Posts Tagged
Google
The Mac.AppStorm team has done a great job over the past weeks rounding up the best in Mac news, giving our readers a great way to catch up on what’s happening in the world of Mac apps without having to stay glued to dozens of rumor sites. There’s been enough interesting web app news this week, I thought we could do the same thing over here at Web.AppStorm.
So, here’s a quick summary of the past weeks’ biggest web app news for your reading pleasure. We likely won’t do these posts weekly, but if you find it informative and enjoyable, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments at the end of the post!
The downfall of many new business and products is that the creators loved their idea too much. A quick search for failed tech products will reveal thousands of cool gadgets and gizmos that while awesome, clever and unique, never made enough sales to break even. The inventors loved their pride and joy so much that they assumed the rest of the world would care. But products can be like first-time parents showing off a snotty, crying bundle of burden.
Google has developed Google Consumer Surveys to help anyone decide whether or not to go ahead with an idea. By simply asking their target market “Hey, what do you think of this?”, business and individuals can act on information instead of blind ambition.
The name, however, makes Google Surveys seem like a half baked web app already replicated a hundred times over around the web. Maybe it’s something cooked up on an off-day at the Googleplex in California?
It has been a long time rumor that Google was going to release some kind of cloud stoage product akin to the likes of Dropbox or iCloud. It does make sense, after all; Google was the company that changed email by offering an unprecidented 1GB of storage for email all the way back in 2004- storage that they’ve been increasing steadily ever since. With Google Music, you get a crazy 20GB of space for your music. You can upload documents to Google Docs and store them forever. What about all files? Well last Monday Google officially launched Google Drive.
Before we get started, I’ve got to say that while I am a Google fanboy, I absolutely love Dropbox. I’ve been using it for a long time and have told lots of people about it as it’s definitely the best way to share files and folders. Let’s see how Google Drive stacks up against it.
Google+ has been going pretty strong since its launch back in June of 2011. In just a year, it amassed 170 million users — Google is obviously not going to give out the numbers of those who actually use the service, but they like to say 170 million do, so we’ll go with that. Today, Google announced that they are expanding the social network even more with lots of extra customization, a major redesign, better Hangouts, and more.
Not that Google+’s layout was terrible before, but Google thinks they can really enhance it by giving users some customization all around. For instance, with the redesign, you can now customize the new navigation bar on the left by simply dragging the apps around. If you don’t want to see one anymore, then just drag it to the animated “More” button to remove them. Read on for the other notable changes in Google’s redesign along with some opinion on the subject. (more…)
The options for your word processing, presentation making and spreadsheet creation needs have expanded significantly with the advancements of technology, both in native and web-based apps. The apps you need for your business work and more are available now not only on traditional personal computers, but also on mobile devices and the web. The two main options for document processing on the web are Google’s incredibly popular Docs app, and Microsoft’s version of Office inside SkyDrive.
In this article, we’ll be pitting them against each other to decide which is better, Google Docs or SkyDrive. Many web app users would be more likely to use Google’s apps, and often not even consider trying out Microsoft’s Office web apps. Instead of bringing company biases to the table, let’s take them each for what they offer, and let the best apps win! (more…)
Do you ever feel like you’re being followed, or watched? That tingling at the top of your spine, those sounds that you only half-heard but know were there, that whiplash that you get when you try to catch your stalker in the act; those are all natural feelings that we get all the time. Sometimes it’s nothing; a person happens to be walking in the same direction as you, or an alley cat is busy stalking through dumpsters for a half-eaten meal.
Other times someone is actually following you. Whatever their intent is, you go into survival mode, adrenaline pumping through your veins, heart beating in your ears. This is how you should feel when you browse the web.
It sounds simple: don’t be evil. How hard can it be, really? Don’t kill kittens. Don’t perform illegal acts involving chainsaws, guns, or exotic fruits. Easy.
For such a simple motto – slogan, really – Google seems to have been having difficulties with this lately. Has the omnipresent company grown from its don’t be evil roots, or are they as good-hearted as they’ve ever been?
In my last article, I talked about all of the advancements social media made in 2011. This included the launch and relatively quick rise of Google+, Google’s shiny new social network that allows people to connect, share, and even hangout (via video chat, that is). While Google did enter the social scene, however, their main function as a search company is still to disseminate information. Thus, it’s not surprising that Google+ has some nice built-in ways of doing this.
I know what you’re thinking. Obviously a social network can disseminate information. Just look at Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and every other social network out there. They all spread information- people post things for other people to read. But I think Google+ has a couple of extra layers that the other social networks don’t have. Let’s start with an obvious one: Circles.
2011 was a huge year for social media. Granted, since 2004 we’ve seen an explosion of social networks, an insane growth in Facebook users, and Twitter take on widespread adoption. More of my students are using Twitter today that in previous semesters.
But still, in comparison to other years, this year was huge for social media. Not only did Facebook and Twitter see massive changes, but we saw another big tech company enter the social media ring: Google. The big three are all moving decidedly in one direction: mobile.
That’s right! AppStorm has now landed on Google+ and will be delivering you app related goodness right to your Stream! We’re excited to let you know that now, in addition to Twitter and Facebook, you can get involved with Web.AppStorm over at Google+! We’ll be using Google+ to let you know about the latest app news, reviews, how-tos, and roundups. Read on to find out more…
