shazam--Google's at it again

Google Finance -- Somehow, this morning, this Google page popped up for me as I was going to check things out at the new American Skandia site. It's actually a very nice, clean, clear presentation, very much like things we now pay for as services. Google's at it again, delivering value at no monetary charge. Enjoy.

Google Toolbar (re)Installed

Google Toolbar (re)Installed, with a version dated 01/12/2007, and now, it appears, the "send to Blogger" or "Blog It" function is fixed.

still hating the Blogger Beta-That's-Out-Of-Beta-They-Say

This morning, I thought a long-standing problem of the Blogger beta had finally been rectified; I thought the "BlogThis" or "Send to Blogger" feature of Blogger was functional. I jubilantly did my "send to," made the appropriate links, fine-tuned my deathless prose, and found that...

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was the new order of the day, the new dysfunctionality, the latest hangup, preventing me from completing my posting.

You'd think they could do better, given the huge client base. Then I remembered, I don't pay them anything for all this, and I can't really make a lot of demands.

ThinkFree

Here's an article from INFORMATION WEEK that talks about a freeware suite that mimics Microsoft Office and may be on Google's acquisition radar screen.

While ThinkFree is a free suite, there's also an enterprise Server Edition that includes administrative features for $30 annually. In addition, ThinkFree has instituted a system where you earn "points" (I earned 100 by signing up) which you can exchange for storage space, clip art, and other features "to be added in future releases."

Assuming that the rumors are correct, where will ThinkFree fit into Google's product lineup? Google already has a popular word processor and spreadsheet application, but not a presentation application. It's possible that Google might pick up only ThinkFree's Show -- or it might meld ThinkFree's efficient interface and social networking components with Google's other offerings.

In any case, along with other free office suites such as OpenOffice.org, ThinkFree's online suite may give users who are nervous about Office 2007 something to think about.


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ThinkFree Online Beta
ThinkFree Corp.
www.thinkfree.com
Price: Free
Summary: ThinkFree is an online office suite that goes the extra mile to look and work like Microsoft Office -- but what would Google do with it?
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