Google is always releasing new features or apps. Here’s a rundown of some released recently that may have relevance for lawyers…
www.slaw.ca/2009/12/18/google-roundup-4/ [2] – Permalink [2] – Similar [3]
Google Groups joins Google Apps [4]
One of the features missing from Google Apps was a discussion or forum-like function. Google Groups, which provides that function generally for all Google users, has now been integrated with Google Apps so that your biz or org and exchange ideas, create discussion groups, and generally do what has been otherwise possible on the internet since bulletin boards first appeared more years ago than I care to remember. Unfortunately, you need to have the educational or enterprise edition of Google Apps to avail yourself of this feature.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/… [4] – Permalink [5] – Similar [6]
Living Stories [7]
Google Labs is collaborating with the New York Times and the Washington Post to present certain featured news stories in a web-sophisticated way. Essentially, stories chosen by the news sources — no searching for items that you select — are presented on a page in which you’ll find a summary at the top, a timeline of events immediately below, and excerpts from reports as the story has developed over time (with nicely AJAXified now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t full reports available right there).
There are more bells and whistles built in to the feature — portions that you consulted on your last visit are greyed out, for example –and the simplest way to see what’s possible is to look at the video on the Living Stories page. All that’s needed now is to be able to select the stories that you’d like to follow.
http://livingstories.googlelabs.com/ [7] – Permalink [5] – Similar [8]
Gmail Goes Offline as Standard Feature [9]
One of the problems of the “cloud” is that it’s not always there. There are times when — mirabile dictu — our connection to the sky is occluded. Now, thanks to Gears, a Google-developed browser plugin, all Gmail users may arrange to have some or all of their mail downloaded to their computers, available for work offline. Changes made, or emails written, while offline will be uploaded to the user’s Gmail account once an internet connection is made.
http://www.readwriteweb.com… [9] – Permalink [5] – Similar [10]
As you’ll remember, I’m sure, Google recently made its own DNS Server publicly available. In order to see who is the fastest in the land, Google Code has now released Namebench, a small cross-platform app that finds those DNS servers in your area that provide you with the speediest resolution of names. I have to say that this works: I found a local DNS server that was, according to Namebench, 23% faster than Google’s DNS server. So if things have been a little slow for you lately, take Namebench out for spin.
http://code.google.com/p/namebench/ [11] – Permalink [5] – Similar [12]
Universal search features in Google Suggest [13]
You know how when you search for the weather in Cancun little sunshine pics with large numbers beneath them come up at the top of your results page? Or how, when you search for a biz, you get a map and a list of enterprises above your other search results? These priority results are what Google calls universal search features, and they include local times, flight times, sports scores, movie times and the like. Now you’re saved a click: these handy results appear as soon as you enter your search terms, down at the bottom of the list of suggested terms Google offers, anticipating your needs. Cool.
But. It only works with Google.com and not with Google.ca. Not cool.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com… [13] – Permalink [5] – Similar