boxless

A short announcement and a huge step for the OpenID movement. Google, IBM, Microsoft, VeriSign, and Yahoo! have joined the board of OpenID Foundation. This certainly will expand the use of OpenID. That`s great! I am really happy what happend with OpenID. A year before I wrote an article “Online Identity, what is the choice?”, where I had some doubts that this good technology would be interpreted by the giants in different ways and they would not join behind OpenID. I am glad the future is so bright.

Google just launched their new interface for the Docs & Spreadsheets. At first sight it looks like it would be easier to work with it. But then I was disappointed. One of the functions that I use really a lot is three clicks away in the new interface. I am talking about the preview button of the docs. I usually write down things connected with IT and network stuff. So I create one document but after that I have to check it again and again. In the old interface to preview a document was two clicks away. I really hoped that in the new one it would be only one.

I use a lot of google services but it’s true I haven’t used Google Checkout till now. If you are from Bulgaria and try to buy something from it you will wonder why Bulgaria is not in the drop-down list. There are so many countries in that list and I was ashamed for the absence of my own. If you try to use google services like Google Apps for Your Domain, you have option to buy a custom domain through google checkout or to buy it on your own. It wasn’t a problem to set it separately but I decided to look further why google has decided not to support our market. (more…)

One browser, many workstations. This is one step further to the google`s dream to create an online OS. Google Browser Sync is a Firefox extension which will help you a lot if you are working on a few computers. Probably some users would like to save their home browser away from the working atmosphere and the way the browser looks in their offices.

In fact it`s not only a matter of a style. This extension can save cookies, passwords, bookmarks, history, tab and windows. All this content could be encrypted, too. To use the extension you should have a gmail account as it`s google official service and uses your account to save the data.

This service is useful when you reinstall your OS or when you use your home and office browser for identical services. When I used to read RSS feeds from a Firefox extension the worst thing was that as I added new feed I should e-mail the link to myself so I could subscribe to it from the other computer, too. This is an example what a headache could be if you want to synchronize your home and office browser. Afterwards when I started using the Google Reader for RSS feeds, I was reborn but that`s another topic.

So if you already use gmail account and you are not afraid for your privacy, I advise you to try this Firefox extension from Google. But be careful. You should use this extension only on not shared computers.

This night when I opened the google reader a tiny sentence attracted my attention.

“New! See personalized trends for your subscriptions and read items.“

I check it out and I was nicely surprised. Google have added a personal feature at the reader. It`s nice because it somehow gives you a big picture of what you have done. Sometimes you may act and look like a really addicted reader (f.e. me), but after all at the end of the month you can see those desperate moments and have fun.

What else. You have one look evaluation of your feeds and month activity. Yes, you have a tag cloud to water, too. You better see a screenshot how it looks like, and if you like it, go and check it out on your accounts.