Google Reader down!!

I think that the Google Reader service is down. I haven’t received any updates since morning, which is weird and near impossible. Any one else facing the same trouble??

Update 1: Mike Arrington blogs about the same problem here. Also, official post on the last outage is here. I am just praying it comes back online fast!!

Update 2: May not be true at all, but I think the entire Google RSS system is broken because the Techdirt feed on my iGoogle page has also not been updated, while the blog has two updates.

Update 3: Some updates have started appearing on Reader, though not fully. Techcrunch is still missing and so in India Uncut. Holy Cow!!

Update 4: Most of the feeds have been updated including India Uncut and Techcrunch. Also the iGoogle feeds like Cricinfo and Techdirt have also been updated. I think it is functioning normally now. How about a post on Google Reader blog to explain this?

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Google TiSP

It is first April and after the success of the pigeons, lunar office and yes Google Gulp, Google is now offering Google TiSP.

“Want WiFi around? Just flush it down.”

Do you want a free WiFi network? Order online now and have the team of Plumbing Hardware Dispatchers (PHDs) get your connection up and running. Or should I say down!!

Happy Fool’s Day!

Google Docs Rocks!

Introduction

First trial of the Google Docs . Seems to be working perfectly. Only if they allowed a document to be edited in the print layout format. That would allow more control over the formatting and see exactly what the final print would look like, right when you are working on the document.

Points I like about it:

1. Clean and neat interface, no cluttered tool bar
2. Ability to export as PDF
3. All MS Word short cuts work as they should
4. Collaboration option
5. Inserting comments, symbols and tables
6. Of course, the Google tag 🙂
   

Points I dislike about it:

1. Cannot be used on a slow Internet connection (like the one I have at home)
2. No print layout 😦
3. No options of inserting tables

Overall I think that the product is a sure shot winner. I am very pleased with the final product. Google, keep rocking guys!! Oh, by the way, this post was composed directly from within Google Docs and from my home. One oddity however, when I posted it from Google Docs (Writely) it was posted on my blog with a time stamp of tomorrow (Jan 08) and after 4 hours of posting it.

Google Wishlist

Following this wishlist from Pandia fellows, I came up with one of my own. So what do I want from Google in 2007. Here you go:

1. Allow comments on all official Google blogs and answer them.
2. Keep up the work on Google Patent Search. Expand coverage, jurisdictions and search options. Maybe add intelligent assignee optimizer and show related news. Something like Google Finance.
3. Advanced search operators.
4. Search result RSS feed.
5. Powerpoint equivalent on Google Docs. (Think. Rather Thinkfree)
6. Better Google Books.
7. Better Blogger. Rather close Blogger and adopt WordPress.
8. Mashup between all Google search tools (Websearch, blog search, patents, etc) and Google Docs (spreadsheets).
9. A functional and effective GDrive.
10. Stop launch of any new services till all products are out of beta.

And did I forget the Google India Blog??

Google’s Patent Search

The inevitable has happened. Google has finally launched a patent search engine. You can check it out at http://www.google.com/patents

For long I had wished that Google gives a better patent search option, and it has finally happened. Complete with advanced search options including assignee, inventor, IPC classes, and date limitations it is gonna be one heck of a tool for prior art search. I hope it does normal language search more effectively than concept search on PatentCafe.

Though the jurisdiction coverage is currently limited to granted US patents only, I am sure it would not be long before it adds other major Patent Offices like EPO and WIPO to it and published applications/pre-grant publications.

I sure see some competition for us in the future and also for IP service providers like Thomson Scientific.

What I now want to see is a mashup which combines Google Patent Search and Google Spreadsheets & Docs. That would be so much fun!!

PS: The official post is at http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/12/now-you-can-search-for-us-patents.html.