If this is accurate, I can only say a big congrats to all my awesome friends at Digg. You guys totally deserve it. Woohoo! Visit site »
…and Seattle, the 12th biggest metro in the USA and the area that houses America’s second-largest population of Google employees, still isn’t one of them. WTF?! Visit site »
You can now use memcached with Google’s App Engine. Sweet. Visit site »
Google is now serving copies of popular Javascript libraries, including Prototype, Mootools, jQuery, and Dojo, to help with caching. Nice. Visit site »
May 29th, 2008, 6 PM in Seattle, WA
So it appears that, short of a set of stone tablets carried down from the hills of Mountain View, we do have a fairly clear answer. Using CSS image replacement in a responsible way, where the image truthfully represents the content it’s replacing, is safe to use. The simple act of hiding text from users is not enough to get your site banned from Google’s index.
I think most of us have always suspected non-shady use of image replacement would be fine by Google, but now we (mostly) know for sure. Thanks, Dave! Visit site »
Two words: Hell. Yes. Visit site »
Adam Howell at Vitamin posts part one of a good-looking tutorial on developing in Python with Google App Engine. Visit site »
“Specifically, when we encounter a FORM element on a high-quality site, we might choose to do a small number of queries using the form.”
I generally trust Google to do the right thing, but this sounds a little sketchy. I’m sure I don’t fully understand it, though, so we’ll see. I hope they’re only doing this on GETs, and not POSTs. Visit site »
Google announces App Engine, a wonderful-looking set of tools and APIs that lets you run your web applications on Google’s infrastructure. Nice. What’s more? It’s entirely written in Python, and Python is also the first supported language for App Engine apps (more are coming down the road). What’s even more? App Engine includes Django. That is to say, Google wants you to use Django to write your applications, just like they use it to write many of theirs. If that’s not a good endorsement, I don’t know what is. Visit site »
Good-sounding event for the development crowd (moreso than the design crowd). Features talks on JavaScript/AJAX, geo, APIs, mobile, and more from big names at Google including Guido Van Rossum and David Glazer. San Francisco, late May. Visit site »
Similar to their charts API, Google offers up a static maps interface, whereby map images are served up directly via nothing more than a URL and some parameters. Neat. Visit site »
Jacob Kaplan-Moss has put together pretty much the coolest thing I’ve seen in a long time. Can’t wait to play with this. Be sure to check out the example page. Sooo nice. Visit site »
Google’s Andriod mobile phone UI is heavily inspired by the iPhone, but not so much so that I’d call it a rip off. It’s not as sexy as the iPhone’s UI, but it looks every bit as usable. Bottom line: the iPhone trounces it in the style department, but Andriod still looks better than 99% of mobile phone UIs. Bring it on, Google. Visit site »
Lawrence, KS — my old stomping grounds — gets Google Maps’ street view before Seattle. This is an outrage. Visit site »
This conference just so happens to be in Seattle, on my birthday. So, if any of you geeks are interested in scalability, come up to the S-E-A and we’ll party. Visit site »
A picture is worth a thousand words. Visit site »
November 9th, 2007, 11:30 AM in Kirkland, WA
First Yahoo!, now Google. I’d say OpenID is fo’ real. Visit site »
I was invited to the open house for Google’s new office here in Fremont (a couple blocks from Blue Flavor, actually), and I can say, with a great deal of confidence, that’s it’s the most incredible workspace I’ve ever seen. The only reason I probably wouldn’t take a job there: I don’t think I’ve ever bring myself to leave the office at night. From the article:
It’s amazing that Google employees can get any work done. Between the three daily catered meals, on-site massage therapist, free gym membership and game room (complete with air hockey, darts and Foosball), Google’s new development center in Fremont boasts amenities that rival some resorts. Just in case there aren’t enough entertainment options, kayaks are available so staffers can go for a mid-day paddle on the nearby Lake Washington Ship Canal. There’s even a “quiet room” — complete with lava lamp, massage chair and wonderful views of the water — where Google employees can presumably dream up the next great Internet application while their muscles are relaxed. Visit site »