Yesterday I changed my twitter username from @Mohamed_Meligy to just @Meligy. Why? I have been thinking about this step for a long time, as my tweets are relatively long, and when I want to to allow people to re-tweet. With my old username, I used to have to write at max 120 characters per tweet to allow re-tweet (leaving 20 characters out of the real 140 characters limit to “RT @Mohamed_Meligy: ”). With my new twitter username I can use up to 128 characters (leaving 12 for “RT @Meligy: ”). I know...
Some of you who use Firefox (FF) might know about a Firefox plug-in called “IE Tab” which allows you to view a page/tab using the Internet Explorer (IE) rendering engine INSIDE Firefox (so, if some page displays better in IE, you don’t have to leave FF and go open an IE window). Now, Google is doing something similar, but the other way around! Google has recently released “Google Chrome Frame”, a plug-in for IE that allows you to view a page/tab using the Google Browser “Google Chrome” rendering...
Use this link (http://www.google.com/appsstatus) to check the status of a Google service (like gmail, gtalk, etc..). Technorati Tags: google,service status...
Simplified (Inaccurate) Background About OpenID Some websites allow you instead of registering and logging-in (meaning re-entering the same information you entered before in so many other sites), to enter what is called Open ID URL, which is a URL given by a another website that you already logged in and has your information (called OpenID provider). Once you enter the URL and continue, you get redirected to the OpenID provider confirmation page whether you want to be able to login to the new website...
Bing is a new search engine from Microsoft that has been released exactly one month ago. During this month it has created a lot of buzz. Bing is advertised by Microsoft to be a “Decision Engine” and it seems like there is a general feel, or at least enquiry, about bing constituting serious competition to Google search. After reading Scott Hanselman’s recent blog post comparing Lenovo’s ThinkPad W700 with the W500, I decided to give bing a little try. Google VS. Bing I decided to use google-vs-bing.com...
Go to https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/10434 ( Update: This is the only official provider made by Microsoft itself)This is the URL I originally posted (from which the below screenshots come): https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/12205 - Of course you are recommended to go to the official URL above. Check “Let me install this experimental add-on” and click “Add to FireFox” Now the add-in is there. In the search bar, click the little triangle at the left and choose Bing. In...
If you are not on Twitter, let me spread this by @bing: Ladies and Gentlemen, www.bing.com is live. :) (rollouts will continue however to partners and other mkts, more to come) ^betsy Bing, if you don’t know, is Microsoft’s new search engine, also known as “Decision Engine” since it has features that help answer what you are wondering about rather than just display links. For those wondering about Live Search. I think I read somewhere that both search engines will remain there for a while, then Live...
Google Summer of Code (GSoC) is a global program that offers student developers stipends to write code for various open source software projects. We have worked with several open source, free software, and technology-related groups to identify and fund several projects over a three month period. Since its inception in 2005, the program has brought together nearly 2500 students and 2500 mentors & co-mentors from nearly 100 countries worldwide, all for the love of code. Through Google Summer of...
If you happen to be using Google search engine on Saturday am from 9:30 to 10:30 am, you probably got a warning which stated "this site may be harmful to your compute". My wife was doing a search and alerted me to this problem. What was weird was that I checked at 10:30 what was causing this problem for her and all went away at that time. Apparently there was a glitch that apparently occurred in Google's "Stop Badware" program. You can read more here. Technorati Tags: google...
I’ve been playing around a bit with Google Chrome lately. I switched back to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 as it answered a lot of the frustrations that I was having with Google Chrome (some key pages I like not rendering correctly). Though, when I switched one of my computer’s operating system to Windows 7 Beta 1, I was even more frustrated. The IE that came installed on Windows 7 was a less than superior IE than what I could download off of the Microsoft site. I tried to install the latest IE...
As some of you may know, Feedburner (http://feedburner.com) was acquired some time ago by Google… But they are now actively migrating their content to Google servers (http://feedburner.google.com) and I have taken the plunge… if you are having any problems with my feeds then please let me know so I can rectify it… If you have not yet taken the plunge it is a fairly simple process and should not impact your existing posts and URL’s… That said I can imagine that it is quite a complicated process behind...
New iPhone owners will commonly ask themselves how they can sync their Google Calendar with their iPhone calendar. Or maybe how to sync their Gmail or Google Reader items with their iPhone readers. If you do a web search you’ll find some applications that will actually do this, but don’t waste your time. You want to go to the source, straight to Google, instead of going to Joe Bob Simpleton who has written some half thought out iPhone app to sync these things. So here’s what you do: Turn on your...
Well, like most, I downloaded Google Chrome and gave it a whirl. So far, I like it. There are things that bother me - but overall - I like it. Here are some of my likes: It is faster. It does seem to deal with JavaScript quite a bit faster than other browsers. Pages load faster than before for me. This is probably the biggest plus of the whole thing really. The look and feel of the application is more modern looking (again, from my perspective) and it provides more real estate for browsing by default...
It is a VISUAL STUDIO 2005 PROJECT! Of course we're talking about the Windows version here :). See short note... More Information Source: CodeProject Lounge Post. Technorati Tags: Visual Studio,VS,VS 2005,Visual Studio 2005,Google Chrome,Google,Chrome,browsers Cross posted from weblogs.asp.net/meligy...
Download the BETA http://www.google.com/chrome More info on Google Blog: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/fresh-take-on-browser.html See this comic book about it too: http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome Technorati Tags: Google,Google Chrome,Chrome,Browsers,Firefox Cross posted from weblogs.asp.net/meligy...
Apparently Google sees the need to compete with highly popular Internet Explorer and Firefox according to this article. The product is called Chrome and it suppose to have a more sophisticated Web browser better suited for displaying the dynamic and interactive content blossoming on the Web. Today was going to be the release of the product but there is no official news from Google as to when we can look at the new browser. I'm not sure if we need another browser but like everyone else, I'll take...
The possible purchase of Yahoo by Microsoft is purely about taking on Google. I have to say with all the privacy concerns around Google and their lack of real success outside their core business this could be a serious challenge to them. Google's advertising model works by shear mass of subscribers paying very small amounts and this is how they have made their money. If this allows Microsoft to challenge the Google brand then I think that is good for the consumer and industry. However all Search...
We track statistics and demographics for Geekswithblogs.net using Google Analytics and I am very impressed with this product. However, due to the nature of our blog system, several bloggers want to track their information independently as well. To make this happen, I used a modification to the original Urchin code Google offered, but that recently quit working as they upgraded the codes they offer. So the upgrade of codes will most likely cause you to upgrade your code. Here are the steps to do it:...
I just took a 60 mile trip and was checking My Location on the Google Maps for Mobile. To my surprise, it was pretty accurate during the whole trip. The map would place me on the highway or within a 50 yards of the highway along the route. Another interesting detail, I didn't have to request the location all the time, the position would adjust as the car was moving - very much like the it does on the GPS. That brought an interesting thought - Now Google has not only the locations where their devices...
Today, Google made a new Google Maps for Mobile available on their site. The new beta version includes a My Location functionality that places your location on the map based on the information received from the cell phone towers. I've installed the app on my Blackberry Curve. The My Location function is great, even though it is not as good as a GPS. While in my office, Google Maps placed my location within around 100m of my real location. That was great. The neat trick is that positioning works even...
Gmail has added IMAP access. It does not show up in all the accounts, but it will be rolled out to all accounts in the next few days. https://mail.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=12760 You can configure IMAP on your iPhone too. https://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=77702&topic=12761 Anyway there is also a URL for mobile phones which is almost like the web interface. http://m.gmail.com Technorati Tags: Gmail , iPhone , IMAP , Mobile , Google...
Google has several products available to educators that you might find of interest to use yourself or with your students. Google is getting education friendly and now has a website for us to use. They have the tools categorized: Search, Communicate, show & share and newly featured products. I use some of these products and I'll share how I've used them. Under search you'll find book search. Google Book Search allows you to search the full text of our large and growing index of books, from popular...
Here is a simple example, lets try and find the following address: 240 St. Joseph Ave, 94115. Live Maps / Live Local / Local Live / Virtual Earth finds it with no errors or warnings. Yahoo Local Gets the right location after using the closest match "240 Saint Josephs Ave, San Francisco, CA 94115". Web 1.0 Mapquest can't find the address but it does suggests the correct location. Ask Maps & Directions can't find the address but focuses the map on the correct zip code. Google Maps can't find the...
Just read on the GPC Press Release site that Google is starting work on a new open source platform enabling all of its online apps to have offline capabilities. Sounds intriguing. Google Gears marks an important step in the evolution of web applications because it addresses a major user concern: availability of data and applications when there’s no Internet connection available, or when a connection is slow or unreliable. As application developers and users alike want to do more on the web—whether...
The last few days I've been playing around with Google docs. Its pretty neat. Its google's take on writely and irows both rolled into one. Its not bad, it also supports exporting the spreadhseet/document to popular document formats (e.g. xls, doc, pdf etc). tags: Google, Goolge Docs Cross-posted from tariqayad.com...
Notes on importing and exporting events between Outlook 2003 SP2 Calendar and Google Calendar. Exporting: You can export from Outlook to CSV. You can export from Google to iCal, XML, or HTML formats. Importing: You can import to Outlook from iCal format, but there are issues here:- If you use file->Import, no problem.- If you double-click the file, open it from IE, or drop the file onto Outlook, only the first item in the calendar will be imported. You can import to Google from CSV or iCal format....
I was checking my referer logs and came across this http://blogsearch.google.com/ Google has search dedicated to blogs - woah! when did that happen. Interesting! Technorati : blogsearch, google Cross-posted from tariqayad.com...
Ready for some feedback. Download the library and let me know what you think. There is a csharp winforms demo included that shows how to use the GSheet class that is contained in the dll. Contents of the zip: csharpDemo - Folder containing the csharp source code of the demo GoogleSpreadsheetsAPI.dll - Library containing the GSheet class. nsoftware.IPWorksSSL.dll - IP*Works! SSL library for communications code Update: Download it here, source included. Update 2: The library is no longer available....
Lots of people are talking about Google Spreadsheets. Yesterday I wrote some c# code to enable me to access my Spreadsheets account from my .net applications: a Google Spreadsheets API. So far I can authenticate, list all my existing spreadsheets, create a new spreadsheet, edit individual cells, delete a spreadsheet, rename a spreadsheet, import from a local XLS file, and export to a local XLS or CSV file. I will post some code later today. properties: string Email string Password string CurrentSheetKey...
Jayaveer has a sneak peak of Google Spreadsheets.Technorati tags: google spreadsheets ...
As if I didn’t think the Jakob was a big enough idiot (he is). He’s now saying that Search Engines are Leeches on the Web becasue the businesses that are found must *gasp* improve themselevs to compete with other businesses who can also be found through search engines. What next, man? A communist web so that all sites can be of the same economic ilk? Do nothing and you'll disappear when your competitors improve enough to easily outbid you and therefore consume all the space on the first...