The Smarmy Carny

Just like I posted last year, Google has again failed to come up with even a non-religious/bunny-oriented Easter Google Doodle to replace their standard logo.

Easter again fails to make the list, losing out to some popular holidays as well as some real off-the-wall ones. The holidays Doodled since last Easter are: "Season's Greetings" (not Christmas, of course!), Thanksgiving, Independence Day, St. Patrick's Day, the Olympics, New Year's, the Lunar New Year, the Persian New Years, the (always rousing) National Library Week, National Teacher Day, Mother's Day Father's Day, Earth Day, Halloween, the anniversary of the Lunar Landing, and the birthdays of Leonardo da Vinci, Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Braille, Martin Luther King, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Percival Lowell, and Google.

Then again, perhaps Google is just confused and celebrates Passover by "passing over" Easter every year.

Google announced Toolbar v2 for Firefox Fans yesterday morning on the Official Google Blog.

Google admits that the toolbar for Firefox includes different features than the toolbar for IE "because Firefox and IE users have different needs." I believe this to be a tip of the hat to Firefox users, inferring that Firefox users are the ones who want the "cool" stuff.

What does version two bring to the table?

• Feed integration — One-click feed subscription button
• Safe Browsing extension — Anti-phishing tool
• Send with Gmail button — Opens your Gmail any time you click an e-mail link
• Custom Layouts — You can choose to replace Firefox's search bar with the Google search bar and/or remove the toolbar completely.
• The Classics — Classic features return: SpellCheck, PageRank, Highlight, Word Find, AutoFill, AutoLink, and WordTranlator

I like the feed integration button because it lights up when a feed is available on a page and it works with multiple feed readers. Good bye, Bloglines toolbar button!

I'm unhappy with the custom layouts because the Google search is able to replace the Firefox search, but without any of the awesome multiple engine features. Google should know that this is one of the most valuable features in the Firefox browser! If anything, I would prefer an option to nix the Google search bar from the Google toolbar. I keep it around and use it for all my Google searches, though, because of the suggestion feature. I wish that Google could replace the Firefox search bar, retain the Google search bar features, and retain the multiple search engine feature.

Go get the Google Toolbar v2 for Firefox. The best part about this toolbar is that if you don't like a feature, you can usually disable it.

IE7's beta 2 preview has been released for public download, so long as you're using Windows XP SP2.

The beta boasts features such as tabbed browsing, toolbar search boxes, streamlined user interface, and instant RSS feeds . . . all items that I have been using with Firefox for well over a year.

Surprisingly, the developers bothered to listen to feedback posted on some sites such as Position Is Everything's "Explorer Exposed" page. Of course, the key word (their choice) was that they fixed most of the bugs posted there. They also enabled :hover on all elements, not just on <a> tags, which is welcome news to me.

All in all, reading through the changes, I am pleased that Microsoft has finally gotten on the ball, fixed some of their most heinous issues, and actually started conforming to standards, instead of expecting the standards to conform to them.

But still, so what? Even if IE7 is created equal to Firefox (which I am not going to claim), it won't matter for long, because Microsoft doesn't fix their bugs. Firefox bugs are fixed even before they can be exploited. Use Firefox, not Internet Explorer. End of story.

Google

Google has released the beta version of their instant messaging software, Google Talk.

They say talk is cheap. Google thinks it should be free. Google Talk enables you to call or send instant messages to your friends for free–anytime, anywhere in the world. Google Talk offers you:

• Choice: Get in touch over email, IM or a call
• Quality: Talk through your computer but hear your friends as if they were in the same room
• Convenience: Your Gmail contacts are pre-loaded into Google Talk so inviting or talking to your friends is just a click away

Google Talk is in beta and requires a Gmail username and password.

Newsmap screenshot

I StumbledUpon newsmap the other day, and it's quite intriguing. Newsmap is "an application that visually reflects the constantly changing landscape of the Google News news aggregator." What does that mean? I don't know. What I do know is that Newsmap allows you to look at news headlines in a completely different way.

As the default Newsmap setup appears, you see U.S. news stories appear in boxes all over your screen. The bigger the box, the bigger the news. The colors of the boxes tell you how old the story is as well as whether it is world/nation/sports/etc.

The Newsmap interface is somewhat customizable, too. At the top, you can add or remove countries. This brings up side-by-side comparisons of each country's news. It's interesting to see how high-ranking U.S. news sometimes falls by the wayside in other countries. You can also remove or add any of the seven news categories. I find that it's much easier to use with one or two categories selected because the headlines tend to get miniscule when so many stories are shown at once.

There are a couple additional features that I do not tend to use at all. In the lower left portion of the interface, you have the ability to look at the archives of Newsmap for up to a week ago. I can't see how this would be particularly entertaining unless you have read every article that comes up for the present time or if you are looking for a news story that was posted five days ago and no longer appears on today's Newsmap. One last feature toggles the view between "Squarified" and "Standard." Oddly enough, Standard is not the default. Go figure.

Now I'll just have to wait for Newsmap 3D.

Google

Just when I thought I loved Google Maps too much already . . .

SiliconValleyWatcher reports that Google is planning on using "lasers" (insert Dr. Evil finger quotations here) and digital photography to create realistic 3D versions of cities in the USA and abroad.

Of course, they are having trouble with exactly the problem that immediately popped into my head when I read about this project. The laser and photos are being blocked by vehicles and people. I'd imagine several blocks could be ruined if a bus gets between the truck and the target scenery. Ominously, the article notes that "Google wants to achieve results with a single run," which means they're looking for ways to avoid this problem. Perhaps two lasers . . . one that records the distances and such, and a first one that will slice through anything in the way, such as vehicles or pedestrians. Yeah, that's the answer. Or maybe they'll drive a double-decker bus around San Fran with the equipment on the top. How long before the equipment gets snagged off the roof by some low-hanging wires or bridges?

They say that they will create "a realistic 3D online version of San Francisco." I have no idea what "realistic" is, though. It's rather subjective to determine if something is realistic or not. How do you see "realistic" 3D pictures on a standard computer monitor? My guess is that you will be able to virtually navigate your way around the streets of San Fran. Perhaps there will be an option to watch your driving directions from point A to point B. We'll see eventually, I imagine.

Spaghetti Junction

Last month, I posted about Google Maps, Google's latest astounding innovation. Of course, we're all tempted to type in our home address and try and spot our house on the satellite images. Better yet, someone at work sent me a link for the Buffalo Bills' Ralph Wilson Stadium. Then, 1754blog.com posted an airplane graveyard.

This got me thinking . . . what else was out there to see on Google Maps? Surely someone had gone to some lengths to find some cool stuff. Sure enough, there are a few sites out there already that are dedicated to fun or interesting Google Map finds.

I really could list a dozen good sites there, but I'll limit my selection to one. My favorite site is Virtual Globetrotting, because it simply blows all the other sites away. That site uses screenshots liberally, which is very helpful.

If looking through Google Maps isn't geeky enough for you, you can start playing Scavengeroogle, a sort of scavenger hunt for a google map. They show you an image from Google Maps and give you one hint, and you try and find the image.

Here are a few of my favorite Google Map finds. There are plenty of other neat listings out there, too, but I'll leave it up to you to find them. Most of these were taken from perljam.net's Google Satellite Maps page. It seems to be the best comprehensive listing out there.

Natural Wonders

• Mt St Helens
• Glacier Bay
• Niagara Falls
• Crater Lake
• Red Rock Canyon

Man-made Structures

• Alcatraz
• Epcot Center
• Hoover Dam
• Mount Rushmore
• Rikers Island
• Monster Park with a San Francisco 49ers game in progress
• Evaporating Pools in Utah
• Statue of Liberty
• Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch
• WTC Site
• Barbara Streisand's Estate
  (Normally I wouldn't post this, but because of the Barbara Streisand debacle I felt obligated.)
• Government-related Structures
  • FBI HQ
  • Congress (Intentionally pixellated)
  • Washington Monument
  • White House (airbrushed roof)
  • NASA's Cape Canaveral Launch Pads
  • Area 51
  • Nevada Test Site

Curious Sights

• Airplane Graveyard (zoom in)
• Blimp (flying near Clearwater FL)
• Hollywood Sign
• Spaghetti Junction in Atlanta (Intersection of I-85 and I-285)
• Burning Man being set up
• Pac-Man Farm

Google Quirks

• Weather Shift in Utah

The Writing on the Wall

• Oprah Love in Arizona.
• We Honor Those Who Serve America, in Nebraska
• Picture This at the North Carolina Museum of Art
• Phoenix in Apache Junction (the directions are accurate, too!)
• Keep Your Forests Green on the Lucky Peak Dam in Idaho
• Escobar's Dairy Farm
• Dave's tag (and the associated story)