You can now customize your Google searches even more. See my new background?



It's easy to set; just browse to Google.com and click the "Wallpaper the Google homepage" link to set the image. You can use Picasa pics, uploaded pics or choose from a public library.



Enjoy and have fun! Unfortunately, at this time it applies only to the search front page.

Looks like someone's trying to compete with Bing a little bit :) Also, before you ask. Gamezone.com reports that a Google Spokesman says:

According to a Google spokesperson, “the homepage does not load any slower. With or without a background image, the Google search elements show as quickly as before, allowing users to search just as quickly as without the new feature. We make this possible by post-loading the photo—we load the search elements first and then load the picture into your browser cache and show it as soon as it is available. Meanwhile you can already perform your search.”

Announced today is Google TV. I wonder how Comcast feels about Net Neutrality now.

Just watch this and will go over the text after the film:



I think the video says everything that needs to be said, but here's Google's official statement from the Google Blog:

If there’s one entertainment device that people know and love, it’s the television. In fact, 4 billion people across the world watch TV and the average American spends five hours per day in front of one*. Recently, however, an increasing amount of our entertainment experience is coming from our phones and computers. One reason is that these devices have something that the TV lacks: the web. With the web, finding and accessing interesting content is fast and often as easy as a search. But the web still lacks many of the great features and the high-quality viewing experience that the TV offers.

So that got us thinking...what if we helped people experience the best of TV and the best of the web in one seamless experience? Imagine turning on the TV and getting all the channels and shows you normally watch and all of the websites you browse all day — including your favorite video, music and photo sites. We’re excited to announce that we’ve done just that.

Google TV is a new experience for television that combines the TV that you already know with the freedom and power of the Internet. With Google Chrome built in, you can access all of your favorite websites and easily move between television and the web. This opens up your TV from a few hundred channels to millions of channels of entertainment across TV and the web. Your television is also no longer confined to showing just video. With the entire Internet in your living room, your TV becomes more than a TV — it can be a photo slideshow viewer, a gaming console, a music player and much more.

Google TV uses search to give you an easy and fast way to navigate to television channels, websites, apps, shows and movies. For example, already know the channel or program you want to watch? Just type in the name and you’re there. Want to check out that funny YouTube video on your 48” flat screen? It’s just a quick search away. If you know what you want to watch, but you’re not sure where to find it, just type in what you’re looking for and Google TV will help you find it on the web or on one of your many TV channels. If you’d rather browse than search, you can use your standard program guide, your DVR or the Google TV home screen, which provides quick access to all of your favorite entertainment so you’re always within reach of the content you love most.

Because Google TV is built on open platforms like Android and Google Chrome, these features are just a fraction of what Google TV can do. In our announcement today at Google I/O, we challenged web developers to start coming up with the next great web and Android apps designed specifically for the TV experience. Developers can start optimizing their websites for Google TV today. Soon after launch, we’ll release the Google TV SDK and web APIs for TV so that developers can build even richer applications and distribute them through Android Market. We’re looking forward to seeing all of the ways developers will use this new platform.

We’re working together with Sony and Logitech to put Google TV inside of televisions, Blu-ray players and companion boxes. These devices will go on sale this fall, and will be available at Best Buy stores nationwide. You can sign up here to get updates on Google TV availability.

This is an incredibly exciting time — for TV watchers, for developers and for the entire TV ecosystem. By giving people the power to experience what they love on TV and on the web on a single screen, Google TV turns the living room into a new platform for innovation. We're excited about what’s coming. We hope you are too.

What do you guys think? To me this is really exciting news. A technology that should have been released years ago. Be prepared for Comcast to go ape #$%^ about this one though...

*UPDATE*: Google has recognized it as an issue. Still down with no official word as to what the issue is or when it will be fixed though. Stay tuned.

*UPDATE*: 2 PM CST: Looks like it's back online. No official word on Google Picasa Blog: http://googlephotos.blogspot.com/

Many of you are seeing the broken images hosted by Picasa all over the web. Hell, even us here at Geek Smash Me use Picasa as our image hosting provider. No word from Google yet, but it seems the support forums is filling up:

http://www.google.com.by/support/forum/p/Picasa/label?lid=051816230f0ec560&hl=en

I suggest everyone just sit tight until we get some official word from Google. I'll be monitoring their Blogs, etc and when I find something I'll make sure to update this post.

In the meantime; enjoy all the broken images on the site :)

Today while working in Google Reader I got a popup for Google Reader Play. Intrigued I checked it out.

According to the Official Google Blog:

I use Google Reader a lot — not only to stay on top of the news, but also to find interesting blog posts and articles. I’m always telling my friends about Google Reader, and while some of them love it, others don’t want to take the time to set it up. For those of you who fall into this second category, we’re announcing Google Reader Play, a new product that makes the best stuff in Reader more accessible for everyone. Reader Play is a new way to browse interesting stuff on the web, customized to the topics you’re interested in, with no setup required.


Items in Reader Play are presented one at a time, and images and videos are automatically enlarged to maximize the viewing experience. We use the technology behind Recommended Items in Reader to populate Reader Play with the most interesting content on the web. While you don’t need a Google account to use Reader Play, your experience will be personalized if you sign in. As you browse, you can let us know which items you enjoy by clicking the "like" button, and we'll use that info to show you other content we think you’ll enjoy.

We think Reader Play is a fun way to browse interesting items online that you wouldn’t find otherwise. We designed it especially for people who don’t want to spend time curating their own set of feeds — but folks who already use Reader can easily use it to read their feeds as well. Just click the feed settings menu on any feed in Reader and select “View in Reader Play.” We’re launching Reader Play as an experiment in Google Labs so that we can test it out, get feedback from you and then improve it as quickly as possible. Visit google.com/reader/play to give it a try, and let us know what you think!

It's pretty sweet. What do you guys think? You can access it by going to: http://google.com/reader/play

I did this over on my personal site, and thought it was too good not to bring to Geek Smash Me. Check out this article on how to link your facebook, twitter, and buzz accounts automatically.... With the introduction of Buzz to the world, my question as an avid Social Networking user was: "Now I need to copy/paste between each site to update my status'?". If you have the same question ... I have a solution for you here.

It's not another application, and it only takes a few minutes of your time. I admit this isn't the perfect solution, but it will work perfectly until further integration is done by Google, or one of your favorite Social Networking apps/sites. I honestly use Tweetdeck due to it's integration of Twitter/Facebook and it's gorgeous tabbed style. Unfortunately, it doesn't do Buzz. I didn't want to copy/paste everything, so I figured out a solution that works to combine all 3 automatically for you.

First step: Twitter Account Setup/Configuration

Open a Twitter account. Why you ask? Because it will be our gateway between facebook and buzz. Crimm, you ask: "I don't want people reading my tweets/status', why should I do this?". That's actually not an issue. Once you open your twitter account, go to settings, and look towards the bottom. You'll see this:



Check the "Protect my Tweets" box. That way you're tweets won't be public. There is one caveat though. That is, bots will automatically make sure to check your followers occasionally.

Second Step: Facebook Account configuration

Not too long ago, I wrote this article on Crimm.me about integrating your Twitter and Facebook accounts. The process is very simple. Here's what you need to do:

• Go here (http://apps.facebook.com/twitter/) and fill out the information.
  

Now when you update your twitter account, your facebook account will be automatically updated with the SAME tweet.

You have now integrated Facebook and Twitter. Just remember, if you are like me and have websites/scripts/etc automatically posting to Twitter ... It will go to your facebook too!

Last step is Buzz.

Third Step: Buzz account configuration

Visit your buzz account and you will see this at the top:



Click the "Connected Sites" link and you will see:



Add your twitter account to the connected sites.

Conclusion:

You're all done. All you need to do now, is update your private or public (Depending on your options above) twitter account and your facebook and buzz accounts will be automatically updated. Note: Sometimes it takes a few minutes to show on Facebook. Just be patient.

Where does this leave you? Now you can use all the cool twitter apps like: Tweetdeck to update your status or link pictures on the fly using the cool iPhone/PC layout.

I hope that helps someone out there.

Google is entering the ISP business! According to the official Google Blog:

Imagine sitting in a rural health clinic, streaming three-dimensional medical imaging over the web and discussing a unique condition with a specialist in New York. Or downloading a high-definition, full-length feature film in less than five minutes. Or collaborating with classmates around the world while watching live 3-D video of a university lecture. Universal, ultra high-speed Internet access will make all this and more possible. We've urged the FCC to look at new and creative ways to get there in its National Broadband Plan – and today we're announcing an experiment of our own.

We're planning to build and test ultra high-speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the United States. We'll deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today with 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections. We plan to offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people.

Our goal is to experiment with new ways to help make Internet access better and faster for everyone. Here are some specific things that we have in mind:

• Next generation apps: We want to see what developers and users can do with ultra high-speeds, whether it's creating new bandwidth-intensive "killer apps" and services, or other uses we can't yet imagine.
  
• New deployment techniques: We'll test new ways to build fiber networks, and to help inform and support deployments elsewhere, we'll share key lessons learned with the world.
  
• Openness and choice: We'll operate an "open access" network, giving users the choice of multiple service providers. And consistent with our past advocacy, we'll manage our network in an open, non-discriminatory and transparent way.
  Like our WiFi network in Mountain View, the purpose of this project is to experiment and learn. Network providers are making real progress to expand and improve high-speed Internet access, but there's still more to be done. We don't think we have all the answers – but through our trial, we hope to make a meaningful contribution to the shared goal of delivering faster and better Internet for everyone.
  

As a first step, today we're putting out a request for information (RFI) to help identify interested communities. We welcome responses from local government, as well as members of the public. If you'd like to respond, visit this page to learn more, or check out our video:

They are receiving responses until March 26th. You know what this means? Start contacting your local governments to get this project started in your area! Go now, do it now.

Here's a website to help you: http://www.statelocalgov.net/

I'm ready to BETA test Google!

Google Buzz is a new feature that Google is rolling out to GMAIL. The official site is: http://buzz.google.com, and it's set to rival twitter/facebook. How will it rival you ask? It will allow you to share live straight from an interface that seems to be straight from Google Wave. (Speaking of that, we have more Google Wave invites!) Here's a full video:



Some of you will see it already in GMAIL, but some of you won't. What's the difference you ask? Well, everyone is asking that and the answer is simple. Google Buzz's official page says at the top:

We're still rolling out Buzz to everyone, so if you don't see it in your Gmail account yet, check back soon.

In other words, just be patience. I haven't received mine either. If you are using Google Buzz today, what do you think of it? Let us know!

In a recent email sent to Google Apps Administrators. Google states they are dropping support for IE6 in an effort to drive HTML5 for their apps.

The email states:

Dear Google Apps admin,​

In order to continue to improve our products and deliver more sophisticated features and performance, we are harnessing some of the latest improvements in web browser technology. This includes faster JavaScript processing and new standards like HTML5. As a result, over the course of 2010, we will be phasing out support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as other older browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers.

We plan to begin phasing out support of these older browsers on the Google Docs suite and the Google Sites editor on March 1, 2010. After that point, certain functionality within these applications may have higher latency and may not work correctly in these older browsers. Later in 2010, we will start to phase out support for these browsers for Google Mail and Google Calendar.

Google Apps will continue to support Internet Explorer 7.0 and above, Firefox 3.0 and above, Google Chrome 4.0 and above, and Safari 3.0 and above.

Starting this week, users on these older browsers will see a message in Google Docs and the Google Sites editor explaining this change and asking them to upgrade their browser. We will also alert you again closer to March 1 to remind you of this change.

In 2009, the Google Apps team delivered more than 100 improvements to enhance your product experience. We are aiming to beat that in 2010 and continue to deliver the best and most innovative collaboration products for businesses.

Thank you for your continued support!

Sincerely,

The Google Apps team

Very interesting that they will still support IE7. I wonder if they will force the use of Google Chrome Frame for the more advanced features for IE7+ users.

Time will tell. Looks like 2010 may be the start of the end for IE6...

If you haven't heard ... Google was breached the other day by Chinese hackers. Today more news is being released about the attack.



The exploit comes from an issue with IE6. Yes, you just read that right ... Google employees are using IE6 to browse the web! The article states:

Thursday, Microsoft acknowledged that the IE exploit had been used in the attacks against Google and other major corporations. "We have determined that Internet Explorer was one of the vectors used in targeted and sophisticated attacks against Google and possibly other corporate networks," said Mike Reavey, director of Microsoft's Security Response Center (MSRC).

Source

As a developer I can understand Google's response of:

"Actually, it's the norm within companies, especially technology companies, for employees to run multiple browsers,"

A lot of people still use IE6, and unfortunately when you are designing code you have to test for that. This is completely agreeable and understandable ... but Google that's for testing your OWN software. According to sources this is a flaw with CSS stylesheets, which confirms that the Google employees were browsing the internet using IE6 or 7. Nice.

Good luck with this Google. While you are battling this, please don't let me Google accounts get hacked! Okay, thanks.

Lots of people are a buzz about the Nexus One i.e. Google's Phone. The news is alive with rumors that will soon be proven or squashed in the upcoming CES. Let's take a minute to review what we do and don't know. One of the most obvious things to look at is video of usage. Usage, you say? It's not out you say?! The first video is a demo of gameplay.




This next video is a demo of usage, starting out with demonstration of the interactive backgrounds:



Both of those videos come from a user name atreblatrebla, which is used on a French Blog. He also collected a whole host of images of the demo that can be found here.

That video is beautiful, right? There's more. More you say? Yes! MORE! According to Mashable, the Nexus One won't have Multi-Touch, which will be a downer for some. Other's that don't use the full functionality of Multi-Touch though, may not even notice a difference.

What about price? Price is still a rumor of course, since it hasn't been released, but according to some leaked landing page screenshots ... Gizmodo reports that the phone will cost $530 without a contract or $180 with a 2 year contract.. Here's a snippet of the article:

A tipster just sent in these Nexus One screenshots that supposedly confirms two things: that Google will sell it unlocked and unsubsidized for $530, and that Google will sell it by themselves
...
If you want it subsidized, you'll have to sign up for a 2 year mandatory contract and pay $180 for the phone.

$530 is a bit too much for my blood, but I'm sure the price will go down over time, and remember ... That's all rumored as of today. More will be released when CES is completed.

What about providers? Providers are also still a rumor. According to Gizmodo the provider will be T-Mobile, but Mashable has rumored that AT&T 3G will carry the phone as well. Here's a snippet from the article.

…we’ve heard from a source that there will be an AT&T 3G-compatible version of the Google Nexus One. Our connect described it as being a “second” unlocked model, with the T-Mobile-subsidized unit being locked to T-Mobile. Our tipster was so impressed by a Nexus One in person, they said they would 100% give up their T-Mobile BlackBerry 9700 for one when it’s available.

More will come soon over time, I'm sure. Those are the most important parts of what we do know, what is rumored, and what we don't know. If you have any questions or if you want to proclaim your love for the Nexus One or Google ... Post below! :) Good luck, getting your hands on one, on release day. We'll be watching the CES for all the news and report to you guys when we know something.

Everyone's talking about it, so it's the perfect thing for us to cover :)

Google Chrome has extensions if you didn't know that already :) The extension center has been under Beta for only developers up until today. No, I'm not talking about all those websites out there that have you drop this dll into this folder, etc :) I'm talking about official extensions. The official web site is here: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/. You can find all kinds of cool things! Here's a preview list:

Google Mail Checker
RSS Subscription
Xmarks for Chrome Beta
Translator
Chrome Bird

and many more! Check it out! I'm playing with them, this afternoon. Have you tried any out? Discuss them over on our forums.

Something very important for you to note: You have to download the BETA chrome to install them! You can get it here: http://www.google.com/landing/chrome/beta/

Today Google is unveiling quite a bit. First, let's look at the Google Live Search results. According to Google's official blog they are discussing the Google Live Search results. Here's what it says:

Search is a natural starting point for discovering the world's information, and we strive to bring you the freshest, most comprehensive and relevant search results over an ever expanding universe of content on the multitude of devices you use to access it.

That's why today, at the Computer History Museum, we're excited to share a few new innovations in the areas of real-time, mobile and social search that we feel are important steps in the evolution of information access.

First, we're introducing new features that bring your search results to life with a dynamic stream of real-time content from across the web. Now, immediately after conducting a search, you can see live updates from people on popular sites like Twitter and FriendFeed, as well as headlines from news and blog posts published just seconds before. When they are relevant, we'll rank these latest results to show the freshest information right on the search results page.

Try searching for your favorite TV show, sporting event or the latest development on a recent government bill. Whether it's an eyewitness tweet, a breaking news story or a fresh blog post, you can find it on Google right after it's published on the web.

Here's how it looks:


Our real-time search enables you to discover breaking news the moment it's happening, even if it's not the popular news of the day, and even if you didn't know about it beforehand. For example, in the screen shot, the big story was about GM's stabilizing car sales, which shows under "News results." Nonetheless, thanks to our powerful real-time algorithms, the "Latest results" feature surfaces another important story breaking just seconds before: GM's CEO stepped down.

Click on "Latest results" or select "Latest" from the search options menu to view a full page of live tweets, blogs, news and other web content scrolling right on Google. You can also filter your results to see only "Updates" from micro-blogs like Twitter, FriendFeed, Jaiku and others. Latest results and the new search options are also designed for iPhone and Android devices when you need them on the go, be it a quick glance at changing information like ski conditions or opening night chatter about a new movie — right when you're in line to buy tickets.

And, as part of our launch of real-time on Google search, we've added "hot topics" to Google Trends to show the most common topics people are publishing to the web in real-time. With this improvement and a series of other interface enhancements, Google Trends is graduating from Labs.

Our real-time search features are based on more than a dozen new search technologies that enable us to monitor more than a billion documents and process hundreds of millions of real-time changes each day. Of course, none of this would be possible without the support of our new partners that we're announcing today: Facebook, MySpace, FriendFeed, Jaiku and Identi.ca — along with Twitter, which we announced a few weeks ago.

The new features will be rolling out in the next few days and will be available globally in English. You can try them out today by visiting Google Trends and clicking on a "hot topic," which in most cases will bring you to a search results page with the new real-time feature.

Here's a video to show you a demo of how it will work:




That's really cool! :) If I have to say so myself. Let's take a look at the next feature that's been unveiled. The Google Google's. According to Google Official Mobile blog, they have release Google Goggle's. Let's take a look at what they say about it: (Note this only works with Android)

When you connect your phone's camera to datacenters in the cloud, it becomes an eye to see and search with. It sees the world like you do, but it simultaneously taps the world's info in ways that you can't. And this makes it a perfect answering machine for your visual questions.

Perhaps you're vacationing in a foreign country, and you want to learn more about the monument in your field of view. Maybe you're visiting a modern art museum, and you want to know who painted the work in front of you. Or maybe you want wine tasting notes for the Cabernet sitting on the dinner table. In every example, the query you care about isn't a text string, or a location -- it's whatever you're looking at. And today we're announcing a Labs product for Android 1.6+ devices that lets users search by sight: Google Goggles.

Here's a video of it's demo as well:





The Official Goggle's page is here... Man I wish I had an Android.

*UPDATE* Here's how you can set your DNS settings

This hit blogspot this morning:

When you type www.wikipedia.org into your browser's address bar, you expect nothing less than to be taken to Wikipedia. Chances are you're not giving much thought to the work being done in the background by the Domain Name System, or DNS.

Today, as part of our ongoing effort to make the web faster, we're launching our own public DNS resolver called Google Public DNS, and we invite you to try it out.

Most of us aren't familiar with DNS because it's often handled automatically by our Internet Service Provider (ISP), but it provides an essential function for the web. You could think of it as the switchboard of the Internet, converting easy-to-remember domain names — e.g., www.google.com — into the unique Internet Protocol (IP) numbers — e.g., 74.125.45.100 — that computers use to communicate with one another.

The average Internet user ends up performing hundreds of DNS lookups each day, and some complex pages require multiple DNS lookups before they start loading. This can slow down the browsing experience. Our research has shown that speed matters to Internet users, so over the past several months our engineers have been working to make improvements to our public DNS resolver to make users' web-surfing experiences faster, safer and more reliable. You can read about the specific technical improvements we've made in our product documentation and get installation instructions from our product website.

If you're web-savvy and comfortable with changing your network settings, check out the Google Code Blog for detailed instructions and more information on how to set up Google Public DNS on your computer or router.

As people begin to use Google Public DNS, we plan to share what we learn with the broader web community and other DNS providers, to improve the browsing experience for Internet users globally. The goal of Google Public DNS is to benefit users worldwide while also helping the tens of thousands of DNS resolvers improve their services, ultimately making the web faster for everyone.

Very cool. The optimization of Google with a DNS server I can trust. No more using public DNS servers with the fear of being hacked for me! YAY Google... Hey Google, when you release SPDY, this and the robot army ... Remember me, okay? :)

With all the hub-bub going on about Google Chrome OS, it's no wonder that we are starting to see articles like the one over at eweek.com today. Today's article is 10 ways Microsoft can beat Google Chrome OS. I don't agree with it at all actually. The thing that I think is going to keep Microsoft in the lead is ONE thing and ONE thing only. That thing is that people are comfortable with it... It's what they know. Only geeks, IT folks, or people trying to be one of those 2 is going to try out Google Chrome OS in my opinion. What do you think about this article? Here's the 10 things listed below ... So that they get full credit for the article please click the Source link below to get more details on those 10 things.

1. Keep Working on Windows 7
2. Embrace the Web
3. Point Out Chrome OS Shortcomings
4. Stay true to the enterprise
5. Enhance Windows 7 Starter Edition
6. Play Even Nicer with Developers
7. Work on Multiple Online Properties
8. Use Some Cash
9. Improve Security
10. Prepare for the Future with Windows 8

Source

Like I said, the normal everyday user (The majority of PC users) don't know what Chrome OS is, what it does, etc. I think Microsoft should just keep appealing to the masses.

This source reports:

In anticipation of a busy year of development, Google open-sourced the code on Wednesday. Now anyone can test and customize it. When Chrome OS launches, it will be only available on new netbooks with hardware Google has certified, said Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management.

"We are completely going to be developing this in the open from now on," said Pichai, who spoke at a Webcast news conference Wednesday at Google's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.

Chrome OS is an entirely new approach to computing. The average computer user spends most of his or her time on the Internet, so Google wants to cut out the middleman: the traditional operating system, which sits between a computer's hardware and a Web browser.

Chrome OS is a operating system that is a Web browser – or a Web browser that is an operating system. Essentially, it is Google's current browser, Chrome, bulked-up with systems for browsing files, connecting devices, printing documents and keeping the computer secure.

The operating system is designed only for using the Internet. Google is taking advantage of the fact that, these days, just about anything can be done on the Web.

"In Chrome OS, every application is a Web application," Pichai said. "There are no desktop applications."

Anyone who uses software that requires more snuff, such as a video-editing program, would need a traditional operating system like Windows or Mac OSX. That's why Chrome OS, Pichai said, is meant for companion PCs that are primarily used for Web surfing – a role that has largely been filled by netbooks.

Google is developing Chrome OS to only work on computers with solid-state memory, or flash drives. Except for the base operating system and some documents, all data is stored online – or in the cloud.

Chrome OS just takes that practice to the next level: everything, from text documents to PDFs, is stored in the cloud. More precisely, it's stored in data centers. People using Chrome OS, then, access all of their documents via the Web. Very little data is actually stored on the computer's local drive.

Hot damn.

Also notice this statement:

Also at the news conference, Google announced:
that 40 million people use the Chrome browser as their primary browser,
that the Chrome browser will soon officially be available for Mac and Linux,
that it is still working on finding a safe way to use HTML5 to take advantage of multicore processing and a computer's own graphics card.

Double Hot Damn - No more bloated CPU hogging FF on Ubuntu!!!

This has the be the coolest website on the internet.

http://lmgtfy.com/

Allows you to put in a search, and give other internet users that search. It then shows that user how to use Google.

I don't know how long it's been around, but I wanted to make sure I shared it.

This weekend an article was posted at iont3ch.wordpress.com that discusses the announcement of a new technology to compete with Google Wave. It's called Raindrop. Let's take a few minutes this morning to look at this Raindrop. You can find the official website here:

http://labs.mozilla.com/raindrop/2009/10/22/introducing-raindrop/

Here's a quick overview of it, from their website.

Today we’re introducing Raindrop, an exploration in messaging innovation being led by the team responsible for Thunderbird, to explore new ways to use Open Web technologies to create useful, compelling messaging experiences.

We hope to lead and spur the development of extensible applications that help users easily and enjoyably manage their conversations, notifications, and messages across a variety of online services. A central principle behind Raindrop is that messaging should be personal — we want Raindrop to be people-centric both in how we process messages, and in how we can help give people control over their personal data and experiences.

When a friend’s link from YouTube or flickr arrives, your messaging client should be able to show the video or photos near or as part of the message, rather than rudely kicking you over to a separate browser tab. Notifications from computers and mailing lists should be organized for you, not clutter your Inbox or require tedious manual filter setup. It should be easy to smoothly integrate new web services into your conversation viewer entirely using open web technologies.

Raindrop 0.1: A Prototype
To this end, we’ve started Raindrop, which we hope will become both a customizable product and a platform for a variety of innovative messaging applications on the Web. We’ve also drafted a set of principles that we believe will help ensure that it is as useful, usable, and compelling as possible. Today, we’re releasing version 0.1, which is very much an iterating prototype, not yet ready for everyday use. Join us and help drive it there!

Design
What does a conversation on today’s web look like? Email used to house the bulk of the conversations that took place on the internet, but that’s no longer the case today. In today’s world people use a combination of Twitter, IM, Skype, Facebook, Google Docs, Email, etc. to communicate. For many of us this means that we have to keep an eye on an ever-growing number of places we might get new messages. As a result, we never know that we’ve actually processed all the important messages, because our email has been overwhelmed by noise which obscures the real messages from real people.

Raindrop is an effort that starts by trying to understand today’s web of conversations, and aims to design an interface that helps people get a handle on their digital world. At the same time, it creates a programming interface (API) that helps designers and developers extend our work and create new systems on top of that data. We aren’t trying to invent new protocols or build new messaging systems, rather focusing on building a product that lets users get a handle on the systems we already use.

The Raindrop team has already gone through 2 initial iterations which demonstrate the power of the platform we already have and the possibilities that lay ahead.

Along with a few videos:


Raindrop UX Design and Demo from Mozilla Messaging on Vimeo.


Raindrop Software Components from Mozilla Messaging on Vimeo.

Now apparently, you can download their source code already at release .1, so you can start hacking, asking questions, etc. The download is here. That's the normal scope of Mozilla to do that, so I'm not surprised.

Here's more ways to get involved as well:

Get Involved

Mozilla Labs is a virtual lab where people come together online to create, experiment and play with Web innovations for the public benefit. The Raindrop exploration is still in its infancy and just getting started.

All of the source code under

lying the Raindrop exploration & prototype is being released as open source software under the the MPL.

There are many ways to join the team and get involved:

• Ask questions and contribute ideas at our GetSatisfaction community.
• Upload a mock-up or design to the Raindrop Design group on Flickr.
• Pull the source code and start hacking.
• Join us in our chat room.

We’ll also be using the #raindrop hashtag on twitter.  Our community page has more details about these and other ways to connect.

So, what do you think? Competitor or no? I feel like asking the question even though it's not necessary? (Will I get an invite, Mozilla?) HA!

Anyway, we'll keep an eye on this one for you guys!

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