This morning, like every morning, I rolled out of bed to make a pot of coffee. Like I do every other morning, I fire up a netbook in the kitchen and catch up on the latest tech news. I hit the same few sites and aggregators while the coffee smell begins to waft through the air. Like every morning, there’s a new feature from Google. Wait, scratch that…it’s only recently that Google has started rolling put new features on a near-daily basis. Like my morning coffee…I love it.
Isn’t this the same Google that shuttered several services last month due to the economic crisis? Maybe fewer projects is a good thing overall. Here’s a quick hit list of what we’ve seen just this month:
- Auto-location on your Gmail signature. It uses your IP address for a fix, works better if you have Google Gears. (2/10)
- Wireless synchronization of contacts and calendar to your phone. Google finally licensed and implemented Microsoft’s rock solid Exchange/ActiveSync technology. (2/9)
- Multiple Inbox panes in Gmail so you can be more productive. I haven’t yet decided if the panes are a “pain” or benefit. (2/5)
- Sharing your location on a map so your friends can find you. My friends can only find me when I have a laptop, since my iPhone doesn’t support the new feature yet. Yet I’m looking forward to support soon. Any day now, at this rate. (2/4)
- New buttons in Gmail to reduce button clicks with the “Move to” feature. I expect to save around 36,000 clicks a year, based on my Gmail usage. (2/3)
- A lightweight Tasks list for phones. It’s missing the bells and whistles of similar applications but for the basic to-do’s, it’s perfectly usable. (2/2)
Somtimes it’s not just the big ideas that add the most value. Many of these new features are incremental improvements from older ideas that are still developing. Many of them came from Google’s famous “20% time”; that’s the informal 20% of a Googler’s workweek that can be spent on solving any problem out there.
After watching the first 10 days of February develop, I think I’m going to implement my own 20% rule. Don’t be surprised if I pick up amazing skills in conversational Latin, show up on “Jeopardy” and finally figure out where Waldo is. In fact, I see great results with the new mindset already: My morning isn’t yet 20% over and I’ve already consumed 80% of my coffee. Maybe they’re onto something at Google after all.
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