BrianHimes.com » google

Change Your Name

Brian — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 16:04:48 +0000

Have you heard? Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt, thinks that every young person one day will be entitled automatically to change his or her name on reaching adulthood in order to disown youthful hijinks stored on their friends’ social media sites.

Interesting food for thought, and yet I’m left wondering what happens to accountability? How can we hold children accountable when their slate will be wiped clean upon reaching adulthood? I realize there will still be laws and rules, but this seems like a free pass for children to act out? There has to be another solution. How about parents who parent? Just a thought.

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Google Buzz

Brian — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:16:37 +0000

Odds are you have now heard about Google Buzz. And, if you're a Gmail user, you might have even seen it in your Gmail inbox. Google's been rolling it out to everyone with Gmail accounts since Tuesday. But what is Google Buzz? People are still trying to figure that out.

If you're only point of contact with Google is Gmail, Buzz seems to be a Twitter-like aggregator for sharing ideas and content. It links with other social media services like Flikr, Twitter, etc.

If, like me, you use other Google services, Buzz becomes a little more interesting. For example, if you have a phone with the latest version of Google Maps, you can now see Buzz posts laid out on a map according to where the person who made the post was located at that point in time. There's also another view in Maps where you can see a Twitter-like list of all the posts of people physically near you. With this functionality, you can leave tips, comments and reviews for any location you visit, and people will see these posts when they check out the Buzz.

If you have an iPhone or an Android phone with Android 2.0+ you can also access a web app, which I can only guess incorporates the features available in Maps and Gmail. My Android phone only has Android 1.6 so I haven't been able to see the app. Please feel sorry for me.

All these features make Buzz a look a little like Foursquare + Twitter + Friendfeed on crack. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Foursquare has been growing quite rapidly in recent months so, for Google to drop Buzz right now is an interesting and maybe smart move.

The question that remains is will people adopt this new platform? Only time will really tell. I think it will largely depend on whether Google works out some of the kinks with Buzz, and if you haven't noticed there are some kinks.

Perhaps the biggest kink in my mind is that content pulled in from Twitter and other sites is slow to show up in your Buzz stream. And to make matters worse, communication with these services is only one way. For Buzz to succeed it'll need to be able to push and pull data instantly from services like Twitter and Facebook. Otherwise, what's the point?

I would be very happy to have Buzz essentially replace the need for all of these separate services, and the convenience of having access to it all in Gmail, makes it even more alluring. Interestingly though, with the addition of Buzz, Gmail has become more a communication's platform and less a webmail portal. It has chat, email, and now an aggregation/broadcasting tool. Strange huh?

It'll be interesting to see how that progresses. For now, I'm going to continue exploring Buzz and hope that Google continues to improve it over the course of time. I've been really impressed with their work in Gmail and I hope that Buzz can live up to it's name.

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Android Market Rant

Brian — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:42:49 +0000

I like to peruse the new apps added to the Android Market every day to see what’s new in the world of Android. I realize this is a little obsessive, but oh well. It’s just something I’ve done since I got my phone. Now, because I like to see all of the new apps, I generally use the All Apps category and filter it by Just In which mostly works great, except for one small thing. The All Apps category lists every non-game application, including all the wallpapers, themes, font packs, etc.

Now, if it were an actual program that managed wallpapers, themes or font packs I could understand why they would be listed as an app, but is wallpaper really an app? Also, when publishers add new wallpapers, or themes they sometimes publish 20 (or more) at a time, so you’ll see a Lakers theme followed by a Clippers theme, followed by a Cavs theme and so on. It gets really annoying. I wish the Android Market had another category for these types of files. It would make my daily habit much more enjoyable.

It’s not that I don’t appreciate the themes or the people that make them; I just think they should be organized differently. If they had their own category it would be easier to find them when you wanted them and easier to avoid them when you don’t. I think it would be a win win situation.

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Best Email Options

Brian — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:41:59 +0000

Another friend (yes I have more than one friend) asked me this question today.

If you were to pick an email for the rest of your life would it be a gmail account? It’s popular now, and the company looks like it will be here for a while, but at one point everyone had @aol.com and then everyone had @yahoo.com.

My response to him was that it’s hard to say what will be around forever. Regarding Google and Gmail, I don’t think there’s a better option, unless you were to purchase your own domain. The biggest downside to having your own domain is that you’re paying for your email. To me, Google seems like the best bet right now if you want free email.

Google Dashboard

Brian — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:01:30 +0000

If you use any of Google’s applications or services check this out https://www.google.com/dashboard/.

It’s interesting to see a summary of all of your Google stored information in one place, isn’t it? I wonder if there’s a greater purpose for this dashboard though. What does Google have in store?

Apple’s iPhone: I Do Not Hate

Brian — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:44:00 +0000

I need to clear the air a little. I am not an iPhone hater. In fact, I love the iPhone. It is a beautiful piece of machinery that is well build and well designed. It works almost flawlessly and is practically effortless to use. Apple has done an amazing job with it, and everyone else is playing catch up.

I bring this up because there have been several instances lately where I have been accused of being anti-iPhone. I understand where this may have come from with my strong allegiance to Google’s Android mobile phone OS, but that does not mean I despise all things iPhone.

The reasons which lead me to purchase my T-Mobile G1, instead of the iPhone, are quite simple. I was already with T-Mobile and had a good plan locked in. It would have cost more to move to AT&T. And secondly, I love Google and all of their services. A phone OS designed by them only made sense in my mind. It was a perfect match for me.

I am excited by the leaps and bounds Google has been making with Android over a relatively short period of time and can not wait to see what is yet to come. If my excitement comes across as anti-anything please accept my apology. I do not hate.