Make your website friendly for cellphones

MakeUseOf recommends Google Mobilizer for adapting any website for use on a cellphone.

Google Mobilizer will take “any website and make it viewable on your mobile phone or PDA. Simply go to Google Mobilizer and enter the website URL, indicate whether you want images on/off, and click ‘GO’. Mobilizer will present you with a neat, add-free and stripped down version of the website. You also get a navigation menu to easily browse through website’s pages.”

Note: this is a very brief page with a place to enter the URL, and a checkbox if there are no images.  This does not actually change the website; it just reformats a copy of it and makes it available.  Handy if you need to see something on a page intended for a full screen view only, and checking the HTML may give you some ideas on how to create a mobile-friendly version of your own website.

Over 150 tips and shortcuts for Gmail

Dumb Little Man is not so dumb — this useful and interesting site has links to several lists with tips and shortcuts for your Google email account.

Master Google list

Google has so many services that it’s hard to keep track.

Try the Simply Google web page, which covers services, blogs, RSS feeds, software, and more.

DocSyncer for Google docs

Somebody had to come up with a way to synchronize the documents you edit in Microsoft Office so they are available in Google Docs.

Try the free service at DocSyncer to migrate files to Google.

Google a single site

To use Google to search just one site, enter your search and follow it with site: and the url of the web site.

For example, to search the UA Fort Smith web site for anything on football, try football site:uafortsmith.edu

Google Maps and moving your arrow

The Google LatLong blog has a post on using Google Maps.  The location shown in Google may not be exactly what you intend to show.

For example, the official address of the University of Arkansas - Fort Smith is “5210 Grand Avenue.”  But there’s not really any such place; it’s a sort of generic address for the entire campus.  If you wanted to direct somebody to the Stubblefield Center, or the Baldor Technology Center, or even the Boreham Library, none of them are even on Grand Avenue.

So, directions like these allow you to move the “here” arrow to the actual location so people can find you, on campus or wherever you want to indicate.  You can then use this map to give directions in emails, web pages, etc.

GSpace add-on for Firefox stores in Gmail

Got a Google GMail account?  Okay, then are you using all the space they give you?  Not yet?

Then consider this Firefox browser add-on called GSpace which lets you FTP through Firefox and store files in there.

“Gspace is the FON friendly site that provides FREE Online Storage to access your files everywhere. Gspace turns the 2GB of your Gmail account into free online storage. With Gspace you can manage unlimited Gmail accounts to store all type of files within its simple, user friendly interface. Listen your favourite stored music directly from your Gspace, view your collections of pictures and manage your Gdrive files as well. Download Gspace now and transfer files between your computer and Gspace at anytime, from everywhere!”

Recommended by PC Magazine, April 2008.

Google Calendar now goes with Outlook

Office Watch has an article on the free Calendar Sync function that lets you sync your Google Calendar entries with Microsoft Outlook.

Office Watch, by the way, has a continuing free newsletter with updates on Microsoft Office products, pro and con, and is a good source of information.

Google Custom Search Engine for your site(s)

Google offers the use of a customized version of their searches that you can use just for your own or selected sites, and then put a search box on your home page or wherever you like.

Google Custom Search Engine basically lets you select what URLs you want to be able to search, and then uses that search box like a limited search of Google’s database.

For example, there is a search box for the Boreham Library. You’ll find it on all of the catalog pages near the bottom (right under the lower gray bar) and it lets you search JUST the catalog pages and the library pages of the main campus site.

Now, it’s not perfect on the Library’s site — if there is already a search on the page (keyword, title, etc.), you may get sent to that instead [and we're working on solving that]. On the other pages, however, it works fine. And since most web pages you’re likely to write won’t have other search functions, it should work fine for you.

This is a free service, at least while it is in Beta version. If you have a large web site with no other search function, this will let people search just your site without wandering off to everything else that turns up in a standard Google search.

Combining GCal, Lightning and Thunderbird

The Ubuntu Forums has a detailed thread that shows how you can get the most out of Thunderbird by using the Lightning extension and Google Calendar. Click here for the article.

While this is on a Linux forum, the instructions should work in Windows, too.

Recommended by Lifehacker.

GMail on Thunderbird to the max

Lifehacker covers the advantages of IMAP in email and using Thunderbird to handle your GMail account.

Use Google tools to translate

Google’s Language Tools will translate, search pages in other languages, or even translate an entire web page.

Google Docs - the online word processor

Google Docs is an online word processing tool.  This is a free services.  (Formerly known as Writely.)

Registration is required, so you can save your documents online and access them from anywhere else with an Internet connection.

Remember that any online services is only as reliable as the source of the service, and any material saved there is subject to search by court order or subpoena.

Google Pack up your troubles in your online software

Google Pack is a group of software helps with some very useful items.  Pick your own pack and download just the items you want.  All freeware, no malware included.

• Google Earth
• Google Desktop
• Norton Security Scan
•  Firefox with Google Toolbar
• Google Toolbar for IE
• Adobe Acrobat Reader
• Skype
• StarOffice (a complete office suite of software)
• Spyware Doctor
• Picasa
• Google Photos screensaver
• Google Talk
• RealPlayer

Google SketchUp for 3-D drawing - free!

Google SketchUp is a 3-D graphics program. Freeware.

From the site: “Developed for the conceptual stages of design, Google SketchUp is a powerful yet easy-to-learn 3D software tool that combines a simple, yet robust tool-set with an intelligent drawing system that streamlines and simplifies 3D design. From simple to complex, conceptual to realistic, Google SketchUp enables you to build and modify 3D models quickly and easily. If you use Google Earth, Google SketchUp allows you to place your models using real-world coordinates.”

This is being used in a number of ways, from floor plans to furniture and building diagrams to pure art. There are also a number of libraries of things you can add in to your work, depending on what you are drawing. It also allows you to rotate your work and see it from all sides.

There is also a pay version with additional capabilities.

This is a really great program, especially for the price (free!).  You can find articles and books on it in a number of places now.

Google for books? The Google Book Search Library Project

So, you’ve heard that some big libraries are putting ALL their books on Google.

Sorry, that’s not exactly the entire story. The first priority is to digitize the books that are old enough to be out of copyright. Those published before about 1923 and not renewed since, or any that have been released to the public domain since that time, such as government and public documents, can appear in full text.

Other materials still under copyright will be searchable but only display a few lines.

Check on Google Book Search Library Project for all the facts.

Google provides some text for books online, depending on the copyright and what the publisher allows.

• Just type Books about followed by the title or subject.
• At the top of the results, you should see links labeled Book Results. Click on the title or subject.
• Select a book from the list, if you asked for a subject.
• On the right sidebar beside the book, one of the choices will be Find this book in a library. Click on that.
• Enter your location information, such as your zip code, and search.
• Google will find the nearest libraries with this book.

Note: all the libraries must members of the international library database called OCLC.  Other libraries may hold the title but not be listed for that reason.

Google Apps are always online for use

Google Apps Google now has online applications: word-processor, spreadsheet, a basic web page maker, email and calendar, which you can access via your web browser with documents and email stored on a ‘drive’ provided by Google. You will need to register with Google. About 2MB of storage for free, more if you switch to the paid service.

Remember: Google insists on storing your documents themselves, and they have been known to lose data on rare occasions. Also, anything confidential is not a good candidate for storing on someone else’s server (unless encrypted, which this is not). It is vulnerable to a number of people demanding access to your files, with or without your knowledge, and perhaps without the same protection for your data that you prefer.

Google for Email = Gmail

GMail - Google Email

GMail Google’s GMail is a popular free email system that is accessible from anywhere you connect to the Internet, and has good anti-spam filters too. You’ll need access to a cell phone with text messaging (this is part of keeping out spammers) to receive the confirmation code, but not after that.

To get Gmail on your mobile phone, just go to m.gmail.com on your phone to access your inbox.

Lifehacker has an update on Gmail and a new Better GMail Firefox add-on for it, which adds a menu of the optional features for it.  (Note: the Firefox extension requires you to already have the Greasemonkey add-on installed.)

Online Word Processors

Online Word Processing

Caution: Putting your data online means opening up your information to a third party. Even if the company is honest, it could have legal action taken against it to reveal your information. Use online software at your own risk.

• Google Docs a free Google product (formerly known as Writely)
• Writeboard free collaborative document production

Graphics viewers

• Picasa freeware from Google to organize your digital images. A free digital organizer with limited editing capabilities.
• IrfanView IrfanView is a very fast, small, compact and innovative FREEWARE (for non-commercial use) graphic viewer for Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003. It also does conversions from one graphics format to another (say, from .tif to .jpg).