adSense for Feeds

I am starting to get serious about Google adSense (an advertising revenue program you can implement in your website or blog), with my not so new site: Academic Lozbo, in which by the way, the template is still in beta, though it already offers a couple of posts.

So I started optimizing every little detail, setting up Analytics, Feedburner, for both content and comments, and adSense, with their respective WordPress plugins, among other heavier stuff (like developing a theme from scratch and even some WP plugin).

So I also wanted to add advertisement in my feed, as I know that it can also be an important way of monetizing my efforts, but I found that currently there is no adSense available for feeds :( . There seems to be a private beta going on, but since 2005! I read in the adSense Help Center that the beta is closed and they are no longing accepting new applications, though the form is still available online.

I hope it gets out of beta soon! Not that I'm planning to become rich with adSense, it is still more important the content and my (currently non existing but this hopefully will change soon :) readers. For me, even the graphic design is more important than monetizing the site, so I have not even included advertisement yet on my template as I am still wondering where to put it so that it looks good :) , but to be fair: I would like to earn a bit if I can from the time spent on the development and writing there.

So Google adSense: we are still waiting!

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Google Reader updates me on the world

It's not just Google Reader, it could actually be any reader, but for me, it was particularly this free Google service that helped me.

I know what happens in México, even if I'm living in Germany. I don't have to buy a newspaper, or watch TV. It's all online... Though I must admit I have been never too interested on the news, most of them are sad anyway (except cultural or sports news), but I want to know. But the fact is that, it has become so easy to know...

This is possible because a lot of things, not only Google, but the ever growing blogging community, the syndication technology adopted by sites publishing content, and other global developments. The world becomes bigger and smaller at the same time.

And it's not just news, but blogs and all kinds of different sites sharing their stuff on the evil Internet.

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Bug: replying in gMail with keyboard shortcuts

I love optimizing small tasks and saving the most time I can, even if they are seconds. I love keyboard shortcuts.

There is a keyboard shortcut for replying to messages in gMail, R, I try to move around in gMail as much as I can with the keyboard only, it's a bit faster. But I've noticed than from some time ago, weeks or perhaps months, don't know for sure, Every time I press "R" to reply to a message, it seems as if I had pressed "A", which is the shortcut for Reply to All, and if the message has been sent to more than one recipient (for example, with copies to others), then I find myself writing a reply to a lot of persons.

Normally I notice this and correct it as soon as I can, but I've missed it a few times, so far I haven't had any real issues or big embarrassment, just sent unsolicited or irrelevant messages to people sometimes I don't even know, but for sure this is something it should not be happening, it's certainly a bug. I'll report it to gMail staff...

Wait, I've been trying to reproduce this bug again but I can't, either this has been fixed or I can't reproduce the exact context in which I get it. I think it only happened when I had a new message in a new conversation, and I hadn't read it before (brand new), so I'll wait and see, is anybody else having this problem?

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Monitoring gMail Activity, arrives to my account!

I have it and I love it! I don't know exactly when did this feature became available but it's nice to already have it...

There was a button that read something like "Sign out all other accounts", though a message above stated "It looks like there are no other sessions currently opened in this account". I will update my password nevertheless...

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gMail login details for the paranoid!

If you are paranoid like me, you will love this new feature Google is slowly starting to roll out! Now you can check if your gMail account is opened in another place (browser, mobile POP3...) simultaneously, and it's IP address.

Read more about it in the official gMail blog.

You can even sign out remotely your account from the footer of your gMail, and view some details of the other sessions. Nice!

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Firefox Add on messing up gMail

There is an extension in Firefox that messes with my gMail, but I am too lazy to search one by one to discover which one is it.

Actually, I think I already identified it, it must be either Web Developer or Tab Mix Plus (which by the way is not yet available, at least from the official site, for Firefox 3 and this is why I haven't installed the latest version of Firefox on my main PC).

The problem is when it comes to download things; while downloading files, sometimes (I think always or at least very often) when I try to download an attachment from a message the page goes blank... you can download the file but then the window doesn't display anything (like if it was an empty website, in white background and no text). Firefox continues to work normally, I can switch tabs and everything, even if I click on reload, it goes to that very same conversation (message), but this is not supposed to be and is very annoying.

I thought it was a problem with the not so new gMail interface, but the other day I was browsing in a computer from the school and I noticed that I didn't have that problem there, so I assumed it must be an extension.

Then, in another PC, which had installed only these two aforementioned add ons (which are essential for me in Firefox), the problem was there again. I think I should send this message to the developers of these plugins, maybe later on.

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Youtube time optimization while uploading a video

Yesterday I was uploading a video to Youtube and I have a rant.

I think Youtube should ask all the video meta data after you upload the video. Or better yet: while it's being uploaded. Because I didn't want to think of a description (which I know can be edited later) and just leave the file to upload, because I had a heavy file (almost half GB) and I wanted to start uploading it while I thought of the description and meta data, but, at least in the web based uploading interface, this doesn't seem to be possible.

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I love gMail, now I want folders!

I love gMail, but... there are a couple of things missing that would make gMail perfect for me: label hierarchy (different levels) or folder view, and more powerful filters (and the actual limit be raised, because last time I tried, I was only allowed to have like 10 or 20 filters, which sucks, though I don't really know if there is a limit now and if so, what is it).

But I will be happy with the folders, that would be enough for me. I like the idea of labels as an option, but I find my inbox far more organized with folders and hierarchies.

And there is one more thing... which actually has nothing to do with gMail but with Hotmail; I would like them to offer free POP3 access (and not limited only to Outlook or Outlook Express), so that I could manage all my email in the same place: my beloved gMail.

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Android Contacts Management

I am looking forward to the release of Android, the new Mobile Operative System.

Whenever this goes "live" (and as soon as Google launches their long awaited Google Tasks) I will be able to finally migrate from Outlook to Google Apps. Well I am not talking about all Google Apps, but at least those similar to Outlook, because there is obviously tons of advanced features missing in, for instance, Google Docs (like foot notes, for academic writing).

Anyway something I would like Android to do, regarding contact management, is that it should be able to filter contacts, specially to sort out those who do not have a mobile number (which might be the majority in some cases, as some people often tend to have lots of unknown people in their gMail contacts). When using the mobile device to make a phone call, you only need contacts with mobile numbers, not email or other unrelated contact info.

Still waiting Google and co! Keep up the good work...

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What to do

I wanted to use this blog as a Google news related one, but I I think there's no use.

I don't like publishing stuff that's already going around everywhere, I like original content, and I think that original Google news will be hard to post here, so unless I have something really unique, or if I think what to publish in this blog, I'll do it.

Because I also have my personal blog, which is related to personal stuff only, and not really too much about tech things.

So, let's see what happens.

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