Tagged: google

How Google killed Urchin


Just trying to do my bit in a movement here :)

Long story short, Google bought [[http://urchin.com|Urchin]] sometime back, and have not been responding to [[http://textdrive.com|Textdrive]]’s constant requests to //take their money// and renew their data-center license. You can find all the juicy details (courtesy Simplicio) at [[http://simplicio.com/|How Google killed Urchin]].

Please blog about this aggresively, bookmark it to del.icio.us — how can Google //not// notice this? Sheesh!

Meanwhile, Textdrivers have decided to take things into their own hands. Please help us all by filling out [[http://projects.shtuff.us/anemone/survey/|this survey]]. If you have a //lot// of time, check out [[http://forum.textdrive.com/viewtopic.php?id=5843|these]] [[http://forum.textdrive.com/viewtopic.php?id=5932|threads]]

TxD is //so// cool :)

Google strikes again


with Google [[http://blogsearch.google.com/|Blog Search]] (read the [[http://www.google.com/help/about_blogsearch.html|FAQ]] if you still get a 404).
This time they are targeting the likes of [[http://technorati.com|Technorati]], [[http://blogwise.com|Blogwise]], [[http://blo.gs|blo.gs]] and so on.

They keep on coming.

via [[http://www.boingboing.net/2005/09/13/google_launching_blo.html|BoingBoing]]

More on Google Talk


Came across two very interesting articles on Google Talk and how it is going to change the IM landscape:

* [[http://www.livejournal.com/users/nugget/97081.html|via Nugget]]
* [[http://www.drunkenblog.com/drunkenblog-archives/000637.html|via drunkenblog]]

Adsense for blogs sucks


Jaya [[http://jayajha.blogspot.com/2005/08/google-adsense-for-blogs.html|talked about this]] a while back. The google ads on my blog are //so// pathetic. What is surprising though is that they are not completely random. So for instance, one of my first posts on this blog (which is around when I put adsense here as well) was on [[http://floatingsun.net/blog/2005/07/16/29/|mail forwarding and SMTP servers]]. And the ads at that time were on these topics as well.

So far so good. However, since then, the ads haven’t changed much. They still keep talking about mail services and SMTP. For some reason it seems Adsense is not “sensing” my content any more. Do people have any tips on this? Both my blog and my site use Google sitemaps. I try to link when I’m not lazy. I use tags that connect to technorati, flickr, wikipedia.

What else can I do? Why won’t these ads make more sense? I mean its really bad when I’m viewing single posts. The ads just don’t make //any// sense. Google, you listening?

Google Talk


As countless have already noted, Google [[http://talk.google.com|Talk]] is now online.

I’ve tried it partially (as in I was only speaking, the other party didn’t have a mic so I couldn’t listen), but the other party said that the sound quality was //exceptional//. But I think I’d wait to I actually hear it myself before I come to any conclusions.

The good thing is that they are using XMPP/Jabber for the text messaging, so you can use any Jabber client (Gaim, Kopete etc) to connect to the Talk network. Of course, you don’t enjoy the VoIP feature in that case.

But I’m not sure how great a move is this. I mean, is Google going after Skype? BTW, Skype works on Linux as well, and pretty well (this, I have tried). So unless Google Talk comes out with a client that works on Linux, they’re not impressing me.

**Update**: There is already [[http://www.tribeworks.com/home/vibe.asp|speculation]] on a potential take-over/buy-out of Skype by Google. Amen!