Writely officially becomes Google docs

Well, my favorite online word processor, Writely, has finally made the transition to a full-on Google application. Earlier this year they were bought out by the big G, but it wasn't until late last night that it went offline and came back as Google docs. Basically, its the same as a basic version of Microsoft Word, but all your files are stored online. You can access them from anywhere, export them as a Word file, PDF, text file, or even an html web page. All for free.

The best feature? the ability to have multiple contributors to any file. I tested this out with my sister this morning while working on my resume. I just added her email address as a contributor and it was added to her documents list. Once she got on, a little indicator popped up on the bottom to tell me she was working on it at the same time. When ever she made an edit, about three seconds later it showed up on my screen. Theres a refresh button on the bottom too, just in case you need the latest version, to the second ;) As a plus, Google also put up a link to their Excel clone, Google spreadsheets. Google is taking over!

Video Downloader to Youtube: "Yoink!!"

As a Flash designer, I've always been interested in video on websites. It always seems to be a problem with not having the right video plug-in, or the wrong browser to view it, etc. By creating a video player in Flash, you can skip the plug-in and browser issues and have the video right on your page. Of course you still need content. Enter Videodownloader. Videodownloader is the easiest way to "borrow" videos from popular websites like Youtube. It's an extension for the Firefox browser, and when you have a video on your page, just click the button and it starts to download.

Free G-mail accounts here

Well it turns out G-mail gave me another 50 invites. It seems like I can't go through these things fast enough. If there is anyone out there that wants one be sure to leave a comment on this post with your email address. It won't hurt if you clicked on those google ad things on the right too, but I really don't care. Its a wonder they haven't gone ahead and made it public yet. Well, until then I'll be giving em out here. Holler! Oh yeah, for more google beta fun, check out Video.google.com. you can search the closed captioning of tv shows, and see screen shots of the episode.

Engadget & my 2 seconds of web fame

engadget.com
Originally uploaded by Me.

Well, my humble blog felt what it was like to be a real website for a few days. My previous post on Snoop dogg's iPod got linked to Engadget.com. usually my blog gets 10 to 20 hits a day from friends, family, and randoms. After the Engadget post on Monday, I got 700 hits! Crazy, huh? Around noon here in Hawaii i couldn't even log on to my own blog. Now I need to step up my game and write some stuff actually worth reading, or at least funny. Or maybe vica versa.