Google Labs part 2 – Still in Beta?

Last time, we talked about Google Labs, that fun set of web- and desktop- applications from Google designed to make our lives better–or at least enrich our Web browsing experiences. The apps include some familiar names, web services and software that have been around for some time as mainstays in our Web Browsers, bookmarks, and desktops–in short, our daily lives.

Sadly though, not all of these services ever get out from “beta” testing. Well, the culture of the “beta” is also great, given that the developers generally feel the product is not yet as stable and as usable as they want it to be to merit a “full” release, and get all perfectionist about their work. But even if some things are still in “beta,” they are far better to have than nothing at all, and better than other non-Google services.

So what has google kept in the labs, up to this time:

• Google sets – This nifty tool automatically creates groups or sets of like items from examples you define. It’s been on beta since 2002, though–for some reason it didn’t fly too well with Google users, perhaps.
• Google compute – Online since 2003, this service allows users to share unused processing cycles in shared computing initiatives. You can proudly say your computer helped create the next technological breakthrough.
• Froogle Mobile – Froogle is basically Google’s service that lets users search for lowest-priced items for their queries. This lets users search via WAP. A great feature if you find yourself itching to buy some gadgets on impulse (you might get better prices across the street).
• Google Ride Finder – Okay, this might be too much, but Google wants to help you find a ride (taxi, limo, etc.) based on your location.
• Google Web Accelerator – Google will act as a Web proxy server so your Web browsing would be faster (since you won’t have to go through various layers before reaching your intended site’s server). Problem was a lot of users reported stale, un-updated content and difficulties with accessing secure pages.

Here are several lab residents we’d like to see up as full features soon:

• Google Video – A fairly new offering, this lets you watch all sorts of shows uploaded by users, and as well offered by Google commercialy for download.
• Google Reader – This is Google’s very own RSS reader we wrote on earlier. RSS readers are a great tool to read a handful of websites/blogs in one go.