Andrew Natoli » Google

SmithtownRadio.com iGoogle Gadget Released!

Andrew — Fri, 07 May 2010 20:32:59 +0000

For all you SmithtownRadio.com fans out there, rejoice for we’ve just rolled out our new gadget for iGoogle! This means you can get quick access to SmithtownRadio.com just by opening up your homepage! The gadget includes a “Now Playing” box as well as the actual audio player. (Flash-based) You can preview it right below or grab it by clicking here!

Google Wave? Do Want.

Andrew — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 00:14:29 +0000

Just recently like a lot of people, I have learned of the new and upcoming Google Wave. For those of you unfamiliar and don’t have time to watch a one hour and twenty minute video, Google Wave appears to be the next big thing for collaboration and communication online. By now I’m sure a large number of us know the practical uses for a Wiki. From creating a public database to simply organizing data and projects, Wiki’s have become one of the bigger methods of online collaboration, seeing as users can write and edit data with their peers.

One of Google Wave’s primary features includes something very much like e-mail, but a step further. Rather than continually “forwarding” messages between a group of people, Wave lets you add and remove people from the conversation whenever and they won’t miss anything. Wave also offers a new chat system where users can actually see what the other is typing, live, rather than “Buddy is typing…” Perhaps the most impressive feature Wave offers however is its Collaboration feature. Imagine working on a Wiki with others but only one person is allowed to edit the page at a time. Here’s where things have changed; apparently anyone who’s part of a project can edit a page live with everyone else. This meaning, you see every letter they add and word they change, as they’re doing it, and you see what you’re doing to. Very impressive.

Google is also offering API’s so developers can build onto what Wave can do.

If anyone has spare invitations to send out, please feel free to send me one. I might just give you a *high-five!*

Oh hey, It’s “Google Feedburner?”

Andrew — Mon, 11 May 2009 04:00:27 +0000

I’ve used Feedburner a few times in the past and have run a few feeds through it, but a visit by me to their site was more of a tri-monthly thing, and in return I wasn’t aware of what had been going on there over the past two years. In May of 2007, Google had acquired Feedburner but not until about two years later was the change complete. Browsing through some old blog entries from April, I’ve read up on complaints by users on how the service had become very peevish and unreliable. “The RSS Blog” even asked Is Feedburner Dying? Perhaps the developers behind Feedburner were just too busy with what surfaced a few weeks later; users flocking to feedburner.com found themselves on a Google login page and from there-on, feedburner.com became feedburner.google.com. Not the biggest inconvinience perhaps, but it probably would have been nice to users if Google could have just kept Feedburner under its original domain like Yahoo! did with Flickr.