The Top 10 Dead Google Projects

Google ServicesGoogle has moved leaps and bounds during the past 15 years to become the largest online conglomerate in existence. Not only does it have a wide array of features that grows every day as it expands to new technological concepts but it also owns popular websites like YouTube. It has even recently created Google+, its latest attempt at a social networking site to rival Facebook and Twitter.

But Google+ was a long time coming in social networking after a list of beta trials that didn’t quite work out. Concerns of privacy, hacking scandals and even just lack of interest managed to kill off more than one project. There were also many others that stuck around for a long while but were eventually dropped as new ideas took their place.

These 10 Google projects are some that made it off the ground but are now dead – some that died too soon and some long after they should have kicked the bucket.
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Tutorial: Speed Up Your Web Surfing with Google DNS or OpenDNS

Folks, listen up. If you are still using your ISPs slow DNS servers you are probably suffering needlessly and not taking advantage of the full speed of whichever connection you may have – even high speed ones like cable, DSL or Fiber Optics. And if you don’t know what I’m talking about – this means you!

I’m going to show you how to speed up everything you do online by switching to a better, faster Domain Name Server (DNS) system run by either Google or OpenDNS. Best of all, it will only take you like 5 minutes to make a change that will benefit you every day from now on! But before we get started, let me explain what DNS does for you in non-technical terms.
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Did the Google Maps Car Hit a Deer?

Ok. Don’t say that I never bring you anything completely useless, but absolutely fascinating nonetheless.

Someone sent me this image that was supposedly captured by a Google Maps vehicle when they were driving around taking the Street View images. As you can see, it’s of a deer that appears to have been hit.

Watch this little video to get the scoop on what is going on, and the image is below it. Ciao!
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Google Wave – It’s New! You’re Gonna Want it! But What Is It?

Google-WaveFirst of all, before you even watch the video you should go to the Google Wave home page and request access. You’re going to have to wait in line, but like all other Google stuff, you know you’re gonna want it.

According to Google:

What is a wave?

A wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

A wave is shared. Any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the process. Then playback lets anyone rewind the wave to see who said what and when.

A wave is live. With live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time.

Now, I want you to watch the following video, and then think about the fact that this is free open-source software that Google will be releasing soon. If your business isn’t among the first to adopt this, you are going to be left behind – big time!
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A Direct Comparison of Picasa for Mac vs. iPhoto

picasaYesterday was the day I’ve been waiting on for months. Google finally released the popular, and FREE, Picasa image management software for the Mac!

Let me explain. You see, a while back I was forcibly converted to the Mac at work. At first I complained. A lot. But later it grew on me. Now, even though I hate to admit it, I have to say I actually prefer the Mac for most computing operations. One of the things that I did not enjoy, however, was the pathetic iPhoto software which was pretty much the only game in town for Mac users… until today.

So, Picasa, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways: [Read more...]

Aerial Photos of Cargill’s Solar Evaporation Salt Mine

Aerial Photo Outside of San FranciscoMonths ago when flying into San Francisco, our plane was diverted into a holding pattern a little ways outside the airport due to traffic, and as I watched from the window I noticed that we were circling some sort of massive pools of colored water. They were so vibrant in color that I was amazed, and I took a bunch of photos (and posted them).

What I didn’t know at the time was, that was the Cargill solar evaporation salt production facility. I actually just learned it by watching the TV show “Modern Marvels” that was specifically on salt production. As soon as they began describing the location of the facility I instantly knew what I had seen months ago!

Anyway, the rich colors that you can see in the ariel photography are supposedly due to the microorganisms that live in this heavy concentration of salt water called brine. The brine contains a concentration of about 25% salt, which is about the maximum amount of salt that can actually be disolved in water.
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Google Maps “Street View” Catches Shooter in Chicago

Google Catches ShooterThis is actually pretty amazing, if it isn’t staged (and it doesn’t look like it is). For those of you who are unaware, in Google Maps you now have the option in many cities to check out a Street View of the map you’re looking at, which will allow you to see whatever you would see if you were standing in that position.

The way they accomplish this is by having a specially fitted fleet of cars that have 360 degree cameras driving all over the place taking pictures. Once in a while they capture something really interesting. This is one of those times.
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Google Buys One Man’s Blog For Undisclosed Sum

newspaper.jpgThe following Press Release appeared in the Dallas Morning News to announce my sale of One Man’s Blog:

Google today announced it has struck an accord with the popular blogger John Pozadzides, from One Man’s Blog, whereby they will acquire all content and image rights including the likeness of Mr. Pozadzides.

Jack Spenser, VP of New Media Development, said, “Google is pleased to have obtained such a volumnuous library of top content. Over the past two years we’ve sent millions of visitors to the site, so it seemed like a natural fit to bring it under the Google umbrella. This is the first acquisition in the new Google Blog Content Ownership program, and we will be announcing acquisitions of many other top bloggers in the very near future. Our goal is to own all the top content on the Web.”

“To be honest, I’m quite pleased to dump this albatross off on Google,” said Mr. Pozadzides. “Now that I’ve already cashed the check I don’t mind telling you that I won’t be missing the late nights of authoring articles until 3am. Now it’s someone else’s problem, good riddance!”

Mr. Pozadzides has agreed to stay on as a content advisor for no more than a period of 144 months in order to maintain the content and supervise a team of outsourced Malaysians who will take over publication duties.

Free Themes and Apps for Blackberry Curve

Blackberry CurveI just had to give up my Sprint powered PPC8800 for a Blackberry Curve 8310 so I could be on the communal rate plan and also have real-time Exchange access for e-mail at work. After doing so it forced me to do a lot of research on applications and ways to better my Curve.

I figured some other people are going to go looking for this info as well, so I’ve compiled what I learned here. Its not my most organized post, but there is a lot of information and I didn’t want to spend forever getting the post out. Hopefully if anyone knows of other cool, free stuff for the BB you’ll drop a comment below and let me know.
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