Google's new browser, Chrome, and Google Bookmarks

Have you tried Google’s new browser, “Chrome”?  It’s fast and it rocks.  But there’s no Google Toolbar!  How can you bookmark pages to a central location (Google Bookmarks)?  Here’s how, in just a few quick and easy steps :-D.

1. First, download Chrome (duh!) :-D.
2. If you don’t already see a bookmarks bar (right below the address bar or “omnibar” and above the actual web page) turn it on by hitting CTRL-B (you can hide it anytime by hitting CTRL-B again).
3. Visit this help page on Google Chrome and bookmarking.
4. Go ahead and—you guessed it—drag that little box to the bookmarks area of Chrome.

VOILA!  Now whenever you want to bookmark a page, just click on that little bookmark.

*  *  *

But what happens when you want to find that page again?

Well, for one thing, Chrome’s omnibar is pretty damn smart… even smarter than you might initially expect!  Try typing just a few letters from that site’s URL or title and it may very well show up for you in the omnibar :-D. But if you still want to see all your bookmarks, you can do one of two things:

• Revisit Google Bookmarks OR
• Check out the cooler experience of Google Notebook, and you'll find all your bookmarks under the UNFILED folder (click on the left), where you can annotate, group, and optionally share your favorite bookmarks with friends.

* * *

Hope these tips help you enjoy Chrome even more!

* * *

EDITED on Wednesday, September 3 to add:
Thank you to Simon B for the improved link to the bookmarklet! :-D

How to pick an apartment (with the help of a damn cool Google Spreadsheet "wiki")

I’m in apartment-hunting mode, and have amassed a set of criteria for my search that I thought you might benefit from… and be able to easily add to!

With the new release of Google Docs and Spreadsheets (horrid name, super product), I can now do all sorts of cool stuff!  For instance, I’ve embedded the spreadsheet below for you to read… but I’ve also included links at the bottom for you to:

• EDIT ONLINE:  Load up the spreadsheet online in edit mode!  Your changes will be reflected within five minutes on the document AND this page, so please be both thoughtful and nice (I can revert as necessary, of course).
• EDIT OFFLINE:  Download the CSV and load it up in Excel or Excel imitator :-P.
• VIEW: ...as PDF, HTML, TXT, and in other formats as well.
• SUBSCRIBE:... view Atom or RSS

Pretty neat, eh?  And now, on with the show!

• EDIT:  View and edit online (general Google Account required; add lines as needed by right-clicking cells and selecting INSERT… or you can highlight several rows and select INSERT [n] ROWS ABOVE/BELOW)
  Aw, bummer!  As described in the comments below, I hadn’t realized that the usernames (and, thus, gmail e-mail addresses) of collaborators would be listed in this doc, so I’m un-sharing the doc until and unless this no longer happens.  Thanks, Rockya, for the discovery.
• DOWNLOAD / VIEW:  CSV, XLS (Excel format—new link for this entry), PDF, TXT, HTML, ODS
• SUBSCRIBE (1st page): Atom, RSS

I welcome your comments below…
- On the actual criteria I’ve listed (or has been added)
- On this use of Google Docs and Spreadsheets
- On anything else related to this entry :-D

Getting hired by Google

I recently noticed that a fellow Googler posted some thoughtful tips about interviewing at Google, and -- now that I'm a bit more comfortable blogging about Work -- I figured I'd contribute to the conversation a bit by offering my own, unofficial tips.

Note the unofficial part. I work in Search Quality; aside from occasionally being asked to interview candidates (like most Googlers) -- I have nothing to do with our recruiting, recruiters, etc., nor do I pretend to speak for the HR folks. The stuff below is based on my own observations and opinions.

* * *

Application and interview tips
Broadly: be interesting, be humble, demonstrate outstanding competence in your direct area, briefly highlight your well-roundedness (academically, workwise, and personally), and clarify how you are an excellent
fit with both the position you're applying for and Google overall.

Admittedly, with an insane number of applications a year, it is a bit of a numbers game.  Some outstanding people get rejected.  And, though I haven't witnessed this personally, I'm sure some jerks get offers.  Luckily, Google's been overhauling its hiring processes, and I'm optimistic that particularly the percentage of great people getting overlooked (in relation to the number of apps) will decrease.

Some specific tips and notes:

• Write a decent cover letter


• Write with a tone that's professional yet warm... not stiff or dry.  Your (discernible) voice should come through.
• Keep it to one page (max!) or less.  Maybe even a lot less.
• Convince Google of the fits described above -- that's critical!!!
• Your resume can be in PDF, Word, HTML, or text formats (unless otherwise requested, of course!)


• But note that it will be ultimately printed out.  This means that reasonable pagination can be helpful and also suggests that a comprehensive 20 page document is perhaps not a great idea.  When you want your recruiter and interviewers to know more about your background & interests, links are your friends. 


• Respectful persistence can be appropriate


• If you genuinely have another offer on the table, let your recruiter know! If the recruiter promised to get back with you in [x] days, and in [x+1 or x+2] days you haven't heard back, politely e-mail them.
• If you have a friend at Google who can articulately and sincerely vouch for you, that can work in your favor.


• Your association / relationship with that person matters.  They'll be asked how they know you and how well they know you (and your skills).
• Passion matters and is skillfully perceived.  You're probably wasting your time unless you really are
  excited about a particular position.
• Getting turned down for one Google position does not mean you're ineligible to apply for another position down the road.
• General interview advice that probably applies for pretty much any company:


• Ask thoughtful questions.
• Allow time for traffic and parking and finding the right building. Google -- at least the Mountain View campus -- is a big place!
• Dress one or two steps better than you expect your interviewers to be.  Less than that, and people may wonder about your judgment. More than that, and people may think you're clueless or arrogant.


• The "right" dress at Google probably varies by department. Engineering folks tend to be more informally dressed than sales folks.  If you're interviewing for a senior management position, I'd probably dress a bit more formally than you would for an intern interview.  But the official advice also really makes sense here:  dress comfortably.  If you feel comfortable and confident, it'll show.
• Get a good night's sleep the two nights before.  Sleep deficits are cumulative.  If you have a
  morning interview, make sure you're getting up early the two or three mornings before to get yourself ready to be mentally and physically alert during your interview time.  On a similar health note, drink and eat smartly the day of your interview.  Hunger pangs are distracting.
• Invest in a good pen to take to interviews.  The heft and reliability can be a real-even-if-small confidence booster.  Taking occasional notes can help you remember info or questions for later, and also might indicate a sense of thoughtfulness and interest to your interviewer.
• On the whole, think of interviews kind of like first dates.  You don't want to do all or even most of the talking.  You're there to impress, to learn, to help determine whether there's a good potential for a relationship.  First impressions are important.  Show you are caring and thoughtful by asking good questions.  Avoid having spinach in your teeth (floss beforehand!).

Possibly-little-known factoid:

No Googler -- not even Larry or Sergey -- can singlehandedly extend an employment offer to anyone.  While candidates don't have to go through as many interviews nowadays, most candidates -- regardless of level -- typically interview with quite a few peers; team-fit is critical!

* * *

I expect to offer some more Google-thoughts in the future, but -- as a reminder -- this is my personal blog, and as such, I expect to generally blather on about anything I feel like discussing, ranting, dissecting, punning, lamenting, etc... which is more likely than not to be boring to the impatient sort.

Oh, and one last thing: please keep comments on-topic as a courtesy not only to me, but to the cool folks reading my blog. Thanks!

* * *

Related entries:
- A blunt note to HR folks and interviewers
- How to evaluate your current job & career... and thoughtfully consider future options

and lastly, for a blast-from-the-past... some perspective & a bit of cranky ranting...

- What do you do? (self = job?) And how are you?

Gmail user? The new "murder," er, "mute" function will have you crying tears of joy

Lots of folks have noticed that five very cool new features debuted today in Gmail:
1) Enhanced UI, with Reply and other handy features placed at the top of conversations.
2) Notification when new messages have been made in the conversation since you started drafting your reply.
3) Forward an entire conversation (all messages).
4) Send chat messages to your friends using Gmail chat or GTalk even when they’re offline (the messages’ll be held for them).
5) Get Gmail on your mobile phone with a rich app (not just slow Web pages).

[Read more about these new gmail features]

But what I have to share with you is even more deliciously glorious… especially for those of you who are on lots of mailing lists or who have boring (albeit perhaps well-meaning) friends who just won’t shut up.

Friends, Romans, fellow GMail users… I introduce to you…

MURDER!

Oh wait, that’s not exactly right.  Officially, the new feature is called Mute Thread, or “Mute” for short.  Here’s how it works:

THE OLD WAY:
1) You’re reading some posts about the elections.
2) You were once excited about reading this stuff.
3) But at least one conversation is now on its 471th message.  You keep hitting Archive but the damn conversation keeps popping up every time someone makes a new post!
4) You’re ready to tear out your hair.  The posters’ hair.  Your keyboard’s hair.  Er, keys.
5) MAKE IT STOP!  MAKE IT STOP, PLEEEEEASE!

THE NEW WAY:
1) You get yet another annoying message in the same damn conversation that’s already been conversed to death.
2) You press the ‘m’ key.  Unless a message is written *directly* to you (e.g., your name is in the TO spot), you’ll never see that message in your inbox again!

In short, the Mute feature enables you to tell Gmail: “Archive this conversation AND all future posts in it… just have ‘em skip the inbox!”

[See official Gmail info on Mute]

I can think of only one downside to this feature at the moment:
If you filter your discussion list mail into separate labels (say, “Prolific Politics List”) and already have those posts skip the inbox… then the M key will sadly have no effect.  It doesn’t remove labels, it just creates a “get out of inbox free”

But that aside, I think this is a super-awesome feature, and one that—to my knowledge—is unique amongst major Webmail providers.

So, go ahead, indulge in those high-traffic lists again.  And don’t hesitate to threaten any annoying poster, “Dude, if you write one more word about Rummie, you’re getting SO m’d!”

DISCLAIMERS:  I work for Google.  I am not on the Gmail team.

Search Engine Strategies San Jose 2006 plus more details of my past and upcoming weeks

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here, and—as always—I have so much to say.  I’ll use my recent and upcoming schedule as a crutch for providing some musings and commentary :-D

Last week:

- Monday:  Special Google Event and Hakone Gardens private party.
Early in the day I got to test my Event Planning mettle.  It all came out okay!  No one was electrocuted.  No one went hungry.  No one fell or was thrown off of large balconies.  Reviews were good, and I wasn’t fired.  In the evening, I joined a friendly group of geeks at a private party at the beautiful Hakone Gardens in Saratoga, California.  Free sushi!  Company presentations in the blissfully short form of one haiku each!  Plus prizes, a Futurist presentation, and much more.

- Tuesday:  The Fifth Annual Google Dance and included “Meet the Engineers” event
I was responsible for planning this year’s Meet the Engineers event upstairs during the Google Dance, enabling lots of Webmaster’y-type folks and Googlers to chat informally about largely search-focused ideas, questions, and more.  Overall, it seemed to go pretty well, though I certainly got some good feedback to improve the event for next year :-) (feel free to add more feedback in the comments below if you’d like!)  And in the general party there were battling robots, lots of cheese, wacky green-screen dancing karaoke, demo’ing and dunking Googlers, and lots and lots (thousands!) of geeks in various stages of buzzed revelry :-D

- Wednesday:  Search Engine Strategies Conference (continued from Tuesday) and yet more geek parties
The Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose, California is one of the largest events of its kind… four solid days of learning ‘n’ camraderie in the Web Marketing / Search Engine Optimization space, with four evenings of networking, drinking, and playful debauchery.  My colleagues sumo wrestling!  Geeks Gone Wild on the dance floor!  And, on a serious but equally important note, it was a great chance for me to meet some fascinating heavyweights in the industry and for me to do my best representing Google… answering questions, gathering thoughtful bits of feedback, and happily putting names with faces (“Ah, you’re THAT blogger…”).

- Thursday:  My first speaking engagement on behalf of Google!
My boss, Matt Cutts, is one of the most articulate and likeable fellows in the search engine realm.  When he speaks, people listen!  When I speak… well, I really hadn’t ever publicly spoken on behalf of Google before, so as you can imagine, I was a bit apprehensive and also quite excited.  Making matters even more interesting was the fact that all of my fellow panelists (from Yahoo, MSN, and Ask) came prepared with Powerpoint presentations and I came prepared with… nothing.  Well, that’s not exactly true.  I had spent quite a bit of time thinking about the subject at hand (how Google looks at links on the Web) and was pretty confident about my ability to answer questions… but I certainly hadn’t thought of making an opening statement.  It was a “Q&A” session, after all!

Well, luckily, during the few minutes of the others’ presentations, I managed to quickly shuffle a reasonably organized selection of thoughts into my head and then out of my mouth in a basically impromptu four minute speech.  I even squeezed in a bit of geek humor, specifically a reference to Douglas Adams’ “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” book… which was, to my pleasure and relief, pretty well-received (yay, fellow geeks with good taste in literature!).  I was asked some great questions and had answers for all but one of them, for which I admitted “I don’t know.”

Overall, it was an enjoyable and worthwhile experience, and I look forward to speaking at another industry event.

*  *  *

I spent more of Friday and Saturday doing just laid back things… catching up with some friends, and catching up on sleep.  And for this week…

- Sunday:  10 year anniversary of Lindy in the Park!
If you live in the Bay Area and you haven’t yet been to this event, you’re missing out.  And—since it happens every week (well, in general; not the 10 year anniversary, obviously)— it’s not too late for you to get your hiney over there and have some good, energetic, sunshiney, family-friendly, no-date-needed fun!  From around 11am to 2pm each week, the DJs spin a variety of swing and definitely-not-swing-but-still-danceable music for folks to swing dance to, and there’s a free 30 minute lesson at noon!  Today there were over 250 people dancing away, smiling, meeting up with old friends and making new ones.  I guiltily don’t make it to LitP as often as I’d like, but I always have fun when I do, so I highly recommend y’all stopping by if you’re able to—whether you’re a dancer (yet) or not! :-D

- Monday:  Brave Combo and The Mad Maggies, performing at The Elbo Room in San Francisco
I’m not yet familiar with The Mad Maggies, but I *LOVE* Brave Combo!  They’ve been around forever and recorded quite a diverse bunch of music, but what it all has in common is this:  a sense of playfulness, strong musicianship, and a giddy enthusiasm and often silliness that is immensely likeable.  Polkas and more polkas, funky twists on classical pieces, bright horns and earthy voices.  I can’t wait to see these guys live! (and I’m curious to check out The Elbo Room. too, which is just a couple of miles from my apartment).

- Tuesday:  A chamber music performance at Google
We have a very nice grand piano at the Googleplex, and so I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me that there are relatively informal concerts (featuring my fellow Googlers!) on a semi-regular basis here.  I’m looking forward to unwinding to some good live classical music at the end of the work day… without having to worry about parking, ticket fees, or dressing up :-D.

- Wednesday:  A dance performance—Riptide—featuring my friend Tiffany B (warning: crappy Website.  You may want to navigate from here.)
I’ve known and done swing dancing with Tiffany for years, but I’ve embarrassingly not made it to one of her many fine professional performances yet.  This coming Wednesday marks the first time I’ll see her on stage… finally!  And—fellow Bay Area people—there are still tickets left!  Go, go, go!

- Thursday:  Either collapsing early to bed or attending the amazing 9:20 Special weekly swing dance
In particular, though, I can’t wait to go to this the *next* Thursday, when there’ll be music performed by the lively and talented Lavay Smith and her full band!

- Friday:  The 5th anniversary of Friday Night Waltz
Though I’ll always be a swing dancer deep down, there’s something quite magical and exhilirating about spinning around the floor with various waltzes and partners.  The Friday Night Waltz event (held primarily in Palo Alto and Alameda… most recently, with trial (formal!) evenings in San Francisco) is a wonderful mix of accessible lessons with great teachers, a very friendly crowd, and free refreshing refreshments (fresh fruit, candies, etc.)  Interestingly enough, only about 60-70% of the songs are waltzes; the rest are an ecclectic mix of swing tunes, polkas, Latin numbers, and other danceable songs.  Like with the other dance events I’ve mentioned above, there’s no partner required (everyone dances with everyone else, and folks rotate regularly in class).

*  *  *

Whew!  Now you can understand why I haven’t had much time to be blogging.  It’s all I can do to be getting enough sleep and occasionally calling my family and friends to let ‘em know I’m alive :-D

Still, yes, I know I have a few thousand long-overdue Australia and Singapore photos to post, more (and more interesting :-P) stories to tell, and so on.  I’ll see what I can do to squeeze that stuff in soon!

Being under the microscope

I’ve been at Google about four months, and it’s been a hell of a great ride so far.  I really need to write more about this later, but in a nutshell… my colleagues rock, the flexible and trusting environment is awesome, and I’m very excited about what I’m working on.

However, I do have to admit to sometimes being a bit freaked out :o.

I spend a good chunk of my morning reading relevant industry news and also thoughtful blogs from Webmasters and others all around the world.  I glean a lot of great ideas (and yes, sometimes also bugs) that I share with colleagues here at Google. 

A few days ago, I came across a pretty untraditional note, and I thought, hey… wouldn’t it be kinda funny if I actually went ahead and mailed Al a Tylenol packet?  So I did.  I figured he’d get a chuckle, maybe share it with some friends or even post a quick update on his blog.

I had no idea that something this silly would capture this much attention!

Anyway, yeah, this little mailing was indeed sent on a whim from a random Googler (me!), and though I’m a bit shocked by the response, I’m glad that my letter ended up entertaining not only Al, but also lots of other people.

Along with many others here at Google, I’m working on some very cool projects dealing with Webmaster communications.  But aside from all of that official stuff, I’m reminded that it’s clearly the little things now and then that give a human face to this company.  Not to mention that when one of us Googlers decides to be a bit wacky, it’s far from a private moment :-P

Super-speedy-search tip for Firefoxers! (search keywords)

I love RottenTomatoes.com.  It’s one of the most useful and addictive movie sites I’ve found, right along with IMDB.com.  Now I can look up movies on either database in a snap by using a surprisingly little-known Firefox feature that lets you assign a keyword of your choice to any search on any site.

I’ve set up my browser so that I can type “rt [moviename]” or “imdb [moviename]” in my Firefox addressbar and be whisked right to that movie’s page in RottenTomatoes or IMDB respectively.

It’s easy to do!  Just go to your favorite site (movie or otherwise) in Firefox and right-click on a search bar on the page (e.g., where you’d normally enter in a movie to look up) and then select “Add a Keyword for this Search.”  You’ll then see something like this:



Enter in any title you want in the first box (that's what'll show up in your bookmarks), choose a short but easy to remember keyword, and the URL should be filled in automatically for you.

From then on, you can enter in stuff like "rt an inconvenient truth" (great movie, btw!) directly into your Firefox addressbar and save yourself the hassle of navigating to the RT homepage, then finding the search box, etc.

* * *

But what if you'd like to make use of such a handy feature at home and work (or on your personal desktop and laptop) and don't want to set up such shortcuts multiple times?

Google Browser Sync to the rescue! (insert standard disclaimer here... I work for Google, I don't work on this particular product, I'm not paid to write this, yadda yadda yadda). It's a super-nifty way of having your bookmarks, cookies, and other stuff (you choose!) automatically synchronized across all your computers. And yes, privacy-keen geeks, you can opt to have all of this stuff encrypted, too :-D. The downside: This extension causes my Firefox to load more slowly (sometimes taking 10-15 seconds), but I'm guessing that's because I have a crapload of settings, extensions, bookmarks, etc. It's still well worth the initial load-wait for me.

* * *

Anyway, I hope you find these tips helpful, and feel free to share any of your own Firefox tips below! :-D

I've joined Google

A couple of months ago, I became a Googler.  Since my boss—Matt Cutts—has already so kindly introduced me on his blog, I feel this is probably a good time to say a few words about my new job :-D

The short version:  I’m honored, humbled, a bit nervous, and yes, very happy.  As a lifelong geek who’s been excited about search and Google in particular for many years, it’s hugely fascinating to be experiencing new adventures from the “inside.”

Okay, now for the longer version!


What I’m doing at Google

My main focus is on broadening communications between Google and Webmasters… learning as much as I can from both Matt and the Webmasters he chats with so amiably and then building upon this rapport.  Or, more colloquially, as it’s been joked around the office, my uber-challenging goal is to become a “MiniMatt.”  Though a colleague did note that a MiniMatt sounds like a scary cross between a convenience store and a diminutive vaccum cleaner.  Hmm.

You’ll find me hanging out at Webmaster conferences and various geek gatherings, occasional replying to Google-related blog or forum posts, tackling some Webmaster-related e-mails, and undoubtedly popping up in other random places.

I’ll also be a “Webmaster Advocate” inside the Googleplex.  I’ve seen firsthand that tons of folks here already eagerly read and appreciate Google- and search-related comments throughout the Web; I’ll be doing what I can to expedite concerns, bug reports, and other feedback to the right colleagues.

I’m coming into this job with a lot of knowledge about search, Google, and communications, but I know I have a lot to learn and also much trust to earn.

What my new job means for my blog

I’m not sure yet.  For the time being, I’m going to generally maintain a separation between the personal and work spheres of my life.  This means that you’re likely to be disappointed if you subscribe to BLADAM expecting to read lots of juicy Googly tidbits.

With that said, though, I do admire Robert, Jeremy, and, of course, my boss Matt and recognize that their work-related blogversations have very often educated, engaged, and entertained thousands.  So perhaps I’ll come up with a middle ground here—occasionally sharing my enthusiasm, useful Google tips, amusing Google observations, and so on—while avoiding topics likely to make my colleagues annoyed or uncomfortable.

“So I have a question about my site…”

Please, not here.  I’m enjoying tackling general and specific Webmaster issues every day at work… and my teammates and I are really, truly committed to opening up new channels of communication (like our Sitemaps tools and active Sitemaps GoogleGroup, for instance, plus MUCH more to come!).  But everyone needs a break from work now and then, so please respect my personal space here on the Web.  Thanks!

With that said, I know that Matt got some outstanding feedback on Google Communications, and so I’d be nuts if I didn’t also invite you to share your Google Communication ideas below.  I’d also love to hear from you about your favorite bloggers who masterfully juggle work and non-work topics on their blogs; I could use some more role models in case I decide to go that route eventually :-D.

*  *  *

Anyway… to you faithful BLADAM readers who’ve stuck with me during all my bloggily dry and/or boring spells, thank you.  To you new readers, welcome!  It’s a pleasure to have you here, and—as always—I look forward to your comments.  Now I’m heading offline to go celebrate my birthday weekend! :-D

Browser toolbar creators are missing one of the simplest, most useful options

Bookmarks.  Favorites.  Most of us save a list of sites we often visit or want to re-find again… either by adding them as a Bookmark in Firefox or as a Favorite in Internet Explorer or even adding the site to our online list residing on del.icio.us or Spurl, and so on.

Also, lots of us have browser toolbars by Yahoo! or Google or other folks.  Unfortunately, there’s a huge disconnect here.

I visit Salon.com regularly.  Same with Google News, SlickDeals, and many other sites.  In Firefox, it’s very easy to assign a shortcut to access any one of my favorite sites; for instance, I can type sd into my Firefox address bar and be immediately whisked to SlickDeals.net.  Even cooler, I can type gns lindy hop and instantly be brought to the search results page of Google News that shows me if there are any recent articles about Lindy Hop.

The downside?  If I want to use any of these shortcuts on other computers (at a friend’s place, at work, when visiting my parents), I have to somehow copy over my Firefox preference files over via a thumbdrive or whatnot.  Or, if they don’t have Firefox, I’m screwed. 

This is where browser toolbars come in—or, rather, where they SHOULD come in.

In a nutshell, ALL the major toolbars should—when I’m logged in to my Passport or Google or Yahoo account or whatever—automatically let me…

1) Bookmark and assign a shortcut keyword for any site (e.g., msbc for http://microsoft.blognewschannel.com/). 
Thereafter, I should then be able to type that shortcut into the toolbar search box and immediately be whisked off to that site.

2) Add a search shortcut by right-clicking on any search box of any site and choosing a shortcut keyword, just like I can do in 10 seconds on Firefox today. 
For instance, I should be able to easily make amzs creative zen immediately search Amazon for any product with the words creative zen in them.

*  *  *

IMHO, this request is both relatively easy to implement and capable of significantly simplifying the online lives of lots of people.  I honestly believe that the first major company to add this feature to their toolbar is likely to have a significant competitive advantage (“Jump to your favorite pages in a jiffy and do fast handy searches… no matter what computer you’re on!”) *and* increased penetration (e.g., if have all my bookmarks via my Google account and I’m visiting my parents who don’t have the Google Toolbar installed on their computer, I may just go ahead and install it for them so I can easily access my bookmark shortcuts :D)

It’s not like this would require a huge overhaul for the majors, either.  I know that Yahoo!, for instance, already enables people to bookmark pages from their toolbar.  And what a great complement to Yahoo’s My Web 2.0 this would be, eh?!

*  *  *

Do you think this feature set would indeed be massively popular?  Or is it instead just something a geek like myself could love?  Your thoughts…?

*  *  *

EDITED on January 25, 2006 to add:
Whoops!  It looks like I overlooked the fact that Yahoo! in fact already does exactly what I’ve outlined above! :O

Specifically, at least when signed in, you can type an exclamation mark immediately followed by a shortcut and VOILA!  For instance, !ebay canon sd550 brings you directly to the search results listings   page for that camera on ebay.  Additional, you can create your own custom shortcuts.  As a bonus, this works:
- from the regular address bar (if you’ve set Yahoo! as your default search engine)
- from the Yahoo! search box on Yahoo’s site.
- from the Yahoo! toolbar.

My only quibble?  An exclamation mark is an annoying character to use to indicate a shortcut search, since it requires the use of the shift key (one extra keypress… it adds up!) *and* it’s located on different places depending on your keyboard type (internationally).  I think it’d be better if folks could specify their own shortcut-indicator key.

Still, this is quite a cool offering from Yahoo!, and thanks to the little byrdie (who wishes to remain anonymous) who let me know about this over e-mail.  Oh, and apologies for overlooking this feature initially!  Google, MSN… you have some catching up to do here ;-).

Lastly, here are more details on the Yahoo! Open Shortcuts feature.

Well-reviewed movie "Waterborne" now available free on Google Video

I haven’t had a chance to watch more than the first few minutes of this film, but Waterborne has been generally well-reviewed… and you can watch it for free either below or directly on Google’s site through January 15, 2006.



Rather than spoil even part of the plot, I’ll instead invite you to begin watching it now without preconceptions, with a note that it’s a serious film focusing on characters rather than explosive action.

Beyond this particular film, what fascinates and excites me about Google’s video offering—despite generally wide critical raspberries—is that it can serve as a fabulous equalizer.  The key problems with getting great independent and foreign films seen by larger audiences aren’t just associated with marketing and word of mouth, but rather distribution.  Just as Google AdWords (and, before it, GoTo.com) presented a revolutionary way for Mom’n'Pop outfits to reasonably compete with BigCos, Google Video will provide market access to low(er) budget films… in this case, literally FREE distribution.  And then when some random Joe in Manhattan gets genuinely excited about a particular quality (or just frickin’ hilarious :D) production, he can indirectly cause that film to gain enormous market awareness by simply posting about it on his LiveJournal and linking to the Google Video, causing a chain reaction (remember the numa numa video?:-) And hey, can anyone even find the original anymore?!  But I digress!)

*  *  *

But how will this actually make money for the film producers?

- Pay-per-download
For instance, while Waterborne is free to stream and watch online for a week, it’s then $4 to download.  With this film, thanks to the openness of its producers, purchasers will actually OWN their copy and have the practical and legal options of burning it to DVD, watching it on their iPod, etc.  This can be a win-win situation; whereas early adopters and those with more time than money can make sure to watch it for free, others will help fund the film by purchasing unfettered downloads.  Alas, not all content producers are so wise and thoughtful towards consumers; the bulk of groups charging for video on Google Video now are placing some DRM (Digital Rights Management) restrictions on their files, so they’ll self-destruct after 24 hours or be uncopyable to a portable video player, etc.  Hopefully they’ll eventually see the light, however.

- Related sales
T-shirts.  Actual DVDs in jewelboxes.  Sequels.  Toys or other similar merchandise.  Soundtracks via Napster or Magnatune or Amazon.com.

- Long-term career growth
Unknown artists can perhaps become bigger household names, garnering big studio money later on.

Other ideas?  Your thoughts…?

*  *  *

Hat tip to Inside Google for reporting this and other interesting Google video tidbits.

Click-to-call is the next big thing in Web advertising... but with a twist

I just read on Darren's Problogger.net site (via Threadwatch) that Google is testing out a pay-per-call feature in its AdWords program.

The way it works (so far in testing) is that Google places a little phone icon next to specific trial text ads where text AdWords ads are normally placed on the righthand side of Google search results pages.

When someone clicks on the phone icon, they get a call from Google and Google then connects them to the advertiser free of charge... of course, charging the advertiser an amount up to their max pay-per-call bid price.

IMHO, though, this is one layer away from being humungously useful to advertisers. As it's currently implemented, I think a lot of folks (like me!) would be apt to read the small text ad, click through to the site, and then decide whether to call the company from *there* or not.

And by that point, there's no easy way for the advertiser to know that I came via AdWords... which means that it's basically flying under the ROI radar. This may not seem like a horrible problem, but let me tell you... for some advertisers (like one of my clients, who spends over $150,000 a month on AdWords alone!), it's quite painful to wonder whether that cost-per-lead is unduly inflated because lots of customers are calling in their high-ticket orders rather than placing them on the company's Web site directly. With the latter, this client can see the conversions via Google's conversion tracker. With the former, the best the client can do is ask the purchaser "Where did you hear about us?" and 9 times out of 10, the person will say "Um, somewhere on the net" or maybe even "Google" but they'll hardly know whether they spotted this firm via a natural or AdWords listing!

* * *

So here's my idea: One of these companies... Google, Yahoo!, or Microsoft (with its Ad Center, not yet released in the U.S.) should implement a special javascript code that displays -- on the advertiser's site! -- a tailored-per-client toll-free number when the referrer is a ad-click from Google, Y! or Microsoft. If the visitor isn't from one of their respective PPC programs, then the javascript code would default to simply showing the company's own default toll-free number.

And one of the coolest things about this is that it'd be VERY hard to game or click-fraud. If the engine set, for instance, a minimum call length before charging (say, 15 seconds), you're not going to get random "calling farms" in India making 16 second calls, IMHO :-).

Of course, really cheap-ass companies participating in the program could say "Oh, hi! Let me quickly get your number and call you back..." but -- especially when high-ticket items or subscriptions are at stake -- I don't think such behavior is likely. The annoyance of that would likely offset too much potential revenue from customers.

* * *

From at a technical perspective, I think this would be pretty easy to do. I understand that there might be some referrer-acknowledgement issues (e.g., people surfing in high-paranoid mode with referrer stuff turned off), but on the whole, I can imagine that advertisers would be willing to pay a premium for a visit + call... and consumers would be well-served, too.

What are your thoughts on this? Am I missing a key problem here?

Helpful numbers to save in your phone!

I invite you to go grab your cell phone / mobile phone / home phone whatever and program the following numbers into it:

- 1-800-555-8355 ("555 TELL" -- TellMe)
- 1-800-373-3411 ("FREE 411" -- Free411)
- 1-888-392-7563 ("EZ ASK ME" -- AskMeNow - Initial signup on site required)
- 46645 ("GOOGL" - Google SMS beta - Google via Text Messaging)

NOTE: One or more of these numbers may be U.S.-only... sorry :|

For details on each service, read on...

TELLME
I've been using this service for ages, and it's really gotten me out of some tight jams!

Via interactive voice menus, callers can easily get weather reports, serious and entertainment news, movie info, and much more. But the butt-saving features I've particularly appreciated are TAXI and DRIVING DIRECTIONS. The former will connect you (free of charge) with a local cab company, and the latter gives you step-by-step spoken driving directions between any two points in the U.S. (powered by "Microsoft MapPoint Technologies")

Supposedly, TellMe is ad-supported, but I have yet to hear any ads on the service.

* * *

FREE 411
Tired of paying $1.25 and up to your greedy mobile or landline phone company for directory assistance? Then you'll especially love Free 411! Not only does it find residential and business phone numbers for you, it also connects you free-of-charge (even to long distance numbers!) This service is apparently ad-supported (e.g., ask for Dominos Pizza, get a 15 second ad for a competing pizza place), but I've never heard any ads during the 3-4 times I've used this service.

Voice recognition is pretty decent, but the one time I stumped it, I was transferred to a human operator who was able to promptly get me the number I requested.

Frankly, though, I do wonder how sustainable this is. Will enough companies really pay to have folks redirected to them? If people are asking for Smith Window Washing services, will they really be so easily swayed towards a competitor? I have my doubts. But in the meantime, I'm happy to use this very convenient free 411 service!

* * *

ASK ME NOW

Need to know the capital of Wisconsin? Or find the phone number of a particular Citibank branch? Sure, if you're near an Internet-connected computer, you could probably quickly and easily find this info yourself. But what if you're busy or not near a computer? Yes, I have a Web browser on my Treo phone, but it's slow, the screen is small, and it's generally just a miserable experience trying to navigate Web sites with it.

Well, Ask Me Now is indeed a viable alternative. You call their number, leave a message, and 1-3 minutes later, you get back text messages with the right answer. Or at least AN answer. In my minimal testing, Ask Me Now gave me the right answer to "What is the Capital of Wisconsin?" but gave me the wrong answer to "What is the phone number of the Citibank branch located on Diamond Street in San Francisco?" The person (apparently located in the Philippines) who answered my query clearly just quickly googled for the answer and didn't bother checking on Citibank's Web site, since the correct answer is available in the latter, not the former.

This service costs 49 cents per query, billed to your cell phone account. Supposedly you can get free 'automated' answers, but it's not clear to me what qualifies as free and not-free, even after looking on the company's Web site.

* * *

GOOGLE SMS
Another option is Google's SMS service. Text message GOOGL (46645) to get driving directions, movie showtimes, weather reports, price comparisons, and more.

I've found this service to be both wonderous and frustrating. For instance, when I asked it [What is the capitol [sic] of wisconsin?] it replied back "Did you mean CAPITAL..." and gave me an appropriate Web page... when I would have preferred for it to actually include the answer, not just a link, in the reply. Additionally, when I asked it [Phone number for Citibank on Diamond St in San Francisco CA] it replied unhelpfully: "Looking for map of [query]? Unfortunately map information is not available through Google SMS."

I had better luck with other queries, such as [weather 91360] and [what is the population of belgium].

* * *

YAHOO SMS
Despite multiple attempts, I could not get this service to work. I kept getting an "Invalid..." message, with instructions relating to Y! Messenger, after even using the exact queries listed on this page. Bummer. Any Yahoo people out there wanna help me figure out what's going on here? I've heard good things about Yahoo's mobile offerings and perhaps there's just something small / obvious I'm missing?

Yahoo! and Google Maps... add more common sense, please

I don't know about you, but the vast majority of searches I do on Google Maps and the splendiforous new Y! Maps (beta) are for directions from my apartment in San Francisco to somewhere else in the city. Here's the sort of search I'd type in by default:

[{my address} to 16th and valencia]

But both Google and Yahoo! choke on this search, and choke bad. Yahoo! gives me an error message saying the address could not be found, and then nonetheless gives me directions to Valencia, Arizona. Google performs no better here; it asks me "Did you mean Valencia Road, Bromsgrove, Hereford and Worcester, B60, UK?" Suuuuuure, Google, I'm going to get in my car and drive from San Francisco to the UK. ;-)

Where's a Common Sense module when you need one?

For starters, how about assuming that if I don't add on a city, state or zip code, that I'm intending to travel within my home city. On G, one can already define a default starting point. And I'd assume that, when logged in to one's Y! account, Yahoo already knows one's home city, too. Not to mention IP sniffing possibilities, too!

Or even better yet, if it's not too computationally resource intense, it'd be great if the engines could assume a 100 mile radius and prioritize by proximity. That means if I type in 123 Mission St and I'm in San Francisco, I probably mean to indicate that street in SF or nearby, not somewhere in Minnesota. Since most of us don't have zip codes handy when we're doing directions, it's a lot faster and easier to type [555 myhomestreet 94112 to 123 mission st] than [555 myhomestreet 94112 to 123 mission st, san francisco, ca].

Lastly, I understand that sometimes requests ARE ambiguous (maybe I meant mission street in a nearby city, not SF, despite failing to specify it)... so the services should always preface the results on such ambiguous requests with something like this:\

NOTE: We assumed you're traveling to 123 mission street in San Francisco, CA. If this isn't right, please retype your request and specify the city and state.

And heck, for that matter, why can't I type [1531 19th ave to 99 valencia st] and have it assume I mean San Francisco (based upon my signin, my past searches, my IP address, whatever)?

Am I on target here, or would such assumption-makings on the part of the engines be more trouble than they're worth?

$1 will cure the Blogspot splog problem (and related problems)

THE PROBLEM
As Chris Pirillo and others have noted, doing a search on practically anything nowadays returns a deluge of spam blogs, or "splogs," that are comprised of a bunch of randomly scraped-together sentences automatically stolen from around the Web. Typically, the sploggers create these blogspot blogs just so they can slap AdSense ads on them and earn cash from unwitting surfers who land there, see that all the content is crap, and then get away by clicking on one of the ads on the page.

Sounds stupid? It is. But sadly it's actually lucrative for the sploggers. And Google's caught in the middle because -- while, yes, they're earning money as well out of the deal -- their search index is becoming less and less useful... and that can undoubtedly hurt the company's long-term viability. Say what you will about Google, but they are nothing if not forward thinking... so this is a problem that they are certainly seriously tackling in the background.

THE SOLUTION
But I have an idea that'd solve the issue faster. It's not entirely 'democratic.' It also risks some 'friendly fire'. And initially, it'll be a major pain in the ass for Google and a minor pain in the ass for anyone wanting to set up a blog. But hear me out... :-)

Google should require a $1 credit card, ACH bank payment, or paper check payment from any blogger who wants his or her blog to be indexed.

But note that...
- Anyone could still create a blog for free.
If you wanted to have a blog to communicate with your friends or family or workgroup or whatever, no sweat. You'd just give 'em the URL, let them subscribe to your RSS feed, etc., no payment required.

- Google would create a special subdomain for the paid blogs.
blogspotgold.com or whatnot... so that other search engines could easily filter out anything in the blogspot domain.

- Google would allow any current blogspot user to 'upgrade' for $1 and would automatically redirect their URL permanently.

WHY THIS'D WORK
- It would likely no longer be economically feasible for spammers to create 10,000 disposable splogs.
- Even if the economics worked out, Google could limit the number of blogs created per credit card number or bank account.
- Google's creating its own payment processing solution anyway, so they'll soon have the payments part covered.

WHAT WILL HAMPER THIS SOLUTION
- Sploggers could use stolen credit cards, though I think it'd be difficult to do this in bulk.
- But most critically, there's the frustrating issue that even a $1 payment could end up publicly silencing voices that should be heard.

MORE ABOUT THE SILENCING-VOICES PROBLEM
While I'm all for accountability and taking personal responsibility for one's communications, I also recognize that there are instances in which folks desire -- and often should be accorded -- anonymity.

For instance, what about Chinese dissidents who may want to blog about their feelings and experiences or even blog about upcoming protests? Is it inconceivable that the Chinese government could pressure Google into handing over identity information gleaned from a dissident's $1 blogspot payment? Even if Google takes pains to sincerely insist that it will *NEVER* do such a thing, will everyone trust this promise? And what about whistleblowers?

Or what about those people -- particularly in non-industrialized countries -- who may not have a bank account or credit card but still want to blog?

A POSSIBLE SOLUTION TO THE SILENCED-VOICES PROBLEM
Perhaps, instead of denying indexing to all non-paid blogs, Google could simply -- upon request -- pre-screen all such blogs for indexing consideration. For instance, something like the following:
1) Person sets up free blog and blogs a minimum number of substantive (non-sploggy) posts over a minimum period of time.
2) They then submit this blog for indexing consideration to Google.
3) If Google determines it to be non-sploggy, they then elevate it to blogspotgold, and provide a free redirect from the old URL.

Admittedly, though, sploggers could retaliate in this context by submitting bazillions of obvious-crap blogs just to clog up the reviewing queue. However, if it were impossible to submit a blog for consideration until it had been around, say, 3 months or 6 months... that would make it harder to do a mass-submit "DOS" [denial of service style] attack. Spammers are not patient people.

* * *

So I'm curious... what do you think about all of this?
1) Would a $1 payment really prevent most or even all splog from getting into the indexes of Google, Y!, and all other major players?
2) Would there be bad 'collateral damage'... or could this be reasonably minimized by the ideas I've specified or through other means?
3) Know of any anti-splog options that are better than my $1 idea? (hint: capchas alone aren't the answer)

* * *

UPDATE at 9:00PM PST, 10/16/2005:
People have pointed out to me that children and young teens typically don't have credit cards or even bank accounts, and that it seems unfair to single them out for a waiting period. So here are some other ideas (with the first two stolen from current Gmail policies :D)

- Get a blogspotgold account via text message.
True, this requires a phone... or a friend's phone.

- Get a blogspotgold account via invite from current member.
Allow each current member to hand out up to 10 tokens a month, and if more than 2 of them are used to create splogs, then don't give that member any more tokens for a year.

- Distribute blogspotgold tokens via schools (administrators, teachers, whatever)

* * *

UPDATE, 10/18/2005 at 1:45AM PST:
Ah, Google responds to the outcry! I had no doubt that they'd be taking all of this seriously (I know that the Blogger folks are sincerely passionate about blogging!), but it's nice to see their public acknowledgment of the problem nonetheless.

Also, the prolific geek, Chris Pirillo (of Lockergnome fame) has proposed his own top ten list of Blogspot anti-splog solutions.

Bloglines, Newzcrawler... and the new Google Reader

A few weeks ago, I already started transitioning all of my feeds off of Bloglines. Why?
- It's slow.
- It's down too often.
- Reorganizing feeds (moving them to different folders, etc.) is worse than being stuck in a closet with Vanna White. Night after night after night after night.
- It's similarly painful to mark just a few articles in a feed as read or unread.

I've moved over to Newzcrawler, a stellar newsreader app for Windows. Beyond just tons of cool power features, it also lets me pretty easily sync my feeds between my desktop and laptop using an external FTP site (okay, geeky, I know).

* * *

With that said, I've still been hoping to see some vast improvements in the online-reader front. Rojo seems to be getting better. And I've heard rumblings over other cool services as well. When I learned today that Google had entered this space, I was extremely excited. Please, I thought, give us another Gmail. Or Maps! :D If not for me, at least for my less-geeky friends whom I'm dying to get into feed reading.

So far, alas, I'm rather disappointed in the Google Reader. I know it'll get better, but for now, Googlers...

1) It's too cluttered and overwhelming.
Hide some stuff. I know that sounds counterintuitive, but blog text blends into all the other text and I find it just tiring to spend more than a few minutes in Reader.

2) No mouseovers?!

3) Ambiguities
Is "Read items" a description or an action? Okay, admittedly this is rather a nitpick, but it is a top-line link ;-).

4) Search what?!
When I see a search box at the top of the page, I expect to be able to search the content-in-context. In other words, if I'm in my Gmail account, I expect to search my mail. If I'm in Reader, I expect to search for a string in my read and/or unread feed items. From an expected user-action standpoint, what's likely to be more common: adding new feeds, or working with the feeds one already has?

5) Save me from overload!
There's no way to mark an entire feed as read. Or group of feeds.

6) Why the weird quasi-breadcrumbs in center focus?!
Why do I want to see "New Subscription" "New Subscription" article article article... Just show me new articles. If I want to see what I'm subscribed to, I'll go to the Your Subscriptions tab! :-)

* * *

Other quick suggestions/observations:
- Add a space in "Subscriptions(#)" to make it "Subscriptions (#)"
- Include a shortcut key to go to the pulldown menus. Actually, quit using HTML-style pulldown menus as action-triggers. It's not good UI, IMHO, and it's confusing when more than one says "More actions..." (plus with more than one on a page, that sort of makes it hard to use a keyboard shortcut)
- Allow for the multi-selection (and from there, tagging) of feeds.
- Include a feedback link directly on the Reader page.
- Enable us to see ALL articles from a given feed in one fell swoop (ala Bloglines)
- Let us easily sort, reposition, edit, and delete labels and sets of labels.
- BUG: I unsubscribed from a feed, it's outta my list, but I'm still seeing items for it.
- Gimme feed icons, please! When I have 200+ feeds, it's how I can most easily spot some of my favs :-)
- Dim links if they're not applicable (e.g., dim the Page Up link if I'm already at the top)
- I tagged an entry. How do I search for it by tag now? (I only see how I can filter feed tags)

* * *

Okay, let me be a LITTLE less of a jerk here and note what I *DO* like about Reader:
- Keyboard shortcuts! :-)
- Ease of adding new feeds (by keyword, by title, by URL... very flexible!)
- Nice how the filter narrows as I type! (but it'd be even nicer if ESC cleared it)
- Pretty fast (excepting the short time earlier today when it was first released)

* * *

Anyway, I'll keep my fingers crossed that Google rapidly works on this beta, giving it top resources... rotating in seasoned PMs / APMs, providing needed equipment for scalability and so on. For now, though, I'll happily stick with Newzcrawler, and -- admittedly grudgingly -- suggest that my newbie friends start off with Bloglines for now.

Google Desktop Search -- A review via an EXCLUSIVE interview!

I was able to score an exclusive interview with Adam Lasnik, supreme geek, Google connoisseur, and Google Desktop Search expert, and I'm very pleased to offer the full transcript below.

Adam, thanks for coming today. To start, why don't you give us a quick overview of what Google Desktop Search ("GDS") does?

It's delightful to be here!

Well, GDS enables any personal and business user to search their computer's hard drive much as they would search Google... typing in a search term using Google's general search syntax and getting a results page in under one second.

Specifically, GDS searches both the filenames and contents of the following: Outlook and Outlook Express e-mail, AOL instant messages, Internet Explorer (Web page history), text files, and also files from Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint.

Do note that GDS only works on Windows XP and 2000 at this time.

So is this all pretty easy to use, or is it a tool just for geeks?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, GDS is quite user-friendly from end-to-end. It installs very quickly (it's 400K) and it politely uninstalls just as easily. And actually using the tool is a snap: When you click on the GDS icon in your system tray, a browser window opens; you simply type in a search query, and BOOM, Google lists results are shown, formatted very similarly to regular Google searches.

Whoa... regular Google searches... does this mean other people can search my hard drive? Or can Google see what I'm searching for or what's on my hard drive? I better start removing those porn...er, confidential business plan documents!

No, no... unlike with Google Web Search, the index of your files remains on your computer. While you have the OPTION to let Google learn about your search stats (not terms!), Google doesn't peek into your hard drive contents or examine what you're personal searching for. So if you're looking for a big ass barbeque to grill a fluffy bunny, you don't have to worry about Google notifying the ASPCA (I
hear rabbit meat is tasty, though... but I digress). In a nutshell, Google's GDS privacy policy should make you feel better.

Okay, so GDS is easy to use and it's not going to get me in trouble. So far so good. How about a few more techie details?

You got it! First, let me say that -- while GDS isn't a power tool yet -- it performs well on machines of power users like myself.

I have a decent rig (2.4 ghz Pentium with 512 megs of RAM), but it's loaded down with other file indexing programs, numerous Outlook plugins, more than a dozen apps in the systray, two routers (one wireless, one phone adaptor), a firewall (XP SP2-based), a virus checker (AVG), and many general programs running concurrently (Trillian, Dreamweaver, Outlook, and so on... and GDS has worked flawlessly. No install problems, and no noticeable slowdown of the system during indexing. Furthermore, searching with GDS is LIGHTNING FAST... both on my rig, and on the machine of a less-geeky friend of mine who's sadly cursed an older machine. The downside of that, understandably, is that GDS is pretty conservative. It initially indexes quite slowly in the background (you'll need to leave this puppy on overnight to get a full index!), and overall the product doesn't try to do too many things for too many people.

Hmm... well, tell us a bit more about the limitations of GDS, then

GDS provides ease-of-use at the expense of power-tool complexity. Whether in the interest of not overwhelming non-geeks or simply due to the fact that this is still a version 1 (0.9?) beta release, Google has chosen not to offer much functionality customization or ANY UI customization.

In some cases, this is a mere minor annoyance. We can't opt to have the system go into a turbo mode (using more processor cycles) to get everything indexed quickly.

There's no way that I can see to have the system wholly refresh the index without doing an uninstall and reinstall.

Some holes are a bit more frustrating. GDS doesn't monitor e-mails and files after it indexes them, which can result in an inability to pull up items, or a duplication of listings in search results. Additionally, while you can tell GDS not to index certain sites or folders, you can't block it from indexing specific Outlook folders. Luckily, it does ignore (perceived) spam folders by default.

From a UI perspective, GDS is generally streamlined and will please folks who are looking for an experience that matches what they're used to with general Google search results. Power users, though, may be a bit disappointed.

The key issue is that GDS doesn't yet offer search results in a contextual way. For instance, when you're searching for an image on your hard drive, you probably want to see image thumbnails. When you're searching for a particular e-mail, you likely want an easy-to-scan list of mail-related headers. However, GDS treats all search results alike, except for a little icon next to each search listing. In a way, this is understandable. In order to offer more strongly contextual search results, GDS would have to do one of the following:

1) Show only one type of results per screen, which would require extra navigational clicks.
2) Divide up results by column (e.g., e-mail results on the left, image results on the right), which could be problematic when there are more than 2 file types returned or when someone's browser window space is limited.
3) Limit search queries to one file type at a time.

As you can see, none of these options are particularly desireable. Furthermore, many folks might find it disconcerting to see a shifting UI with search results.

Therefore, it's not surprising that Google has decided to go with a more generic but consistent results UI at this point.

So GDS is sounding like a useful and effective, if not revolutionary product. How does it compare to existing desktop search solutions?

It's easier to install, it behaves more nicely, and it returns results faster than any other desktop search program I've seen.

And speaking of other solutions, here's a list of other desktop search programs I know about, with an asterisk by those I've tried:

- X1*

Seemingly one of the most popular desktop search tools, X1 distinguishes itself in several ways: it displays search results as you type each letter, it shows previews of documents, it offers special fields for different searches, and it supports a ton of different file formats. Downside? It's pricey, it can be a resource hog. [See license giveaway; still some left as of 10/15/04 2:46pm PST]

- LookOut*

Recently bought out by Microsoft, this program integrates into Outlook, but searches many different types of files. It's more flexible and powerful than GDS, but it's not as fast... and it's not useful for those who don't have Outlook.

- Enfish*

Big, pricey, and highly customizeable, with an especially useful saved-searches feature and decent integration with ones Outlook data overall.

- Copernic
- dtSearch
- 80/20
- Superior Search
- Wilbur

Wow, that's a lot of competition for Google. So what makes GDS so special and important, then?

Several things:

1) Speed, stability, and ease of use.
2) The trusted and liked Google brand.
3) Integration with Google Web searches (you can configure the program to show desktop search results when you do a general Web search)
4) Potential later integration with existing popular Google tools (toolbar, Gmail, etc.)
5) Perhaps somewhat controversial... but there's also the possibility that Google could -- at the user's option -- use desktop search fingerprinting to steer or filter that individual's Web results.

Okay, I can see why GDS may be particularly noteworthy for consumers, but what does it mean for Google?

It will enable Google to take over the world, though not all at once.

But seriously, folks... I think GDS suggests several significant ramifications for Google (and yes, its shareholders):

1) This may increase the frequency and quantity of Google Web (or integrated Web + GDS) searches, thus augmenting ad revenues.

2) As many others have noted, it's a clear strike-ahead at Microsoft, who is building desktop search capabilities into their future operating system. Why does this matter from a revenue standpoint? GDS will help insure that more people remain loyal to Google (and its advertisers), instead of defecting towards the possibly-OS-default MSN search feature.

3) Each foray into Windows tools allows Google to build up an aggregate competency in this area, strengthening not only each individual tool, but the broad set of desktop-based tools overall (Picasa, Deskbar, etc.).

Well, I'm pretty sold on Google Desktop Search at this point, I must admit. But how do I know if it's right for me?

I'd suggest that you simply give the tool a try. But if you're really gung-ho about this space and have some extra time, you may want to give the other desktop search program a look-see as well. It's notable that all of them are either free or offer free trials, so you have little to lose. Just remember to fully un-install any desktop search programs you decide not to use to insure that their likely-sizable indexes aren't continuing to clutter up your hard drive.

And in the meantime, here's my humble list of what to look for in a desktop search tool:

1) Ease of install (and, indeed, uninstall!)
2) Comprehensiveness of indexing (how many different file types does it support?)
3) Speed of indexing (initial and ongoing)
4) Load on computer (during initial indexing, ongoing indexing, searching)
5) Speed of searching (how long does it take for it to deliver search results?)
6) Power of searching (Boolean expression support? Ability to search particular fields?...)
7) Usefulness of search results (relevance, completeness, formatting)
8) Cost of program
9) Support from company (FAQs, e-mail support. etc.)
10) And I almost forgot the most important thing -- does it work on your system (platform, necessary specs, etc.)

Adam, thanks so much for all of this information and for taking the time to stop by here today

Absolutely a pleasure. It's always been my dream to appear on BLADAM, and I thank you for the opportunity to address your wonderful, smart, and attractive readers who will no doubt eagerly link to this page and share it with all their friends. But tell me one thing: Why has it been more than four months since you posted anything in this blog?

Ahem... um... well, I was in the process of changing blog software, but never got around to actually finishing the transition, plus I started two new jobs recently and...

Ah, no worries! Just glad to see BLADAM back up, even temporarily.

:blushing: It's nice to be back.

---

Relevant and cool links:
- A Net Takeway examination of the desktop search space
- Excellent overview of GDS from SearchEngineWatch
- SearchEngineWatch - Privacy and Google Desktop Search
- John Battelle's take on GDS

---

Edits: (Times are Pacific Standard Time)
- 10/14/04, 21:45: Actually linked to the product. What a revolutionary idea, eh? [smacks head]
- 10/15/04, 14:46: Added x1 license giveaway link (not likely to be applicable for long!)

---

[P.S. -- Please feel free to leave a comment with any corrections, or suggest any additional aspects of GDS to cover. Thanks!]

Got a Gmail account? Here are a few interesting tricks 'n' tidbits

[In case you didn't already notice, I wrote a pretty detailed review of Gmail earlier, in which I also noted that I'm unfortunately unable to procure accounts for folks. Sorry! For those who already have accounts, I hope the tips below are useful and/or fun :-) - Adam]

So, you're one of the Gmail testers and you want more bang for the buck, eh? Try these tips on for size:

SENDING & SHORTCUTS
- Send mail to fellow Gmail'er by just entering their username in the TO, CC, or BCC spot. No need to include @gmail.com :-)

- Did you reserve .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and now wish you had left out the darn period? It's not too late! For whatever reason, Gmail treats that e-mail address the same as one without a period (and visa versa), so .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) works just as well as .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). As you may have guessed, Gmail is flexible with regards to capitalizations, too!

- Using the handy-dandy spell-checker and want to quickly Resume Checking without using the mouse? Just hit 'R', an undocumented shortcut key in this context.

SEARCHING
- "or" is not the same as "OR." Only the capitalized version (sans quotes, by the way) will work with searches. So if you want to find mail from your friend Jen, you can use this in search: FROM: (jen OR jenny OR jennifer). Note, by the way, that the actual search terms are not case-sensitive. "jen" works just as good as "Jen."

- But, using the same Jen example, it's important to realize that the search engine of Gmail (and Google, for the most part) does not search partial words. So "jen" will not find "Jennifer."

PERFORMING ACTIONS ON A GROUP OF E-MAILS
- Let's say you have 150 e-mails, listed over two pages (100 max per page), and you want to archive all of them. I initially made the mistake of clicking ALL, then hitting ARCHIVE and thinking that this would do the trick. Nope. Commands -- whether TRASH or ARCHIVE or LABEL -- only affect those items that are both selected and on the page you're currently viewing.

- And speaking of groupings... don't forget that when you archive or label e-mail, you're affecting the entire Conversation of e-mails by default. If you want to trash just one of the e-mails in a Conversation, you can do this by expanding that particular e-mail, clicking on MORE OPTIONS, and then clicking on TRASH THIS MESSAGE.


ALL THIS *PLUS* A LITTLE BIT MORE
Gmail supports "plus" addressing, which means that if your address is .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), you can receive e-mail at maryhadda+littlelamb@gmail.com or maryhadda+longaddress@gmail.com, etc. Why is this useful? Well, Mary (or you!) could use one, er, I'll call it a "plussing," for mailing lists ("maryhadda+lists"), and another for shopping online ("maryhadda+shopping") and so on, and then create filters to put useful labels on the different types of mail.

Some have suggested that this could also be a useful spam deterrent (e.g., using maryhadda+2004q2 and then discarding e-mail sent to this address the following quarter), but I think this suffers from two key flaws:
1) Spammers are probably smart enough to start stripping off the plussing :(.
2) After a while, you'd have to create a LOT of filters, and -- at least for the moment -- we only get an allotment of 20 filters total. It'd be a shame to use those all up in a (likely futile) attempt to thwart spamjerks.

*** Edited 4/30/04:
Some folks had expressed concern that plussing was seemingly not working for them. However, I've worked with them to track down the cause: Due to the way Gmail handles discussion list mails -- not showing one's own contributions in the Inbox to avoid duplicate views -- people who were testing the plussing feature by mailing themselves via Gmail wrongly assumed the mail was 'lost'. As it turns out, the mail was indeed received, but -- since it appeared to be part of a 'discussion list' -- was not shown in the Inbox, which is what caused the confusion.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Plussing works; just don't try sending tests to yourself FROM your Gmail account TO your same Gmail account :D.

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Well, that's pretty much everything off the top of my head for now! How about you? Got some cool Gmail tips or tricks? Speak up below, or feel free to contact me :-)

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*** Added 4/21/04
Uh oh! I have competition! :D It's been pointed out to me that there's already a blog dedicated to Gmail tips and tricks, called Gmail Gems. Definitely worth checking out.

*** Added 10/11/05
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