What’s This All About?

If you keep up to date with Tech news you will know there has been a lot written about the impending release of the “Google Browser” Google Chrome over the last couple of days. Well now the Beta version (another Google everlasting beta? ) has been released to the world and ProReviewer has grabbed a copy to see what it does.

Why Would You Want It?

Google have done some clever pre-release marketing and in particular a comic strip talking about what \Google Chrome offers. It clearly takes on may of the great aspects of other browsers such as Firefox, Opera and Safari as well as making sure it has MS Internet Explorer * well in its sights. The particular aspects that appeal to me are the “sandboxing” of individual tabs (well it seems to be websites) so that if they crash or a script won’t complete it doesn’t crash or freeze the browser. A Task Manager for the browser to display information about the individual tabs and allow their termination. Other aspects related to search and history within the address bar or “Omnibar” reflect what the “opposition” is currently providing.

I have very gone through being slightly disappointed to indifferent to quite excited about Google Chrome over the last hour as I have experimented with its capabilities.I still realize that I am, at present, a “Dyed in the Wool” fan of Firefox 3 Portable and it will take a lot of development and add-ons (will there be any? ) to make me consider Google Chrome as my browser of choice. However, if their is a portable version with the current functionality I would certainly add it to my Portable Apps toolbox.

Screenshot Tour

Rather than follow the normal ProReviewer review template this post will take the form of a (similar) series of screenshots with notes.

Click on any screenshot to enlarge if necessary

Installation

Standard installer progress window

Installer Welcome and Customization:

About

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What Is It?

Cuil is a new search engine. It has been the subject of posts on the popular tech blogs in the last few days (1 posts, they all post )

While I haven’t read them all the only thing I really picked up was that the pictures disabled didn’t always correspond with the search result.

So Why Am I Posting?

Well, because I gave it a try and was surprised at the results (or lack of them returned).

Cuil have some very good PR words on their About page and on their Philosophy page. They talk about some very interesting values for web searches which I am mostly in agreement with if only they can deliver them.

Some of the main points Cuil make are:

(Please click on any image to enlarge where necessary)

The Internet has grown exponentially in the last fifteen years but search engines have not kept up—until now. Cuil searches more pages on the Web than anyone else—three times as many as Google and ten times as many as Microsoft.

Rather than rely on superficial popularity metrics, Cuil searches for and ranks pages based on their content and relevance.

and

Cuil’s goal is to solve the two great problems of search: how to index the whole Internet—not just part of it—and how to analyze and sort out its pages so you get relevant results.

it’s well worth reading their About Us and Philosophy pages if you are interested in what Cuil (and good search engines should) strive to achieve.

The current problem seems to be that they are failing to meet their aims by a rather long way.

So What’s the Evidence

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News

Today I receive a notification box for Google Calendar Sync on my main PC so I duly said yes to the update offer and it installed flawlessly.

I have previously posted Google Calendar Sync Test - Very Good But Not Perfect which gave a review of version 0.9.2.8 which gives details of some of the problems I found. (See the post for details )

A quick visit to the Google Calendar FAQ site didn’t reveal any details of what has been changed but a visit to the Google Calendar Forum resulted in finding a post that listed current issues:

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What Is It?

Google Calendar Sync provides the functionality that I have wanted for sometime in being able to synchronise a web based calendar with MS Outlook and synchronising Outlook over different computers and hand held devices. Sure there are commercial "paid for" products on the market for synchronising Outlook and some freeware products that will partially do what is required or just import from Outlook but nothing that could synchronise both ways or optionally in only one direction. (i.e. either from Outlook or to Outlook).  The testing I have carried out so far has shown a couple of problems that I have not been able to resolve which may be the Google Calendar Sync program or Outlook. At work we have had some problems with the the corporate Outlook/Exchange Server setup which has resulted in appointments disappearing among other things, so I may have some "corrupted" appointments sitting in my Outlook installations. This post is not intended to be a full review but an explanation of my finding through the installation and initial testing process. I will, however, use the basic review layout and headings that you will be familiar with.

Why Would You Want It?

Having a single master calendar makes sense  and one that you can access from anywhere you have a web connection is ideal for people who need to use a single appointment system system for home and work. The ability to synchronise the master calendar with appointment systems used at home and work as well as mobile devices such a phones and PDAs really is essential for many of us. The icing on the cake is two way synchronisation so you can update the master calendar with appointments entered on one of your other devices.

What Does It Do - The Essentials?

Summary:

• Synchronises Google Calendar with Microsoft Outlook
• Options for two way or one way Synchronisation

Pros: What’s Good?

• Freeware

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Firstly Apologies

Apologies to my regular readers who visited the site in the last couple of days, particularly those of you expecting the report on my testing of Google Calendar Sync. Those of you who visited may have noticed some problems with the page layout and missing icons or pictures. What turned out to be a relatively small file in one of the server directories caused me huge problems.

The Problem

I could not access the blog through the Admin interface which is used to manage the blog in all sorts of ways. Posting, managing comments, setting options, adding and removing plugins which provide additional functions, etc. So although readers were seeing minor problems their were major ones behind the scenes. As I though it was a plugin that I had recently added that streamlined the use of the admin interface I started there but had to work through the server file interface rather than the blog admin interface. Anyway, having moved files to temporary folders, deleted files, checked file permissions and done all sorts of other things one of my Google searches turned up an obscure solution. Which pointed me in the right direction. To cut a long story short there was an .htaccess file in the plugins directory with 4 lines in it that was the cause of the problem. I renamed this and hey-presto I had access to the admin panel again .

All then I had to do then was put back together everything as it was before, one step at a time and checking each step in case on of the plugins was creating the rogue file. This took a very long time

In retrospect I should have resorted to installing the last site backup but hey you live and learn .

The Happy Event

My first grandson was born yesterday (I already have two granddaughters). They light up my life.

Other Relevant Posts

GTD - Getting Things Done

News - Google Calendar Sync Released - Sync with Outlook & More

10 Ways to Save & Protect Your Data - Even files You Just Saved or Text You Just Typed

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OK it makes for a good headline but the lack of posting is not entirely due to testing Google Calendar Sync (See News - Google Calendar Sync Released - Sync with Outlook & More). Small events have conspired to eat up the small amount of time I have free in the working week for blogging.

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