Google Friend Connect with Blogger

"Google Friend Connect means more people engaging more deeply with your website -- and with each other."
Its like one's own little forum, and in Google's words, these are socializing features which one can add to their websites. If one wants to add these gadgets to their sites, there are clear instructions at Google Friend Connect site. One has to first request for access and then one will be able to add these gadgets and use on their personal websites. When access is given, one is asked to download two files, which have to located at a particular location on your website. Then, copy the gadget code into your website code, and publish it. Your site is ready with Google Friend Connect!

Trouble is there are no clear cut instructions if one wants to add these to a Blogger account. The trick is, Blogger is readymade with these files. So, one need not download these files and try adding it to Blogger. Its already there. Just directly add the Google Friend Connect code to the 'HTML/Javascript' gadget. And your Blogger is ready for use.

Thanks to this site.

This seems to have emerged from Open Social project of Google which was a long-lost dream. They seem to be adding their work here now.

Inside Google's New-Product Process

"The philosophy is, try a bunch of ideas, refine them, and see what survives, says Marissa Mayer, the search giant's product-launch czar". An interesting article here.

Thanks to Naams, an article on Why Google Employees Quit. These are open thoughts of ex-Google employees on their stance of quitting followed by a plethora of comments.

GVid within GChat

Google has done it again. Following the trend that we see in the developments of Google services, we can guess the direction in which they are heading. Integration of all services into all of it, is the visible aim of Google. But, auto-generation of video preview within the chat window and an option to view it then and there when one sends a Youtube or Google Video links, is another out-of-the-box, least expected addition. Nevertheless, it is one of the useful addition. Gmail Blogpost.

Just yesterday, I was going through GDocs and was happy to see some of the developments there. Now one can publish a Doc (Excel, Word, Powerpoint) with Google Analytics working on it for tracking the developments. One can enable RSS feeds feature to these Docs which enables a person, who has subscribed to these feeds, know and track changes to the subscribed Doc.

Last night, tried Google Gears on Google Reader, it worked fine and well. When tried with GDocs, it gave an error on interruption. Have to check again.

Blogger seems to have made their pop-up boxes (Preview, Hyperlink) transparent. It creates a distraction since it merges of with the background.