Okay, sorry I missed yesterday on my list of Google products to test.  I have to admit I’m turning into somewhat of an Apple junkie.  With the release of Apple’s iPad yesterday I got a bit sidetracked.  I don’t know if it’s the form or the function I love best about Apple products, but they catch my eye.  Having said that I do seem to have a certain monetary threshold for my addiction.  I ponied up for the iPod, the iPhone and Apple TV but I just can’t seem to buy a Macbook when I can get a rather nice HP Notebook with a large screen for a third of the price of a Macbook.  Who knows, maybe the iPad will be my first step towards a bigger Mac machine. I am finding the price of the iPad a bit daunting even though they noted the price as a selling point, it’s hard to pay that much for a non-vital piece of hardware.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m dreaming up uses for the thing as we speak but we’ll have to see if I can actually justify it.

Now to get back focused on the reason of this posting I do have an interesting antidote about Google products.  I think I fairly open minded about trying new technology, so I’ve been trying to use the Exchange to search for messages and the Windows search to search for files.  I’ve got to say that I find using these tools like showering with my shirt on.  It just doesn’t feel quite right and I’m never really sure about the results.  I finally got fed up with it the other night and went back to using Google Desktop.  I think we’re pretty safe at saying up until Bing that Microsoft just has not understood search.  I don’t think I’m going out on a limb here, but time after time I’ve been disappointed by Microsoft search results.  On more than one occasion I’ve been forced to use Sharepoint as a corporate web site.  If you’ve ever used this you know the search and menu system suck to put it bluntly.

I was in the need to get my 1099 information to my accountant and was busily searching nook and cranny for information and finally got fed up.  It took me a few seconds to remember that Google is a web company and that the interface is of course any browser.  It doesn’t even have to be Chrome, I can continue to use my beloved Firefox browser and all is right with the world.  I can search Google and or my desktop to find content.  It was like riding a bike, within minutes I was back in the saddle searching and “Finding” content I needed.   Chalk one up for Google Desktop.

One complaint that I do have about Google Desktop and it seems like Google products in general is that they are a bit too minimalistic.  I mean can you think of images that represent their products?  Microsoft has it’s colored flag, Office has it’s puzzle pieces, Apple has an…wait for it…apple on ll it’s products.  What does Google have to represent their products or even Google as a brand, two O’s possibly.  I was looking for an image to liven up the post as images catch the eye better than text and what could I really use, the icon?

When I’m wrong, I’m wrong.  I just wrote a post about Google Books and it’s limited appeal.  As I was looking into Google Books further I found a link to a whole raft of users experiences with Google Books where they discovered things from, “roller-skating teddy bears to flesh-eating bacteria.”  Check out their stories at http://books.google.com/intl/en/googlebooks/userstories.html.

While I may have been mistaken about the usefulness of the product I think my initial summary will hold true.  I can’t see me going back to the site again and again.

My Month-long Google Products Experiment: Google Books

Now were on day three of our Google Products experiment.  To give a quick recap of what we’ve covered thus far, day one saw us revisiting Google Alerts.  I’ve got to say that I’ve actually anticipated checking my email each day.  I might mention that this has been one of my Gmail account.  Now before anyone starts crying foul I’ve had a gmail account for three or four years and never used it.  I got it first as it was something new but didn’t like using it and still don’t, but we’ll save the details of that for another day.  It was quickly abandoned in favor of my Yahoo Mail account.  I kept the Gmail account as a spam catcher and it’s remained that way until this day.  Anyway, I digress.   The point is that I’ve actually been interested in checking my mail to see just what Google Alerts had scrounged up for me today.  So far Google Alerts have kept my interest.

Next up was Google Blog Search.  As opposed to Google Alerts I don’t feel the same excitement to revisit the Blog Search.  It seemed superfluous the first time I used it and I still feel the same way today.

Now for today’s product to evaluate, we’ll take a look at Google Books.    At first glance Google Books looks like a ho-hum portal for Jr. Highschool book reports.  I see old copies of Life Magazine, never-before heard of “classic” books and old rag magazines about Don Cheadle.  Yawn…  Maybe it’s me, maybe I just don’t get it.  Maybe it’s the same reason I don’t own an Amazon Kindle or read books on my iPhone.  I never want to read an entire book on line.  Reading is a sacrosanct act for me and you just can’t beat a physical, tangible book in your hands and the smell of a new book.

There’s got to be something more behind having these books online.  I don’t think Google would go through the effort to create and maintain the site without a reason.  I dug deeper and scrolled to the bottom for the About Google Books link.  Here Google provides five reasons why the have added these resources to the internet.

1. Search:  This makes sense for all those jr. high school book reports, little Jonny needs a resource to quote.
2. Browse Books Online:  Let me drop my smug persona (we write what we know, right)  for a bit and I guess I can imagine that there are people unable to visit their local library or afford to purchase all the standard classics for themselves.  This could be a dream come true for many people to have access to all these tombs.
3. Learn More–Fast:  Not only have they made it possible for little Jonny to read all about Don Cheadle, they’ve provided all sorts of meta data about each work like references and maps. Okay, that’s a good thing too….I guess.
4. Buy the Book …or Borrow it from the Library:   Ah  now we’re getting somewhere.  We can actually purchase the magazine about Don Cheadle.  At last!  Surely I jest, I’m a proud American capitalist, why else would I be writing this…;-)  We can leave number four without mentioning the last part of this item, the … borrow it from the Library portion.  Now I this is a great tie in, I love it when something serves more than one purpose.
5. Where do the Books Come From:  This is the kick for me or what makes the whole thing worth while.  I love libraries and history, this project is joining the two for the best of both worlds.  In number five Google tells us where the books come from and about their Partner Program and the Library Project.

Overall Grade: C

Pros: Documenting some of the best works for all time.  Making content available to millions of people around the world.

Cons: I have to read about Don Cheadle. ;-)  I don’t like to read books on-line.  What’s the longevity of this product for me.  Honestly I’ve never used it before and will probably never use it in the future.  I have many of these works available for me for free as well on my iPhone but I don’t read them there either.

As always when I help a customer work on their search engine optimization I evaluate their business and try to find some useful links to help build up their page rank. We try to look at only the best sites that have quality content. Here are a few for Trade Show Booths I found while researching for http://www.kmgcompany.com who carries the Entasi Display Booths and many other great products.

The Entasi display system is the most convenient and complete product in the portable display industry. This one-of-a-kind display system combines the benefits of a sturdy aluminum frame, high quality Photo Fabric graphic, and numerous accessories in a creative eye-catching design. With so many benefits, It’s easy to see why Entasi is the hottest display product on the market.

Google Page Rank 4
http://nomadicdisplay.typepad.com/
http://www.skylinetradeshowtips.com/
http://blog.moddisplays.com/

Google Page Rank 3

http://www.trade-show-marketing-blog.com/

http://www.impact-displays.com/trade-show-blog/index.php

http://www.thetradeshownetwork.com/trade-show-blog/

http://www.godfreygroup.com/blog/

Google Page Rank 2

http://www.classicexhibits.com/tradeshow-blog/
http://www.smashhitdisplays.com/blog/

http://www.exhibitresources.com/blog/

My Month-long Google Products Experiment: Google Blog Search

Last week I was the lucky winner of a back operation that I needed to take care of a few herniated disks.  This left we with some time on my hands as the doctor advised against much vigorous activity.   That and the operation itself left me to build my own pulpit to talk about what’s on my mind.  My idea was to take a different Google Product each day and try to use it throughout the day to see if it was something I wanted to continue doing.  Sort of a daily challenge.  The last episode had me reviewing Google’s Alert tool which I found to be more intriguing than I had first thought and may be a tool I add to my permanent arsenal.

In this continuing webisode of my experiences using Google Products for a month I’ll be looking at Google’s Blog Search.  At first glance the Blog Search seems pretty much like a non-event.  It appears to be just Google Search and Google News mashed up.  However to do my due diligence in reviewing the tool I tried one of my favorite search terms. Call  me narcissistic but who doesn’t like to Google oneself?  I tried the term Utah Semantic Markup.  Remember the old adage that you never try something in a demo that you haven’t done before.  Alternatively you never ask a question that you don’t know how the person will answer.  Well, I thought I knew the answer to this question but was surprised.

When I did a Blog search for the Utah Semantic Markup term I saw none of the results I expected.  I wasn’t there, even though I’d spent countless hours designing and developing my site to be the premier site for semantic markup in Utah.  At this point I knew they must be querying different datasources as I was no where to be found.  Kudos goes to Google for putting a Web Search right next to the Blog Search so you can see the differences.  A quick search for Utah Semantic Markup sure enough showed Half Nut Development as the top result in my Google Search.

Now I know Google knows about my blog as it’s rescued me several times before I found a good back-up tool, but the search didn’t seem to know about me.  I then searched for some documentation as to just what is being indexed in the Google Blog Search.

At the bottom of the first search page is a link for documentation or about the Google Blog Search.  In this document there is a FAQ that asks my question which was what blogs are being indexed?  Google says, “The goal of Blog Search is to include every blog that publishes a site feed (either RSS or Atom). It is not restricted to Blogger blogs, or blogs from any other service.”

Not having been a big fan of RSS feeds I don’t have one on my site.  This also tells me why my results aren’t showing up in the Blog Search.  In essence I’m missing out on any searches done with Google Blog Search.  In order to  fix this I made a mental note to setup my RSS feed in Wordpress.  I also found a simpler more lazy option which works for me as a programmer. I can go to http://blogsearch.google.com/ping to manually add my site to the search.  Now the test will be how long will it take to index my blog.  If past results are any indicator then I expect to have it within the week if not sooner.

As mentioned above much of the content we have or want to wade through may seem trivial but one feature of the Google Blog Search helps to filter the data we must slosh through.  They have links on the left-hand side to filter content according to time, by the last hour, last 12 hours, last day, week, month or anytime.  Alternatively you can choose a specific date range with the help of a handy pop-up calendar.

Overall Grade: C

Pros: Great at limiting search to blog content only.

Cons: I think the reasons why the tool is good is also the reason why I wouldn’t use the product.  How often would I mentally say I just want to search blog content.  This is the opposite of what I expect when I come to Google or any other search engine.  I want it to find what I’m looking for regardless of where it’s at.  I understand for Google and from a technology standpoint it makes sense to filter the content to reduce the quantity of content to search through, but it will take a great user interface to make it usable by the masses.