Tag: google

Sharing Google Bookmarks

I am not looking for a new social bookmarking tool. I use Diigo and once you invest for a period of time in a specific service making a change, even to a better service, is a tough choice. However, I read a recent description of changes made to the Google bookmarking system (Free Technology for Teachers) that peaked my interest so here is a brief description another new and useful service from Google. The new feature allows the assignment of bookmarks to lists that can be shared or kept private. It should take but a moment to see how this flexibility might be useful for teachers.

Rather than explaining the entire bookmarking system, I will focus mainly on the new list feature. But briefly, if you have a Google account, you can either add a bookmarklet or a Google Toolbar to your browser (Google instructions). The difference is pretty much whether the bookmark service is accessed from an icon that appears as part of your generic browser toolbar or appears as part of specialized Google toolbar offering additional services see below.

Selecting the bookmark icon from the menubar (either form) allows the current page to be bookmarked (stored by Google in contrasted to being stored by the browser as would be the case with browser bookmarking systems). The immediate advantage of off-site bookmarking is access from other browsers and computers.

Now when storing a bookmark, you have the option of also assigning the bookmark to a list. Lists are generated (see below) and then bookmarks are assigned to lists.

From the list of bookmarks, select a bookmark (checkbox to left of bookmark)

The public view of this list is now available.

Powered by ScribeFire.

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Cloud Storage – Episode One

We all should consider off-site storage. I suppose that backup would probably be the first justification, but I am going to ignore this priority in my comments. Instead, I am going to focus on convenience. I mean convenience as in I have multiple computers and devices scattered all over the place and I often want to continue working on something elsewhere on a different machine. I mean convenience as in I used to just keep active files on my desktop, but that made my monitor look cluttered so I have been looking for an alternative. There seems to be an ever increasing number of options in reaction to such situations. If there are folks out their generating solutions, I take this to mean this must be a common problem. I can’t resist trying and even paying for several of these solutions. I have accumulated enough that I have found I can no longer remember how some of the first I purchased worked or even what unique niche within this niche they were designed to address. So, I decided to take the time to explore my existing purchases and share some insights. Rather than doing this all at once, I decided to divide this topic into multiple episodes that will be offered on an unpredictable basis.

I use my MobileMe account most frequently. It has been around for several years and I use MobileMe for several purposes. It does cost $100 per year. This would not be my present recommendation for others interested only in storage.  Recently, Google allowed Google Docs users to upload file types that may or may not be suited to conversion to Google Docs (document, presentation, spreadsheet). In other words, one can just store files. This new service would be my present recommendation for general cloud storage.

On the Google docs site, look for an upload button (top left). This brings up a page (above) allowing files to be uploaded. For this demo, I uploaded an image because Google docs is not designed for this file type.

In addition to just using Google docs to store and transfer files, you can share files with others.

My jpg example (from Google docs)

Google mostly relies on ads for revenue. So, they to continue to add services simply to attract users. You can store 1 gigabyte of data (in addition to the traditional Google docs files) at no cost. This small amount of free storage at no cost is fairly common among the applications/services I have explored and it is probably all that many looking for convenience need. What makes Google docs file storage different is that the cost for additional storage is very reasonable – $5 for 20 gigabytes per year. This seems very reasonable to me.

Sharing files among device types is important to some. Mostly – I want to share files between computers, but others may also want to move files between a computer and a handheld (phone, wifi device). I was able to view the file I uploaded from my iPod Touch, but I am not aware of a way to download or upload files from this device. This does not mean this is not possible and I will likely hear from someone if there is a way to do this.

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Google Docs to WordPress

[gdocs id=’0ARA4QeFVmMb3YWg0cGp3cGh2emQ5XzI2OWdxeG1nM2Z0′ type=’document’]

This technique involves the inclusion of special markup that is called by the plugin (see above with last part of the document ID obscured for security). The technique works, but after experimenting, I now consider it more appropriate to WordPress pages more so than blog posts. The one situation I can think of that might relate to blog posts would involve making groups responsible for posts to a protected blog. The blog administrator could share a Google doc with specific individuals and establish a link from different docs to a post in WordPress using the unique document IDs. This still would seem a more likely page than post technique.

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Google Docs Backup

I started using Google Docs to backup documents I prepared on my desktop. I eventually found writing in Google docs more convenient than writing on my own computers. I guess “computers” is the key here. I work from at least three machines daily and it is just so easy to login to one remote location and begin working.

Once I have invested several hours in a project, I begin to worry about backups. I trust Google with my files, but it is reassuring to have a second copy offsite (in this case on my desktop hard drive). Google now lets you zip up to two gigabytes of content and download in a single operation. Select the files (perhaps all of your files) and then the export option (available under more options). The process may take some time, but you can ask Google to notify you when the entire process is done.

I have prepared a simple demo if you need more information.

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Sidewiki from Google – Cool, but beyond my control

Google introduced a feature within the Google Toolbar that allows users to comment on web sites. Other Google users can then review these comments. In the image below, I have identified the toolbar (in the case added to Firefox) and a comment I added to my own web page. The service is called Sidewiki.

sidewiki

Here is the description from the official Google blog and the NYTimes.

Here is perhaps the most useful post I found on sidewiki (Danny Sullivan).

This idea is not exactly new and reminds me of some of the features of Diigo. Most others have compared sidewiki to other services so perhaps they are seeing something different in this product.

It is important to note that this service has already drawn criticism. Jeff Jarvis, normally a Google advocate (What would Google do?), predicts this will generate criticism of Google. I think the issue is that I as creator of content cannot control whether this service is linked to me content or not. I might welcome the interaction and see this is easier than some other add-on (e.g, tinychat), but I might also prefer that others not add to what I offer and perhaps encourage links elsewhere. The point is I am not in control. Google offers other services based on the inclusion of a small bit of code within the HTML of a page, this approach might have solved the lack of control issue. (Follow-up post from Jarvis)

I did a Twitter search on sidewiki and it has been a very hot topic today.

BTW – the Google toolbar has other interesting capabilities. For example it, allows the translation of a page into other languages. Cindy is in Russia at the moment. So, babe – see if someone can read this.

inrussian

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Google Earth

Yesterday I read a post on LifeHacker describing the newest release of Google Earth. A video offered within this site describes new features available in version 5.0. You can locate the download at the Google Earth site. A new feature I found intriguing allows the investigation of changes over time.

Rather than duplicate the examples discussed, I wanted to test the tool using a situation I have experienced. I happen to be watching a local outdoor show a few days ago. The guest was a resort owner from Devils Lake, North Dakota, who was talking about the interesting history of the lake. He described the tremendous changes in the level of the lake that have occurred over time and told his own personal story as a short term example. He described working at the Creel Bay boat launch as a youth. At the time it was one of the few locations on the lake where you could rent a boat or purchase bait. He described that the facility was now gone as the location was submerged in the rising waters. This caught by attention. When I first came to North Dakota 30+ years ago a few colleagues from the department and I would go fishing from the Creel Bay marina in the summer. My brother later moved to Devils Lake and lived near this location. He left the area and I stopped taking trips there, but I knew the story of the rising waters.

I decided to examine this phenomena using Google Earth. My strategy was simply to locate Devils Lake in Google Earth and capture a picture of the area. Without changing the area shown, I using the “clock” tool to change the date and attempted to capture the same area of the map. recentdl

Recent image (2005)

olderdl

Older image (1997)

I found my assumptions regarding how easy this would be were somewhat naive. It turns out you cannot find images for any given date. The most recent I could locate for Devils Lake were from 2005. The images were generated by different organizations. I also assume that the time of year the images were taken would influence what was observed. In other words, precise control was not possible. However, if you look carefully, you can detect change. I have identified a common area in a small section of map that shows how a greater area of land is submerged in the more recent image. Science is like this – it is difficult to control all variables and demonstrations are often more difficult to produce than one expects. This is a very interesting tool and certainly available for personal experimentation.

More information describing Devils Lake is available online.

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Google Trims a Few Services

Google has announced that it is closing down or stopping development of several services. This announcement indicate the intent was to concentrate on fewer services. I am assuming this narrower focus is related to the down turn in the economy.

The one tool on the list that I have used was Google Notebook. I became interested in Google Notebook after listening to a conference presentation a year or so ago. The presentation concerned the potential educational benefits of Google applications. Basically, Google Notebooks offers a cloud application that can be used by individuals or collaborators to store content. The Google Blog encouraged Notebook users to explore the functionality of related applications. I am a heavy user of Google Docs and I must admit I was never certain how Google docs was different from Google Notebook. A “word processing” file in docs seems very similar and perhaps there was not enough unique customer interest in Notebook to continue.

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