Beware, Google May Be Hacked
For those who may have used Google in the last 15 minutes, all of their search results are being returned labeled “This Site May Harm Your Computer”. This blocks you from direct access through a query, and apparently there’s no way around it. I wonder if it was an accident by a Google staffer, or a hacker? (I’ve confirmed this with others from various locations around the US, so it’s not localized to my computer or region)
*/ It’s back up fine.
Google’s Googleplex of Googling Goodies
Most people are at least familiar with the now-ubiquitous search engine Google. What does it do exactly? Well, it lets you search for things, right? Yep. You type in a set of words that you think relates to the thing that you want to find, press a button, and hope that the internet gnomes find you agreeable enough to hand deliver you a pile of pages that may or may not have anything to do with what you’re really looking for. Of that group of people that know of Google, a slightly smaller group of people know about another aspect of Google: Gmail. That’s Google’s email hosting site. The same internet gnomes that look on the internet for what you submit also host your email and allow you to store an ever increasing amount of information (I think my account is over 5G of info for the max limit). For those that care, it’s also POPable. So, for the Mail/Outlook/Entourage/Thunderbird/etc. users of the world you can get your private email straight to your mail client, no problem. Of that group of people, there’s a third even smaller group who know about Google Analytics, which helps site hosts keep track of who comes to their site, how long they stay, what screen resolution they’re using…. needless to say, Google Analytics helps me know pretty much everything about you all as you’re reading this (I’m a user and an abuser!). There’s also the famous and entertaining Google Maps helping users around the world stalk people find locations and directions to pretty much anywhere in the world. And for those like me living in the luckiest areas, we get Google Maps Streetview, so you can see what the area looks like from, well, the street.
What many people don’t know about, however, is a nifty place called the Google Labs. This is where the magic happens. The team over at GWO (Google World Order) is constantly coming up with new utilities that will dominate your life. For example, have you ever wished that Google Maps existed for other planets? No? Well, I think it’s pretty awesome. And it does. It’s (appropriately) named Google Mars. Looking for quotes? Try Google InQuotes. Blind? Why not go for Google Accessible. Does Google Maps not meet your stalker needs? Try Google Trends and find out what people are doing. Want to make a website but find yourself completely inept? Why not use Google Sites?
The bottom line is this: Google has an ever expanding library of appendages that range from completely useless to the Golden Child that will deliver you from boredom or anonymity. I, for one, use Google’s products pretty much every day. I wake up and POP my Gmail account, check Analytics to find out how site traffic has been going, search for random subjects throughout the day to satisfy my need for useless knowledge, and then find directions to the million and a half places I need to be throughout the week (or try to see if it will give me directions to swim somewhere… try San Diego to Diamond Head Honalulu and check turn #336 “Kayak across the Pacific Ocean“) I’ve used Google Scholar to look up articles, Google News to sift through more reliable news updates and Google Video to watch random funny things (until they bought YouTube…)
If you don’t think there’s something out there for you, I definitely recommend checking Google Labs out to see if it might have something that interests you or can help you take your work another step further.
YouTube Socks are Sagging…
So, there’s this nifty thing on the web, used by millions, perused by millions more. It’s called YouTube, and when used well it could be your next best friend. Besides being almost as entertaining as the “Stumble” button that takes you to random websites on the internet, it provides a chance to be creative and get noticed. (For reasons both good and bad)
First a little background information. Youtube’s primary use is to allow users to upload and share videos they’ve created with others. These videos can be seen online on websites, sent via email, embedded on blogs, or viewed on a mobile phone. Currently, YouTube is owned by Google, which pretty much owns everything. Despite a long history of copyright controversy in YouTube’s relatively short life-span, they’ve signed partnership deals with companies like CBS, Sony Music Group, an Sundance to provide viewers with the ability to watch proprietary content and listen to proprietary music.
Now that you know a little background, it’s time to get started. You can upload video content straight to YouTube via the website, or you can also upload content via an MMS from your phone. This means you can, for example, record Barack Obama’s Inauguration speech and upload it to YouTube without ever leaving the mall. (unless, of course, security shuts down all of the cell towers in the area. In that case, you’re hosed) You can also connect your videos to your Google AdSense account. This allows you to generate revenue from viewers watching your video. And, if you’ve done a great job of getting noticed, users can also subscribe to a feed you set up. Every-time you post new content, they’ll know about it and will be able to follow your updates.
Once you’re really in the groove, Google being the creative innovators they are have set up “TestTube” to experiment with new user experience software. Right now they have up four. First are video annotations. They’re kind of annoying if you ask me, but they basically allow users to add annotations right into their video content. They can be used super creatively. They just normally aren’t.
And Google being what it is, they’re always up for some creativity. And they never frown on creative reqruitment.…
So check it out.
Calling All Kyles!
As you may have guessed by now, my blood stream is actually hooked up to the internet. As such, it causes me to stumble across sites like kyledensity.com. It appears, for the moment, that there are only 5 Kyle’s in the whole world, but it’s still a pretty cool concept (or at least website). So, if you know any Kyle’s out there, or you happen to be one, head on over there and contribute to the Kyle-mapping process. I’d actually be interested in finding out the number of “Kyle’s who are interested enough to submit their location, and the population density and concentration of those persons”.
It’s a fairly nicely done website too. Simple, easy to understand, and a great use of a google map application. It’s really great to see people making creative use of Google’s crazy large volume of otherwise seemingly useless apps. While it’s not a terribly important use (although one day we may have to know the exact number and location of Kyle’s on the planet in order to save the universe…) it does show that there is room for user development with the tools that Google supplies. For instance, you can keep track of any number of news stories, weather systems, your mail, etc. on the Google dashboard. As a mac user, I have my own dashboard. I find, however, that Google’s dashboard is a bit easier to use and has a wider range of useful applications that require very little operator knowledge. For those who aren’t tech savvy, it means avoiding a lot of user errors. (my new favorite video, by the way, make sure to check out that link)
As I’ve mentioned before, I use Google analytics, but I also regularly use google maps and gmail, and quite frankly it’s entertaining to stalk people with street level view on google maps. If you haven’t tried it, check it out. I actually found one of my friends walking on the sidewalk in front of the apartments I lived in last year. And there are certainly design and marketing applications for this software. Imagine mapping out arbitrary promotional locations, and the only way that people know when you update the site is through twitter? Or maybe some of them are false locations, and they only know because you tweet the real locations? The point is that there is a whole world of creative possibilities for the new wave of web apps, and I’m pretty entertained by the way this site is using them. I encourage you to participate and enjoy as well.