The Four-eyed Journal » Google

An early Christmas wishlist for Google Docs

jhay — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 13:45:25 +0000

Google Docs has been a great online tool for managing documents instead of just sharing them. There have been many times where it has worked well for my needs especially in school. During those times, my school mates and colleagues in different organizations have been impressed by what Google Docs can do. I’d like to stress out though, that they have just bare scratched the surface on Google Docs.

However, the service could still use a lot of improvements. The good folks at GigaOm has asked their readers for suggestions on what needs to more work for Google Docs to be a better online productivity app:

Better folder permissions management

The ability to insert cut cells

Better selection of functions in Spreadsheets like what you’d find in Microsoft Excel

The ability to toggle between rows and columns

Multiple criteria for sorting spreadsheets

Scheduled backups

Reliable sharing

Improved drag-and-drop functionality

Fewer menus and toolbars and a larger viewing pane in the browser

Better document navigation

Automatic paragraph numbering

The ability to view in outline-only format

Editable style sheets

The ability to insert shape options

No limits on importing data

Better integration with desktop applications

Faster overall performance, especially when importing complex spreadsheets

And please, please above all: play well with Powerpoint.

I join them in bringing this message across to the Google Docs team. Call it an early Christmas wishlist of sorts but if these do become reality, then there would be one more loyal Google Docs user in me.

Quick thoughts on the Google Reader Update

jhay — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 13:47:39 +0000

Yes, I still get my regular fix of web content via RSS and my feed reader of choice remains Google Reader. Just a few days ago, it received a major update in terms of the UI, similar to what has been rolled out to Gmail: a very clean, minimalist UI with tons of white space and a generous use of the gray color for contrast.

Redesigned Google Reader

The new redesign also comes with Google+ integration allowing us to +1 any feed we like and share it on our Google+ accounts. A cool feature which re-aligns Google Reader with Gmail and Google+ for a tighter integration.

However, and this could just be me, but I find the redesign a bit too cramped, like there’s too much white space that the feed you’re reading has been squeezed to the lower-right area of the screen. Unlike with the old design where most of the screen is occupied by what you are reading, which is the point of what an RSS reader should be right?

Still, the redesign is a welcome update to Google Reader. What I’m really looking forward to is the updated Android app. What do you think of the new Google Reader redesign?

Google+ the wrong way to compete with Facebook

jhay — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 02:19:42 +0000

I‘m a Google fanboy. Despite the company fumbling about privacy issues in the past year, I still enjoy using its products and services like Google Apps, Google Chrome and Android.

So when news broke out that it has recently launched its own social network, Google+, to go up against Facebook I decided to give it a try.

Social networking FAIL

Unfortunately, the app cannot be downloaded and installed on my LG Optimus One because I’m in the Philippines. Second reason is that since I’m using a Google Apps account instead of a regular Google/Gmail account, I won’t be able to sign up even if I do get an invite.

It’s not just a bummer. It’s totally the wrong way to start a new social networking site/service that’s supposed to go against Facebook.

Google+ = FAIL

Save your videos from Google Video

jhay — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 03:00:47 +0000

Remember Google Video? Yes, Google’s video search engine that briefly attempted to become king of online video hosting until YouTube came along. Google couldn’t compete so they did the next best thing, bought YouTube back in 2006 and tried to make the two services co-exist. Which apparently led to nothing but a redundancy for Google.

Two years ago, Google stopped taking uploads to Google Video. Now they’ve just announced that later this April videos uploaded to the service will no longer be available for playback. Google Video is reverting back to a video search engine, as if YouTube is not the first place people go to whenever they search for online videos.

A little screencast I recorded circa 2007

However, Google Video users have until May 13, 2011 to download their uploaded videos on the service for backup/archiving purposes or for its transfer to YouTube or other video hosting services. After that, all videos on the service would be deleted.

As it turns out, I have two videos on Google Video that I uploaded three years ago. The first was a screencast tutorial on How to Share Your Google Calendar. It was actually an exercise of my screencasting skills. The other video is a talk by Jun Lozada, the primary witness on the NBN-ZTE corruption controversy, which was recorded using my Sony Ericsson K800i phone.

So for old times’ sake and to keep my brief foray in to video creation I’ve decided to download the two videos which Google gave me in the FLV format. It’s now a matter of deciding whether to upload them to YouTube or Vimeo.

Do you also have videos on Google Video? Would you save it before gets deleted?

Finally, Being Able to Chat to all Contacts on Ubuntu Linux - Empathy is simple and works very well

jhay — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 06:37:03 +0000

One of the trade-offs of using Ubuntu Linux is the fact that one can no longer use the popular chat clients like Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk etc. thus making it difficult to get in touch with your contacts on Yahoo! and Gmail.

The solution is using a multi-protocol chat client like Pidgin which is popular amongst Linux users. Unfortunately, I cannot get it to work with my Google Apps account, so for the last two weeks, I’ve been using the built-in chat in Gmail.

A better solution turned up when I received a notice that my Google Apps account can now be transitioned to function like a full Google Account.

It means, I can now use my jhay [at] jrocas.com.ph account to login to Google’s services like Gmail, Calender, Google Reader, Feedburner, AdSense etc. using their default login pages (http://mail.google.com, http://www.google.com/reader, etc). Finally, I can use single account to control and manage all of the Google services I use.

Chat with friends on Facebook friends without logging in (Click to zoom)

The most immediate benefit I gained from this is I could again use my Google Apps-powered @jrocas.com.ph account for online chat because it will use the Google Talk protocol to connect. Being totally turned off by Pidgin, I used instead another multi-protocol chat client that is bundled with Ubuntu Linux 10.04; Empathy.

Setting it up was easy, and it worked right away. So after adding my @jrocas.com.ph account, I imported my Yahoo! accounts from Pidgin to Empathy. The best thing about it, I can also chat with my friends on Facebook as well, without having to actually log in to Facebook. Suweet!!

Now I you can reach me via IM whether you’re on Facebook, Yahoo! Or Gmail. If you’re a Google Apps user, I suggest transitioning your account to a full Google Account today, the process is easy and smooth. You can check this page to see all the Google services you can access once your Google Apps account has been transitioned. Now all I’m waiting for is to receive the new Gmail with Priority Inbox for my Google Apps account.