Get Rid of Huge Files in Gmail

23 Oct ’11 • Technology • by
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If you are pushing the limits of your alotted Gmail disc space, here is a handy widget that can make finding those huge emails easy. Find Big Eamil is a simple web based widget for Gmail to help you get rid of those 3 year old emails with EPS attachments that are collecting digital dust.

Basically, you just submit your Gmail address to the site and Find Big Email does a one time scan of your Gmail account email account. From a security POV, it doesn’t ask you for your password. I don’t know the technical way it is able to scan your Gmail account, but I have not had any issues. More details on security questions related to the service can be found here and here.

Anyway, the one time scan then creates a set of labels based on the different file sizes of your emails and it creates some custom labels (Biggest, > 2MB, > 500kb, > 100kb) using Gmail’s advanced label/search functions that then populate your label list. Go to those labels and all the emails that meet those size criteria are listed right there for you to see. From there, delete away and clear out your digital email attic. The nice thing is that if you ever start to encroach on your disc space limitation sometime in the future, just click on one of these labels (“Biggest” emails or emails over 2MB) and all of those emails will be there to pick off and delete.

Google Is Seeking Alpha

19 Jul ’11 • Technology • by
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Google is taking a sliver of its vast wealth ($33 Billion in cash on hand, I read recently) to search high and low for the “next big thing” out there. And at no surprise to this author, it is using algorithms and data sets to help it guide where it invests.

Google says the algorithms have taught it valuable lessons, from obvious ones (entrepreneurs who have started successful companies are more likely to do it again) to less obvious ones (start-ups located far from the venture capitalist’s office are more likely to be successful, probably because the firm has to go out of its way to finance the start-up.)

If I were them, I’d look at ways to improve battery life, remove our dependence on wireless carriers and cable companies, and develop a legitimate flux capacitor to promote time travel (ok, one of those is a joke).

Via NYTimes.com

Hangout With Customer Service

18 Jul ’11 • Business • by
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Michael Dell posted that he was intrigued and interested in having Dell try to use Google+ Hangouts for customer service.

The reaction to his post was overwhelmingly positive, with hundreds of comments agreeing that this would be a good idea for Dell. And the idea is indeed intriguing: Some customer service needs are very similar, so having a service representative talk to a small group of customers at the same time could be more economical than the traditional one-on-one call. Using video could also humanize tech support, and group settings could even initiate self-help between customers.

I think the service that could be delivered by features like Google Hangouts is very interesting, however I’m really not sure if I’m prepared to see a video of the service rep staring at me from my desktop. I don’t mind them taking over my desktop (a la GoToMyPC) to solve the problem but video seems a little too personal in this situation/user experience.

mr_men_google

Mr. Google

9 May ’11 • Internet • by
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76th Birthday of Roger Hargreaves: Mr. Funny

I just love this Google doodle today.

Mr. Men is one of the most unsung comic efforts of all time.  Back in October, I had posted about caricatures of the Mad Men cast depicted as Mr. Men.

December Birthdays

13 Dec ’10 • Society • by
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Great and very well researched infographic detailing the downfall of having a December birthday. And why do I blog this? Well, I am a December child. Birthday was yesterday – 12.12.10.

Via BuzzFeed.

Googleheim Museum

24 Aug ’10 • Culture • by
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Google is taking its popular site YouTube to NYC’s Guggenheim Museum.  The search company will set up shop in the Guggenheim’s main atrium with all sorts of TV and video displays promoting the finalists from a recent promotion they ran.

The exhibition, set for October, will showcase videos from as many as 20 finalists of YouTube Play, a contest for graphic artists and users of Googles GOOG video site. A celebrity jury that includes Japanese pop artist Takashi Murakami and The Wrestler director Darren Aronofsky will wade through about 200 videos whittled down from thousands submitted in July.

The goal of this initiative is to try to re-position YouTube as a site/service that can cater to a more upscale, arts driven clientele and move it beyond the perception that its content is, er, lowbrow.

Gmail Gets a Contact Manager

11 Aug ’10 • Internet • by
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Its about time! Gmail finally improves its Contact area. It just got pushed to my Gmail and I have to say its far better than what they used to have there.

Posted via email from my Posterous account
via mashable.com

Keep Your Distant Facebook Friends

16 Jul ’10 • Culture • by
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Interesting article about how keeping Facebook friends you have not spoken to in 25 years is a benefit to your real life social standing and social interactions.

A decades-old insight from a study of traditional social networks illuminates one of the most important aspects of today’s online social networking. In 1973, sociologist Mark Granovetter showed how the loose acquaintances, or “weak ties”, in our social network punch far above their weight in their influence over our behavior and choices (American Journal of Sociology, vol 78, p 1360). Granovetter found that a significant percentage of people get their jobs as a result of information provided by a weak tie. Subsequent studies have revealed that weak ties benefit our health and happiness. Granovetter suggested that this is because these friends-of-friends aren’t like you, yet they are likely to be similar enough in social outlook and personal interests to have a positive influence.

The article goes on to talk about how the explosion of everyone’s “loose network” of friends and acquaintances that are connected via social networks will create profound effects on social evolution. A study cited in the article from Cornell University stated that those who more frequently shared information online were more likely to be liked and to “win people over” in real life.

The most interesting element for me is how everyone’s ever expanding social network will prompt people to go to their network first for information, references, advice, support, and referrals. This is one of the main reasons why Google is so concerned about the ever and rapid influence of Facebook as a “go to” source of information over Google’s search engine.

All these social networks are a sociologist’s wet dream!

Oh, the Humanity

25 May ’10 • Internet • by
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The interactive Google Pacman logo that celebrated the game’s 30th anniversary pretty much crushed productivity in the US on Friday.  Using some pretty straight forward calculations , its been estimated that a collective 4.82 million hours were waisted on Friday playing the game on Google’s homepage.  I’ve wasted two posts on the topic! Now get back to work!

Google Punts On Selling Nexus One

14 May ’10 • Internet • by
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Reality has hit Google again as they finally admitted defeat on trying to sell its Nexus One phone directly from its site and bypassing its wireless carrier partners.

Posted via email from Stephen’s Posterous

Flash Forward

1 May ’10 • Internet • by
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Here is a really interesting take on Apple’s recent war on Adobe and their Flash platform by Charlie Stoss (whom I’m not at all familiar with, but has written a nice piece here).  His basic take is that the PC industry is in a death spiral (true), wireless broadband and the reality of SAAS/Cloud computing is here, and the companies that will be relevant in this new world order will be the ones that are able to control the delivery (sales) channel and sell the applications/software.  In order for Apple to be relevant today and in the future, they can not afford to support a cross platform solution like Flash.

Apple are trying desperately to force the growth of a new ecosystem — one that rivals the 26-year-old Macintosh environment — to maturity in five years flat. That’s the time scale in which they expect the cloud computing revolution to flatten the existing PC industry. Unless they can turn themselves into an entirely different kind of corporation by 2015 Apple is doomed to the same irrelevance as the rest of the PC industry — interchangable suppliers of commodity equipment assembled on a shoestring budget with negligable profit.

There is a massive steel cage death match going on in the tech world between Apple, Google, along with HP (now that it has Palm OS) and Microsoft.  Microsoft’s head is so “in the clouds” they are rapidly becoming the Sears of the technology world and on the fast track to being “Walmarted” by Google.  They won’t know what hit them until its too late (if that has not happened already).  From its very early years Apple has always been one to have tight controls over its ecosystem and we are starting to see Apple’s transformation from a PC maker to a platform developer.  They acquired Lala recently and just today, I received an email from them saying that they will be shutting their doors.  Why shut such a great service?  So Apple can seamlessly integrate it into iTunes, put all your music on the cloud, and turning a desktop app into software as a service that Apple can use to charge a monthly/annual fee.   Take this model and scale it to everything Apple does.  This is where it is going.  With all the rapid changes taking place around media, data, technology and how people consumer information, it will be very interesting to see how this all nets out.  The big wildcard in all of this?  Google and its Android/Chrome OS.

Posted via email from Stephen’s Posterous

Top O The Mornin

17 Mar ’10 • Culture • by
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HAPPY ST. PATRICK”S DAY!! Love the logo change over at Google!

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