Brant DeBow says in the SigDev blog, “…I don’t know if I should love Google or fear them because they seem to be slowly taking over everything by making it cooler.” He’s talking about something much cooler than I’m going to, but I share the sentiment.
I was tinkering with Google Calendar, as I’m sure a lot of Slashdot readers were today. One thing that seemed to be missing was the promised integration with Gmail. The Help docs said that a link to the calendar would be in the upper right corner of my Gmail screen; and also that e-mail messages containing dates would feature a link I could use to mark that date as an event in my calendar.
Well, I didn’t see anything in the upper right corner, so I opened the first e-mail message that I thought might contain a date that Calendar would recognize – the iTunes New Music Tuesday update. (Surely calendars are all over words like “Tuesday”, right? They get excited about “Tuesday” like I’d get excited by the phrase “giant Nazi robot”.)
I didn’t see a Calendar link in the iTunes e-mail. However, I did see this: Would you like to…Map this: 1 Infinite Loop Cupertino, CA 95014?
Would I? Sure, why not! I scrolled through the e-mail to see if that address was indeed provided in the body of the message or whether Google had used sorcery to obtain it (the former). Then I clicked the link, and behold! Google Maps opened with a cherry-red pushpin stuck right through Apple headquarters. Now that’s convenience. The next time someone sends me an address, driving directions will be just a click away.
It’s the little things in life that delight me. They also distract me when I’m on deadline. Holy crap, is it really almost 11:30? Uh…I’ll see you guys later.
Tags: Google, Google Calendar, Google Maps, Apple, Attention Deficit Traits
Wade Rockett 