Google Acquires JotSpot

Google just announced that they've acquired JotSpot. If you've never heard of them, JotSpot does wikis, which facilitates the web-based creation and sharing of spreadsheets, calendars, photos, and other documents. It's all about web-based collaboration, which fits in with the "Google Office" ethos. Look for JotSpot to join the Google apps lineup sometime soon.

Blog Alerts

Just as Google has offered various types of Google search and news alerts, they're now offering Blog Alerts. This alerts you to new Blogger postings that conform to search parameters you've created. Set up your own blog alerts here.

New Google Checkout Electronic Book

And here's yet another new Google-related Digital Short Cut electronic book. Choosing an Online Payment Service: Google Checkout vs. PayPal shows both buyers and sellers how to choose between and use the two competing online payment services. It's all you've wanted to know about Google Checkout -- how it works, how to implement it on your site, and how it compares with PayPal. You can purchase and download it (in PDF format) from Que Publishing for just $5.99. Click here for more info!

New Blogger Electronic Book

Now available, my latest Digital Short Cut electronic book: Blogging with the New Google Blogger. It covers the latest version of Blogger (still in beta), from A to Z. You can purchase and download it (in PDF format) from Que Publishing, for just $5.99. Click here for more info!

Google Custom Search Engine

Google has just released a new Google Custom Search Engine that you can put on your own website. This new search engine lets you customize the look and color of search results and links; specify a list of links and sites you definitely want included in the search index; and specify links and sites you don't want included in the index. The sites you specify can either be the only sites searched, or configured to have the highest priority in the custom search results. Learn more and start creating your own custom search engine here.

Google Docs and Spreadsheets

"Google Office" is here. Google has finally done the much-anticipated integration of the Writely word processor with the existing Google Spreadsheets online app. The new online office suite is called Google Docs and Spreadsheets, and it definitely competes with Microsoft Office. Writely itself, in addition to be renamed, sports a new Googleish interface, as well. Check it out here.

Google Buys YouTube

You've probably heard the news already, but if not, here it is: Google is acquiring the video sharing site YouTube for $1.65 billion. That's a lot of money (to you and me, anyway; less so to Google), and not everyone thinks it's a smart thing. (Mark Cuban recently stated that anyone would be a "moron" to buy YouTube, based on the huge copyright infringement liability from users posted unlicensed videos.) Google, no doubt, thinks it's a good place to sell advertising (online video ads, in particular), since that's what Google is all about. In any case, it kind of makes Google Video redundant -- or maybe Google merges both the commercial and the home-made videos together into a single site. Be interesting to watch.

Google Code Search

Google Labs has just launched a new search service just for programmers. Google Code Search lets you search the Subversion and CVS code repositories for specific bits of programming code. As it's in the Labs, it's definitely in beta testing. But if you're a software developer, you probably want to check it out.

New Google Groups Beta

Google Groups has a new interface and a few new features -- although it's a beta version, with its own URL. The groups themselves have a cleaner interface, and group owners can more fully customize their own groups. Check it out!

SearchMash

Want to check out what kind of future search interface Google is currently testing? Then visit SearchMash, an "unbranded" site that offers some neat options on the search results page. Interesting stuff -- especially the fact that Google is trying to keep this one under the covers.