Google Groups - No Man is an Island

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My name is Ron Hall.
I live at the Funny Farm.

I'm back - great weekend. First thing I did was check my Gmail this morning. No spam. Emails came in all organized in conversation threads. Sorted them into "Folders" as I moved through them. Even without folders can still use the "Search" box to find one's that I have lost. Also plenty of stuff from my Google Groups.

Stumbled into Google Groups when I was teaching myself about SketchUp, Google Earth, and Google Sites. Now I subscribe to about 20. I can manage the amount of email I receive. If you want privacy you can set up and manage one of your own. I have set up one group - as part of a virtual reunion I am organizing of one of my old college classes. Even customized the look around our school colors/mascot.

My initial interest was as a user forum, problem solving tool (great). But now there is that aspect and a social network side as well. You can discuss online, or via email. Start new posts, manage threads. Also set up resource pages. Was just part of a conference of people from around the globe ( more on this later) - was a lifetime experience that the Google group we formed helps us prolong.

Monday, Monday. Got to run.

Adsense - Show Me the Money

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My name is Ron Hall.
I live at the Funny Farm.

Show me the money. Adsense. Jeff Jarvis's book explained how Google is able to work it's magic - advertising (read Jeff's book to figure it out for yourself). Since I have been using quite a number of Google offerings, I decided to try it (blame my wife) when I set up this blog.

It was easy - just hit the "Monitize" tab or button and follow the instructions. Was very straight forward. So much so that I hooked it up to a number of Google SItes (see "Monetize" button there) I have that I park my Google Earth content in so that it is available to the Google Earth Gallery. While I work on my typing skills, Google works for me. Kind of nice because I am taking the weekend to go camping. To be realistic, this process will take some time - but rest assured I will let you know when I get my first check. In the meantime, before the revenue rolls in, Google is providing all the server space, web search, site internet security, and new product development for free - 24/7. Nice.

Previews - working on my laptop in the kitchen, when I get a phone type ring on it - my daughter (in the west wing) calling me on Google Voice - was pretty cool. Have used Gmail's Chat function - but it is texting (not all that exciting to someone working on their keyboard skills). Had a quick chat - quality time (yeah right) with my daughter sharing the joy of discovering a new tool. More later.

Need to start packing. Did think about taking the IPhone - Google Mobile - on the trip (Kalispel Island, Priest Lake, Idaho - check out Panramio pics in Google Earth). But did not want to bee like Robin Williams in "RV".

Have a good weekend.

Google Translate - Listen to the World

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My name is Ron Hall.
I live at the Funny Farm.

First things first - tried out Google Translate tool right after I finished my blog post yesterday. It was a breeze. The easy access to the tool is through Google's main search page - "More" - drop down - "Even More" - under "Communicate, show & share". Just fired up the tool, inserted the url of my friend's (from Brazil) blog and bingo - now I am reading his blog (Portuguese) in English. The translation seems simple/rough but it is functional. In short - we are communicating. Now I need to try reverse - send some English back to him in Portuguese. Keep you posted - literally.

Going to the lake camping this weekend with friends - hope (is anybody there?) you do not mind the silence for a day or two. I won't. Need to get going on some chores - including updating my Google Calendar.

Make it a good day.

Again, What's This All About?

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My name is Ron Hall.
I live at the Funny Farm.

This past weekend I saw the movie "Julie and Julia" - I loved it. When she decides to start blogging she sets out the goal or task she is attempting - to cook her way through Julia Child's famous cookbook in a year - 500 plus recipes in 365 days. So what is my goal?

To improve my keyboard skills - ok, lets aim a bit higher. On a personal note - I have always wanted to get good enough on a computer so that I don't have to spend much time on one (hence, better typing skills). Because the Google products I have tried so far have opened up a world of possibilities for me (on the web, not economically yet) - I want to see what the rest of their products have to offer me (us?). So ...how big a task is it?

Wikipedia (I googled "How many Google products are there?") indicates a couple pages - too early in the morning to count. Here's the catch it keeps growing. So it will take a bit of time.
Unlike Julie Powell, I do not think I will set a timeframe - yet. I am older and want to enjoy the journey - I have found that in life, pace plays a key role.

A second goal involves encouraging anyone who is a late bloomer/late comer to the internet to join in the fun. To encourage you/anyone to use it as a tool, not just a toy (chewing gum for the eyeballs). My guess is that while all of us are different, there is probably a Google offering that might appeal to any of us (let's look past the searchbox).

With that thought in mind, I am going to look at a Google Tool I saw yesterday - Google Translate. I made a new friend from Brazil (Eloi - loves SketchUp like me) - want to see if I can read his blog with this tool. More later.

Make it a good day.

Google Analytics - Is Anybody There?

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My name is Ron Hall.
I live at the Funny Farm.

Is anybody there?

Went and saw the movie "Julia and Julie" yesterday. Julie starts up a blog (my daughter noticed she used Blogspot like me) about cooking her way through Julia Childs cookbook (see earlier post about why I blog). She jumps right in with enthusiasm, but eventually (despite all the positive effects the process has on her) she wonders - "Is anybody there?"

Same for me. After I set up my Google Site I was a happy camper, for a while. While I was pleased with my accomplishment, I was curious to see if anyone had noticed. I had been taking courses in web design (you can teach an old dog new tricks - if they want to learn) and had heard about the concept of "analytics", or getting statistics and feedback on who (no big brother specifics here) is looking at your site, where they are located (relatively), and various particulars about their usage.

Enter Google Analytics. I should point out here that I did not find this Google tool at the product offering link (upper left - "More..", then "Even More") from the main Google search page. I had to "google" it.

This area is not for the faint of heart (requires coffee and patience). But it is free, and interesting if you are game. The home page provides links to tons of resources, and (remember one of my first tips) you can "google" your way through if you have patience.

I am not a statistics junkie (baseball is not my favorite sport), but Analytics provides all kinds of tools, and help to figure out what the tools are telling you. Because of my love of geography, I like the map view that lets you see where everybody lives that stops at your website. Other tools indicate how much time they spend (read fast), whether they come back (your choice), what pages they visit, etc. If you have several sites you can have them all organized in one spot. Tip - the "add account" button just adds another website to your existing Analytics account - process is a bit confusing but trust me it will work out that way in the end.

This morning I went to my analytics account, hit the "add account" button (if your new - just create an account), and added this blog. Because I wanted to find out if there were any nuances in this process for Blogspot, I googled "How to set up Google Analytics on Blogspot".

It takes about 24 hours to kick in - will keep you posted.

Is anybody there?

Make it a good day.

Google Sites - My "Web Stop"

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My name is Ron Hall.
I live at the Funny Farm.

Jeff Jarvis refers to Google as a "platform" - a base for people to operate from on the web. Obviuously I agree. Once I got the taste/thrill of seeing my SketchUp models up on the 3D Warehouse and the 3D Buildings layer, I was eager to post more content. Because my Google tool of choice at that time was Google Earth - I began investigating how to get my material to show up in their default database (there are many ways/opportunities). The one that interested me most was the "Google Earth Gallery" (Tip - Hit the "Add Content" button in the "My Places" panel the next time you are running Google Earth).

The Gallery is a place to find user generated content (sometimes very sophisticated) made for viewing in Google Earth. It is sometimes referred to as "kml" - because of the file format (Keyhole Markup Language - the company that greated Google Earth). Google provides the template process for submitting kml content to the Gallery, one just needs server space for Google to fetch the content from. I wasn't sure what to do, then I stumbled into "Google Sites".

Tip - I have "stumbled into" many Google tools from Google's Search Window - just look at upper left (blue links) and start having fun.

Google Sites (Preceeded by Google's "Pagecreator") allowed me to set up a website (actually now several), personalize/customize it (via their template system or html), and use it as a place to upload files for internet usage. I can track users with Google Analytics (more later) and use Google's Adsense to see if I could derive some web revenue from my online time.

All this for free. I was in the big time.

Actually, not really - I had to find a way for Google to "find" my Google Earth content -stay tuned for a big tip down the road.

In the meantime, I set about creating a cozy little nest for my content on the web. Once again, I just concentrated on the content - Google did all the heavy lifting.

Need to start my week. Make it a good day.

Forgot to mention - saw "Julie and Julia" yesterday (see earlier post).

One Google Thing Leads to Another

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My name is Ron Hall.
I live at the Funny Farm.

One Google thing leads to another.

Once I got the hang of SketchUp, I was anxious to see if I could produce a model that was good enough to make it into Google Earth's "3D Buildings Layer". This get's at the heart of the Google experience for me - participation (Jeff Jarvis also talks about "collaboration"). Google is not only trying to "organize the world", but it wants to let us help by making it possible (and easy) to put content that is interesting and important to us up on the web.

In the case of SketchUp, this means "sharing" the model via the "3D Warehouse". Google does all the heavy lifting in this process. It supplies the server space, provides the template "fill in the blank" submission form, handles the review process (makes allowances for future edits), and provides a tool bar button to initiate the whole process. Furthermore, if your model makes it to the "3D Buildings" layer - it has a hotlink to your detail page (and possibly you).

This tends to be the case with many Google products. They make producing web content (take your pick of venue as we shall see) easy, almost fun. In adddition, their products have a seemingly incestuous relationship with each other - often allowing you to post to a number of viewing spots on the web. In my case - once I proved I could do it (my first model) I was eager to do it again, and experiment with trying to post content in other Google offerings.

One Google thing leads to another.

Make it a good day.