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Miguel Guhlin is doing what many of us are doing after the last straw - Google pulling GoogleReader. He's documenting how he's going to pull his dependence upon Google. For me, my biggest decision caused by Google is that I'll be moving to Wordpress over the summer. I do think Google Sites is next although I've received several heated emails that this isn't accurate - if you look at the market share of google sites, it is far less than that of Google reader. Yes, it is something educators depend upon but you get what you pay for. I think Google would be better served to have a freemium model -- if advertising doesn't pay for it, we'll let you keep the service if you pay. I don't know how I"d move from gmail. I just don't but if I had to, I guess I could. I don't think gmail is going anywhere, but I do have my personal email boxes going into that inbox. I agree wikispaces is far superior to Google sites. It started quite a few years a go with Google Lively and it has just continued every year. Thank you Miguel for your transparency. I hope Google is listening, many of us are still HOT about Google reader going away.As great as Feedly is, it doesn't have Diigo or ifttt.com integration yet which is a problem.

Here's a side by side comparison of Bing Vs Google results on the term: Information Fluency 21cif.com ( formerly 21cif.imsa.edu ) has been online for 10+ years and dominates the Google Search results. Nothing in the top ten for Bing? Google ranks our old url #1 and our new url #4. Give this a try for your self with the same terms? I'll bet you get radically different results from Google than I do. Since I've worked on the 21cif project for nearly 8 years, I know the materials well. Also Google has adapted to my search habits and provides me with more links relevant to my interest. On the Google page I'm given a link to my search-wiki results: http://tinyurl.com/21cif-search-wiki

Here's a side by side comparison of Bing Vs Google results on the term: Information Fluency 21cif.com ( formerly 21cif.imsa.edu ) has been online for 10+ years and dominates the Google Search results. Nothing in the top ten for Bing? Google ranks our old url #1 and our new url #4. Give this a try for your self with the same terms? I'll bet you get radically different results from Google than I do. Since I've worked on the 21cif project for nearly 8 years, I know the materials well. Also Google has adapted to my search habits and provides me with more links relevant to my interest. On the Google page I'm given a link to my search-wiki results: http://tinyurl.com/21cif-search-wiki This proves the point 21cif has been making for a decade: USE MULTIPLE SEARCH ENGINES! The more sources of information you tap, the better your chances of getting a less filtered view of what's available on the world wide web

Google reader - is it next?

As Google shuts down unprofitable services, this thought that they'll shut down Google Reader - my trusty and favorite RSS reader just sends chills down my spine - I use it to generate my reader lists on my blogs. I have to question that Google is not looking at the affect of what we call "penetration rate" into the services people use - if they push us to ZohoNotebook (which is what they've done) and force us to another reader, what else will we start using. Just thought Google was going in the right direction with things and now... well, they just seem to be pooping lots of parties.

"Ahmed ElAmin Published Jul 20, 2011 at 9:18 am (Updated Jul 20, 2011 at 8:01 am) Belgians have invented Smurfs, make some of the best beer in the world, and know how to fry a potato chip. However, one must say the country's leading newspapers scored an own goal when they took Google to court last year for listing their content in the search engine's news section and won on copyright. I guess they didn't look at how people arrive at a typical online newspaper site, which derives up to 50 percent or more of their visitors from Google. In addition to taking the group of papers out of its news section, Google also stopped indexing them in its search engine. Now the newspapers are complaining that they are being discriminated against unfairly! (...) Google has big power and the danger is how the company wields it in pursuit of profit. It brings traffic to websites, but the company that claims to "do no evil" can also taketh away ostracising those for good and bad reasons. The company is also stepping up its aggregation news service by trying to attract more volume through the "gamification" of Google News. Google is following a trend among news sites to bring readers in. With their consent, readers will be rewarded with "news badges" based on their reading habits. Badges of varying levels will be given out depending on the amount and types of articles you read. About 500 badges are available to suit a wide range of topics. Google News indexes about 50,000 sources. Keep reading and get those badges! Maybe."

This is horrible news to most bloggers I know as many of us use Google reader and the apps that go with it like Mr. Reader and Feedly to pull information out of the web. RSS is one of the most useful features of Web 2 and I'm really unhappy w/ Google. iGoogle was a mistake, this a travesty. Google needs to read outliers and the mavens who use tools. I'll be researching new rss tools. This is ridiculous. ""While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader," Urs Hölzle, SVP Technical Infrastructure wrote. "Users and developers interested in RSS alternatives can export their data, including their subscriptions, with Google Takeout over the course of the next four months.""

Interestingly, if a stranger joins a hangout, google will kick a teen user off their own hangout. Anyone who is 13 and up can now use Google plus. "Google said Thursday that it is opening up its Google+ social network to teens 13 and over, while rolling out new protections for those teens who join."

Not exactly kicking them off, their camera will be turned off and mic muted if someone that is not in their circles joins a hangout. The teens have the choice to continue back in the hangout if they want to. Pretty powerful tool for them to have. From the Google Safety Center: Hangouts are a great way to connect with other people face to face to face. Just like in real life, you can decide which people you want to chat with. However, sometimes someone joins a conversation that you don't want to chat with (also like real life). So when someone outside your circles joins a Hangout, we'll pull you out and ask if you want to continue. This gives you a safe and easy way to leave the conversation without having to interact with the new attendee first. At the same time, this still gives you the ability to stay if the new person is someone you want to chat with, but you haven't added to circles yet. http://support.google.com/plus/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2409072

Welcome to your new Google smarthome - not smartphone - smarthome. They've bought a smart thermostat maker - I can imagine all kinds of cool things with Google Glasses, Droids, and other Google integrations with this. This interesting article covers many of the things Google has gone into besides their traditional search box/ advertising model and it tells you about the future of our world as a major giant positions for the Internet of Things which moves far beyond our screens into the air we breathe. This will impact our schools beyond what we understand as our surroundings become smarter and able to be controlled remotely in ways we can't really understand today. These are trends I'll be discussing in my Intro to Computer Science classes. "Google Inc announced plans to acquire smart thermostat maker Nest Labs Inc for US$3.2bil (RM10.54bil), signalling the Internet company's intention to expand into a broader array of devices and bringing valuable hardware design expertise in-house. "

List of links and shortcuts for working/playing with the various functions and features of Google+

Yes, taking pictures and recording videos are two of the biggest uses of Google glass. I think disclosure is going to be the issue, while you do have to speak to it, does it have a light to show others around you that you are, indeed, filming.  "Once you wake up Google Glass, you see the time (in rather large type) and "Okay Glass" right underneath it. That's your control command. I found that I could yell or whisper this and Google Glass sprang into action. It did have trouble in some noisy areas, but most of the time, I could get Glass' attention and then get something done. The two most obvious options, and the ones you'll likely use the most, are "Take a picture" and "Record a video." The former captures a relatively sharp 5-megapixel image. The second grabs just 10 second of 720 p video (that's the default; you can change it in settings). You can see some of the video I captured with Google Glass below."

Interesting article found on Google+ via @markwagner

A lovely overview by North Canton City Schools about how to go paperless with Google Docs. If you're working towards being as paperless as possible, this is a nice document to get you started. (For some of you out there who don't know this - Google renamed everything "Google Drive" to respond to Dropbox's domination of cloud storage but many of us still call the word processor "Docs".)

If you want students to draft work in Google Docs, you have to teach them about the Research pane. It lets you search for the appropriate license (click the down arrow) and set the citation method. You can insert photos, search Google Scholar and a dictionary, your own files, and even the web. When you mouse over the item, you have the option to cite the source or insert a link. Very cool and handy for writers. This is an older feature that hasn't gotten the press it deserves in classrooms. If you have Google Apps for education this is a BIG DEAL because it simplifies finding pictures and does many other things that online citation generators do all within Google Docs.

Google has a connected Classrooms initiative providing virtual field trips via Google Plus and Google Hangouts. Here are the details from the official Google Blog on how to join in.

A nice post about how to use Google Docs to be able to put images in a Google Earth Placemark.

"Redaction en ligne Publié le 15/07 à 19h56 Selon Rossel, Google reproduit une mesure de rétorsion contre les contenus rédactionnels du groupe, quatre ans après avoir exclu les liens vers certains sites de presse francophone, à la suite du prononcé du jugement qui la condamnait à retirer les photos et articles protégés par le droit d'auteur de ses publications Google News et des mémoires caches. Rossel considère également que Google est parfaitement au courant du fait que Copiepresse n'a pas attaqué le fonctionnement de son moteur de recherche lui-même. Néanmoins, le Groupe Rossel affirme qu'il reste ouvert à des négociations avec Google, dans l'attente, en cas d'échec, des décisions judiciaires pour les procédures que Copiepresse a introduites concernant le paiement des astreintes judiciaires et des indemnités. Depuis vendredi matin, les liens vers les sites d'informations dont les droits sont gérés par Copiepresse (IPM, Rossel et Cie, les Éditions de l'Avenir, Sudpresse, Mediafin et Grenz-Echo) ne sont plus mentionnés sur le moteur de recherche Google."

Here's a breakthrough tool to help all teachers better understand copyright and fair use.

How do I know if my use is a fair use? This tool has been developed to help teachers and students reason through the fair use process. You can see an example of how this tool is being used HERE Use the form online. The data from this form feeds into a google spreadsheet so you can compare how individuals or groups reason the fair use of copyrighted material in a work. If you would like to use this form in your work you can click here. If you have a google account, you can sign in and copy into your google account.

You can use your Google account to link the printers on your PC with your Google account using Google Cloud print. This incredibly useful feature can let you go to work on Monday and when you fire up your computer, it will printout the things you want to have printed. (If it works) this is a very cool feature. I'm enabling this today.

Caldav is what lifehacker recommends as an alternative to Google sync (which is going away January 31). I've been searching for an alternative to help our office manager figure out what to do. Lifehacker referenced this on their podcast from this week as still being currently the best way to replace Google calendar sync.

Cool trick to archive and keep what you've read in Google reader. Here's how you can do this trick -- that is if you ever used Google reader - or used it a lot (like I did for quite a period of time.) Very cool hack.

If you want to record your Google hangouts and post to your YouTube channel, you need to get started with "Hangouts on Air." HEre's the page to get you started. Note that Google plus isn't available for Apps for education so you'll need to use your personal or another gmail account with a Google plus profile if you want to record and share your class hangouts.