Matt’s Journal

Dont click Conor’s blog link, if you do make sure you are logged out of Digg.

Check the source.

Cheeky git!

At work I was asked to find out what our competitiors were charging for one of our books, I was asked to go through sites like Ebay, Amazon etc and note the prices. Not wanting to search over and over again I decided to use Google’s price comparison tool; Froogle. I use this tool a few times a week at least but this time it hit me how many products of Google I actually use.

Looking through my Google account, it turns out that I use or have accounts on (excluding the search itself):

• Gmail
• Google Calendar
• Orkut
• Google Analytics
• Google Adsense
• Blogger
• Google Talk (GTalk)
• Google Maps
• Google Earth

and I still dont think thats a comprehensive list.

Why do I use these services? Easy…..because they are powerful and most importantly they work.

Take Email, I have a Gmail, Live Mail and a Yahoo Mail account, they all work very well but Google wins through with its powerful SPAM filter, nested conversations, storage space, POP3 access, Chat feature and also its a damn site quicker than the other two. The AJAX on Live and Yahoo lags too much and I am frustrated while it loads. Gmail also doesnt try to be a desktop application, the other two try too hard implementing right clicks and so forth.

Google Analytics is basically a rip of Urchin, a supremely powerful web statistics program that was acquired by Google a couple of years back. It delivers much more comprehensive stats that Webalizer and AW Stats, using graphs and also allows different sections for Webmasters, Marketers and Executives (shown below).

Adsense pays pretty well for a small blog like this, the ads are relevant and customizable, I shouldnt be too far from my first payment from them now.

I like how Google works, I like the fact they innovate, I like the fact that they see other companies innovating and then bring them under their umbrella thus creating a better product, uniting them with other teams within Google. Privacy isnt a big deal for me, I dont care if Google reads my mail, I have nothing to hide and people who have problems with it have nothing better to worry about.

Will Google become the new Microsoft? No…….plainly and simply because they encourage assistance, they encourage innovation and they do what they do better than everyone else.

4 Comments |

If you have perused the links on the left hand side of this blog you may have stumbled across 4rthur. 4rthur [was] a messageboard where people would post daily goings on, what they had for lunch or when they were due to have their vasectomy. It was a place where I have met people via the board and gone onto meet them in real life.

Unfortunately the last time there was a boardquake, the admin has decided to to retire its jersey. There were accusations of cliques ganging up on other members and whatnot, none of it involved me and if something did, it was a messageboard, you took it as a sign of affection.

Thanks goes out to munkt0n for creating 4rthur, it was his blood sweat and tears that went into that place and for years it was a place to hang out and have a laugh. I understand his reasons but I dont intend on letting it die completely. I have been in contact with numerous members and 4rthur have formed a crack team of geeks and OCD sufferers to help design a new one. We are currently in the progress of developing the registration system and the message board, discussion will also go into renaming the place, that will be a democratic decision by all the other members who have mobbed Dynofoo and Cliqr.

So, not all is lost. People may not come back to the new place, they will be missed, but hopefully 4rthur will live on.

So, I splashed out and bought a Nintendo DS Lite in black. They arent the best powered console/handhelds but I was swayed by the array of games that are available. I ordered the new Super Mario Bros game to start with but I fully intend on getting Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain?, Mario Kart DS and even the weird looking game Animal Crossing. Who knows? I must also say the dual screen looks pretty good.

If theres anyone who already owns one who can give me some advice, I would be most appreciative!

I am going to start advertising my services as a computer odd-job bloke and maybe a web-designer aswell. Trouble is, I want to have a company name and am coming up blank. As its going to be a computer type company, I want something catchy but also modern.

Do you have any ideas?