Google is at it Again

If you have your own blog, you have probably seen the little ad after you have published a post suggesting that you try out Google docs and spreadsheets. Google has now introduced presentation software, an alternative to Powerpoint. Jill Hurst-Wahl mentioned it in the article we posted yesterday and Tara Calishan, from ResearchBuzz also talks about it in her post from September 18.

One of the good things that both have mentioned is that you don't have to e-mail a doc back and forth when you are collaborating. You will also not need to be on the correct computer (laptop vs. desktop) or have it available to you on your flash drive.

Remember, as with most Google offerings, you have to have Google account. Your content may end up searchable, so don't put any sensitive or trouble causing docs up there and password protect all of your docs.

Amazon Widgets

ResearchBuzz, every a source of fun, yet useful, information discusses relevant uses of Amazon widgets. She also has examples of how to use them on your site or blog.

Blog Searching Tips

Tara Calishan of ResearchBuzz recently spoke at Web Search University about blog searching. After her presentation, she gained a tip from the folks at Google about using Google blog search. Her conversation with one Google engineer went like this:


"So why didn't you mention Google Blog search?" he asked.

"Because it's got so much spam in it," I answered, ever the diplomat.

He asked me how I was sorting the results, and I said by date. Because if you're information trapping you want the most recent stuff, not necessarily the most relevant stuff. And since the only options were most recent or most relevant, what could you do?

Aha, said Jeremy. How about using the links on the left? On the left of a Google Blog Search result page, there are several links to narrow results to a specified time frame -- last hour, 12 hours, whatever.

But isn't that like a date search? I asked.

In fact, it isn't. Jeremy explained that when you narrow your search by time using the links on the left, the results from that time span are sorted by relevance. In other words, you'll still get results by relevance, but only for the time span you specified.

I had no idea I could use the left nav that way. That might be a great way to dodge spam on Google Blog Search, especially when you're testing queries for information trapping. The only downside is that this particular sorting option isn't available on Zuula.

Interesting! Read the entire article here.

LaCie USB and Firewire Hub

In Burney's Legal Tech Reviews: Elegantly Designed USB and Firewire Hub, Brett Burney has provided a complete review of a tool that is useful and beautiful. Brett Burney reviews the beautifully designed LaCie Hub and the "dynamic immersion" language learning programs available from the Rosetta Stone software. Burney is along time contributor to LLRX (where this review resides) and can be relied upon to tell readers the good and the bad of a product.

Social Networking Explanations and Definitions

Blogs and wikis and twitter, oh my!

Are you confused about the exploding world of social networking tools? There are a lot of them out there and they are not just for fun and games any more. Jill Hurst-Wahl has written a very comprehensive article in the recent SLA IT Division's newsletter, b/yte.

Jill Hurst-Wahl is a digitization consultant based in New York.