Tag Archives: google

Rants, Software

Is Google Buzz the new Blog?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. You’ve heard it all week; Buzz, Buzz, Buzz. I’m very guilty of adding to the… well… Buzz. (Sorry. Bad pun.) and I’ve almost had enough myself.

I think nobody knows exactly what Google Buzz is right now and where it’s going to go, evolve into. I think most agree it has tremendous potential. However, a most provocative thought occured to me today; Could this be a Blog killer replacement?

The gist of my hypothetical argument is that Google Buzz could probably replace most blogs given the ability to take it out of Gmail, customize, widgetize and skin it a la iGoogle. The Google vehicle is already there in the form of the current Google profile page or embedded externally over the Buzz API. The vehicle for an standalone service is already there as Google owns Blogger. The quest for unified commenting could also have been solved by the advent of Buzz. Further more, Google’s proven efficiency at filtering SPAM in Gmail, it stands to reason that they’d do an excellent job at eliminating comment SPAM.

Please share your take with me – I’d really like to hear what you think.

For those of you who live under a stone actually live wholesome, meaningful lives Buzz is a new service launched by Google.

Think of Google Buzz as something like twitter with no character restrictions and with comments or Facebook without Farrmville and the other horrible wonderful stuff, like FriendFeed if you’re of a more adventerous inclination – or perhaps a Blog?

Currently I hate the (as of writing) lock-in of the service with Gmail, but I’ll keep that for future posts.

The service has improvement potential and, shall we say some rough edges?

Here’s a primer on what you should know about Google Buzz to get started.

To keep in the spirit of ‘the now’, I’ve embedded the original Google Buzz thread (as a grotesque kludge – do tell if you know of a better way) below.

UPDATE 2012: Below we have the answer to the question in the headline. It’s a resounding “no”. Buzz is scheduled to be killed and old content is not embedable anymore.

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Rants

In Silicon Valley, life seems easy

So I finally went to Silicon Valley and visited Google at the Googleplex in Mountain View.

As I was in the area, I just had to stop by the legendary Xerox parc in Palo Alto and pay my dues. The home of the GUI and numerous other firsts. An obligatory geek homage trip.

Though not really considering myself a real Apple fanboi, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity aussie online casinos to pop by Infinite Loop 1 in Cupertino for a quick pose. On another note, it was also interesting to see the actual offices  of the guys and gals I’d been previously only been talking on the phone with from across the Atlantic. (A work thing. Nothing exiting. Don’t ask – I’d have to kill you. UPDATE: It was the launch of the iPhone in Europe.)

Funny story: I was at Infinite Loop 1 in the early evening, gift shop closed, no single car in the whole parking lot – and then I almost got run over by a silver Mercedes (with no license plates) speeding out of the underground parking. True story, I’ve got a witness. ;)

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News, Software

Google Maps 2.0.3 for BlackBerry (and other platforms) launches

The Google Maps application on my BlackBerry 8700g (yeah it’s not very en Vogue, but I still find the iPhone an unpractical-for-business toy) asked me to upgrade the Google Maps application today, and I was pleasantly surprised with what the update had to offer.

The new cool features are, except from a slicker interface, as far as I can gather ‘Google Maps with My Location‘ – a pseudo GPS by triangulation feature as first seen in GMaps on the iPhone, traffic information hopefully including more corners of the globe and real GPS over Bluetooth if you have a separate Blutetooth enabled external GPS device.

I’ve tested the GPS over Bluetooth function with a I-Blue 747 GPS receiver / logger and can confirm that it works like a charm, placing me accurately with traveling direction showing.

Looking sweet to me at the moment. Let me know how you’ve fared with the new Google Maps app and leave a comment.

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