helloworld.bensonchu.com » Google

Google’s book search case mapped out

Benson — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 00:20:15 +0000

Originally found this gem in The Chronicle. Digitizing out of print books and making them available on the web- which will win? Utilitarianism or Kantian Ethics?

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Google location signature error

Benson — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 14:53:36 +0000

Has anyone noticed that the Google location signature sometimes returns an incorrect location? You know, the Google Labs item for Gmail that adds a short snippet indicating your current location in e-mails that you send out.

And this isn’t just the next city over… My errors have landed me in places I have never been to- but I would like to.

I guess I should thank them for the hint?

I’ve decided to start keeping track of where Google “sends me”.

November 26, 2009
Sent from Drechterland, North Holland, The Netherlands
Sent from Staten Island, New York, United States

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Oops!? Are you serious?

Benson — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:30:31 +0000

When it first came out, I remember my friend telling me,

“It’s so fast… I had to stop using it so much because I’m afraid of running out of ‘the fast’.”

He was right. Google Chrome is fast, compared to Firefox’s memory-hogging standards. With that, I made the jump and was pleasantly please by “the fast” that I had gained in web browsing. However, when I first opened it, I noticed something-

“Hey! That’s Opera’s Speed-Dial!”

Even though it doesn’t exactly mimic Speed-Dial to the letter, it does look very similar. I guess it’s a new browser “standard”, just like Mozilla’s tabbed browsing. In honesty, it took some getting use to. The part that took time to get use to- as my sister also echoed- is the stalker-ish feeling that it emits. Yes, we had History, but this is technology in your face. Next thing you know, it’ll start making recommendations. You know it’s coming.

With all the simplicity and “fast” that was evident in Google’s Chrome browser, you knew that something was bound to pop up and bite at your ankles like an angry chinchilla. Here it is, folks; the bane of my existence.

It’s not as cute as when Dan Forden [Updated with thanks to MK_Fan] does it in Mortal Kombat.

When Dan Forden comes out in Mortal Kombat, it’s funny. When Google Chrome does it sporadically- and frequently- when you type in a valid web address, it’s irritating. The simple solution is to hit Refresh in the browser, and your website shows up.

As a result, I’ve gone back to Opera. But then I used docs.google.com to edit a spreadsheet and Google Docs was just not as friendly in that enviornment.

Now… I switch between Chrome and Opera.

There’s just no winning this.

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Google's automatic message translation

Benson — Fri, 22 May 2009 04:11:18 +0000

I dig it.

http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/new-in-labs-automatic-message.html

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