Sunday, August 12, 2007

Google Pack Adds StarOffice

Google Pack, Google's bundle of assorted applications, has a new component. Google Pack now includes StarOffice, Sun's collection of office applications. Designed to compete with Microsoft Office, StarOffice includes word processing, spreadsheet, database, drawing, and presentation applications. And, as part of Google Pack, it's all free. (Standalone cost: $70.)

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Google Video to Stop Selling Videos

Google has stopped selling and renting commercial videos (mainly TV shows) on its Google Video site. Google Video remains open, just without the TV shows for sale.

Friday, August 10, 2007

More Storage

By default, Google gives you a lot of storage space for their various products -- 2.82GB for Gmail, 1GB for Picasa Web Albums, and an undetermined amount for Google Docs & Spreadsheets. But if that's not enough (and it never is), Google has rolled out a new "extra space for pay" plan. Now you can purchase extra space that gets shared between all Google online products (Gmail and Picasa Web Albums today, Google Docs & Spreadsheets soon). Rate range from $20/year for an extra 6GB to $500/year for an extra 250GB. I like the idea, but the rates seem a little high, especially when you can buy a 200GB hard drive for around $100. Still, it's worth considering if you store a lot of data online. Learn more and purchase storage here.

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Customized Directions on Google Maps

Google Maps now lets you customize the directions it generates, to avoid or include certain roads or locations, or to route around bad traffic. To customize directions, simply drag any point on the purple directions line to a new location. Google Maps automatically recreates the directions and creates a new destination for the point you added. To remove a destination, right-click on any of the markers on the route and select Remove This Destination.

Sunday, July 01, 2007

Google Maps Street View

In case you missed it, Google Maps is now displaying Street View 360-degree photographs of selected major cities (New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas, etc.). Just click the Street View link and you see a ground-level photo of the current location; use your mouse to pan left and right around that point. It's probably more cool than useful, and has generated some privacy concerns, but still worth checking out.

Google Docs & Spreadsheets: New Interface

Google Docs & Spreadsheets is sporting a new folder-based interface. This should make it easier to store and find documents you're working on. Check it out!

Google Voice Local Search: Now with Maps

Remember 1-800-GOOG-411, AKA Google Voice Search, Google's free voice service aimed at replacing paid 411 services on your mobile phone? Now you can use it to send maps to your cell phone. Just dial a (free) call, tell it what you're looking for, then say "map it." Google will then send you text message with the details of your search plus a link to a map of the location you asked for.

Saturday, June 09, 2007

Googlepedia: Radio Interview

I was recently featured on the Let's Talk Computers radio program, talking about Google and Googlepedia. Listen to a podcast of the interview here.

Friday, June 01, 2007

Google Gears

Google just announced a new API, dubbed Google Gears, that will let developers move web-based applications to the offline world. The first application of Google Gears is in Google Reader, which is now available in a freestanding (i.e., non-web) version. Expect a Google Gears version of Google Docs & Spreadsheets sometime soon, which will let Google compete more directly with Microsoft Office.

Google Spreadsheets Charts

Sometime in the past few months Google has added basic charting capability to its Google Spreadsheets application. Check it out -- it's relatively easy to use.