Alright Google, cut to the chase. Don't make me search for anything anymore!

As I'm sure you've already heard, Google announced Google Instant (Search). If you haven't seen it in action yet, it's a must see for anyone who ever searches the web. In real time they return results based on the few letters that you've typed. Google claims that you can save a few seconds per search which can add up over time. While I think it's cool, I'm here to say that instant search results don't cut it anymore, dudes at the Googleplex...

Google's next big announcement needs to be that I no longer have to even search. Sure they already index the web in real time, they let me search for graphics and videos and now I can see results before I even finish my thought but what I'm looking for are results before I even have the thought. Google knows enough information about me that I want to wake up in the morning and have them share with me what I'm going to search for that day.

Now that Google owns ITA they can share with me that I'm going to need to go to Tel Aviv next month and the best deals on the airlines that I like to fly (they know this because they have my email and chat conversations). Because I text through Google Voice, they should also know that my water heater broke and I should see some Google Local listings that share the best repair guys in my area (with Latitude, they know exactly where I am anyway). And finally, since they have YouTube, I should see movie listings around my date nights (that they know of because of Google Calendar) based on the trailers that I've watched and then shared with my family and friends.

All of this is just right around the corner. I for one can't wait till they put all of my data to good use and cut out the need to think for myself altogether. What do you think? What will you do with all of your newfound free time?

Want to customize Google Apps a bit more? Add links!

When we started looking at Google Apps for our domain there was one thing that stood out that always irked me.  There was very little space for domain wide customization.  Sure, Google is working on making it easier with a new user management tool, widgets, etc but something as simple as quick links to our other services were no where to be found.  After searching high and low, I came up with this solution and I hope it can help you out too.

The very first link we wanted in Google Apps was one to Postini, one of Google's own services for anti-spam.  It's no where to be found in the web interface and yet people need access to it every day.  This is where a bit of hacking came into play.  I popped over to the Apps Marketplace (Google's new playground for third party developers).  I paid the $100 to publish an app and began working on my non-app-app -- I'll explain that in a bit.

Go ahead and login to the marketplace and get over to your Vendor Profile so you can "Create a new listing".  Make sure "My product may be directly installed into Google Apps domain" is checked off.

Choose a category (it doesn't matter which one), fill in a name, a summary and a full overview (again, these don't matter either) and put something into the "Pricing Summary" box.  I typed, "It's free because it's mine" but you can enter anything you want.

Next it where the real process happens.  Copy the code below into the "Manifest" box:

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<ApplicationManifest xmlns="http://schemas.google.com/ApplicationManifest/2009">

  <!-- Support info to show in the marketplace & control panel -->

  <Support>

    <!-- URL for application configuration, accessed from the app settings page in the control panel -->

    <Link rel="manage" href="http://www.example.com/google/admin.php?domain=${DOMAIN_NAME}" />

    <!-- URL explaining how customers get support. -->

    <Link rel="support" href="http://www.example.com/google/support.php" />

    <!-- URL that is displayed to admins during the deletion process, to specify policies such as data retention, how to claim accounts, etc. -->

    <Link rel="deletion-policy" href="http://www.example.com/google/deletion-policy.php" /> 

  </Support>

  <!-- Name and description pulled from message bundles -->

  <Name>Links - LiveMeeting</Name>

  <Description>A simple application for testing the marketplace</Description>

  <!-- Show this link in Google's universal navigation for all users -->

  <Extension id="navLink" type="link">

    <Name> ✮ Some Cool App Here</Name>

    <Url>https://www.somerandomapp.com/someotherdir/</Url>

  </Extension>

  <!-- Declare our OpenID realm so our app is white listed -->

  <Extension id="realm" type="openIdRealm">

    <Url>http://www.example.com</Url>

  </Extension>

</ApplicationManifest>

There are only two areas you need to be concerned about for our purposes.  The first <Name> to </Name> section is what shows up in the Google Apps admin panel.  I recommend calling it something that you'll remember later.

The second area, <Extension id=navLink" type="link"> is where you fill out what you'd like to show up to your users in the Global Navigation bar in Google Apps.  Just fill in the values you want.

Finally, hit "Save and Preview".  You should be taken to the "Review your listing" page.  There's no need to publish it (The big GOOG will reject it anyway) but instead click on "Add it now" on the right hand side of the page and enter your Google Apps domain.

Follow the steps to add it to your domain, click through any approvals and make sure you you click to activate any licenses (sometimes it pops up with an error, just try again) until you see three green check marks in your admin panel.

And then you're all set.  It takes about 15 minutes for them to show up for your users but you should see links (as you see in the screen shot at the top of this post) that your users can now click.  You can add as many as you'd like (at least I haven't hit a limit) and they always show up in alphabetical order.

Let me know if this helps you out with your Google Apps roll outs and if you have any other cool tips or tricks to share, leave them here in the comments for others to try out.

TrueNew for Chrome Helps You Hit Inbox Virtual Zero!

Image courtesy of: Nerd Merit BadgesI was super excited when I heard that Dave Martorana, the creator of MultiFirefox and Mailroom for the iPhone, was launching TrueNew for Chrome.  After testing it out, I couldn't be happier with a Chrome extension that's both useful and unobtrusive.  Dave explains what it does over on the Chrome Extension page:

Instead of showing only your unread count (blue lozenge), it also shows you the number of new emails since the last time you took any action on your mailbox (the green, right-half of the lozenge). If the unread-count lozenge has a green right half with a +NUMBER in it, that NUMBER is the number of new messages since you last took any action on your inbox.

Now instead of worrying about unread messages and useless unread counts, you can always have an accurate count of what is NEW, which is much more helpful.

It's pretty simple.  Go ahead and install it in Google Chrome (it works with both Gmail and Google Apps accounts) and see how much better you feel about hitting "Inbox Virtual Zero".  Let me know what you think of this snazzy little extension.

Hey, where'd my stats go?

Google had a grand announcement the other day that many people probably didn't even notice: Google Search over SSL.  If you're not sure what this means, Wikipedia has a decent article on SSL but here's a quick blurb:

...Secure Socket Layer (SSL), [is a] cryptographic protocol that provides security for communications over networks such as the Internet. ...SSL encrypts the segments of network connections at the Transport Layer.

In English this means is that SSL protects data between your computer and the server that you're connecting to (in this case, Google's servers).  While I agree that securing your connection is smart for those times when you're browsing on an unprotected hot spot, there are also some technical implications that this has on your browsing experience.  Google pages may load slower and many of the links to services that your normally get won't appear (at least until they have SSL enabled too).

One of the more important limitations/changes you probably won't see by enabling SSL is that most browsers turn off their referrer feature.  This means that sites won't know where traffic is coming from on the web.  This sounds great but there are a lot of sites that use this information for good, not evil.  Sites like LivePerson (Full Disclosure: I am a current employee of LivePerson), Clicky and even Google's own Analytics use these referrers to figure out the source of traffic.  Some sites may offer special information or promotions to people coming from Google and now they won't be able to do that.

With this, search terms won't be passed to the sites either.  If you're a good webmaster (and I hope everyone is), you continuously tweak your site to offer information targeted to your visitors and what they're looking for.  Now the only way to do this will be to ask them outright which seems like a big pain in the ass for users and websites alike.

I'm not looking for anything terribly embarrassing (maybe the latest Lady Gaga song) on Google so I don't think I need SSL in my search life.  What do you think?  Do you feel the need to protect yourself while ruining analytics for all of those wonderful web sites out there or will you stick with the less secure, slightly faster and still as fun, Google "Standard" Search?

P.S. - While writing this post, the folks over at Clicky had the same thought on the subject.

Android versus iPhone: Winner Takes Most

That's right, my belief was that the Android platform would beat out the iPhone OS way back when and that time is coming just around the corner.  Google announced some major improvements at the Google I/O conference that really turns their flagship mobile product into the best mobile platform out there.  Let's take a look at four reasons the little green alien will kick ass:

• The faster and more powerful browser - While Google already had a pretty decent browser built into the Android OS, it was still the younger, more awkward version of the iPhone's browser.  Actions while browsing the web on an Apple device were simply smoother and faster to load.  Android had no problem with this before as they allowed any browser to come in and fix the problem (and people did - Dolphin, Sky Fire, Mozilla, etc) but now they're taking the lead and rolling out a browser that's not only faster, but sexy and simple to boot.
• New APIs - I know this seems a bit technical but it's not that complicated.  The Android OS is fairly open (there are still some hooks that are unavailable to the normal developer) and this means one thing for end users.  More amazing applications that continue to rock your world.  Sure the iPhone has some snazzy games but the latest Android release opens up tethering, more security features (for the enterprise) and an unlimited amount of space for applications (now that they can be saved to the expandable and removable SD card).
• Oh yeah, that little thing named Flash - While Apple continues to believe that just because they don't support it up on their platform the rest of the world will roll over and simply replace all of their Flash developed apps and sites, Google is embracing the fact that there are numerous technologies out there.  With this latest release, Flash will be supported directly in the OS (because of their open platform, Sky Fire already does this on Android).  This doesn't meant that Google isn't looking forward.  Their browser supports HTML5 and all of the other great web standards but they've given users the choice to log on to their everyday sites.  This is a big deal for more people (and their grandmothers).
• Multitasking - Need I say more?  The ability for me to run multiple applications at the same time is important to my productivity.  If Apple wants me to replace some of my everyday hardware with theirs, they have another thing coming.  I, along with the rest of the world, work on more than one thing at a time.  I hope Apple gets with the program but for now, this is a major reason to stick with Android in my book. 

I'm not saying that the iPhone (or other Apple products) will be obsolete any time soon but I do believe that over the next 12-18 months people will realize that Google's product is pretty amazing and will eventually win the mobile war if Apple doesn't choose to open up and smell the web (the open web that is).  People need choice, it's part of what makes us human.