The Four-eyed Journal » Google

Signing up for Google Drive

jhay — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 18:25:41 +0000

Alright, bear with me. It’s been more than a month since my last update on this blog it feels like I’ve forgotten how to go about this whole exercise.

Moving on to the topic, the internet is abuzz with the news that Google will launch its much-awaited and might-be-too-late cloud storage service, Google Drive next week. Google fans say it with me, Yay!

I’ll tell you honestly that once it is open for sign-up, I’d sign-up right away. For a Google fan like myself, it is the logical move. I use Gmail, Calendar and Docs, but up until next week, I’ve wandered between non-Google online storage services like Box.net, Ubuntu One and my least favorite, DropBox.

And it seems that the universe has conspired with Google to make this decision for me because hopefully, next week too, I’d be back to using an Android phone. Coincidence? I call it destiny.

Google Drive’s 5GB of free storage is more than enough for me and since it’s tied up with other Google services, the mess that is my digital files would be put into order. Finally!

While some privacy issues have already popped up, I am confident that a Google Drive will see a healthy wave of sign-ups once it opens next week.

How about you? Would you sign up for Google Drive and dump your current cloud storage service?

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?