google

Let’s face it! Google Reader was a pretty slick interface before they went and made any changes this week. I wasn’t expecting it (probably was mentioned on the reader blog RSS feed) but it is a welcome update.

I am a huge fan of clean looking interfaces. I supposed that is why I like OS X and some of the simpler applications out there. They have taken away some of the colouring that they had on the left side and replaced it with white backgrounds. The sections are separated with lines rather than a background colour difference which looks much nicer. My biggest pet peeve of the old version was the green background under the ‘add subscription’ button and now it’s gone.

Before:

After:

I have been using Google Reader for quite some time as my RSS reader. It’s a great way to read RSS feeds and I like the fact I can log in from anywhere with internets access to take a peak if I have time. It’s nice to know that Google is keeping an eye on their existing products and trying to find ways at making them better.

Some of the other cool features include the ability to collapse sections on the left side, the ability to turn off unread counts, updated friend sharing tools and they have added more bundles to their list.

I must say that I am happy with the graphical update and look forward to making use of the new features. If you don’t use Google Reader and are looking for a good web based RSS reader, give it a chance. You won’t be disappointed.

I have installed Google Chrome, as has every other geek in the world. There are so many news articles about the release it’s getting crazy.

It has been a while since we’ve seen such a high profile browser release. Google’s position alone means that anything they release will get a lot of press but I don’t think that this is bad. It seems that everything I used of theirs just works. I like things that are simple in design and interface and do what you expect them to do, and so far Chrome isn’t letting me down.

I am sure that the only fault that I can come up with is one of the reasons why the rest of the browser works so well. I love the fact that in Firefox you have the option to install a myriad of extensions. I have more than one machine, so I would definitely miss Foxmarks which syncs your bookmarks between copies of Firefox on different machines. I also love the BetterGmail extension which makes Gmail look that much “better” ;). When you add some of these extensions to Firefox it makes the browser slower and affects the user experience.

Google has put in some features that I have seen as Firefox extensions which I like. One of them is the new tab page which is similar to Fast Dial in FF. This is cool because it makes your interaction with the browser faster. Press Crtl-T and you are presented with a bunch of large icons, each a screen shot of the website it is representing. They are a list of your most visited and most recent visits, click on one and your there!

Another thing that Google is using is the same rendering engine as Safari from what I have read. This has to be the reason that it is so fast, and I mean FAST! Speed has been a pet peeve of mine with FF and also IE. I am not an IE fan what so ever as it does’t offer any plus over FF. With the FF plugin called IE tab you can use the IE engine within a FF tab.

Chrome is also missing some things that we are used to but without them you get a much larger viewable space. There are no window dressings at all, no side borders, no top boarder, no File/Edit/etc. menu. The first thing at the top are the tabs, then the address bar, then the favorites and after that it’s all web content. It’s a nice clean interface.

Google's new browser - Chrome

They have also added their own task manager to the browser. Now if a tab or a plugin becomes unstable or crashes, you can right click on the tab bar, go into the task manager and kill it. That’s a huge feature if you have any trouble with a java script or something similar.

Their features page has a lot of information and shows you how the browser is different from it’s cousins. I urge you to check it out!

I was told about this add on from a colleague and have been hooked for good. I use the Gmail domain services for my email and have loved it since I was accepted into the beta program. I like the way that Gmail “just works”. It is simple in design and every feature always seems to just do what I need it to.

Until now I never thought about changing the interface. I like to play around with options if they are there but simply because they weren’t, I didn’t give it much thought until now. Bettergmail2 is a Firefox add on that allows you to customize the look and feel of the interface. If you play with it a little you can get your Gmail to look quite similar to a stand alone email client. Something that some of us are used to and liked from the past. In the end there are 3 skins plus other options to change the feel of Gmail.

It also has many other features including the forcing of HTTPS (secure HTTP) when accessing your account, force mailto links to use Gmail to send and automated showing of the CC and BBC fields.

So… go get it! You won’t be disappointed. Remember that you need Firefox and you also need to have a Gmail account to use this add on. If you have your own domain email with Google, click on the advance button on the tool and put in your domain as indicated. It works great!

So I tried to set up Adsense a while back but didn’t have any luck. I didn’t give it a real chance because I was relying on a WordPress widget to try and install it. It turns out that the new version of WordPress had a “text” widget. This allows the blogger to create a static entry in their widget bar. You can also add in code to implement something in that text area… and you guessed it; Adsense!

It was really quite simple. With Adsense you need to generate code to put in your page if you are the creator, you simply take that code and insert it in the text sidebar widget. It’s that simple!

Now I am going to start looking into other ways of listing; possibly in posts or maybe a banner. I like their ideas but I am still weary of it taking over the site. All too often I see more Google ads on peoples pages than I do actual content.

Another post question for you… What do you use for advertising on your site? Do you prefer another service? If so email me marcus@hamaker.net.

I am now 5th on the search page when I type in my name in its entirety. The top 5 all have something to do with me and not any other Marcus Hamaker but some of them are really REALLY old. I have had a BBS in my past and that is still the number one result. I think that will take the longest to bounce out of my way for the quest to have TheSleepyGeek #1.

I just did a search for “sleepy geek” and for some reason the about page is showing from the old URL. Either way though most people will catch that. I am sure that it won’t be long before that disappears because the URL doesn’t exist any longer.

So how to get TheSleepGeek in the number one search spot for Google? Not sure, but I think that if there are more searches for my name that people actually click on then it will help. I am also going to go try and poke the Google bots a little. Not sure this will help.

I have now started to think about website stats and tracking. Mostly because I am getting more serious about thesleepygeek and need to know what kind of traffic I am generating. After some homework I have found a number of websites that track site statistics and each of them seem to have their own strengths. I often am looking for the option that “just works”. I am a firm believer that 10 features that work flawlessly is better than 20 that are only ok.

Google Analytics is the product that I chose in the end for just those reasons. It has the most popular type of information you need to know about your site and it’s traffic. Where people are accessing it from, what kind of browser they are using, what site they came from, what page they looked at, etc, etc. The site is very nicely laid out as well; a very clean looking summary of all your stats and then it offers the option of digging down to see more specific information. It has the option of sending you daily or weekly reports with all the same information you would find on the main dashboard page. To install it on my different sites was absolutely simple. I opened a single account and was able to track stats from more than one URL. This site, was the easiest because someone has made a plugin for Wordpress. I have another site that runs on Gallery2 which hosts my family pictures. It was a simple google search away and instructions with clear steps to enter the generated code on the correct line. DONE!

I have also used in the past statcounter.com. They have a great service with about the same feature set. It seems to be a little more robust but it also is more confusing to find the information you want when you need to dig. I would recommend them if Google Analytics is not your cup of tea.

I did a search for “free web stats comparison” on google was amazed at how many options there are. So now I am going to turn it around. What do you use for web stats? Email me at marcus@hamaker.net.