Google I/O session videos posted with slides

As I said earlier, Quite a few presentations from Google I/O have been posted for your viewing pleasure. I'll be glued to these this weekend while I'm on call.

Topics include
Ajax
KML
Sketchup
Android
OpenSocial
Appengine
Data APIs
Theory Talks
Youtube
Gears
Mashups
Maps
and more!

October Speedlinking

I haven't been able to post as often or as in depth as I'd like to have this past month. I chalk it up mostly to work, we all love 12 hour days right? But now that sign-off has passed and our last release of 2007 is calmly approaching (its on Friday), things have settled down a bit. Below are some great links from October, most of which I wanted to mention at some point and haven't gotten a chance to until now. Enjoy.

• The JavaScript Library for Google Calendar was released. This allows for authenticated, cross domain access. Hopefully Picasa Web will follow suit.
  
  
• GWT goes to the iPhone
  
  
• The Python Client Library came out with version 1.0.8
  
  
• The Digg Oracle demonstrates Gears' Worker Pool
  
  
• Google's Stock broke $600. It is now well over $700
  
  
• Orkut ramps up for a US push
  
  
• Vortex combines the know-how of Dojo and Gears
  
  
• LabeledMarker v1.1 in Google Maps comes out with Marker and Label toggling
  
  
• Google Reader comes out with Subscriber stats. Read about the controversy here. Google responds here
  
  
• Google Maps Goes Social
  
  
• The AJAX Search API gives direct access to YouTube Channels
  
  
• Blogger GData JavaScript client library released with offline Blogger client example
  
  
• Google Code Search goes to SiteMaps
  
  
• The Ajax API gets Dynamic Feed Control
  
  
• You can now play Youtube videos in Google Earth
  
  
• Summer of code wrapped up with Graduation
  
  
• Google Finance adds new Gadgets and an API
  
  
• YouTubes player becomes Customizable
  
  
• A Greasemonkey script lets you have nested folders in Gmail
  
  
• Blogger adds Comment Notification
  
  
• Google cracks down on pages selling PageRank links
  
  
• Google contributes to MySQL
  
  
• Google Mac updates Leopard
  
  
• Gmail enables IMAP
  
  
• Google Maps gets Clickable Polygons
  
  
• There is now a wizard for adding Google Gadgets to your blog
  
  
• Webmaster central fixes the Cross Domain Sitemap errors
  
  
• Google maps adds Flash Content into KLM
  
  
• Google Notebook adds labels and bookmarks
  
  
• Blog Search is now included in Google History
  
  
• A cheap "Google PC" is on the market
  
  
• A new Photo Picker for Gmail and Orkut pulls from Picasa
  
  
• GTalk may soon be able to connect to other networks like AIM and Yahoo! Talk
  
  
• The new version of Gmail comes out
  
  
• Google Code gets a facelift
  
  
• Webmaster Tools gets Geographic Targeting
  
  
• The Google Gadget Directory gets a facelift
  
  
• Microsoft is going to release the Microsoft Sync Framework to compete with Gears
  
  
• Picasa Web gets opened. (Flikr can transfer a picasa album to itself)
  
  
• Webmasters can now provide feedback on sitelinks
  
  
• Blog.gears comes out
  
  
• Mapplets gets a documentation and example update
  
  
• New articles are posted for KML
  
  
• The Ajax slideshow gets a full Control Panel
  
  
• Map of the Dead!! Google Maps overlay shooting game!

Mashup of the Week

It's been a little more then a week... Chalk it up to quite a bit of traveling. I'm around now until December, I promise ;)

This weeks winner: Mappington
API's used:

• Eventful
• Flickr
• GeoNames
• Google Maps
• Kayak
• Microsoft Virtual Earth
• Technorati
• Weather Channel
• Yahoo Answers
• Yahoo Local Search
• Yahoo Maps
• Yahoo Traffic
• Yahoo Travel
• YouTube

Why it won: Mappington is the most inclusive map / location information hub I have ever come across. "Mappington is a user created atlas of the world." It covers the following:

• Maps: Google Maps, Virtual Earth, Yahoo Maps, Google Earth
• Photos: Flickr
• Videos: Youtube
• Wikipedia Entries
• Opinions / Rating section
• Social Web on Wikipedia, Facebook, del.icio.us, furl, Yahoo MyWeb, Wink, ma.gnolia, spurl
• Discussions
• History
• News: Yahoo News
• Blog: Google Blog Search, Technorati
• Hotels
• Flights
• Weather: Weatherbug
• Events: e:vene
• Trips: Yahoo Travel

The layout is crisp, clean, and easy on the eyes. There are minimal load times and Mappington makes good use of Ajax. If you are planning a trip or just want to explore new places, Mappington is the best place to do it. I'm definitely going to use it to plan out my trip to Ireland in a few months.

What I think it could improve on:

• The video's don't show that you can click on them (mouse pointer does not change)
• The photos should tap into Picasa Web also
• In the News section, it looked like there was supposed to be a left frame (Google News maybe?) but it never loaded
• I wish you could blow the map up full screen
• The thumbnail view in Google Maps wasn't working
• Mappington should build some widgets / gadgets to get more exposure on personal web pages and sites like myspace

Runner Ups

Wind Surfing Clips

• API's: youtube
• Clean interface
• For such exciting and energetic video's, the template is pretty bland
• I'd like a link to the original video on youtube

Baby Name Map

• API's: Google Maps
• Very fitting interface
• Maps are slow
• The Javascript pop-up UI feels very out of place compared to the site's theme

My Next Dive

• API's: Google Maps
• The popup on the main page won't go away

My Map Chat

• API's: Google Maps
• Global shout outs are very entertaining

Zoogle

• API's: Amazon eCommerce, CNET, del.icio.us, Digg, eBay, Flickr, Google Search, Windows Live Search, Yahoo Search, YouTube
• The search box doesn't understand spaces?!? Ex: I put in "Tim Broder" it returned nothing and asked me if I meant "Tim+Broder" which returned some results that I expected

Croatia-Map.net

• API's: Google Maps
• Very smooth, clean, well done

CADoogle
Demonstrates Autodesk Freewheel. Allows you to search, preview, and download publicly available CAD files indexed by Google. It is free to use and leverages Google Search and Autodesk Freewheel Web services.

• API's: Autodesk Freewheel, Google Search
• Sluggish
• Heavy Loads

NEW! Google Mashup of the Week

So I've decided to add a new feature to gPowered, the Google Mashup of the week. So many of these get created all the time using various Google APIs and services. Each week I'm going to search around find a dozen or so of the newest ones, pick out the one I like the best and why... with a possible runner up. As for when I'll be doing these, the new mashups will be posted sometime in between Saturday and Monday. Usually on the weekend unless I'm going away... like next weekend (Tennessee).... and the weekend after that (Boston)...

... and the Mashup of the Week goes to:

Jolocate
APIs: Google Maps, Craigslist
The Good: Its craigslist... with a map. Or I should say its a map with Craiglist in it. If you've ever gone apartment hunting, you know the value of this. Smooth, no lag when changing grids, Craiglist opens right in the same window. I also really like the account feature. The site tries to profile you for people looking for roommates, and also from what I gather, is going to email me suggestions when I need to start looking for a place for a July 1 move-in.
The Bad: Not necessarily bad, but I would have liked the option to have Craigslist open in a new window
The Ugly: New York wasn't in the default list!

Other contestants:

Spell Boy Beta
APIs: Google Gadgets
Why it didn't make it: For on the web FireFox or Google toolbar can spell check all the forms for you, and if you're mail client can't spellcheck... well.. get a new one.

http://www.careersix.com/
APIs: Google Maps, Indeed
Why it didn't make it: The website was VERY slow to load the first time, I almost stopped looking at it because I thought it was down. Also I didn't see any place to search by job? only by location and then I have to hit ctrl+F?

Checker-forum.de
Small community that uses the Youtube API to show off and comment on videos in users profiles.
APIs: Youtube
Why it didn't make it: I don't speak German

100 Mile Diet
APIs: Google Maps
"When the average North American sits down to eat, each ingredient has typically traveled at least 1,500 miles. Use this interactive map and the 100-Mile Diet book to eat local, think global."

FormSpring + Google Calendar
APIs: Google Calendar, formspring
Why it didn't make it: Formspring costs money for anything worthwhile, free gives u 3 forms and 50 saves per form?