, they had a similar problem. This recent one started on Wednesday afternoon of this week with users not being able to access their Apps/Gmail (thank goodness it never affected me) accounts and some had to wait up to 24hrs to regain access. I don't know what I would do if this happened to me, I'm a Gmailholic and constantly looking at notifications from my Google Talk labs edition. Google is putting out great products, but when problems like this occur, I feel that they should get some of these products out of beta and put the "highly reliable" stamp on them. 

$Google's Profits: Show Me The Money!!$

Looks like Google keeps bringing in the dollaz, their profit topped analysts' estimates which is quite amazing with a slowing economy. Its 3rd quarter profit per share was $4.92, analysts estimates were at $4.75. Since I am far from being an economists, check out this article  on the cbc website.  

Dreaming About Cloud Computing

Approximately 1 week ago I took about a short nap, and after this I realized that I thing about cloud computing a lot. During this nap I dreamed about having online access to all of my work documents and fun files, I could retrieve my music playlists from anywhere, and work on vector based graphics at home. Will this dream come true in the future? I think yes. When Google Docs was released a few years ago, I was totally amazed. If someone had told me in 2000 that word processing, spreadsheeting, and creating presentations could all be done online, I would have called them crazy. Although these are somewhat limited when compared to their desktop counterparts, they have features that can create high quality documents for everyday use. Cloud computing is also evolving at a rapid rate. New features are constantly being added to Google Docs, and some other applications such as the Zoho suite have even more advanced features (especially their presentation software). Besides the standard applications, cloud computing is also getting into other realms such as graphic editing. Today I discovered Project Draw which is feature-rich web-based vector drawing application. Although not as complete as Corel Draw, it again gets the job done for those common everyday documents. Besides the current state and rapid advancement of cloud computing, the infrastructure is also improving. Browsers are becoming faster and Google's browser Chrome emphasizes the use of online applications with its Create Application Shortcut menu option. This combined with increased internet speeds, more efficient data centers, and greater allotment of online disk space (Gmail in 2005 had a 1 GB storage, now it is >7 GB, more than the hard drive on my 2001 laptop!!) will all help speed up the evolution of cloud computing. To summarize, cloud computing is here to stay and will continue to increase in popularity as desktop applications move to the cloud. In the future we'll all be saying, "I can't believe we stored our data and ran our applications from our desktop computer, we were so primitive!!"

Google Docs Has Footnotes!!

Google Docs keeps adding great features. Footnotes can now be added, all you have to do is click on Insert and than Footnote. These will appear on screen in the document margin. When printed, they will be at the bottom of the page and the same is true when exported as a .pdf. For the other file formats they will appear at the end of the document as endnotes. Hopefully the next thing on the list for Google Docs will be an equation editor and .pdf editor. 

Update 12:10 p.m.: This feature was available at 6 a.m. ET, I tried accessing it at 8:30 a.m. ET and it was removed from the Insert menu, must have been some bug with it. When it is working again I'll includ

e a screen shot.  

Update 2:30 p.m.: The new Footnote feature is now accessible, check out the screenshot below. 

Open Office 3.0: Too Many Downloads

I just tried to download OpenOffice 3.0 and got the following message:

"Apologies - our website is struggling to cope with the unprecedented demand for the new release 3.0 of OpenOffice.org. The technical teams are trying to come up with a solution."

Anyways, I've been using the beta of this for 4 months and it is excellent, much more stable than previous versions and it supports the new Microsoft file formats. This combined with Google Docs should meet all of your needs.

Full TV Episodes Now on YouTube

Well folks, life is all about change. I have decided to get rid of Google Roundup :( and instead include a weeks summary of Google related news along with a major story. The major story of this post is that some full-length TV episodes are now available on YouTube. The original Star Trek along with 90210 are available plus a few more, but these are only available in the US, I tried to view them but I received the following message: "This video is not available in your country." Boo!!!! I hate when this happens, and it happens a lot, not just for YouTube but when I try to view shows from any of the major American TV networks. Of course, there will be advertisements in these full episodes, in pre-, mid-, and post-rolls. Thats all I have to say about this because I can't actually view any episodes. Here goes a summary of other Google related news:

• A buried pyramid has been recently discovered in the Peruvian desert. Check out a view of it in Google Earth.Also take a look at marine protected areas in Google Earth, which are part of a plan developed at the 4th World Conservation Congress.


• If your and Mac user, Picasa Web uploader now allows easily export of a movie from iPhoto '08 and geotagging info will now be preserved in any photos with this update.


• For Google Sites users, stemming and synonym support has been added for search. Also, an option has been added to search "my sites" or "all sites." For more details on this check out the Google Sites blog.
  
• Advanced IMAP controls are now available in Gmail labs. The coolest feature is that folders can be chosen for synching with IMAP.
• Here is another bit of YouTube news. It now has "click-to-buy" links which are retail links placed on the watch page beneath the video. These are content related, and are products like songs and video games.