#16 Online Applications & Tools

This was an interesting project.

I created a spreadsheet in Google docs, andshared it with myself, using one of my other email accounts. This is actually pretty cool. I had no idea that this service existed.

I then moved over to Zoho, and - to be honest - was a little overwhelmed, there were so many bells and whistles on Zoho, I wasn't exactly sure where to even get started! Clearly, Zoho has a lot more functionality than Google Docs (for now, anyway), but it's kind of a double-edged sword - while Zoho does have the extra functionality, I think that Google Docs is a lot easier to use.

#14 Podcasting: something for everyone

This was really cool - I was aware of podcasts before we started this section, but I wasn't aware of the RSS angle. I have a couple of friends who do some podcasting, and what I'd been doing in the past is going to the website, checking for updates, and downloading the podcast to my desktop and listening to it from there.

I had no idea that, using RSS feeds, it's so easy to subscribe to cool podcasts and have them sent directly to my Bloglines and/or Google Reader account, where I can just click on a button and listen to them - without having to download them to my desktop and open them through iTunes. I really learned something w/ this section. Very cool.

#15 Search Engines

I use Google. ALl the time. I like Google. I have, from the very beginning. I remember when I began using Google - late 90s, or whenever they first got started. The simple, streamlined interface was (and is) a refreshing change from the confusing, overly busy, WTF interface of many other (some of them long-gone) search engines. Ask.com must like Google's interface, too - they've borrowed heavily from it. Here's a question for ask.com - "why did you get rid of Jeeves?" Jeeves was, potential Wodehouse-estate lawsuits notwithstanding, cool!

Anyway, I have been really impressed with the way, over the years, that Google has progressively supplemented their basic web-search capability. Google maps, newsgroup searches, blog searching, and Google Books are all features that I use regularly. Even though I have serious reservations about how Google has become the monolithic Wal-Mart of online information-seeking resources, I feel like their success is well-deserved. Sort of like Starbuck's.

Anyway, aside from those slight reservations about Google taking over the planet, I am 100% OK with Google. I just don't see anything at Yahoo or Ask that really even makes them much of a serious competitor to Google.

#13 Playtime with Online Image Generators

This was a lot of fun! don't have much more to add, but I especially enjoyed the Monopoly card generator!