No need to install a RSS viewer – Google Reader is the answer

Monday, May 25th, 2009

Google Reader is a web based RSS viewer that easily let’s you view the newly added articles of the websites you daily visit. You can add every website with a RSS feed if you like. All your feeds are visible under the “Subscriptions” tab. You can choose to see only the feeds from a particular site or view all feeds in one view. There’s also an option to star your favorite articles and easily view them through the “starred Items” option. You can share articles with your friends and share opinions or comment on each other.  If you want more stuff to read, You can browse for feeds through Reader itself.

The big advantage of Google Reader however is the fact that You can reach it from almost everywhere. The only thing you’ll need is a browser and access to the Internet.
It’s also a very fast Reader (like most Google products) and You don’t have to install any software on your computer.  Therefor this is a great alternative to a desktop based RSS viewer in my opinion.

Google Chrome – Surfing has a new name!

Friday, May 22nd, 2009

Google Chrome -  Surfing has a new name!Why Google Chrome is currently one of the best, if not the best browser available? Well that’s easy! It’s fast and renders quickly. It’s also much more minimalistic in it’s appearance. In my opinion this is the future of surfing the net! Not Chrome as a browser but the approach Google used. Everything is minimalistic in it’s own way and most of the time needs no explanation to the more experienced users. Chrome is also the fastest browser out there! When clicked on it’s almost immediately there. FireFox and Internet Explorer are a few seconds slower on my laptop. Try it yourself first click Chrome and then Internet Explorer or FireFox, you’ll experience the difference in speed.

A few months ago there was a new Beta version release which made Chrome even 25 to 30% faster! Currently Google Released the beta officially! So everybody can download it by now. However, if you wish to use the new Chrome functions as one of the first you’ll need to get the beta version! You can download the beta here. Try it and get your own conclusion about it!

The story of a Google fanboy

Friday, May 8th, 2009

gcloud1I’m more and more getting into Google and all of their offered services. Not all as good as the other, but through the open source development (Labs and Apps) those products keep getting better and better.

Recently someone asked me why I only used Google services and discussed with almost anyone why Google products are better then the product from their rivals. Then it occurred to me, I was becoming a Google Fan boy….

Luckily I’ve always had an open view towards other alternative solutions to the Google Products I use , but I still have to say….Google is just better!

My Internet usage is Googlefied in the last two months and a normal day consists of checking my email accounts with use of Gmail. There I take a look at my upcoming appointments and tasks with Google Calendar. When finished Gmail is done and Google Reader enters which provides me with the latest news from the RSS feeds I’m subscribed to. Some days it even goes further by working with Google Docs to write a letter or collect information in a spreadsheet with the use of forms. If I have some new pictures I upload them to Picasa and while uploading I watch some vid’s on YouTube.

At work Google comes in the picture by searching the Google Groups to find a solution for a problem I’m running into. When I have to go to a customer I check my route with the use of Google Maps and of course searching goes through Google.

As you can see Google is used a lot by me throughout the day! And of course all those products are getting browsed with Chrome.
So yes! I’m a Google Fanboy. Get used to it, because there’s more Google stuff coming up!

Updated website design

Wednesday, May 6th, 2009

Today I updated the final design modifications on my website. The past few days you might have seen the changes in the footer. Yes! the color changed into more grey. Modified the footer height and changed category settings.

I also updated the main navigation. It took me a while to complete that even though it was simple, but the main buttons are now as they were in the original Photoshop design.  I also wanted to add a graphic in the footer area but wasn’t that satisfied with the result. Will keep working on that of course…..glad this site is a step closer to the final goal.

Tutorial: Google Docs – Forms

Sunday, April 26th, 2009

The majority of people know about Google Docs. But a lot of them don’t know that the forms function exist and what a powerfull tool this can be!

The forms tool allows people to, as te word says, create forms. These forms are more or less like a questionaire people can fill out. You can use drop down lists, checkboxes etcetera, etcetara. This is all fairly common in use and most people will understand the way the forms functionally works.

The nicest option however is to see all the results in a single spreadsheet. People fill out the questions and it’s automaticcaly updated in the spreadsheet. This way you’ll have a clear overview of the answers people gave. The only thing you don’t want to forget is to always set a Name field for viewers to put in their names. If you don’t, you won’t even get the slightest idea of who filled out the form. Below you’ll find a short how to list of this nice function.

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