Cad tá muid ag déanamh? Seo, Sin agus mí na Samhna SaveiGoogle Lá

Posted ar November 1, 2012 ag SaveiGoogle.org Foirne

Over the past month, we haven't been hiding under a rock. There just hasn't been much to write. Sure, we could have announced updates to the Roghanna list or talked about when we made news. But, we didn't see either as all that newsworthy. We could even be lamenting iGoogle's demise one year from today. Instead, we'll continue to keep doing what we're doing, like getting ready to give away what may end up being rare collectible swag on the first Save iGoogle Day tomorrow!

Unfortunately, we have to limit swag distribution to US residents, but we urge everyone to take part in SaveiGoogle Days. The rules for a chance to win some swag during the November Save iGoogle Day are:

  1. Between 11am EDT and 11pm EDT on November 2, 2012, do the following:
    • Add a comment to the November Save iGoogle Day thread started by SaveiGoogle.org at the iGoogle Personal Homepage forum for a chance to win one SaveiGoogle.org keychain flashlight.
    • Retweet the November Save iGoogle Day tweet sent at Twitter by @SaveiGoogle for a chance to win one SaveiGoogle.org keychain flashlight.
    • Repin the November SaveiGoogle Day pin sent at Pinterest by SaveiGoogle for a chance to win one SaveiGoogle.org keychain flashlight.
    • Share the November SaveiGoogle Day post sent at Google+ by SaveiGoogle.org for a chance to win one SaveiGoogle.org keychain flashlight.
    • Share the November SaveiGoogle Day status update sent at Facebook by Ná mharú iGoogle for a chance to win one SaveiGoogle.org keychain flashlight.
  2. Everyone that completes one of the above will also receive a chance to win one SaveiGoogle.org embroidered hat. Do all five of the above and receive five chances to receive the hat.
  3. Random drawings for winners will be completed by Sunday, November 3, 2012 and winners will be contacted that day.
  4. Swag distribution is limited to one item per person per SaveiGoogle Day.
  5. We reserve the right to change the rules for swag distribution without notice, including increasing the amount of swag distributed per SaveiGoogle Day.
Posted in Announcement, iGoogle, Sábháil Laethanta iGoogle, SaveiGoogle.org Exclusive

Sábháil Laethanta iGoogle Tosaigh Samhain 2! Google Laethanta Blackout Cealaithe!

Posted ar September 27, 2012 ag SaveiGoogle.org Foirne

Unlike Google, we take your input seriously! A Stop SOPA style monthly gadget blackout sounded like a good idea at the time, but will just add to user angst like that caused by Labpixies (a Google company) premature termination of its birthday gadget, Gadgeteer pulling the plug on all their gadgets agus Google killing its weather API. The monthly Google Blackout Days planned to start on October 1, 2012 are cancelled!

Instead, let's have some fun with Save iGoogle Days starting on November 2, 2012! Beidh muid a bheith níos mó sonraí go luath, ach is féidir linn a insint duit gach duine a ghlacann páirt ag an bhfóram Leathanach Baile iGoogle Pearsanta, Facebook, Google , Pinterest and/or Twitter will get a chance to win some swag.

Posted in Announcement, iGoogle, SaveiGoogle.org Exclusive, Volunteer

Bing sé Ar, Hooray Do Mozilla & App Aisling GeekDad ar

Posted ar September 18, 2012 ag SaveiGoogle.org Foirne

A little more catchy than "In Case You Missed It #5?" We hope so! Anyway...

Bing sé Ar

In case you need more motivation to check out alternatives to the "new" evil (Google) empire. The "old" evil (Microsoft) empire is giving everyone the opportunity to do a blind comparison of Google and Bing search results at Bing sé Ar. Unless you run into the Bing team on the street, you won't have to give them the shirt off your back if Bing does better than Google. And, if you care to tweet about Bing It On, Microsoft is offering a big box of "awesome" Microsoft swag at bingsweeps.com.

Hooray Do Mozilla

Kjetil Hartveit is absolutely right about Mozilla doing the right thing by making the source code for it's iOS Sync client available on GitHub. However unlikely, we can still hope for the same from Google on the iGoogle container, the Google Gadget Editor and the theme and gadget directories. For what it's worth, Google did step up and open source Google Wave, now Apache Wave.

GeekDad's Dream App

GeekDad's got a pretty good app idea over at Wired. Would someone get on it? In that story's comments, we mentioned Kitedesk as an option. We just got our beta invite and will be evaluating features for our Roghanna list soon.

Postscripts

Backstitch just launched a public beta today. Don't expect much yet. But, it looks promising. Currently it's focused on integrating news, photos, social and shopping within gadgets (patterns) and a reader (threads). It does have an RSS Feed gadget. There is no mobile capability, email, calendar, OPML import, sharing or broad base of gadgets.

Good to see Google put its considerable resources into supporting all those users clamoring for the "Bacon Number" instead of iGoogle!

We've made a few more updates to our Roghanna list. This update focused on adding a few potential options, eliminating a few options and changes based on your suggestions.

Posted in iGoogle, iGoogle Alternatives, News Story, Blag Eile

Dréacht-Roghanna Liosta

Posted ar September 5, 2012 ag SaveiGoogle.org Foirne

Without further delay, our Roghanna list is available. Please recognize this is a work in progress. We would like it to be complete too, but it takes time to identify alternatives, define a set of criteria for consistent evaluation and complete feature verification and testing across multiple browsers and operating systems.  Many volunteer hours are going into developing the comparative alternatives list. To date, we've:

  • identified or received suggestions for 80 potential iGoogle alternatives,
  • verified and tested features for 17 alternatives,
  • eliminated 15 alternatives from the list for a variety of reasons, agus
  • are working on the 48 other alternatives.

As it's not final, you won't find the list on the SaveiGoogle.org sitemap or menu. Déan Teagmháil Linn if you think there is an alternative we missed or feature we need to consider.

Posted in Announcement, iGoogle Alternatives, SaveiGoogle.org Exclusive

Google Cruthaíonn eile Storm De réir Marú API Aimsir

Posted ar August 31, 2012 ag SaveiGoogle.org Foirne

Earlier this week, The Next Web reported Google quietly killed it's Weather API (the API is what makes Google's iGoogle Weather gadget work). For most iGoogle users, killing the API was no big deal. Google quietly replaced it in the iGoogle gadget with one from Weather Underground. So what is the big deal?

Even though the API was "private" and Google was "within it's rights" to pull it without notice,  it's an open secret many developers use it in apps that are no longer functioning. The weather widget in Awesome New Tab Page, among the Chrome Apps that Google is counting on to replace iGoogle, was down. And, there's plenty of unhappy comment about it in the twitterverse.  Considering "everything we do in connection with our work at Google will be, and should be, measured against the highest possible standards of ethical business conduct", a little notice would have been the right thing to do. Developers, you may be able to find a suitable replacement API at ProgrammableWeb.

This is another action that gives consumers, developers and enterprise users one more reason to question Google integrity agus focus. At SaveiGoogle.org, we know making value judgments are usually a no win situation. But, really? Keeping the Weather API and iGoogle, with uses like those noted in the pictured comment from ianray at "Don't take my iGoogle away!", is less important than developing Google+ Hangouts effects? It may be cute and fun, but how does a Chief Technology Officer explain that "feature" when describing business benefits of Google+ Hangouts?

P.S. We know, we owe you a list of iGoogle alternatives! The list we're evaluating has grown to over 75! Even if the feature list isn't complete, we'll publish a draft by Tuesday.

Posted in News Story, Observation, Rant

In Case You Missed It – Top Stories #4

Posted ar August 24, 2012 ag SaveiGoogle.org Foirne

Those looking for an iGoogle replacement have a new developer to watch! Josh Jordan has declared in iGoogle Discontinued – I might recreate it!:

...I have started to turn the cogs on this project. I have some really interesting ideas that could enhance the iGoogle experience...

Carol went on a "techy toy/app mission" to replace some iGoogle functionality at Wonder if Toodledo Can Help Me Produce? and found:

Over all I feel I have been more productive.

For those interested in finding a new task manager, we also suggest reading Top 10 Apps: Web-based Task Managers.

In closing, we wonder whether iGoogle's retirement is common knowledge what with a July 3 announcement, summer holidays and what not. We continue to see a number of stories that show authors are unaware (and they are not content scrapers). Two examples from the last week:

If these reasonably tech savvy folks are not "in the know", maybe there are many, many others that need to be reached with the Save iGoogle message!?

P.S. Kudos to Ellen for mentioning IFTTT...a cool tool...definitely something we'll try to use at SaveiGoogle.org to announce new content.

Posted in iGoogle, News Story, Blag Eile

Necessity Is The Mother Of Creativity #1

Posted ar August 17, 2012 ag SaveiGoogle.org Foirne

As traditional news venues lose interest in iGoogle retirement and Google continues to maintain its passive aggressive stance, you may wonder how we're going to keep things fresh.

  • Keep you informed on Sábháil Feachtas iGoogle developments.
  • Release an extensive list of iGoogle alternatives by the end of August. The list will include a feature comparison and each alternative has to be multi-platform capable (i.e., multi-browser, multi-OS and multi-hardware).
  • Publish an in-depth review of one or two of those alternatives each week.
  • Continue to scour the Web for stories you may have missed.

There should be no shortage of blogosphere stories. There are plenty of savvy people who like to publish what they're doing. Many of the stories don't have the detail to be included in our "Conas a" page and series, but we're finding plenty of creativity.  Without further ado, you may want to check out:

We recognize many users have no interest in spinning up a website whether it be self-hosted, Blogger, Google Sites or otherwise (but these are just ideas, you don't have to try them). And, if we were Patricia, we would have also talked about pinning browser tabs with Firefox or Chrome (Internet Explorer users can pin to the taskbar in Windows 7, but Safari users are out of luck). As for Flipboard, we enjoy using the "social magazine" app as a leisurely alternative to an RSS Reader, but think Feedly is as good and a better multi-platform alternative since it supports iOS, Android, Chrome, Safari and Firefox (sorry Internet Explorer users).

As always, feel free to comment on this story or Déan Teagmháil Linn if you have something to say.

Posted in How To Posts, iGoogle Alternatives, News Story

The “Sábháil Feachtas iGoogle” Begins

Posted ar August 13, 2012 ag SaveiGoogle.org Foirne

SaveiGoogle.org was conceived at a gathering of friends on the night of the iGoogle retirement announcement and put into motion with a simple page of resources on the following day. We were founded as a community effort, attempting to bring iGoogle users and developers together to Save iGoogle. We provide original content and information from around the Web about iGoogle and personal dashboard alternatives.

Weeks in the making, we announce the launch of the Sábháil Feachtas iGoogle! We invite everyone to join us in efforts to Save iGoogle and thank you for your help! For iGoogle users, the campaign lists recommended actions and resources and explains monthly iGoogle Blackout Days which will begin on October 1, 2012. For iGoogle developers, several tools are provided at Uirlisí d'Fhorbróirí, including code for the "Sábháil iGoogle" ribbon, gadget MiniMessages and iGoogle Blackout Days.

For those who have created "Sábháil iGoogle" resources that are not mentioned in the campaign, many thanks and please continue your efforts. They won't go unnoticed. As appropriate, we'll make note in our blog, resources page, how to page or other content.

Posted in Announcement, iGoogle, Volunteer

What’s A Mouse To Do?

Posted ar August 10, 2012 ag SaveiGoogle.org Foirne

When in a position of strength, feign weakness!
And bring a lot more mice!
Have a great weekend!
Stop by Monday morning to learn more
and help with an act of defiance!

Many thanks to Adrian Bruce for the free use!

Posted in iGoogle, Media, Blag Eile, Rant

Cén fáth Sábháil iGoogle? – Media Scout And Useful On More Platforms Than An Olympic Diver

Posted ar August 6, 2012 ag SaveiGoogle.org Foirne

While the uses for iGoogle may be limitless, here are a couple more published examples for how people use iGoogle:

You can find these reasons and others for saving iGoogle at our Cén fáth Sábháil iGoogle? page under Acmhainní on the menu bar. See something we need to add? Comment or Déan Teagmháil Linn!

Posted in iGoogle
Save iGoogle