To get anywhere across multiple transit providers here in the bay area you either had to have lots of time and a collection of transportation service maps or else use 511.org.

511 is a great mashup of data and would be noteworthy if it wasn't for the downright dispicable user experience it offered. And now Google as stepped in to fight the good fight for public transit. I noticed that I have a new link to click when a route is available on a public transit system.



Notice the little gasoline price calculation in the directions. It is pretty telling to see the price of gasoline calculated out on the page. If I didn't have to pick up Winston down in the south bay today, I wouldn't drive, but alas, the trains don't like dogs.


technorati: google maps, public transit

Created 10 weeks, 4 days ago

Ugh, someone got hold of my gMail account and now its SPAM city baby. I think gMail needs to buy an Ironport product or two.


Created 12 weeks, 6 days ago

Strange Google 403 page today when I went to iGoogle:






Created 14 weeks, 2 days ago

Everything that the Google search network knows about, or has known about.

Technically the GKU is measured in bytes. However the most familiar measurement of the GKU is in 's.

Knowledge existing outside of the GKU is theoretical. Scientists maintain that there may exist a time period between which knowledge is created and just before it enters the Google search network. Evidence proving the existence of this time period has not yet surfaced.

Certain web developers, designers and [cen. -ed] maintain that they work on projects ahead of the GKU, leaving all Known Universe beings to "eat their dust". [citation needed]

Created 14 weeks, 5 days ago

For heavens sake Google, give this widget a vacation! All I wanted was a simple random character string rendered as an image.



Created 16 weeks, 6 days ago

I posted a list of 'choice' videos submitted so far to the Gmail: A Behind the Scenes User-generated collaborative Video project, so go watch those first.

After you peep the good stuff, come back and peruse this short list of videos that I hope make it to the final movie just to prove that it is user-generated, in a good way.

You better believe that some of these require audio to be turned way up.












technorati: Gmail, Video, Behind the scenes, Youtube

Created 39 weeks, 1 day ago

If you saw my complaint about Google checkout not applying my $10 "Welcome to Google Checkout" bonus to my first order, you weren't the only one.

Someone from Google checkout saw it too, and they fixed it by giving me a $10 credit. Mind you this occurred without intervention from me, I just posted a rant, and somebody saw it and fixed it. I am still in shock. I also submit to you my response to Google checkout customer service after receiving my credit:

Google checkout team:

Wow.....(staggered pause)... WOW!

You took a $10 rant post and turned it into something amazing. Please understand that after dealing with promotions from Amazon, Yahoo! and paypal my entire onLife that you might see why I was more compelled to just bitch a little and accept my $10 loss rather than try to contact customer service to make things right.

This is an example of truly extraordinary customer service. This is customer service from the future.

I am you new #1 fan (less in the Kathy Bates/Misery way more Mark Wahlberg/Rock Star fashion).

- John Forsythe

technorati: Google, checkout, bonus

Created 57 weeks, 3 days ago

I was excited about using my $10 Google checkout bonus today at Buy.com but was surprised to find that a purchase I had made back on March 25, 2006 disqualified me for the $10 bonus.

What was my purchase made before Google checkout even existed (June 29, 2006)?

I was delighted to find it was a TV Episode I bought from Google video that I wanted to watch during a flight last year (which by the way I wasn't able to thanks to the Google video DRM requiring an Internet connection before it will play - no Internet, no play).

Hrumph.

technorati: Google, checkout, bonus

Created 57 weeks, 5 days ago

I received the following surprise while g-stringing for Austin hotels (screenshot below). I had a graphic icon in my familiar image-free ad-bar on the Google search results page.

Google included a small image indicating that a merchant has support for Google Checkout. I don't think I like where this is going. Stop, I want off.

If I have to live with this, at least lets go with a smaller Checkout icon. Something more discreet.

technorati: Google, checkout, search, ads



Created 63 weeks, 5 days ago

Friday night was the Google holiday party - "Googolympus ". It was lots of fun, good food and great drinks (anyone from the old gig will hopefully appreciate that). The hydraulic lowrider show by the Impalas Car Club was my favorite. The set was extremely well done. It was like a live-action video game, say from Grand Theft Auto or the like. This week is my companies holiday party. Look for pics from that next weekend.

Pics from Googolympus:


technorati: Googolympus

Created 74 weeks, 6 days ago

I was doing some searching on Google, specifically for the God Warrior movie clip, when Google stopped me from visiting a web site with this interstitial page:


I almost left the page thinking it was some sort of crazy spoof page. If it was a spoof of anyone other than Google, I would have. Because the G is close to my heart, I did some further research on this page and it turns out to be an official service that Google is now offering.

I wonder why the Google logo is so inconspicuous? If they wanted to imbue this page with trust they should lead with the Google logo. Or even better, wrap the page in one of the more recognizable Google page layouts that they use with the other Google services.

technorati: Badware

Created 75 weeks, 2 days ago

Hey YouTube... errr. Google! The 'Forgot Username' functionality has an problem. I got a nice little e-mail from your system this morning that reads:

YouTube™ – Broadcast Yourself

The following YouTube username is attached to this email address: . We hope this helps.

Thanks for using YouTube!

— The YouTube Team

To change or cancel your email notifications, go to your email options

Copyright © 2006 YouTube, Inc.

Seems like someone thought my email address was the one they used when they signed up with YouTube. I even got 4 copies of it. They were really convinced this was their e-mail address.

I love a good mystery, so I looked a little deeper. Was this Spam? Was this a phishing attempt? Nope, just a good ol' fashion hole. The kind that most web applications these days cover in day-1 of design requirements.

The functionality YouTube uses to send a reminder e-mail for a forgotten username just sends e-mail to whatever address is entered into the form field. If they have a username for it they just append it to the message.

And if they don't have an username on file, that's where the problem is. They don't suppress the message. They still send it... ugh. And with a fancy little blank area where the username is supposed to be. That is useful. And kinda rude.

1,650,000,000 dollars and it comes with holes. Oh, and if you received an e-mail from YouTube and you are a friend of mine, it was probably because I was testing the system.


technorati: YouTube, Google, exploit, problem


Created 82 weeks, 5 days ago

The X-Prize Foundation who offered the $10 million ANSARI X PRIZE for space flight now has a new competition to bring a 100+ mpg vehicle to market.

Sure sure, getting to space is tough. Creating a fuel-efficient vehicle is tough. But how about an even tougher challenge.

Have your web site be the #1 link result for the single keyword "google" using google web search from www.google.com.

That's tough.

Created 91 weeks, 2 days ago

I don't know long I have been missing the RSS feed for gmail. Unless a site uses the RSS/XML badge I don't typically see the alternate link rss available icon in firefox. It just isn't in a very useful location for however my brain works.

So, if there is RSS for gmail, how about Google calendar? Sure enough, the alternate link rss is available! Too bad it doesn't work for me. I get a 404 error for the service. I even tried a few variations on the path, no luck yet.

So, this sure gets me that much closer to finishing the pop connector.

I just checked Yahoo! mail, and they don't have RSS available. Although they do have a Add to My Yahoo service, maybe that is just an RSS feed? Ill need to do some investigation.

I also checked Microsoft live.com hotmail service and also no RSS. Bummer.

Created 98 weeks, 2 days ago

Well, because of some of my Google AdWords work, I think I earned myself an invite to Google Analytics. Over the years I have used lots and lots of analytics softwares. I use Urchin at work, it will be interesting to see how close the software still is after the Google purchase.

 

Created 109 weeks, 4 days ago

Sorry Google Addict, your login has expired. And try as you might, you cannot sign back in unless you open and close your browser a minimum of 100 times, make 200 attempts to sign in, and cross your fingers (sending money doesn't hurt either).

Fixing it might have something to do with shutting down Google Talk and turning off the feature to save your chat history in your GMail account. Whatever it was that got me signed back in, I'm glad that it is working again. It's shocking how dependant I am on the big G's services.

Technorati : Google, Google Homepage
Del.icio.us : Google, Google Homepage

Created 117 weeks, 3 days ago