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Here’s one from Steven from Boston: I have tried lots of to-do list software packages in the past. I would appreciate your recommendation on a to do list freeware that can be fully integrated with a calendar software. Any thoughts?

Answer:

Thanks for your question. My preferred to-do list free ware is definitely Remember the Milk (RTM). The reason i like this task management software is the way it integrates with GMail and Google Calendar which i use on a daily basis. So here’s how you get started with RTM – The process is straightforward, however please note that the integration with GMail requires that you use Mozilla Firefox as your web browser.

• If you don’t have a GMail account, create one and make sure you start off a Google Calendar account.
• After that, sign up with Remember the Milk and make sure you add RTM to Google Calendar. This will allow you to access your to-do list from Google Calendar.
• Now it’s time to download the RTM extension for Gmail. This is a Firefox extension that integrates a Task Management pane to the right hand side of your Gmail web user interface. This is quite handy, as it allows you to easily open and track tasks from your GMail page.

Enjoy RTM!

1. Adsense Gadget : Adsense is this blog’s main money maker. The Adense Vista gadgets helps me to stay on top of my earnings and impressions without leaving my desktop. The only caveat is that you need to make sure you don’t spend your entire day staring at the counter as dollars pile up

2. GMail Reader: Most bloggers i know use GMail as their main means of communication. The best features that GMail Reader gadget brings on board are its ability to monitor your mailbox from the desktop as well as be alerted on the important messages you are waiting for

3. CPU Meter: My laptop and Desktops are my workplace, and thus i better monitor them closely, or i ‘ll be decommissioned for days. The CPU Meter gadget displays system usage details (CPU, memory), and allows me to easily identify performance issues without opening my Windows Task Manager. The gadget is shipped with Vista operating systems, and can be easily added from the Gadgets window.

4. Windows Live Writer Gadget : Unlike many bloggers, i use Windows Live Writer (WLW) beta 2 as my main blogging tool. This gadget allows me to easily open a new or previous blog entry and open the options menu right from your sidebar (or have it floating and open Writer from anywhere). Moreover, it allows me to drag and drop images and URLs onto the gadget too.

5. Package Tracker : I usually buy (mainly at Amazon) plenty of professional books and magazines that i later use as reference when blogging. Those books and mags are shipped to me over at Israel from the USA or Germany using one of the major carriers. A common issue i encountered is to track those packages. The Package Tracker Vista sidebar gadget allows me to easily track packages from all major carriers from my desktop.

Those were my favs, what are yours? Let me know your take.

French website Zorgloob has put together an easy-to-follow map that depicts the entire set of Google services and the relationships between them. The maps eases the process of understanding Google’s strategy and the positioning of new acquisitions (Feedburner, Postini) and new services (Gears, Apps).

Via: Google Blogoscoped. 

[tags] Google, Adwords, Adsense, Google Apps [/tags]

For many website owners, The PR update culminates a three months period of intensive work aimed to enhance the website ranking with Google engines.If you spent much time developing backlinks to your website or blog, i bet you’ll be curious to know your expected PR.

The Iwebtool PageRank prediction tool (embedded below) can help you to estimate your expected PR based on the number of backlinks to your website. Be aware that the tool is not 100% accurate, however,  it can be useful in order to set the right expectations.

On a personal note, It looks like A Virtual Exit is going to reach PR 5. This is in line with the target i set after the last Google PR update.

Feel free to use the PageRank prediction tool to estimate your PR following the next update. The tool is courtesy of IwebTool.com

Powered by iWEBTOOL

1. GMail notifier: a brand new sidebar gadget that supports email alerting for multiple GMail accounts. Features a very compeling look and feel.

2. Google Calendar: Displays a  miniature copy of your Google Calendar  at your sidebar . Allows you to easily add, view and share events from your desktop.

3. Outlook Calendar Plugin: While at work, i manage my tasks with Outlook. This neat plugin allows me to interact with my to-do list from the sidebar.

4.  Lookup: A nice gadget that allows you to  look up words from dictionaries, wikipedia and translations. An essential component ofy blogging toolkit.

5. Games: A collection of classic computer games including Pacman, Simon, Donkey Kong and Tetris.

6. Google News Gadget: brings Google News right to your desktop.

7.  Google Weather Gadget: Displays the current weather condition for multiple cities, as well as a two days forecast.

8. Adsense Status: A cool one for bloggers and website owners. This plugin allows you to monitor your Adsense stats from your desktop.Info on page impressions, clicks,CTR,eCPM, and earnings is offered.

9. Wikipedia search: allows you to search Wikipedia.com from your desktop.

10. Calculator Gadget: A nice looking Calculator.

Do you use the Google Desktop sidebar? What are your top 10 gadgets? Please let me know your thoughts.

[tags] Google Desktop Gadgets, Google Desktop [/tags]

One challenge i had with Google Calendar, is to find a way to backup it regularly. The last thing you want is to have your meetings vanishing away for any reason…

So here’s my preferred backup method for Google Calendar:

1. In your computer, create a Windows folder that will be used in order to store the backup of your Google calendar.
2. Open  Google Calendar.
3. From the left side panel, Click Manage Calendars.
4. Navigate to the Calendar folder.
5. Double Click on your calendar.
6. From the Private Address section, click on the button named ICAL.

   

7. Your calendar meetings will be exported into an *.ics file. The file can be open using a standard email client like Microsoft Outlook.
8. Save the *.ics file that Google Calendar generated to the folder you created in step 1.

In case you want to look into your calendar backup, just open the file with Outlook, and navigate to the  Calendars. You’ll notice that your Google calendar was added (as a separate calendar) to Outlook.

Here are the relevant shortcut keys:

Key  Action

J      Selects the next result.

K      Selects the previous result.

O     Opens the selected result.

<Enter>    Opens the selected result.

/      Puts the cursor in the search box.

<Esc> Removes the cursor from the search box.

Want to give it a try? Let’s search for the word mashup.

If you want to use this cool feature with your normal Google searches, just add the suffix &esrch=BetaShortcuts to your  search query. So for example – if you are searching for the word mashup, the url you should type is: http://www.google.com/search?q=mashup&esrch=BetaShortcuts

[tags] Google, Google SERPs, Google Experimental Search [/tags]

By implementing the following procedure you will be able to load 2000 RSS items from Google Reader and access them while offline:

1. Open your Google Reader.
2. In the top bar, click Offline.
3. You will be prompted to install Google Gears ( a new platform that allows Google Applications to work in offline mode).

            

4. Click Install Google Gears and follow the wizard.
5. Restart your browser and navigate to Google Reader. In the top bar you’ll notice a small green arrow icon.
6. Before you go offline, click the arrow icon. This will load your latest 2000 RSS feeds to your local drive, and make them accessible for you once you are not connected to the Internet. Loading time varies according to your PC resources and network speed, but it should normally take no longer than 2-3 minutes.
7. Once you connect again, click the blue arrow icon. That will change Google Reader mode to Online.

Simple, but extremely cool!

[tags] Google Reader, Google Gears, RSS feed [/tags]

As time went by, i started to accumulate lots of docs and spreadsheets in my Google account, and i asked myself how should i backup them. I knew i could open each and every document and just save it as a Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Word document, as well as a PDF document, but i was looking for a more powerful method.

I searched a bit and found a nice Greasemonkey script that helped me to accomplish my task. Greasemonkey is a Mozilla Firefox addin that lets you modify the way your Firefox pages look and run.  Note that Greasemonkey scripts work only with Firefox, so if you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer, you will need to install Firefox before moving forward.

So here’s what you should do in order to backup your Google docs and Spreadsheets:

1. Open your Firefox browser.
2. In case  Greasemonkey is not installed, download it and install.
3. Download and Install the Google Docs backup script. Note that the script is written in JavaScript, and your browser security settings might deny its install.
4. Open Google Docs and Spreadsheets. You’ll notice a new download link available:>
5. Select the format in which you want to backup your documents and spreadsheets (MS Office, Txt, CSV, PDF or Open office).
6. Mark the documents or spreadsheets you want to backup by filling the checkbox located to their left.
7. Click Download
8. Click the documents or spreadsheets you would like to backup. The following dialog will appear:

   

9. Choose Save to Disk and click OK. 

10. The document will be downloaded to your default Firefox download. From here, you can copy your files to your preferred backup location or to a backup device.

Important Note: In case you would like to make a mass download, i recommend that you use the Google Docs backup script in conjunction with DownThemAll (a nifty Greasemonkey script that allows you to download all links from a web page to your disk). In case you have DownThemAll installed, you can use it in step 6 to download all documents and spreadsheets you selected in one shot. Cool!

[tags] Firefox, Greasemonkey, Google Spreadsheets and Docs, Google Docs, DownThemAll [/tags]