Tag: google

Finding What We Want to Find

This TED Talk by Eli Pariser questions the present methods by which Google returns hits from search queries. I have read several books over the years describing the development of Google and thought I understood the process. The early technique using page rank returned hits that were referenced by influential others (so defined by being linked by influential others). This technique has been upgraded to reflect individual search histories. I did not realize this, but Pariser claims that the same search executed by different individuals from different locations will return different results. Why? Your interests and history will bias what you find.

I made a very similar observation months ago regarding how most individuals approach reading blogs. We follow writers we find interesting and with whom we share similar values. Not the best strategy gaining a broad perspective.

I would think this search issue would play out differently depending on the topic. With factual information search should work just fine. However, what about locating information related to what might be described as critical thinking. Wouldn’t you want to consider multiple perspectives rather than review several sites with a similar perspective? So, one way Google could advance the process of search would be to differentiate fact from perspective inquiries and ignore data on individual preferences when returning hits that would support critical thinking,

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Google a Day

Google has a new offering – Google a Day. Google asks a question and you attempt to find the answer. Google even includes a feature that allows you to search the Internet as it existed before they answered the question (folks are fond of demonstrating they have found the answer). Perhaps this is an interesting activity for developing search skills.

I think this is the answer – I could not find it by examining images, but I found this by searching Coubre, print , Che  & inscription. If this is the answer, I assume by now it appears online in many places before you see it here.

 

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Online Storage

My interest in music led me to investigate the Amazon Cloud Player and I ended up purchasing 20 gigabytes of storage (5 is free) so that I could upload part of my music collection (the digitized music that is not protected). The initial goal was to use the cloud player to access this music from my various computers and some devices (not including those that use Flash).

The 20 gigabytes for $20 a year seemed reasonable and the storage could be used for whatever I wanted to store off site. As I collect more content – images, video, pictures and the documents I write, off site storage becomes more and more important.

I decided to investigate some online storage options in order to compare price and features. I decided I needed to narrow the field so I am excluding personal off site backup options such as pogoplug or one computer backup plans such as Carbonite. I am focusing on online storage capacity I can use from multiple machines.

Amazon – so the Amazon site I have already describes is pretty much a buck a gigabyte deal. However, the Amazon option is about more than pure storage as it is both a cloud drive and a cloud player for your music.

DropBox – Dropbox is a great product that allows both local access and online access. I pretty much think of it as a universal harddrive connected simultaneously to all of my machines (I have DropBox installed on multiple machines). You can purchase storage beyond the free basic level, but as much as I use the product and would pay to continue to use it, the pure cost for storage is too high.

 

SugarSync – another product I use to backup files among multiple machines that I own, but somewhat like DropBox more expensive than alternatives for pure storage.

Google – good old Google. You may not think of Google as an online storage option, but Google docs was expanded to accept pretty much any digital format and the rate for gigabytes past the free level makes it the most cost effective option.

So, each option has unique features and it is important to consider what value you might place on a given feature. For pure storage, Google would be my present choice.

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Docs Discussion

Google has improved the commenting system available in docs. You can now carry on a discussion with collaborators while working on a document. The feature should be available now, but you will not see it (red box in image shows the way to access the feature) unless you create a new document.

Google provides a video with additional information.

This would seem an effective way to leave comments an author might either implement by changing the document or respond to as part of what Google would like to call a discussion.

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Respond to this – a nice design for requesting reactions

Cindy came up with a technique I thought was clever and perhaps of general utility. It was a strategy she used when she wanted to get and record the reaction of others to a display (in her case a project description from History Alive). So, her situation involved the need to independently solicit the reaction of social studies teachers to an activity from History Alive. I am suggesting this is a general strategy others might use to present something (any combination of media) and solicit reactions from multiple individuals you want to comment independently even if they are in the same room.

The display looks like this (I have purposefully degraded the History Alive content because of copyright concerns).

Here is how this was done. This is a combination of Google Sites and Google Forms. You use Google forms to structure the request for information you want to be brought into the Google spreadsheet. In this case, the inputs consisted of a combination of open ended questions and several forced choice items. You then use Google Sites to create a blank page and then modify by selecting the two column format from Layouts. You insert  the spreadsheet form in the right column (Insert is a menubar item and the item to be inserted is an option under the Insert Heading.). The combination is a sophisticated looking web page that accepts data from users and stores the data in a spreadsheet.

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Office2 HD

I noticed today that this product has been updated (Apr. 22). I downloaded the upgrade and tried for about 30 minutes the routine that had produced corrupted files previously. At this point I have been unable to recreate the same problem so I am optimistic that the problem has been fixed. The web site did indicate that the file corruption problem had been corrected in the update.

My post on my difficulties using the Office2 Pro app to edit Google docs has attracted quite a few hits. My experience appears to be in contradiction to the experience of others. I feel bad because my report documents the struggles I have had attempting to get this app to work without success and I am unable to explain why others are not experiencing the same problem. I want people to know I have experimented with this app extensively as late as last evening and I continue to have the same problem. The files are somehow corrupted and the app then freezes. The problem seems “random” and as a programmer these are the kinds of bugs that are most frustrating. It may be something as simple as an upload problem (to Google docs) that fails to complete some kind of process within a certain time period leaving the Google doc in a flawed state. My experience has been that if I continue to edit and save a doc to Google docs this will eventually happen. All I can say is that the app/Google doc combination is too iffy for me to trust and if you are using Google docs for “work” I am urging caution.

I have explored other options of this app and have stored documents in my mobileme account. I have done this without problems, but doubt this is a serious solution for many people.

I have submitted my bug report to the company and this morning received the following reply:

The corruption of Google Docs documents is a result of something that Google changed in the last few days that highlighted an incompatibility with the way we write DOC files and the way Google interprets them. We’ve found a solution however and have already submitted it to Apple, so we expect it to be available in a few days time. For more information, including how to recover documents, please see http://www.bytesquared.com/products/office/ipad/google_corruption.asp

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Disregard previous post – there may be hope

I have edited this post multiple times as my experiences with this product and the upgrade to the product have resulted in different impressions.

I noticed today that this product has been updated (Apr. 22). I downloaded the upgrade and tried for about 30 minutes the routine that had produced corrupted files previously. At this point I have been unable to recreate the same problem so I am optimistic that the problem has been fixed. The web site did indicate that the file corruption problem had been corrected in the update.

I am rescinding my endorsement of this product. I am experiencing consistent problems when resaving documents after an initial upload. This issue may be something I am doing wrong, but it seems consistent and I would not want to encourage purchasing of this product until I can figure this out. (Apr. 11). The image below illustrates the problem. My initial text (This seems to work.) seems ironic when saved as part of attempting to add new text to the file. The additional characters seem to be the type of content you see when opening a word processor generated RTF file with a text editor.

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Sooner or later, the answer always seems to appear.

Disregard my previous post indicating you could not edit Google docs from the iPad. A post from from jkontherun described the Office2 Pro app – for editing Google docs and other sources. Works fine.

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