RSSmeme

Share anything. Anytime. Anywhere. (464)

2008-05-05T20:00:57Z

Have you ever wanted to share something that you were reading, but you didn't want to go through the hassle of subscribing to a whole feed for a single interesting article? And what about sharing content from sites with no feeds? There you are, reading along, and you think to yourself, "If only everything on the web had a 'Share' button like in Google Reader!"

As it turns out, there's all sorts of information "out there" just waiting to be streamed, shared and otherwise consumed by you and your friends. Now you can finally show all of your Reader friends that awesome talking cat video you found, your favorite grilled trout recipe, or reviews of the best brunch place in your neighborhood -- all without a subscription.

Here are a few new ways you can add and share interesting things in Reader:

Share anything with a bookmarklet - Just drag this link from the Notes page up to your browser's bookmark bar and click, click, click your way to easy, no-subscription sharing in Reader. You can share any content from any web page, even if the site doesn't have a feed. For even more control over what gets shared, select some text from the page before clicking the "Note in Reader" bookmarklet and your selection will appear as the item's body. There's also a space for you to add an editorial note when you need to let your friends know why you are sharing something. You can always uncheck "Add to shared items" if you want to add something to Reader without also adding it to your shared items.

Share items with a note - If you are like me, you might want to share something in Reader, but think your friends might not "get" why you are sharing it. Use the "Share with note" button on the item toolbar to create a copy of that item with your own note attached to it. Now your friends won't have to wonder if the B-movie about an evil floor lamp you shared was intended to be funny, sarcastic, ironic or the real motivation behind your next movie night.

Add a note - Do you ever get the urge to just share a thought with your friends without attaching it to any particular item? Now, you can let your friends know whatever pops into your head (for better or for worse) by typing anything into the text box at the top of the Notes page.

We have also added a few other small features to make your sharing even more awesome! Add a little personality to your public shared items page by choosing from three new styles from your shared items page.

Finally, we've changed the list view to highlight when an item is being shared by a friend, as opposed to through your normal subscriptions.

I hope you like these new sharing features as much as I do, because I'm always on the lookout for even more ways to share cool things with my friends! As always, much of our feature development is in response to feedback that we get in our discussion group, and a number of other sources -- so please keep it coming!

natts said: Google are clever little buggers :-)
Jake Spurlock said: This is the coolest thing that I have ever seen. I have a new way to start blogging...
Rob said: I've been wanting this functionality for a long time. It's good for sharing interesting stuff that you don't need to keep long term in del.icio.us.
Karl R said: look ma! i'm adding a note with my shared item
Brian Newby said: Now this is cool!
sike said: Kickass Google.
Jake said: Whoa. They added "Share with note" to reader! Awesome!
zsafwan said: I love the new additions to Google Reader.the note feature was missing for long time, Thanks Google for adding it.
abhi said: Cool new feature
Drewcipher said: Been waitin' for the note feature for a long time. Rawk \m/ Haven't played with it yet, hope it doesn't suck...
Dmitry Roslyakov said: Круто!
Ionut said: Finally Google Reader added this feature... and it looks very FriendFeed-like.
Nkululeko Masondo said: About time, we've been waiting for this
Robin Blandford said: Google Re-Writer has arrived! Now we can share with ocntext.
Nikki said: comments na lang kulang! =D
Nils Öhman said: Kommentarer till delade länkar gör Google Reader ännu mer användbar.
Roland Tanglao said: Okay, now this is cool. :)
diffus said: Google Reader ist schon sehr nett, so ergibt das nun noch viel mehr Sinn
Alex Ryabov said: (проверяем, подцепит ли фредфид комментарий)
Alaska Report said: Testing the new 'Note in Reader' in my Cloud loop.. Cloud loop? Hmm.... Just made that one up..:-)
Ashub said: gReader bookmarklet
Eduo said: Google tiene que hacer algo con los duplicados. De verdad. Es ridiculo. El item de "compartelo todo" lo he visto duplicado al menos catorce veces, con y sin notas. La mitad por mí mismo.
Juvenn said: Google Reader updated, more share, more interesting.
Ihar Mahaniok said: Finally!Share more (not only from blogs), and with your comments. :) Hope to see all the really interesting stuff shared by my friends.
minus-one said: проба пера з notes
Just said: Finally!Share more (not only from blogs), and with your comments. :) Hope to see all the really interesting stuff shared by my friends.
Rafael Capanema said: Esse negócio de adicionar um pequeno comentário aos itens compartilhados é REIVINDICAÇÃO ANTIGA. Graças a Deus, que beleza
Dave said: Google's new sharing with notes is very interesting, but still only a one-way communication. I'd love to see this developed into a two-way conversation about what is being shared. It's a step in the right direction, though.
Venci said: Testing share with note
Mark R said: I am trying this out, looks like a cool new feature.
Dom Derrien said: Man, I recently started using FriendFeed because of their annotation support. And because of their support to annotate any Web page! Just thanks to the addition of a little bookmarklet to my browser toolbar... I like convergence, but I'm a little bit disappointed because this "Share with note" feature is like a straight copy...Is it possible it was known from the beginning that the FriendFeed worthy's innovations will find their way directly to Google?
cb160 said: Links to page showing how to share anything on the web, not just something recieved in a feed - also allows you to add a small note - just like this one.
jasonpettus said: Google's added a lot more features to Reader, including this ability you're seeing to add a note; this entry explains it all in detail.
Leon Ridge-Cooke said: cool, I was wondering when reader was going to get some new features.
jar said: Nueva funcionalidad de Google Reader
Diego said: Vaya, por fin :)
Bram said: eindelijk !
Rory M said: This is interesting. Looks like another attempt of Google's to completely unify all their various social aspects. The problem I'm having with Google currently isn't the level of quality their services provide. It's the complete lack of design unification their products show. Their stuff may be simplistic-looking, but it's almost all ugly. That's a problem for me.
Ely said: Now do we still need to blog with this already up?
Oliver said: FINALLY! we can share stuff with comments / notes! Great find Colin :D
SugarSmax said: I'm making a note. This is a huge success!
Javache said: Cool!
wererogue said: A new bookmarklet for google reader that lets you share non-feed pages.
imma said: yay for shiny new features :)
Eric Hoefler said: This makes Google Reader much more useful, and (for now) the clear leader in online RSS readers.
jschultz said: I've been hoping for this functionality for a while. Awesome!
Thadman said: Google Reader just became about a million times cooler and more useful.
Joshua said: Huzzah! Look at this one and all! We live in the future, and it is better than it was before.
Ben said: Some good new improvements to sharing with google reader.
tosh said: share with note is neato
Will Robinson said: I guess saying "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind" about this would be too grandiose.
J. Phil said: Of course, I am sharing this with a note. It is obligatory.
Alex said: omg
Jrod said: Testing new note feature... sweet?
jccamus said: Acá va la explicación de esta nueva tecnología. En inglés.
Vorak said: Its about damn time!
Gryphon said: Yay for Google!
Leonid Mamchenkov said: Notes can be also used to provide brief translations to shared items, in case you have some friends that don't speak the language of the article. Maybe even collaborative translations are possible.. Wicked!
Stephen said: You can share any content from any web page in Google Reader, even if the site doesn't have a feed.
Emily said: Sweet!! I've wanted to do this forever.
mace said: I just thought I would test out the new share with note feature in Google Reader.
Dylan Bennett said: I have been so, so, so wanting this feature. I love it.
Kirby M. said: Google Reader takes on social bookmarking with a bookmarklet and notes.
prattmic said: Very cool new feature, makes for a nice commecnting system too.
Matthom said: Testing the new "Share with note" feature of Google Reader. This kind of makes it like delicious - the ability to bookmark something and provide a description with it.
hiro said: ノートが書けるようになった
Emo said: Ми да го използваме, а?
small said: It is very cool...
ariel said: foda-se
Scott said: I still like the look of Shared Stuff page and the way it works. Also the post here can be edited which may not be such a good idea.....
g b said: taking this ShareAnything malarkey for a spin...
luxus said: cool jetzt kann man hier notes eintragen!
Adam W. said: Devlin makes a good point. Why keep bookmarks in delicious or elsewhere if I can share them and store them all in Reader. I can still do private and public sharing. I can search. AND its one less tool... we'll see.
Evaristo said: This is so cool!
Ara said: Giving this bookmarklet a try.
David said: I can add notes to my shared stuff! Woooo!!!
HBreda said: Cada vez melhor, este google reader.
Landon said: Sweet!
Paulo Pereira said: Nice way to share!
Brian said: awesome! why did i just sign up for delicious?
-ds said: Share apo edw, share apo ekei.. share apo pandou!
Bo Madsen said: Testing the "share with a note"-option within Google Reader.
severud said: Google Reader's features just get better and better.
folone said: ха,круть %)
baron said: Finally, GReader move a big step to the social-friendly villa.As a start, it's not bad, but it definitely has more room to improve: 1. I found that this function doesn't support chinese contents (may be other double bytes char as well)2. The notes can't be edited after posted......3. Seems to be overlap with Google Shared Stuff services, Google may find some ways to integrate or combine these two services4. Comeon! it's web 2.0, can't we have comments on shared items???overall, it's great move, good work google!please note that the search combo box get fixed in this release as well, welcome back!!!
Busybee said: this is so meta - noting in reader the post that says you can note anything in reader!

URL Trick in Gmail (274)

2008-03-06T04:00:00Z

Shared 274 times Tagged api (255) bookmark-email (2) Contacts (42) editing (44) editor (62) Email (685) email-tricks (2) email-url (2) fotoflexer (14) Gmail (578) Gmail-tricks (2) google-contacts (2) image (254) online (562) Photo (663) photobucket (33) pic (18) picture (108) saved-searches (3) synchronization (27) web based (20) WebBased (2)

Filed under: Business, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, E-mail, Office, Productivity, Web services, Google, Freeware, How-Tos

While we may have touched on it when we covered the release of the "new" version of Gmail, we thought you (like us) might have forgotten about this great little trick.

Gmail now treats every page like a web page. Okay, that might sound a bit too obvious, so we'll explain. When you open a message, label, or do a search, each of the resulting pages you see will have a dedicated URL. This means that if you bookmark or copy and paste the URL, you can later return to exactly the same view.

Even more useful is the fact that the URL for a search works across different Gmail accounts. So if you have a friend or co-worker that you know has certain information in their email, but can't seem to find it, you can do a search in your own Gmail account, then send your friend the URL for that search and they will have the exact same search criteria applied against their own account.

For example, if you want to search your Gmail account for "Download Squad", try using the following URL:
https://mail.google.com/mail/#search/%22download+squad%22

Slick!

By the way, if you're having trouble making this work, try accessing your account using the secure method. To do this, just ensure your Gmail URL begins with "https". For some reason we can't seem to make this trick work unless we're using this method.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Ravi Karandeekar said: Very useful feature for a business blogger like me, i blog on Pune real estate market news, who has to interview real estate developers and builders.

Techno (228)

2008-04-15T20:00:00Z

Shared 228 times

Tommy said: Techno has its place but this comic reigns true.
Curt said: Haha, excellent point!

Zealous Autoconfig (227)

2008-04-28T00:00:00Z

Shared 227 times

Duty Calls (166)

2008-02-19T19:00:00Z

Shared 166 times

Snipergirl said: So true.

Explore Your Interactions with Google Reader (165)

2008-03-17T11:39:54Z

Web applications track many user actions and use them for different purposes: improving the products, finding patterns, building user profiles etc. For example, Google Reader records some of your actions without providing options in the interface to access the data. Here are some addresses where you can find historical data about the items you've subscribed to (click on "View all items" to see all the posts).

* All the posts you've emailed to your contacts:
http://www.google.com/reader/view/user/-/state/com.google/tracking-emailed

* All the posts you have marked as unread at some point (to keep a post unread, you need to uncheck "Mark as read" from the options bar; note that "Mark all as unread" will not maintain this state):
http://www.google.com/reader/view/user/-/state/com.google/tracking-kept-unread

* Did you click on a post's main link to go to the original location? You'll find it here:
http://www.google.com/reader/view/user/-/state/com.google/tracking-item-link-used

* Did you click on a link from a post's content? The post should be included in this list:
http://www.google.com/reader/view/user/-/state/com.google/tracking-body-link-used

* If you use the list view, you can find the list of posts you've actually read (or at least you have clicked on the title):
http://www.google.com/reader/view/user/-/state/com.google/read

* Are Google's recommended feeds interesting? Check the list of recommended feeds you've subscribed to:
http://www.google.com/reader/view/user/-/state/com.google/recommendations-subscribed

* Did you accidentally dismissed a recommended feed? You'll find it here:
http://www.google.com/reader/view/user/-/state/com.google/recommendations-dismissed

Turn Your Point-and-Shoot into a Super-Camera [Camera Hacks] (164)

2008-05-06T12:00:00Z

Shared 164 times Tagged Camera Hacks (1) Cameras (158) Consumerist (132) Digital Cameras (158) Digital Photography (98) feature (1155) firmware (172) Gizmodo (130) Hack Attack (51) Hardware (1021) Photography (1474) Top (2885) upgrade (88)

If you're using a consumer grade point-and-shoot Canon digital camera, you've got hardware in hand that can support advanced features way beyond what shipped in the box. With the help of a free, open source project called CHDK, you can get features like RAW shooting mode, live RGB histograms, motion-detection, time-lapse, and even games on your existing camera. Let's transform your your point-and-shoot into a super camera just by adding a little special sauce to its firmware.

What is CHDK?

The Canon Hacker's Development Kit, aka CHDK, is a firmware enhancement that supports an impressive array of Canon digital cameras. I emphasize the enhancement aspect of CHDK because the tool is non-permanent and non-destructive, meaning that you load it onto your camera whenever you want to use it; CHDK makes no changes to your camera, and turning it off is simply a matter of restarting your camera. Installing CHDK involves copying a couple of files onto your camera's memory card; permanently removing it from your camera entails deleting those files. It's simple and powerful (sort of like hacking your router firmware) but even easier.

What Can CHDK Do For Me?

Now that you're convinced that CHDK is easy to install and use, let's consider what makes it worth doing so. From the CHDK wiki: (Pictures below of CHDK in action also from the CHDK wiki, since I have only one camera and it's the one running CHDK.)

Enhanced Image Capture: CHDK supports RAW format for pictures (in addition to JPEG), longer recording time and length for videos (up to 1 hour or 2GBs), and several new compression options.
Additional Information On-Screen: With CHDK, you can customize your on-screen display to your heart's content, including worthwhile information like remaining battery life, histogram, depth of focus, and more.
Additional Photographic Settings: CHDK takes many of the features already available on your camera and gives you way more options, including longer exposure times (up to 65 seconds), faster shutter speeds (1/25,000 sec or faster), automatic bracketing of your photos, and more.
Support for Small Programs/Scripts: CHDK can run small scripts that will allow your camera to perform a set of actions based on the conditions of a the script. Tons of scripts are available, and they provide functionality like motion-sensing photography (which reportedly works for lightning strikes) and unlimited interval time-lapse photography (see video below).

Even better, CHDK is being actively developed, which means that new features are always on the horizon. There are actually several versions of CHDK in development, but the version we're going to focus on is called the Allbest build—a build that incorporates many the best features available in other builds (get it?).

What You'll Need

To use CHDK, all you need is a supported Canon digital camera and an SD memory card. If you've already got a supported camera then it only follows that you've got the memory card, so you're already well on your way.

Install CHDK

Even if your camera is listed as supported, you must know your camera's firmware version before you're ready to install CHDK. Here's how.

Determine Your Firmware's Version Number:

In order to determine your camera's firmware version, you need to create an empty file on your computer called ver.req (not ver.req.txt), and copy this file to the root directory of your SD card. On Windows, for example, you could right-click your desktop, select New -> Text File, and then rename the untitled.txt file to ver.req. (Windows Explorer should be set to show extensions.) Alternately you could create an empty text file in Notepad, click File -> Save as, name the file ver.req, and save it as type All files.

If your digital camera supports disk mode (i.e., if it shows up on your computer with a drive letter or as a mounted drive), all you need to do is create the empty ver.req file and copy it over to the very first level of the drive. If your camera does not support disk mode, your best bet is to stick your SD card in a reader and then copy ver.req to the card. Finally, if your camera doesn't work in disk mode and you don't have an SD card reader, a program called the uploader is available. (Search for it on the linked page.) This program is supposed to address this problem. (I haven't tested it, but it's supposed to upload files to cameras that do not appear as a disk.)

After you've copied the ver.req file to your camera, determining your firmware version is simple. Just turn your camera on (in review mode, not in camera mode), press and hold Function/Set (FUNC. SET on my camera), then press and hold the Display (DISP) button. Your camera should flash information on the screen, including text that looks something like this:

Firmware Ver GM1.01B

The 1.01B part is your firmware version.

Download and Install the Appropriate CHDK Files:

Now that you've got your camera's firmware version, you're ready to see if it can run CHDK and then go ahead with the installation. If you want to go with the Allbest build on your camera, head to the download page and find the build that matches both your camera and your firmware version. For example, my camera is a Canon SD1000, firmware version 1.01B, so the file zip file of Allbest I download looks like this:

allbest-ixus70_sd1000-101b-50.zip

You may also want to check out the firmware comparisons page to see which CHDK builds will support your camera's firmware version. If your camera is supported but your current firmware is not, you can download an official firmware update from Canon so that you're using one that is.

Once you've downloaded the proper build, you'll unzip a folder containing at least two files—one called BOOTDISK.BIN and another called PS.FIR. All you have to do now is copy those to files to the root of your camera's SD card, again either by dragging them to the top level of your camera in disk mode, through a card reader, or using a program like the uploader mentioned above (though there are special steps for Mac users).

Now that you've installed CHDK, all that's left is to fire it up and try it out. As I said, CHDK is non-destructive to your current firmware, so if you just turn on your camera you won't notice anything different. You have to run CHDK each time you want to use it. Here's how:

Run CHDK on Your Camera

Again, turn your camera on in review mode. Now hit the Menu button and head all the way to the bottom of the menu options, where you should now find a Firm Update... option (if this isn't there, either CHDK isn't correctly installed or you didn't start in review mode). Hit SET on Firm Update and you'll be asked to confirm a firmware update. Select OK and your camera will load CHDK, you'll see a splash screen telling you that you're using CHDK, and then you'll likely see a few more bits of info on your onscreen display.

You're now running CHDK.

How to Use CHDK

Before you start using CHDK's many features, you'll need to understand the new key settings and shortcuts for operating with CHDK. The important thing to know is that even with CHDK running, your camera works the same as always under normal conditions. Your buttons do the same thing as always, with the exception of one—either the direct print button or the user selectable button. This will put your camera into what the CHDK documentation refers to as ALT mode. When you're in ALT mode, your camera's keys take on new meaning. Here's a rundown of the most important (you can see more on the CHDK wiki):

Toggle RAW: ALT mode + (+/-) key for A-series cameras; ALT mode + FUNC for S-series; ALT mode + ERASE for G-series
Open Main Menu: ALT mode + MENU
Toggle Histogram: ALT mode, then Half-press shutter + Up
Toggle CHDK On-Screen Display: ALT mode, then half-press shutter + Right

I found that some of the shortcuts listed were hit-or-miss—for example, on my S-series camera ALT mode + DISP toggled RAW mode. The most important thing to know is that pressing MENU in ALT mode brings up the alternate CHDK menu rather than your camera's default menu. From there, you can adjust virtually any of CHDK's settings.

The best way to get to know CHDK is to play around with the menu to get a feel for what it has to offer. (Be sure to check out Games under Miscellaneous stuff for a quick round of Reversi.) If you've never used some of the more advanced functionality on other cameras, it may seem daunting at first, but with a little effort you'll likely learn to love your camera's new features. And don't worry, if you ever tweak CHDK to a point that you're not happy with it but you don't know how to undo what you've done, you can just reset all of the options. If CHDK ever freezes and you can't turn it off, just pop out your camera's batteries and restart. Everything will be back to normal.

Extra Scripts and Other Goodies

Now that you're running CHDK, you may want to test out its scripting capabilities. As I mentioned, CHDK runs scripts written in a shorthand version of BASIC called UBASIC. If you're interested in coding scripts, you can get started here and here. Most of us, however, just want to use scripts.

To do so, first you need to find and download a script. There are tons of user submitted scripts to choose from, so just find one you like—such as a motion detection, unlimited interval shooting, or high-speed shutter and flash sync script—and download it to your computer. Installing the script for CHDK to use is a simple matter of moving it to your SD card in the CHDK/SCRIPTS/ folder.

To activate a script, open the Script menu (ALT mode + FUNC on my camera), navigate to the scripts folder, and select the script. To execute the script (i.e., to run it), just press the Shutter in ALT mode.

Automatically Running CHDK

Once you've gotten comfortable with CHDK, you may want it to load automatically whenever you turn on your camera. The CHDK wiki explains how.

I'm new to CHDK, so if you've been playing around with it since we first posted about it or longer, share your experience in the comments.

Adam Pash is a senior editor for Lifehacker who enjoys a good firmware upgrade, from hacking routers to digital cameras. His special feature Hack Attack appears every Tuesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Hack Attack RSS feed to get new installments in your newsreader.

Dave said: Do I dare put this on my G9?
Robert Scoble said: This is why I love Lifehacker. Great article about hacking your digital camera.
Wayne said: Hey, I have a Canon Point-and-shoot!
Chrigu said: This is why I love Lifehacker. Great article about hacking your digital camera.
Tom said: This is why I love Lifehacker. Great article about hacking your digital camera.
Bill said: Wish I could try this out. My Cannon camera doesn't support this firmware.
thattalldude said: Great post here. A free, non-destructive way to improve your Canon camera. Glad to say, I have a new Canon arriving tomorrow!
philayres said: This is why I love Lifehacker. Great article about hacking your digital camera.
mike3k said: This is why I love Lifehacker. Great article about hacking your digital camera.
morberg said: This is why I love Lifehacker. Great article about hacking your digital camera.
kirsty said: Oooh, looks like my camera might do this; will have to investigate!
Yassin said: دوربین فشرده ی کانن پاورشات خود را به یک دوربین با امکانات حرفه ای تبدیل بکنید! عکاسی با فرمت RAW، عکاسی HDR، برراکتیگ، کنترل زمان نوردهی و خیلیای دیگه (درست مثل اسکریپت های گریزمانکی برای فایرفاکس). باور نکردنیه حیف که دوربین من نیکونه.
Craig said: Cool, my camera I really like just got more useful
Divino said: Quem for dono de uma câmera fotográfica da Canon, e tiver interesse em conseguir resultados melhores do que ela é capaz de oferecer, vai gostar de ler esse artigo, que mostra como habilitar funções avançadas da máquina não suportadas de fábrica.
Voyagerfan5761 said: Why is this CHDK goodness still not available for the Canon SD750? It's been months...
dasmart said: Holy crap this looks cool. i think i've got an old cannon powershot laying around here somewhere.
Ryan said: This is pretty cool. Will need to try this out on my Canon Point-and-Shoot.
james said: Wow! Now that's impressive. Need to get my hands on a Canon and play
Andy said: Got it loading on my SD800IS with no problems. Haven't played around with it yet other than a quick reminder that I forgot how to play Reversi.
Chad said: Holy crap my camera is badass now. Time lapse video here I come!
jezarnold said: if only I didnt drop my canon 4.0mb camera at christmas :(
Dylan Thomas said: I can't wait to try this.
Min Liu said: pimp yo point&shoot!
Andreas said: Wow, I have to try this. My Powershot S2 seems to be supported. The ability to script shoots opens a whole new world of possibilities.
Olivier said: The real question is... Can it run Doom??? :)
mohan said: Cool hacking. If only more open projects like this evolved around all possible consumer devices (which have a traction) ..
schisamo said: This is amazing...I can now get RAW mode from my cheap Canon SD500 now! My new mantra in life is now..."if I can't hack it I don't buy it"!
camson said: Canon firmware for RAW recording on point and shoots... awesome!
vinoaj said: I need to try this out on my camera
Dom Derrien said: Being able to get RAW images instead of just JPEG ones makes worth updating the firmware! Another nice open-source initiative.
Josh Bancroft said: I've been meaning to put this on my Canon SD 700 IS and play with it. It looks really, really cool!
blindsurf3r said: fantastic article.. more reason to read lifehacker
Merlik said: I think I might just do this to my A620.
gort581 said: If I'm reading this correctly, I can shoot in RAW mode with my A570. Not sure I need to, but it sounds like a fun game. Now if this would only work for my 35mm Canon SLR...
rpy said: Hacking your digital camera firmware to add new features like time-lapse video and lightning strike detection - awesome.

New Pet (162)

2008-04-20T20:00:00Z

Shared 162 times

Google Reader Gets More Social: Now With Notes (162)

2008-05-05T20:27:13Z

Shared 162 times Tagged Company & Product Profiles (2025) Friendfeed (521) google (6701) Google Reader (326) tumblr (86)

Google has added support for Notes to Google Reader, allowing users to share notes or add notes to shared stories.

The add a note feature is located in the “Your Stuff” menu at the top of the Google Reader sidebar. Tumblr style, the feature allows users to share with friends “whatever pops into your head (for better or for worse) by typing anything into the text box at the top of the Notes page,” according to Google.

The share items with a note gives users the ability to add a note with any shared Reader item. Google explains:

If you are like me, you might want to share something in Reader, but think your friends might not “get” why you are sharing it. Use the “Share with note” button on the item toolbar to create a copy of that item with your own note attached to it. Now your friends won’t have to wonder if the B-movie about an evil floor lamp you shared was intended to be funny, sarcastic, ironic or the real motivation behind your next movie night.

Users can also add notes from the browser with a Reader Notes bookmarklet. Minor changes include the choice of new styles from the shared items page, and the Google Reader list view will now highlight when an item is being shared by a friend.

The new additions will provide additional appeal to Google Reader’s sharing feature, which has slowly grown in popularity over the last 12 months (least I see more and more friends sharing this way). The ability to have a discussion around shared feeds is still missing, but as we noted back in September is being developed by Google.

thanks to Bowrd for the tip

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

ThomasHan said: yay (again!)
Navid said: چیز خوبیست ...
Ken said: Kewl
Iain said: Noting about Google Reader Shared Notes.
Olivier G. said: Génial ! Enfin la feature que l'on attendait tous !
Library Playground said: Cool!
Hervé said: It finally comes...
Andrew Louis said: Here's a note ;)
Joe Hughes said: Huzzah!
Frizull said: How awesome is that. Finally notes with shared items. And I tought all along that "Tags" did the same thing...
haggaret said: How awesome is this?!
Adam said: Love the idea, not sure why you can't just add a note with the normal "Share" button.
hass said: Been hoping for something like this, thank you google.
Chad said: Now, I can make a comment on my shared items. Yeehaw!Chad
Beglen said: This seems like quite a good idea! If only more people actually shared stuff ...
Ali said: چیز خوبیست ...
kegz said: This is welcome. Looking forward to shared item discussion when that ships.
giginger said: There really are notes. Wonderful!
Ryan said: This is a great addition... context is everything when it comes to sharing links.
Program Witch said: Looking at the new notes feature of Google Reader. It's an interesting add-on. I can see media uses of this. Notes between friends? Will have to wait and see.
tonyleachsf said: woah cool. guys this will change the way we communicate. finally!
Ivo said: Agora é que o Google Reader tá mesmo mesmo fixe.
joekwon said: Sharing is Caring.CareBear STARE!!!
smr said: sweet!!! but why did it take so long.
Pål Hivand said: Testing the note function on Google Reader - and what other article to do that...??
Martin said: Cool Feature :D
Eitan said: Very cool :)
Leon said: Of course, I couldn't pass up sharing this story about Google Reader adding the ability to add a comment to shared items.

Google Jumps Head First Into Web Services With Google App Engine (158)

2008-04-07T22:29:03Z

Shared 158 times Tagged Amazon (553) Company & Product Profiles (2025) google (6701)

Our live coverage of the Google App Engine launch event is here.

Google isn’t just talking about hosting applications in the cloud any more. Tonight at 9pm PT they’re launching Google App Engine (Update: The site is live), an ambitious new project that offers a full-stack, hosted, automatically scalable web application platform. It consists of Python application servers, BigTable database access (anticipated here and here) and GFS data store services.

At first blush this is a full on competitor to the suite of web services offered by Amazon, including S3 (storage), EC2 (virtual servers) and SimpleDB (database).

Unlike Amazon Web Services’ loosely coupled architecture, which consists of several essentially independent services that can optionally be tied together by developers, Google’s architecture is more unified but less flexible. For example, it is possible with Amazon to use their storage service S3 independently of any other services, while with Google using their BigTable service will require writing and deploying a Python script to their app servers, one that creates a web-accessible interface to BigTable.

What this all means: Google App Engine is designed for developers who want to run their entire application stack, soup to nuts, on Google resources. Amazon, by contrast, offers more of an a la carte offering with which developers can pick and choose what resources they want to use.

Google Product Manager Tom Stocky described the new service to me in an interview today. Developers simply upload their Python code to Google, launch the application, and can monitor usage and other metrics via a multi-platform desktop application.

More details from Google:

Today we’re announcing a preview release of Google App Engine, an application-hosting tool that developers can use to build scalable web apps on top of Google’s infrastructure. The goal is to make it easier for web developers to build and scale applications, instead of focusing on system administration and maintenance.

Leveraging Google App Engine, developers can:

Write code once and deploy. Provisioning and configuring multiple machines for web serving and data storage can be expensive and time consuming. Google App Engine makes it easier to deploy web applications by dynamically providing computing resources as they are needed. Developers write the code, and Google App Engine takes care of the rest.

Absorb spikes in traffic. When a web app surges in popularity, the sudden increase in traffic can be overwhelming for applications of all sizes, from startups to large companies that find themselves rearchitecting their databases and entire systems several times a year. With automatic replication and load balancing, Google App Engine makes it easier to scale from one user to one million by taking advantage of Bigtable and other components of Google’s scalable infrastructure.

Easily integrate with other Google services. It’s unnecessary and inefficient for developers to write components like authentication and e-mail from scratch for each new application. Developers using Google App Engine can make use of built-in components and Google’s broader library of APIs that provide plug-and-play functionality for simple but important features.

Google App Engine: The Limitations

The service is launching in beta and has a number of limitations.

First, only the first 10,000 developers to sign up for the beta will be allowed to deploy applications.

The service is completely free during the beta period, but there are ceilings on usage. Applications cannot use more than 500 MB of total storage, 200 million megacycles/day CPU time, and 10 GB bandwidth (both ways) per day. We’re told this equates to about 5M pageviews/mo for the typical web app. After the beta period, those ceilings will be removed, but developers will need to pay for any overage. Google has not yet set pricing for the service.

One current limitation is a requirement that applications be written in Python, a popular scripting language for building modern web apps (Ruby and PHP are among others widely used). Google says that Python is just the first supported language, and that the entire infrastructure is designed to be language neutral. Google’s initial focus on Python makes sense because they use Python internally as their scripting language (and they hired Python creator Guido van Rossum in 2005).

Update: Here is Guido van Rossum at the launch event talking about App Engine:

CrunchBase Information

Google

Guido van Rossum

Information provided by CrunchBase

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Important Life Lesson (156)

2008-03-24T00:00:00Z

Shared 156 times

Brand new Google Reader for iPhone (156)

2008-05-12T18:03:14Z

Shared 156 times

Mobile web browsers have come a long way since we first introduced an XHTML version of Reader back in 2006. For example, iPhone and iPod Touch owners know how powerful having a full-featured browser is. We on the Reader team are heavy mobile Safari users. Sometimes we use it to kill time, other times for answering important questions that come up during brunch: What is Tyrol's first name? How is maple butter made? How do you sweeten rhubarb for sangria? What is John Gruber saying now? For questions like the last one, we of course use Reader to keep up with our subscriptions.

To make our (and your) Reader iPhone experience better, we wanted to really take advantage of the iPhone's capabilities. Today we're releasing a new beta version of Reader designed for the iPhone and other mobile phones with advanced browsers. You can use it by visiting http://www.google.com/reader/i/ on your phone.

This new version is designed to offer many of the same features as the desktop, while making it quick and easy to act on items. If you've used list view, then it should be familiar to you. Scan the titles for an item that interests you, tap and it expands in place. Starring, sharing, and keeping unread are done in place, so you never have to leave the list view or refresh the page. We think it's a very fast way to power through your reading list.

Since it's still in beta, we're not going to automatically send you to it, so bookmark the site so that you don't forget the address (http://www.google.com/reader/i/). We love getting feedback from users, so let us know what you think in our discussion group or the other channels.

hikikomori said: This is soooo much better than the older version.
Dave S said: Now I will get even less done during the day! Thanks Google!
Brandon said: Note that they didn't include "share with note". Probably just because it would be a pain to type on the keyboard, but still worthwhile to notice.
Bodil said: And it works beautifully on the Nokia E90 too. <3
Oudi Antebi said: One more great reason to get an iPhone
Steve said: This is a must use! Best feature add ever--no page refresh to read an item. Incredibly more readable and tons faster.
Ryan said: This is SO disappointing, I don't even know where to begin. No email button? No link to full article? Newest-to-oldest reading order, and no ability to toggle? "Mark all as read" right next to "refresh", and not undoable? The hell?They've basically just moved everything around.
Matthew said: Mmmm. Nice.
Josh Bancroft said: I love the existing iPhone version of Google Reader, and this new one looks to be even more powerful, flexible, and fast. I've only played with it for 5 minutes, but I'm going to stick with it. Thanks Google Reader Team! :-)
Rob said: this is nice.
Dan said: Come very cool interface changes. It's a little hard to get to the tags you want but it's much better overall.
nybble said: almost perfect!
Anthony said: Ok, now I really want one.
Waqas said: Not as improved as I'd like to see, but definitely much smarter about loading the next feed item before I need to open it. Overall, faster than ever.
Rob said: The iPhone is getting more attractive. If only I could get one for Verizon Wireless.
Andy said: Totally psyched-- this new Reader is super slick. The more iPhone/iPod Touch-formatted newsreaders, the better!
gfurry said: very nice mobile version of reader. Different from the already nice current version. Still can't preview images. I guess that is ok until a 3G version of the iphone is out.
brianwyrick said: Awesome. I don't dislike the current mobile version though... right now I actually prefer it.
Dave said: This looks pretty good...
zsafwan said: Now this makes reading your feeds on the iPhone fun
emmet.connolly said: This makes my life just a *teeny* bit better. But still better.
Tommy said: Why aren't companies improving mobile sites for the rest of the world...I still haven't seen the new update for gmail mobile. I guess my Samsung Trace is too old, time to upgrade!
joekwon said: seriously, if you have an iPhone and use google reader, it's SO MUCH better now. Most of the complaints I had are now gone. Now they only need "Share with Notes" and I'll be completely satisfied.
bhr1 said: Loving the new interface... (almost want to use it on the computer also)
IsaacMoore said: use it everyday for months now.
g b said: I heard this works on good on my nokia tab...
baron said: oooh... google, seems the tagging feature is missing in this release...
Ra Osolage said: A shiny new iPhone-friendly interface for Google Reader means that I'll be using Reader via my iPhone even more happily!
Andre Siregar said: It makes me sad that this iPhone site won't work with Pocket IE nor Opera Mini. The old mobile version of Google Reader is truly horrible to view with Windows Mobile. I keep waiting for the day Google creates at least a mobile Java app for Reader, just like they did for Gmail.
[BLT]FQX said: S60浏览器也是可以用的。

Why Gen Y Is Going to Change the Web (153)

2008-05-15T15:30:00Z

Shared 153 times Tagged Trends (727)

Gen Y is taking over. The generation of young adults that's compromised of the children of Boomers, Generation Jones, and even some Gen X'ers, is the biggest generation since the Baby Boomers and three times the size of Gen X. As the Boomers fade into retirement and Gen Y takes root in the workplace, we're going to see some big changes ahead, not just at work, but on the web as a whole.

There's some contention over where exactly Gen Y starts and stops - some say those born 1983-1997, others think 1982-1997. In this week's Entertainment Weekly, Gen Y is defined as "current 13 to 31 year-olds" and BusinessWeek says they can be as young as five. Regardless, we know who they are - they're the young kids of today, the most digitally active generation yet, having been born plugged in.

How They're Different

They're Plugged In: The term "digital native" applies to most Gen Y'ers. Those in Gen Y grew up around computers, the Internet, mobile phones, video games, and mp3 players. They are web savvy multitaskers, able watch TV, surf the web, listen to music, and talk or text on their phones, often performing several of these things at the same time.

TV Isn't King: Although you'll find Gen Y'ers obsessing over the latest episode of "The Hills," and other shows, they aren't watching TV as much as other generations do. Instead, Gen Y'ers spend more time surfing the net and using other devices, like iPods and Xboxes, even when it cuts into TV viewing. For them, TV is often just "background noise."

They Don't Care About Your Ad, They Care What Their Friends Think: Because they are immersed in media, both online and off, Gen Y'ers are marketed to left and right. But when it comes to making decisions, Gen Y tends to rely on their network of friends and their recommendations, not traditional ads. "Ads that push a slogan, an image, and a feeling, the younger consumer is not going to go for,'' says James R. Palczynski, retail analyst for Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Instead, they respond to "humor, irony, and the unvarnished truth." They're also somewhat distrusting of ads, which is why grassroots efforts can also work. However, don't get to comfortable, Gen Y doesn't have brand loyalty - they're quick to move the next big thing.

Work Isn't Their Whole World: Sure, they're going to go to work, but it had better be fun. For Gen Y, work isn't their identity. It's just a place. Gen Y sees no reason why a company can't be more accommodating, offering benefits like the ability to work from anywhere, flex-time, a culture that supports team communication, and a "fun" work environment. They're also not going to blindly follow orders just because you're the boss. Sometimes dubbed "Generation Why?" they need to "buy in" as to why something is being done. Old school bosses may find their questioning insubordinate behavior, but they would be best to just change their management techniques and adapt. Gen Y hasn't known much unemployment and they're not going to put up with being treated poorly just for sake of a paycheck. (Bosses, your survival guide is here).

They're Socially Conscious: Gen Y cares about the world. They pay attention to politics, the economy, social causes, and environmental issues. They think they're a force to be reckoned with in elections and follow the candidates online on social networks. They read the news, but not in newspaper format, which is is going to hurt that industry even more as time goes by.

Gen Y & Technology

Since Gen Y grew up on the web, they're going to be the driving force behind the way the web of the future is shaped. What Gen Y wants from the web will be the web.

Internet TV: Although watching TV online is something that few Boomers do, Gen Y is perfectly comfortable with this. They time-shift content all the time, not only on the web but via portable devices and mp3 players, too. When it comes to TV on the web, a recent study showed Gen Y leading the way when it comes to internet TV viewing:

Generation Y (33%) and Generation X (27%) led early Baby Boomers (19%) in use of official TV program web sites.
Gen Y (62%) users are much more likely to have watched a full episode on the program site than Gen X (41%) or younger Boomers (32%).

Socializing Rules...But They Want to Control It: Gen Y thinks a truly "private" life is a crock. 54% have used MySpace, Facebook, or some other social network. Most of Gen Y had to learn the hard way about the perils of posting everything online. As they've aged, they realized blogging their every thought and posting those embarrassing pictures might have hurt their jobs prospects at times, so now some of them are interested in more privacy on their social networks. They're happy to continue over-sharing with friends, but also learning how to protect their updates and set their profiles to private. They're also wary of old folks, like their boss, trying to "friend" them in their social space, especially if they're tragically un-hip wannabes.

But that's not to say their over-sharing is going to stop - Gen Y is getting into lifestreaming too, streaming live video via services like Yahoo! Live. In their own world, they're celebrities. Says Jason Barg, a 2004 graduate of Penn State University and founder of an online real estate company, notoriety is more about standing out from the crowd. "A primary goal of people my age is not necessarily to become famous but to become distinctive," he says.

Marketing Has To Change: Because Gen Y is media savvy and conscious of being marketed to, brands that succeed in the future will be those that open a dialog with their customers, admit their mistakes, and essentially become more transparent (save one notable exception, apparently). Companies' web sites that want to attract GenY'ers will become more like today's Web 2.0 sites. Social networking will be just a feature. Blogs will be standard ways for companies to reach their customers. Customer service won't just be a phone call away, it will be available via non-traditional means, too. Today, savvy companies might be using Twitter, but that could change at any time if Gen Y moves on. Companies will have to keep up with Gen Y and not get too comfortable using any one format. (Oh, and you can stop calling everything "viral" - that's lame.)

Work Tools Need to Mirror Web Tools: Gen Y will drive adoption of "Enterprise 2.0" products and services. Gen Y in the workplace will not just want, but expect their company to provide them with tools that mirror those they use in their personal lives. If socializing on Facebook helps them get a sale, then they're not going to understand why they can't use it at work. For more buckled down companies, if workers aren't provided with the tools they want, they're going to be savvy enough to go around I.T.'s back and get their own.

Companies wondering how Gen Y wants to use these tools at work should take a look at this - Sacha Chua's Gen Y Guide to Web 2.0 at Work (made for IBM):

| View | Upload your own

Web Sites Will Need to Cater to Shorter Attention Spans: No more long boring text! Thanks to constant media input, Gen Y has shorter attention spans and their "grasshopper minds" leap quickly from topic to topic. (They also didn't read this whole article...too long!)

Mobile Web? Yes Please!: Gen Y will be happy to adopt the mobile web - they are practically glued to their phones. Currently, Gen Y is using the mobile web to socialize, not search. Steve Ives, Taptu CEO, in a company whitepaper, Making search social: Unleashing search for the mobile generation, concludes that "...Generation Y, who sees the mobile as a social device first and an information device second, is not using today's mobile search as much as expected. But Generation Y is using mobile phones to access social networks."

Conclusion

Ignoring the voices of Gen Y is something you should do at your own peril, especially if you're a business looking to hire, a company selling a product, or an advertising firm trying to reach them.

Some good resources I've found recently for following Gen Y trends comes in the form of blogs (you know we love RSS here at RWW!). If you're interested in this topic, you might want to subscribe, too. See below the list for additional subscription options.

You can also subscribe to just the "greatest hits" from all of the above blogs by adding the following OPML file to your feed reader: GenYGreatest Hits (Most popular items filtered using AideRSS.) If you'd like to subscribe to a daily email digest of just the most popular posts from all of the above blogs (RSS) you can enter your email address in the box below.

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This article is just meant to highlight some of the ways Gen Y will impact the future of the web. What other ways can you think of?

Image credits: Who's going to Hire a Gen Y? Picture: Anthony Weate; Hates Ads: debaird

yolly said: They had to use the Mac guy didn't they :P
kevinDwhite said: Another excellent piece by Sarah Perez.
Keith said: Brilliant article!
Jeff said: I guess that I am just a Gen X'er desperately clinging on to the hope that I can pass as a Gen Y'er ;)
Daniel said: A great summary of Gen Y, and I really recommend following a few of the links towards the end of the post.
Leonardo said: Mais um texto sobre a Gen Y. Há algo de similar ao texto de Marcos Gomes.
Dominik said: Ha!
thattalldude said: This is a must read post, don't wait another second, read it NOW, then share it.
StreetForce1 said: So true so truse...I'm Gen Y all the way!
izensun said: Y世代! 酷
Hallvard said: Litt usikker no, kanskje eg er Y, kanskje eg blir Z
Tommaso said: - They're Plugged In- TV Isn't King- They Don't Care About Your Ad, They Care What Their Friends Think- Work Isn't Their Whole World- They're Socially ConsciousBellissime le premesse
Amish said: Our time has come.
francine said: This is a wonderful piece. Should be read by anyone in marketing.
Justin Baum said: LOLz its ME!
Coop said: I couldn't agree more. Old media and b-models better adapt.
Leo said: I thought that this was an interesting article.
Shoshannah F said: תמיד מאמרים כאלו גורמים ל-hype-o-meter שלי לקפוץ לגבהים חדשים, אבל זה עדיין מעניין (ויהיה מעניין יותר לחזור למאמר הזה עוד 10 או 20 שנה)
griflet said: I should email this to my workplace ;)Great post! Go gen Y go!
Marc said: Ugh, this is as patronizing as the 60 Minutes editorial on the next generation. Seriously, we all want the same things: it's not generation exclusive.
Marc said: I'm in this generation. I agree with most of the statements in this article. Good read.
elmarco said: interesting Ifeel concerned
Alex said: I'm a Gen XY, bridging the gap. It's an interesting view. I remember mixtapes and now create playlists to share. I used a PET and cassette tapes and now Twitter on an iPhone. I pick and choose what's important to me in media, remix and share it. And I have a convenient blend of Gen X irony and Y optimism. Ah, complexity.
Tim said: I thought this was insightful.
Ruman said: A very interesting article. Agree with it fully.
TDavid said: Where do *you* fit? Generation X or Y?