No Domain Love For Me?

I guess now I am receiving a 404 error when visiting my domain. Oh well...at least Google responded.

~Darnell

Update: And we're back up!

A New Version Of Google Earth? Sweet!

It looks as if Google has launched a new version of Google Earth! Check out the video below.

(Google LatLong) What good would fancy new navigation controls be if there wasn't something new to look at? While we're regularly adding new user-created SketchUp buildings submitted through 3D Warehouse, we decided to take things up a notch for this release by including photo-realistic models for dozens of new cities. Take a spin around Tokyo, Munich, or Boston to get a taste. We've also significantly enhanced our approach to rendering 3D data to greatly improve performance and realism.

I'll have to play around with this later on (as I have too many things to do right now, blog wise).

Video: gOS Computer For $200?

It's been on the news, and the site ThinkgOS has more info about it. Basically its a inexpensive computer running linux with heavy Google influence on it.

Wal*mart has them for sale at around $200. Here is a video via YouTube for the curious.

(Hat Tip: The King Kong Blog)

Google And Al Jazeera Are Sitting In A Tree...

It looks like Google has partnered with the most unbiased objective news organization on planet Earth after CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and certain communist propaganda.

Well, at least you can't say Google is run by Zionists.

(TechCrunch) Al Jazeera signed a commercial agreement with Google last week to share advertising revenue on their YouTube channel. The channel originally launched in April 2007.

This comes even as U.S. cable operators continue to shun the 24 hour news service - only Toledo, Ohio based Buckeye CableSystem and the municipal cable suppler in Burlington, Vermont offer the channel to viewers.

You can check out the new channel over here, although it seems to be less "Jews and Americans are evil" than their Arabic station as well as the BBC.

Personal Thoughts: Highlighting bias in the open (and yes, Al Jazeera, is very biased) will help to counter it in the long run as people can see for themselves why no one takes Al Jazeera's "objective reports" seriously.

Not to mention it might give us an insight into the mind of those who hate the west. Better we know what they are saying in the open than being unsure what they whisper in the dark.

Update: Fixed spelling mistake.

Has Google Finally Fixed The "404 WWW" Error?

Okay, I previously wrote about the "404 WWW" error in blogger here and here, but it looks as if the Blogger team has created an "automatic redirect" which means these hacks are may be obsolete.

I'm testing this out on my personal blog here first, and if successful I'll do a write up for everyone else.

Warning: This site may get buggy real quick!

Update: Complete horror! I have sent in a trouble ticket to Google about this. So far it works for new custom domain bloggers, but leaves those who have previously registered as...well...screwed.

Sigh...I guess I expect too much from Google.

Google's YouTube Down?

It looks as if YouTube is down for the count (at least as of this moment).

Here is a screen shot of all that I get:

Just when I was about to save a really cool song from Sarah Mclachlan too. Sigh...

Update: It's back up! Thanks Google!

How You Know When Google Is Listening To You

So I have been testing out a new feature from Blogger in Draft called Video Upload, and I recently posted a suggestion to Google about adding a status bar so that people will know how much of their video has been uploaded (so they won't freak out).

Well, it looks as if Pete from Google (I'm assuming its Pete) took a few minuets out of his time to read my comment and to my surprise I discovered this today while uploading a video on blogger:



And people wonder why I prefer Google over the competition?

Video: Second Helpings, And Blogger In Draft

For those of you who don't know, Google has released a new feature enabling users to upload videos to their blog (for free) turning every blog*spot blog into a potential video blog (or vblog for short). Here is my take on the issue, plus some boring thoughts from my life.

Note: Don't mind the ugly mug, as I forgot to shave.

After thoughts: Although this feature is great, I just found out it could take a while for the video to upload.

Google has started a blog (Blogger In Draft) where you can post feedback on this feature via the comment section, a rarity for a Google Blog (something they really needs to change).

Update: There seems to be a bug in the video that makes it automatically play in IE (all versions). It will be removed until Google can fix this error. Sigh...and it was almost a dream come true.

Update (6/20): Google seems to have fixed the "video in IE" problem. Thanks Google!

PC World Is Full Of Surprises

Warning: You are about to enter the geek zone. You've been warned.

So PC World did a review of the top 100 best products in technology today, which includes everything from game consoles to software to music platforms to more geek toys!

Google Apps seems to have killed off all of their competitors, taking the top spot, something the Googlers seem to be really excited about.

There were also a few surprises along the way including:

• Yahoo! Mail Beta (27) beating Google's Gmail (31)
• Paint.net (19) beating Google's Picasa (36)
• Nintendo Wii (3) beating Microsoft's Xbox 360 Elite (18)
• Pandora.com (17) beats Apples 80 GB Ipod (26)

This really has been a very interesting year in technology. I'm disappointed that OQO did not make the list, neither did several other applications as well. Oh well, better luck next time I suppose!

My Gmail Is Down!

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!

(gasp for air)

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!

Perhaps this is a sign that I should get a secondary account. But that would mean using Yahoo!, Hotmail or some unknown email service that makes you pay for 10 mb of space (the horror!).

It's not the end of the world, although I REALLY DO need my email for work, friends, etc.

Well, at least Google provided me with a fun video to watch.

Although, in retrospect, its not the same as actually using my account. :-(

Update: It's working again! Thanks Google! :-)

Upgrades Are Good

Very, very good.

(Blogger Help Group) We've been giving you warnings. The signs have been there. Preparations have been made. Now, it's time!

That's right, it's time to embrace the new version of Blogger! Starting today, a small percentage of users who log in to an old Blogger account will be required to move to the new version. This involves moving your current Blogger account to a new or existing Google Account. After the move, you will need to log in to Blogger with your Google Account username, which is always the email address associated with your account.

I guess this means adjusting several blogs (finally) as well as closing down a few others. Right in time for the super bowl too!

PS

To those of you who kept emailing me about my earlier post, it seems as if Google is correcting the mysterious error, slowly but surely. I'll be checking on your domains, and if need be, help out where I can.

Google Docs In My Gmail?

It looks like I am going to be putting more of my life on Google's servers, this time future business projects (as long as it is legal that is).

(Google Docs & Spreadsheets Blog) Whenever those of you who use Gmail receive a spreadsheet or a document in an email, you will see a new link next to the "Download" link that says "Open as a Google document." Click on that and the attachment will automatically be imported into Docs & Spreadsheets and added to your personal document list where you can make changes, invite collaborators and search for it later. We hope you like it.

If they continue doing cool things like this, Google will end up being a portal--that is if they are not one already.

Note: Is it me, or did Google finally open up comments on their blog?

Cyber Terrorists Beware: No Googlebomb For You!

It looks like Google just got rid of (or at least greatly suppressed) the ability of bloggers and websites to Googlebomb those they despise.

(Google Webmaster Blog) People have asked about how we feel about Googlebombs, and we have talked about them in the past. Because these pranks are normally for phrases that are well off the beaten path, they haven't been a very high priority for us. But over time, we've seen more people assume that they are Google's opinion, or that Google has hand-coded the results for these Googlebombed queries. That's not true, and it seemed like it was worth trying to correct that misperception. So a few of us who work here got together and came up with an algorithm that minimizes the impact of many Googlebombs.

Previously typing in failure in Google brought up President Bush (thanks to liberal bloggers) and Israeli bloggers did something something similar to Prime Minister Olmert.

It looks like for the first time (in a long time) Google has recaptured the Internet (or the Internet on its servers) before politics ruined it for everyone.

Note: I wonder if Yahoo plans on doing the same thing for their search engine?

Update: Silly me! I forgot the to add the "quotations" for my source. As well as corrected a noticeable spelling error.

Spam Invading My Gmail

The problem is not getting to be ridiculous. It's just a bit annoying to go from no spam for months on end to about five a day.

What's even worse is the fact that spammers seem to type either in all caps, or unable to spell out half their entire message.

If you are going to spam me, at least use proper grammar. You would think they would teach these things at the "annoy planet Earth" spam conferences, assuming that spammers actually attend them.

Revisiting That "404 WWW" Blogger Issue

After previously posting about how to fix the mysterious 404 WWW issue with Blogger, I think I may have found a faster (and more simple) fix.

I tested this out with one blog already, and I am sure everyone else is going to love this as well (well, mostly everyone else).

Note: This may or may not require you to sign up with Google Apps (I don't think it should, but you never know).

1. First, login to your host account, and locate the area of your account where you can create sub domains (on GoDaddy simply pull up the page listing your domain(s) and click on the one you want to create an account on. Then click on the Manage Sub domains account).
2. Next, create a sub domain on the page. Since we all love Google, lets call it "google" (no pun intended).
   
3. Underneath you should have an option to forward the domain to a URL. Simply type in your www.mydomain.com (with the "WWW's") and click save.

Now what is going to happen is that whenever someone clicks on mydomain.com it will automatically select the sub-domain google.mydomain.com as its first choice (don't ask me why it does this, but it does for some strange silly reason).

As soon as your "google" alias pops up, your server will redirect you to mydomain.com.

This is a lot more simple and easier than my previous explanation (and a lot faster too). This should work after ten minuets, but give it a day to make it "round the net."

As always, feel free to comment if you have any questions, concerns or praises (I like those) regarding this issue.

Update: You should not need to point this CNAME to a host directly. Also, I updated the "google." to "google" (without the period) in the post.

Resolving That "404 WWW" Blogger Issue

For those of you who switched their blog*spot blogs to Google's custom domain for blogger, you may have run into some unexpected errors, mainly being only able to publish either directly to your domain (example: mycoolblog.com) or to the "www" address (example: www.mycoolblog.com) but not both.

After finding many other bloggers experiencing the same thing, I decided to do some testing to see if there was a way to resolve this.

Note: Make sure your CNAME has an alias of www (or the place you want to publish your blog) as well as having the host account point to ghs.google.com.

1. The first thing I did was create a Google Apps account, adding my blog domain to its services.
2. Next, I would select the available Google services. Although you can select all or none of the features to add to your blog, you must choose the Domain Web Pages feature.
3. After adding this feature, you should see a link that says something to the sort of Activating the web pages (underneath the Domain Web Pages image). Click on it.
4. Make sure that you put "www" as the publishing address. This will do one of two things. Either a) It will kick blogger from originally publishing to the domain (which is good) or b) blogger will refuse to move (not as good, but okay). If blogger is stubborn simply publish on mycoolblog.com, in order to let Google Apps have a turn at "www."
5. If you are unable to publish to "www" via Google apps, create a new sub name/alias instead. On the left should be in bold a category called Services. Find the Domain Web Pages link and then click the Change web publishing address on the screen and select an alias such as "about," "google" or even "darnell" if you would like. ;-)
6. Visit the "www" domain (or the alias you created in its place) and make sure you see a 404 error in an off color mellow yellow orange (note: what is that color anyways?). If you don't see it, try refreshing a couple of times.
7. Wait about five to ten minuets after seeing the 404 error, and then delete your Domain Web Pages from your current account, and republish blogger to the "www."
8. Give the internet 24 hours and with any luck (as well as some prayers) your mycoolblog.com should redirect to www.mycoolblog.com.

After testing this on several of my weblogs (ColonyWorlds.com, IsraGood.com, InsideOrkut.com as well as this one) I found this to be the only consistent method that seemed to make this work (as to why it works, you'll have to ask someone else that question).

One of my blogs redirected within a few seconds. Another one took several minuets while two of mine took almost 24 hours before they were functioning. I would also give it 48 hours until all of your friends see the same thing, (as it takes awhile for the new settings to register throughout the entire internet.

If you have any problems, comments or questions, feel free to post them here.

Update 1/17): If this doesn't work (or is too slow/confusing for you) try this easier and (hopefully) faster one.

Google Investor, Anyone? (What's In Your Portfolio?)

Whatever Google is putting in their employee's water cooler, they definitely need to share it with the rest of the world. The search engine king has announced their commitment to bring users real-time instant live stats of stock quotes, free of charge and free of delay.

(Google Blog) As a result, we've worked with the SEC, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and our D.C. trade association, NetCoalition, to find a way to bring stock data to Google users in a way that benefits users and is practical for all parties. We have encouraged the SEC to ensure that this data can be made available to our users at fair and reasonable rates, and applaud their recent efforts to review this issue. Today, the NYSE has moved the issue a great step forward with a proposal to the SEC which if approved, would allow you to see real-time, last-sale prices across all Google properties including Google Finance, Personalized Google, Mobile, and of course, Google.com. It won't matter if you're on Wall Street or Main Street -- you'll have free, easy and fast access to real-time prices from NYSE on Google.

When it comes to innovation of information, Google is serious about change. This may put many expensive stock software companies out of business, but it will empower the consumer to track their own portfolio.

Pro's And Con's Of Blogger's Custom Domain

So I finally migrated another part of my life onto Google's servers, and I noticed several great things (as well as bad minor issues) with Blogger's Custom Domain.

Here are the great things about it:

• Retain all of Blogger's new features without messing with FTP on your domain
• Google hosts your blog for free! All you have to pay for is your domain
• You do not lose your Blog*Spot placement, preventing spammers from capitalizing on your efforts
• Google automatically forwards your Blog*Spot domain to your new one, so users visiting old posts go directly to the post on your domain

Here are some of the bad minor issues with it:

• Site not listed on the world wide web (compare InsideOrkut.com with www.InsideOrkut.com)
• Another user could claim your domain via Blogger, preventing you from using it (see my theory for details on my second thread response)
• Your Google Page rank drops (which means you'll have to resubmit it everywhere again)

Now, in my opinion the good definitely out weighs the bad, and I would seriously recommend any serious blogger to consider switching over as it does have a way of making your site feel a little more professional.

Note: Is it me, or did Blogger just become cooler than WordPress?

Update: Inserted bullet points on "minor issues."

Blogger Is My Hero!

I never thought I would ever say this, but it seems that Google (or rather Blogger) has once again reinvented the way blogging is done!

(Blogger Buzz) The new version of Blogger now supports using a custom domain for serving your blog. If you already own a domain named, say, mysite.com and want your blog to be served at that address instead of at a blogspot.com address, we can host your blog on that domain for you — for free. Your old Blog*Spot address will forward to your new custom domain, so the switch will be seamless for your readers.

I've already purchased several domains I would love to try this on (those being InsideOrkut.com, DarnellClayton.com, ColonyWorlds.com, IsraGood.com) and I will move my blog over to the self hosting later on today (after I get some sleep).

Is it me, or is Blogger really freakin' cool!

Death To The Beta! Long Live Blogger!

It looks like Blogger in beta is no longer beta! That is really good news to hear, as the old blogger was--barely surviving.

Here is a snippet from Blogger Buzz:

The new version of Blogger is metaphorically bursting with features, from the big guns like drag-and-drop template editing and post labels [...]

to little polishes like a better-designed Dashboard or that you no longer need to solve a word verification CAPTCHA to post a comment on your own blog.

Good to see Google finally improving on "old hardware." Now, if they could only bring that finesse to Picasa (i.e. more features, public search, 25 Gigs of space, etc.).