Google Voice really didn’t add anything new other than some interface modifications and instructions for mobile users, however it does bring the service one step closer to perfection. Here’s why: Most people are not going to spend the time figuring out how to forward their cell phone voice mails to Google Voice, but a few clicks gives you the exact sequence to type into your phone for your carrier.

Forwarding your cell phone calls to Google Voice for Voicemail enables voicemail transcription as well as the visual voicemail style audio file in an email message. If you have a smart phone such as a blackberry with the Google Voice application already installed, this just adds to the benefit. Now I am down to two voice mail boxes: Email and work. As soon as work converts to VoIP I suspect I can consolidate that to email as well.

The perfect Google Voice feature would be the ability to port an existing number to them. My home phone, for example, I have had for over 6 years. Everyone knows it and I don’t want to change it. I have ported that number from Verizon to Lingo to Packet 8 and then to ViaTalk. The problem is that each move is a time commitment. Each one had a year contract, but more importantly they had my phone number. If I could port my number to Google Voice, then I would have much more flexibility to try new services or multiple services, or even replacing the home phone with a cell phone. In the case of a cell phone though I would not want to commit my home phone number to it. With Google Voice I could simply forward my permanent number to which ever service I wanted to use at the time. Suddenly I could become completely carrier neutral. If I wanted to use MagicJack for a few days I could do that then switch back to ViaTalk, or even get a land line.

I believe that centralization of voice communication is the goal here, and as soon as I’m able to port my number to Google Voice they will have reached that goal.

This topic has been debated for many years with pontificators claiming that the appliance computer had arrived, yet we still see tremendous progress in processor speed and capability, hard drive space, video cards, and so on. I have usually disagreed with these statements, instead believing that software and people’s desire for and immersive and fluid computing experience, would continue to drive technology beyond the appliance stage. I will now join the ranks and claim that the appliance computer is at hand, however I do not believe that it will take over the computer market. Instead I believe that it is targeted at the next tier of potential Internet users. Three legs of the appliance computing platform now exist – enough to make the platform able to stand on its own. This article discusses the three legs that exist now and the fourth that will complete this platform and usher in the era of appliance computing. Read the rest of this entry »

This is not an online marketing blog, or anything of the sort, however my experience with promotion over the past few months has taught me a few things and given me the motive to try some new things. I thought I would share some experiences and get any advice that anyone might want to share. There are several things I have tried:

• Entrecard
• Adwords
• Adbrite
• ProjectWonderful
• Traffic Exchange
• Amazon Mechanical Turk

This is just a very informal and non-scientific review of what I’ve done and my perceived benefit to the blog. Read the rest of this entry »

I saw this a few places, but a good writeup about it on Veritablelife blog. I wrote a previous post about the things I liked and disliked about the browser, and this has to top the list of dislikes. I think that the EULA is completely unenforceable, however I am not a lawyer and I wouldn’t want to have to fight a corporation like Google about it. The reason I’m not worried about this at all is that Google would be plain stupid to actually try to enforce this or steal someone’s content just because they used Chrome to enter it. Can you imagine the amount of negative publicity surrounding such a move? There’s already enough of it out there about the EULA itself.

Just give it a little more time and Google will have developed an EULA specifically for Chrome that is more sane. Even Google doesn’t bother reading these things before they go out, they just copy and paste, so I’m surprised so many users did as well.

I have been testing Google’s new Chrome browser, and there are many things that I like about it. If you haven’t heard about it by now, you should have. They made a cute little cartoon to describe the differences in their browser and why they feel it is necessary to have yet another browser. My summary of the positive points are as follows in order of importance.

1. Tab isolation. Independent processes for each tab means is that each tab runs isolated from every other tab. It has happened to me too many times where I’ll be writing a blog post and doing things in other tabs and suddenly the browser locks up. The vast majority of the time it is Adobe that does it, but that’s beside the point. Fortunately WordPress and many web based email clients now automatically save drafts periodically to prevent a total loss when this happens. Still, this is a big advantage for a web browser.
2. Speed. This is especially apparent on Google’s websites, but I did notice speed improvements elsewhere. Part of this is due to the independent processes since one tab won’t block another one. Part of it is due to Google’s Javascript engine V8.
3. Sanity. The autocomplete feature. You have to see it in action to believe how much better it is than what you are used to.
4. The pop-up blocker is not over-protective, yet still blocks popups from view until you want to see them. Some websites still require popups in order to function properly.
5. The interface is natural and extremely flexible. You’ll find yourself moving tabs and windows around like never before. It almost feels like you are in a sci-fi movie manipulating a futuristic computer screen. This is another one where you won’t realize how useful it is until you actually try it.

Now for the summary of negative points in order for me.

1. Bugs. Ok, well maybe I should say bug because I have one that really annoys me. I have a Synaptics touchpad on my laptop and I use the right side as a scrolling area. This action works everywhere except on Chrome. It will scroll down, but will not scroll back up. Until that is fixed the browser is a little annoying to use.
2. Plugins. One of the reasons my Firefox browser is slower than Chrome is because of all the plugins I’ve added into it. There is a reason why I haven’t uninstalled them to make Firefox go faster, and that is because I like them. So it makes Chrome go backwards a little to lose this functionality. Some of my favorite plugins will probably never be supported or ported to Chrome – unless it becomes at least as popular as Firefox.
3. Security. It is a new product and crackers haven’t had a chance yet to do much in the way of independent vulnerability testing. There are sure to be some flaws that can be exploited, and it remains to be seen how responsive Google will be to fixing those and/or alerting the public. I haven’t used it yet for my bank site. I will give it a bit longer for that.
4. Memory requirement. Not so much of an issue for me because I have a good amount of memory on my computers, but it is a concern. When each tab is a separate process that can add up to extra memory requirements. I see this more of an issue on slower/older computers or UMPCs where memory is usually smaller.
5. Compatibility. I haven’t found a site that didn’t look good enough to use yet, however the fact that they emphasized this problem in their cartoon makes me worry that something won’t show up right. Still, they do more testing internally than anyone else except Microsoft is doing. Everyone else relies on the community to test for them.

Some of those negative points were a stretch. You’ll have to check it out for yourself!

UPDATE 11/08/2008: Google updated Chrome to fix the scrolling bug with the Synaptics Touchpad!