Josh Young

Awesome new feature for Google Docs.

Now you set up a form that users can fill out that will populate a spreadsheet in Google Docs. Instead of sharing a spreadsheet, you can just set up the form and people can enter information that way.

Looks pretty cool. I’m already thinking of a few possibilities that this could be used for.

Do you have any ideas?

Official Google Docs Blog - Stop sharing spreadsheets, start collecting information

Everyone’s talking about Google’s new addition to Gmail today. They’ve added IMAP support.

What the heck is IMAP, you may ask? Well, let’s just say that it’s a very cool way to use e-mail.

Say you have an iPhone and a Gmail account. You’d like to be able to use the mail app on your iPhone, but you’d also still like to be able to login to Gmail when you’re at a computer and view it over the web. And you want them both to be the same (you’re awful demanding, aren’t you). So if you check a message on your iPhone, you want it to show that you’ve read it and/or moved it online too.

Well, with IMAP, that’s exactly what happens.

I could explain more, but why would I when so many other people have already done it? If you want to read the nerdy details, check out Wikipedia’s IMAP entry for more info.

Read more:

• Official Google Blog
• Lifehacker
• Ragamuffin Soul
• Leave it Behind
• Lifehacker (again)

Edit:

Here’s the video Jeff referenced below.

Yes, another Google post. I know, I know…I have other stuff to post, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. Soon.

I was doing some Google Reader-ing, and I came to a post by my favorite productivity blog, Lifehacker, where I learned that Google has officially added presentations to their docs suite.

I took it for a quick spin, and it’s not too bad. You can even have people join you online for the presentation. And it has chat built in to the side panel for just that.

Looks like an excellent way to collaborate on presentations or show some slides to an online audience (public or private).

Give it a try, and let everybody know what you think in the comments.

EDIT: Check out this great video that summarizes the benefits of using online document management services like Google Docs.

Google Docs (now with presentations)

Lifehacker - Launch: Google Docs Adds Presentations

Official Google Blog Announcement

Hallelujah! Google finally added a search function to Google Reader! RSS junkies rejoice!

There are even options to search all items, starred items, shared items, or items in a specific folder/tag or from a specific blog that you’re subscribed to.

This is a huge benefit if you’re ever searching for something that you know you’ve read before.

Kudos for Google to finally giving us what we’ve been asking for!

Google Reader

After frustrating me for some time with complex API’s and whatnot, Google has finally added the ability to easily embed Google Maps.

All you have to do now is find the map view you want to see, click Link to this page, and you can use the direct link for e-mail or IM or use the html embed code in your web page or blog post. You can even customize the map you want to embed by clicking on Customize and preview embedded map and choosing a few options. It literally couldn’t be any easier.

Here’s an example that took me around 10 seconds to do:

View Larger Map

Googles Maps has made some great updates lately. Two that are extremely useful are the ability to drag your route to modify it and the ability to add a location to your directions if you don’t know the address but do know where it’s located on the map.

To show you these new features, Google has put together this short video. Enjoy!

Thanks to: Lifehacker

Google Docs & Spreadsheets just got a new look and some new features.

Now you can organize your documents in folders, and when searching for a document, it dynamically suggests a query from your document collection.

Plus, as they put it on the Official Google Docs & Spreadsheets Blog, another new feature is simply “Looking Pretty.” And I agree. It does look better.

Read more about it on the Official Google Docs & Spreadsheets Blog, or take Google Docs & Spreadsheets for a spin yourself. All you need is a Google account, and if you don’t have one yet, then get on the ball!

Shock of all shocks.

Google has bought yet another awesome service that I already use.

If you haven’t used Feedburner before, I encourage you to check it out. It makes things very simple, like podcasting and letting your users subscribe via e-mail instead of RSS, plus they keep things nice and tidy for you.

Google buys Feedburner [via Official Google Blog]

Google has added the ability to embed a flash slideshow of any of your Picasa Web Albums with just a couple clicks.

It’s not the fanciest thing I’ve ever seen, but if you’re looking for a quick flash slideshow of some images with built-in controls and captions (if you want them), then check it out. One thing I wish it would do is loop the slideshow…as of right now, it just ends. Booooring.

Official Google Blog - Oh, the places you’ll go…

Here’s a sample using some pictures showing the progress of our new house when get got it last year.

Sweet.

Google just completely redesigned Analytics. I love that they keep making their free stuff even more cool and more useful.

Over the next month, everyone with an Analytics account will get migrated to the new server, and for a month you’ll be able to access both the old and the new versions without any interruptions. In the meantime, they’ve set up a tour of what the new interface looks like. It’s killer.

Read about it on the Official Google Blog.

View the demo of the new interface.

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