Online Observations

FINALLY, Google comes down to Earth

First of all, let me say that I am a Google fan. But I have often wondered how Google can go on spreading their wings without any consolidation. They have just kept on trying new things and starting projects, till now. A couple of months ago, I posted about something I considered as layoffs in Google (the demise of lively). But, those were not real layoffs of course. However, now there have been real layoffs at Google.

Read More …

Comparison shopping at its best

I have always had the habit of going through all my options whenever I want to buy something new. When I bought my car, I went through all the various models available in my budget in great detail, made several comparisons on features, service centers, etc. I did the same thing when I wanted to buy my LCD TV. I needed Full HD capabilities, a very fast response time (because of my gaming needs), and on and on. I had so many TVs to choose from.

Read More …

Another simple implementation of a simple idea: Gog.is

How many times have you had the need to send someone the results of a Google query? How many times has someone asked you for help on really simple things, the answer for which is the first result on a Google query? I have had the need to do this many a times. If the answer to any of the above for you is also yes, then here’s a savior for us.

It’s a nifty little app on Google App Engine called Gog.Is. It is a TinyUrl type of a service which allows you to send Google queries through a small URL. It works by converting whatever you append to this url into a Google Search query, and returns the query page. For example:

Read More …

Do you want to know everyone’s secrets?

Here’s one of the best blog ideas ever. Its called Post Secret. Its a blog which lets you write your secrets on a postcard and send to the author who promptly posts them on the blog. The author here is a guy called Frank Warren. He started this site in 2005, and has received more than 200 million visitors since then. Every Sunday, the blog is updated with 20 secrets. To me its interesting because you get a window into humanity. Here are some choice ones from last Sunday:

Read More …

Case Sensitive Search using Google

Google by default is not sensitive to the case of the search terms that you are searching. So doing a search for March or march gives you the same results on Google. Mostly this doesn’t matter, though sometimes it would (in the example, March is the name of a month, while march is the act of walking). While Google may not support this out of the box, someone thought it important enough to write an application which does support this.

Read More …

A different take on Horoscopes

Are you the type which likes to check their daily horoscope in the newspaper? I have a friend who really believes deeply in Astrology, and regularly goes to palmists, tea leaf readers, a host of astrologers, and so on. If you are such a person, this post is for you (of course, I am going to let her know about it as well).

Read More …

Not everyone is worried about the upcoming economic crisis

Everyone’s saying that 2009 is going to be worse than 2008; that 2008 was just a preview. People are really affected all over the world because of the economic slowdown – they are driving slow, being conservative in spending, and so on. However, not everyone should worry.

Read More …