Today, Google is commemorating the birth of surrealist [artist] René François Ghislain Magritte. Born November 21, 1898, died August 15, 1967.

Here’s a look at the commemoration logo used on Google.com.

Follow me @ Twitter

Share This

• Shared Items - November 18, 2008
• How To Use Firefox to Quickly Search In Google
• 63 signs you’re addicted to Google and the Church of Search
• Experiment with Google’s alternate search views
• Two Google search tricks for international business

If you are a user of Google Ad Planner, or would like to be, you will definitely want to tune into this webinar.

You do need to register ahead of time though, so click here to register. The password is agency1. Once registered and ready for the event, the event password will be adplanner1.

Mark your calendars!

Got a nagging Google question? Ask for help in the forums!

Share This

• Quick Google Calendar Tip: Say it All in One Line!
• Search Public Events with Google Calendar
• 9 Steps to Syncing Gmail with Your Blackberry
• How-to add Public Calendars to your Google Calendar
• Quick Google Calendar Tip: Drag and Drop to Move Events

The best part so far is that the Gmail UI itself is a little cleaner no matter which theme you choose, very nice!

If you don’t see them in your account yet the Official Announcement has a larger sample pic.

I’m using the Mountains theme right now, but there is more than one I like. Which do you prefer?

Hat tip: Techcrunch, RRW

Share This

• iGoogle Themes: Themed Tabs
• Checking out the iGoogle “Grass” Theme
• Jazz up your iGoogle page with custom themes
• Gmail slowly starts to roll out AIM chat support
• New theme for Google Tutor!

Google Trends has helped me a lot in my job. From finding search term trends and Alexa-like traffic ranking, Google Trends has been very useful for anyone who needs that sort of information on the fly.

Not surprisingly, the technology behind Google Trends was used by Google.org, the nonprofit arm of Google, to generate a comprehensive flu tracker, showing the prevalence of flu outbreaks across America. With the basic assumption that flu-related search terms spike whenever there’s a flu outbreak, Trends is used to estimate when and where flu outbreaks happen. The data goes back to only 2003 though, so if you want a historical analysis going back a decade, this is gonna be useless.

However, if you just need a quick estimate, or if you need to know when flu cases are rising in your area, you can just do a quick check with Flu Trends. Data is tracked by state, so you can check if the flu starts picking up in your area.

According to the data Google has, December is historically the worst flu month, so this is the perfect time for Google Flu Trends to launch. What does Google want to accomplish with Flu Trends? They’re hoping that the tracker will be a quicker and more accurate way to find flu trends, rather than the traditional method of waiting for doctors to report the flu. Google estimates that people will Google for flu 1 to 2 weeks earlier before they let their doctors know about it.

Aside from the location-specific flu trending, Flu Trends also has a flu shot locator. Just enter your zip code and you’ll be given a list of places where you can get that much-needed flu shot.

Next time you feel a flu coming on and you’re not too sure if you have it, instead of waiting for the flu outbreak announcement, just log on to Google Flu Trends and you’ll see right away if flu trends are shooting up in your area. It’ll save you a lot of time.

Buy an ad right here. You are reading this aren’t you?

Share This

• Google Trends Websites Bookmarklet
• Using Google Trends to Confirm the Google Zeitgeist 2006 Results
• GMail Tip: Quickly open mailbox from GTalk
• On a network? If so your FeedBurner account is not secure.
• How to open up multiple instances of Google Talk

Success!

As you requested, we have moved your feeds from your FeedBurner account to your —-@gmail.com Google Account.

Nice! I thought…

Until I noticed a RSS subscriber drop of around 6-700 today!

I guess I don’t really panic over these types of things, but I did get a little sweaty as a couple searches didn’t find anyone else mentioning this issue. When my Google brain didn’t turn up anything I quickly pinged my IM brain, not much luck there either — things seemed fine for everyone else that converted.

Then, against all reason, I tried my real brain and thought I should check the email they sent a little more closely and I found this -

If you see “0″ for the most recent full day, don’t panic! It may take up to a week for a feed’s full dose of stats to appear in your new account

At 6200 subscribers or so I’m not exactly at zero, but I’m now betting that the drop is a temporary thing due to the feed conversion. I did email them to confirm so we’ll see.

I figured this was worthy of a post for those who use their Google brain for everything like I do. Once this gets indexed it might save someone else a little perspiration.

$25 off TARGETED BLOG ADS — Click here to save!

Share This

• Going full RSS feed!
• Using AideRSS To Filter Your Google Reader Feeds
• 5 Excellent Productivity Tips For Google Reader
• Upgrading Your Blogger Account to Version 3 (part 2)
• 3 Awesome Gmail Tips You May Not Know About

This plugin enables you to automatically post your Google Reader shared items to your blog on a schedule you set (daily, weekly, monthly).

Just about everything is configurable - post title, category, author, header, footer, etc, etc. You can see some of these different options in my sample posts here and here.

I think it is a great way to generate useful blog content without any additional work. Give it a try and let me know what you think in the forums.

Mom will check your computer eventually. Clear your search history!

Share This

• Protect your Wordpress blog content with RSS Footer
• Easy WordPress and Google Calendar Integration
• Using Google Shared Stuff
• Upgrading Your Blogger Account to Version 3 (part 2)
• How to control BlogRush headlines with WordPress

• 8 Ways to Buy Links Without “Buying Links”
  November 16, 2008
• Google’s Relevancy Algorithms Change by Keyword: Longtail vs Core Category Words
  November 15, 2008
• Introducing Website Optimizer Seminars for Success
  November 18, 2008 - a great way to jump start your learning
• 16 Essential PC Applications for Bloggers
  November 18, 2008 - useful list of tools for bloggers

Join the crew at Twitter

Share This

• Google Announces Help for Website Owners
• Is it online suicide to show Google the door?
• Search Public Events with Google Calendar
• Check the most popular anchor text to your site
• Twitter for SEO?

• Introducing SketchUp 7
• 9 tips for the Google Mobile App for iPhone
  - useful iphone tips from Matt
• New AdSense Interactive Ad Spotted
  - wow is this ugly!
• URLs for iPhone-Optimized Google Sites
• Google Smart Grid

Need some Google help? Try our new forums!

Share This

• Sifting through the Google Phone rumors
• What do you like about Google Reader? 13 twits tweet.
• Shared Items - November 18, 2008
• Can’t Access Gmail? Try These URLs
• Google’s Android Mobile Platform

Here are the Google Tools, and those they substitute, that can help you keep some cash in your pocket. Some tools will save you more than others, anywhere from dollars ($) to hundreds ($$$).

1. Google Docs ($$$)

Without a doubt anyone is aware of how much Microsoft manages to charge us for using programs like Word and Excel. Even if you are a student, the license is still absurdly expensive. It is no wonder open-source software like Open Office, and online solutions like Google Docs. The overwhelming benefits of using Google for document creation and management are the fact that:

• They are available everywhere and anywhere
• You can easily share documents with others (collaboration!)

When using Google Docs it’s nice you don’t have to give up on document organization. You can create folders to satisfy your inner control freak.

2. Google Mail ($)

Its hard to believe anyone is not completely hooked on Gmail yet, but there are some more reasons to use it and save money. Some ways to use Gmail and save money on postage, gas, and time:

• Email a family picture (or just one of yourself in a Santa-suit) instead of Christmas cards (it’s cheaper and greener).
• Email letters instead of sending them by mail.
• Scan and email documents that need to be signed, instead of mailing them.

3. Google Talk ($$$)

Quick conversations can be conducted just as easily using Google Talk instead of calling. Whether long distance or local, you can cut back the pressure on your minute usage on your mobile or landline. This strategy can really add up, and save anywhere from pennies to hundreds of dollars a year.

4. Google Calendar ($)

Instead of buying a $10-$50 (paper) calendar every single year, save your wallet and decrease clutter by using Google Calendar. There are so many different ways of personalizing GCal to make it extremely functional, there is no reason to use paper these days.

5. Google Sites ($$)

A new discovery of mine: Google Sites.
According to Google, you can use Google Sites to create pages for:

• Plan club meetings and activities
• Share info on a secure company intranet
• Collaborate on a team project
• Stay connected with family members

You can create pages and Wikis, and also control who can edit or add to your website. For people who don’t have elaborate needs for a website, this can save anywhere from $15-$100 a year in domain registry and hosting fees.

6. Google Sketchup ($$$)

Angela has blogged about Google Sketchup a while back. It is yet another free piece of software that allows you to draw 3D models. It looks pretty elaborate and useful. I haven’t used it myself yet, but now I definitely plan to try it.

Have you used any of these tools? If so, do you use it because you love them, or do you use them because they are free? A little bit of both perhaps?

What you search for is NOT PRIVATE. Clear your search history!

Share This

• 4 Reasons To Use Remember The Milk With Gmail and GCal
• Picasa Tip: How to Create an Account and Start Uploading Photos
• Collaborating With Google Calendar
• Google Calendars on your website
• Easy WordPress and Google Calendar Integration

You see, the new Gmail button lets you get new message alerts, see previews of your mail, and even lets you use Google Toolbar’s search box to find any message no matter what page you’re on.

What’s more, Google Toolbar also has a “Send to” feature. Clicking on the “Send to” icon opens up a Gmail compose window that automatically includes a link to the page you’re currently on and any text you have highlighted on that page. This is perfect for emailing your friends pages you find interesting as you browse the web.

Other than the awesome Gmail integration into Google Toolbar, Google Gadgets for the Toolbar can also be used to bring your other Google services everywhere you go. In fact, you can even use Google Toolbar to integrate Google Calendar into your browser. The Google Calendar gadget puts a clickable calendar icon that’ll let you schedule the next few days and even add events.

The Google Toolbar site summarizes the newest version’s new features as such:

• Add gadgets to your Toolbar - to view your favorite content from any site.
• Access your Toolbar from any computer - by saving your settings online.
• Clip content as you browse the web - with Google Notebook, now integrated with Toolbar.
• Get suggestions instead of error pages - for broken links or mistyped web addresses

I’m not too hot about the error page replacements, mainly because I can surf my way out of trouble and I also find those pages useless. Give me a 404 error page anytime instead of “suggestions”. But I guess not everyone can surf their way out of an error page even if their lives depend on it, I guess.

Google Toolbar 5 is available for Internet Explorer and Firefox 2+, available for Windows XP/2000 SP3+, Mac OS X 10.2+, or Linux.

What you search for is NOT PRIVATE. Clear your search history!

Share This

• Google Gadgets and your webpage
• Screencast: How To Setup SMS Alerts For Google Calendar
• Personalize Your Web Search Experience With iGoogle
• Quick Google Calendar Tip: Adding a Friend’s Calendar Into Your Own
• Removing Your Content From Google’s Cache