[Google] A Quick Recap

Since a lot of things have happened while the Geeky Guide has been down, in a way, due to unavoidable demands from the real world, we've missed a fair number of Google-related events and milestones. Rather than going in-depth in terms of old news, just thought it would be sufficient to do a fly-by of some of the events we found more notable and throw in our two cents' worth here and there.

First up, kudos to the mobile team at Google for revamping their Google Mobile page to better present their more recent developments and of course making browsing using your mobile phone a whole lot easier and fulfilling.

Next on the list is the revitalization of Google Co-op with the introduction of the Google Custom Search Engine, an interesting tool for both site developers and more finicky web searchers out there. We feel this is definitely an interesting development for the team and a better way of positioning the Co-op service, which didn't seem to gain any immediate popularity upon its initial release.

As the 2006 US Elections draw closer and closer, the Google Blog announced the release of a an election guide using Google Earth which aids users in all aspects of the elections from registration to news and information on the various parties and candidates. Another great contribution that is sure to help more people get involved and of course promote Google's many services.

And in time for the Halloween festivities, Google Book Search is now featuring a number of classic horror stories that you can either find at a library near you or even download completely from the Google Book Search site! Given the relative recency of the download feature, this is certainly a nice way for them to promote the option and of course increase awareness about Book Search.

Now for the less than positive news of sorts...

The Google Blog also released another entry talking about the proper usage of the word 'Google' in a sort of sermon to the world wide web about its usage. While of course they're entitled to defend the integrity of their brand name, I just felt it a bit off to go an lecture everyone about it like that. But that's my opinion, not yours.

Then of course there were the numerous outages at Blogger that the Blogger team tried to dress up as a novel of sorts. While it was creative, I'm glad I wasn't one of those affected. Then again, I use the new beta version of Blogger, which apparently wasn't affected. I hope this acts as a wake-up call of sorts for the team to get to work improving Blogger's way of life, so to speak.

That about rounds things up for the Geeky Guide on Google for now. Expect to hear from us by next week at the very latest!

[Google] Fun Finds for Everyone for Google Earth

Mike Yamamoto of CNet News.com is amazingly good at finding interesting pieces of information on the web. For this week, he's found a number of fun things for all you Google Earth users out there.

First up is The Ten Best Things You Can Do With Google Earth. This entry is particularly fun since it's structured like a sort of game you can do when you're really, really bored at home and have a broadband connection. It covers all the basics that everyone attempts like looking for your house and more unusual things like looking for the filming locations of your favorite TV shows and movies.

The other item noted this week is the Top Ten Coolest Things Seen with Google Earth, which is a really entertaining list that includes the Firefox crop circle and a couple of nude sunbathers caught with the Google tool.

The two sites put together sort of gives you a little scavenger hunt of easter eggs you might want to try finding. Who needs TV when real life can be even more entertaining, right?