Gmail inbox is really 5GB?

How much free storage space does Gmail really provide? If you haven't noticed, there's a "New! Gmail Labs" link on the top of the Gmail page after you've signed in, right next to Settings -- here's the link. It opens a page which claims

It's a Gmail party and everyone is invited!
You can still invite your friends to enjoy Gmail's spam protection, 5GB free storage and other great features, but now you can also just tell them to visit www.gmail.com and sign up without an invitation.

5GB? What about this, then?













I'm confused: so is Google actually providing 5GB inbox space for Gmail users? Compressed or uncompressed? In any case -- not the reaching-out-to-never-ending size it says? Someone please clear me up here.

I'm not expecting a response from Google, though. After all, they still seem pretty undecided about Notebook, and hey, even Blogger goes on unpremeditated sleep mode.

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Google falls for the dark side

Okay, isn't that cool? Forgive my obsession with the search engine giant, but the way Google manages to catch your attention with the most trivial facelifts is nothing short of amazing. I was almost looking for Darth Vader, when I found out it's Google's way of promoting Earth Hour. That's awesome too.

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Blogger down

Blogger was unexpectedly down for roughly half an hour till just now. Couldn't access my blog (i.e. techqi.blogspot.com produced a "502 Server Error"). I didn't see any maintenance notice on Blogger in this regard, and worse, the 502 error message asks you to come back in 30 seconds, which didn't work (yes, I did clean my browser cache). I checked out a couple of other blogs and they all seem to have shared the same fate. Wondering what happened to the great Google's blogging arm: hackers, viruses, human errors, aliens? With a lazy brain and fertile imagination the possibilities are endless :D *

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Happy Chinese New Year!

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Microsoft bids record $42b for Yahoo! : inside news

[Updated] It's true: Microsoft announced today that it has bid $31 a share to acquire Yahoo!, representing a 62% premium over the former search engine giant's recent market value. All about the deal -- and the tricks of fate that make it a popcorn event.Update: Microsoft hasn't managed to buy Yahoo! yet, which was kinda expected. Hey, imagine the truckload of pride Yahoo! has to swallow. I hope this even keeps me interested. (Do you think MS buying Yahoo! would be a good thing for internet users? Drop a comment.) It's true: Microsoft announced today that it has bid $31 a share to acquire Yahoo!, representing a 62% premium over the former search engine giant's recent market value. The total value of the offer is $44.5 billion in cash and stock, making it the largest bid ever in the hi-tech industry. Pundits are claiming that it's an incredibly expensive deal, even for a company the size of Microsoft. Michael Liedtke of AP describes the situation brilliantly: Unable to topple Google Inc. on its own, Microsoft Corp. is trying to force crippled rival Yahoo Inc. into a shotgun marriage, with a wager worth nearly $42 billion that the two companies together will have a better chance of tackling the Internet search leader. (The deal is valued differently across the news sites I'm currently madly surfing.) In any case, this move shows just how desperate Microsoft is to ensure its digital supremacy. The future is less desktop and more online then, eh? Microsoft has to do this deal. It's a battle that Microsoft needs to win, said AMR Research analyst Jonathan Yarmis. It's a classic case of a buyer overbidding to blow any potential competitors out of the water, according to James Owers, a Georgia State University professor of corporate finance. Analysts are still unsure whether the deal is going to take place -- and many are claiming that Microsoft might have to ward off other bidders, such as Baidu.com. There's also a fair chance that the Redmond, Washington-based software giant will need to raise the bar even further to get the job done. In a classic twist of fate,

• Yahoo! shares climbed $9.20, or nearly 48 percent, to $28.38 while Microsoft shares fell $2.15, or 6.6 percent, to $30.45 (a sign that Wall Street is skeptical about whether the acquisition makes sense).
• Google shares fell $48.40, or 8.6 percent, to close at $515.90 Friday.
• Shortly after Microsoft disclosed its intentions, the U.S. Justice Department said it is "interested" in reviewing antitrust issues. European Union officials declined to comment, but analysts said Microsoft probably will face more challenges getting a Yahoo! acquisition approved in Europe than the United States.

Now we only need Steve Jobs to complete the pretty picture! :D [Sources: AP, Yahoo! News, Google News, MarketWatch.com, etc.]

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Top 7 reasons why Blogger+Adsense+Analytics sucks

My angry compilation of reasons that make a Blogger experience drudgery.My angry compilation of reasons that make a Blogger experience drudgery.

1. Blogger has only 16 templates you can choose from. That's poor. Plus, you don't really have stretched 3-column templates.
2. Custom templates and widgets aren't really much help either. Blogger's R&D department (if there really is one) is slow when it comes to upgrading, and when it does, it makes sure all your stuff is screwed.
3. If you've signed up for Adsense, brace yourself. You'll wake up on mornings where you'll discover Google ads splashed in places you never put them. If you plan to continue using Adsense, get used to it, and see a shrink if necessary. If you haven't seen your Adsense messing up your day yet, you're either blessed or need a shrink already.
4. Bloggers are stats-needy. Google is sympathetic and has Google Analytics. Unfortunately, it often analyzes your traffic horribly wrong. Example: right now it's telling me nobody's visited this blog in the last three days. Yeah, right.
5. Templates are supposed to be pure simple darn code. Not on Blogger: your widgets contort at times, and often your whole blog turns Firefox only. Now, whoever said Google isn't planning to be the next Microsoft?
6. You have images on your blog? Wow. I hope they all load. The ones on my blog don't, more often than not, and you get to say an ugly CSS blob. Refreshing the page doesn't help most of the time either. Categories? Meta tags? Let's not even get into that.
   
7. Adsense should be pretty normal too. Like you can filter your ads and stuff. Doesn't work: I've mailed Adsense a couple of times, and gave up on removing the kissing tutorials I have for YouTube referrals. Same thing happened for text ads, and I couldn't stop Google from promoting gay dating sites on my blog (I'm not racist or sexist or anything of the sort, btw).

Result: I've opted out of Adsense, have Sitemeter on my blog and am considering a switch to WordPress. The only thing about Blogger that keeps my nerves right is it's simple to get published. Right now I don't have any time to spend on template hacking or figuring out how Adsense can be put on a leash. When I'm better off there's a good chance I will be saying tataz to Blogger for good. I might or might not fool around with code then.

Update: I'm sticking to Blogger for the time being (plus because if I migrate to WordPress or elsewhere I'll have to edit all my posts). I'm giving Google Adsense another shot (let's see how well it performs this time around); and Sitemeter will have to do.

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Google search share drops, Yahoo! rises

Latest results from Comscore reveal a drop in Google's share in the search engine market. Yahoo! is enjoying a popularity boost.

SVW reports:

Latest results from Comscore show a slight drop of 0.2 percentage points in Google's share of search in December 2007 compared with November 2007 to 58.4 percent. Second place Yahoo gained 0.5 percentage points to 22.9 per cent over the same period. The reason?

According to Comscore, Americans conducted 9.6 billion searches at the core search engines, representing a 3.9-percent decline versus November. With many Americans traveling and spending time away from home during the holidays, search activity typically experiences a seasonal decline during December. Google Sites saw 5.6 billion core searches during the month, while Yahoo! Sites recorded 2.2 billion. Here's what I think: The holiday season just might be the reason Google lost some share in the search engine market (for Google, 0.2 percent would be thousands and thousands of users). However -- Yahoo! has made tremendous progress in recent times (although it's in a financially tight spot). I'm not saying that there's any chance Yahoo! will beat Google, but right now Yahoo! is a much more worthier opponent than it used to be. Plus, Google's spot-free reputation seems to be facing scrutiny: not all of its services did well in 2007, and I'm even wondering whether they'll dump Notebook (read more here). Blogger seems to have lost out permanently to Wordrpress too, and I recently had a pretty hard time on Blogger myself (here).

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You can't access Google Notebook from within Gmail

I'm wondering if Google Notebook will be discontinued. I mailed Google today regarding my concern and the drop-down list in Gmail and iGoogle/Google/etc. Here's a summary of my mail:

I frequently use Google Notebook, but can't access it from within Gmail. While there's an "even more" option in Google or Google images (from "More"; I'm attaching images), Gmail doesn't have one. Therefore, I have to open Google in a separate window and gradually browse to Notebook (when I'm feeling too lazy to just type google.com/notebook). I also came across Techcrunch article that charts the growth rates of Google services; Notebook isn't even listed. Are you guys planning to scrap Notebook? And (to go back to my original focus) is this a prompt for users to migrate towards iGoogle (which has enjoyed tremendous growth in 2007, and has "Even more")?

I think a situation where a user copy-pastes information from his/her Notebook to a mail isn't that hard to imagine. But by pushing Notebook out of Gmail, the potential of the service is being wasted. Notebook and Gmail could go very well hand in hand, and there ought to be a direct link to Notebook within Gmail, preferably beside "Documents" on the top-left corner, or at least as one of the items listed under "More". "Even more" should also definitely be there, and given the popularity of YouTube, why not list it (in lieu of Video) under "More" too? Similarly, Orkut could very well be under "More" in iGoogle etc.

I think the thing got overlooked, but maybe Google has its preferences. I hope Google responds (although I'm not banking on it, since, of course, it's such a big n' busy place). I just received a mail that says

Thank you for writing to us at the Google Blog. We appreciate hearing from you, but can't guarantee responding to each and every message. However, we do read every note, and will take your suggestions and comments into account as we continue to develop the blog. If you have a specific question you'd like answered, please visit Google.com/support to submit your message. If we'd like to include your comments in a future post, we'll be in touch to ask your permission.

Let's see what happens.

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