I think it’s high time there was offline support.

Not sure what took google so long.

Adding offline support to web-apps is such an essential part of the product strategy nowadays.

It’s very necessary because Internet connections can be iffy.

Even for power users, you sometimes cannot get connections.

My personal preference is to work offline too. Reason being so that I can focus better. 

It’s a sure fact that if you just do one thing at a time and do it w/o distractions you can get things done better.

One of my resolves this year is to focus better. 

This means I can sync up my email and sit out in a park and just clear out all my mail.

Wonderful huh.

It’s really great that Google is pushing ahead with all these innovations even in such dire “economic” times.

I do hope they can really fix up all the bugs in gears though. Gears acts up funny on my computers still. Sometimes it’s there sometimes it’s not.I keep having to reinstall it. Argh.

Says it all. Pretty disruptive business tool.

You need it!

And it has Mac desktop sharing even.

You can also deploy within your own corporate environment.

A little buggy on the interface but otherwise it’s good stuff.

The cool thing about this new feature is that you can see the world unblemished by large cities. It’s like going back in time to an era before civilization!

Update: Check out Yosemite! And a very flat Singapore.

One thing I’ve just learnt is the term “viral tuning”. I wonder where that came from?

But my point is to debate twhether this is repeatable at the upcoming Facebook Apps class at NUS.

I’m not too sure really. Because at Stanford, the user base is much more established. People use it more often and more passionately. Also the interconnectivity or meshing is much stronger. Stanford’s campus culture is such that people mix around a lot through various interactions, definitely much deeper than at NUS. NUS is very cliquish whereas Stanford has the open Californian culture.

So my gut feel is that Apps developed here might find it hard to grow out of this small pond. The network linkages to a large hinterland population is just not there for virality to seriously take off. Not unless someone in the class already has more friends abroad. We’ll see!

Nevertheless, all the best! Better to have developed something than nothing!

http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html

It’s elementary but provides a nice overview from the academic perspective.

If he still has 10% of the company, it’s worth $1.5B now.

Assuming he has 30% which isn’t too far off the mark usually, it is about $4.5B. Microsoft has awarded him a big fortune with the new valuation.

I think this is already more than the Google Founder’s valuation at Google’s IPO.

For example, if you run a smaller network like Multiply, is it possible to create a kind of wrapper API that allows Facebook Applications to run on Multiply.com?

This came about after thinking about how you can run “linux” on Windows (co-linux) and Windows Apps on Mac and run old games using emulator, why can’t a competing social network develop a reversed engineered API?

That way application devs can expand the market share of their apps quickly.

It’s good because this idea is long due: mashing up Social Networks with CRM tools.

Social networks like Facebook has excellent data inherent in the social graph.

With the opening up of the API, companies will be seeking ways to mine the data for better information.

If only the Facebook Inbox and newsfeed actions can hook directly into such application. I.e. allow you to answer Facebook inbox messages, wall postings, discussion from within a CRM application. With more apps and more users, marketing support/analytics tools like these should be able to deliver immediate business ROI.

(InfoNugget: I had a coffee with FaceForce creator Clara some time back when I was in Palo Alto. She’s a really amazing woman.)

Tripit is a new service that can help you organize your travel.

All you have to do is email all your travel confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com and you’re done. It will automatically sort out your itinerary and create a travel plan for you that includes google maps, directions, booking details and your own notes.

I love software that is just so simple to use. You don’t even need to register to use an application like this. Today’s technology is sufficient to build more of such apps that can automatically parse incoming input and sort them to the right users. Developers should think of ways to make their software as easy as this.

From: Reddit Blog