finding Monsuun | est. 2005

Pronet Advertising has a growing list of the domain names that Google currently owns.

I find the currently functioning allevil.org a bit disturbing–but more on that later.

link via Digg

I was doing some research into why I couldn’t access Google’s city-wide wi-fi in San Francisco when Andrea and I were there and I came across a recent Google blog post that referenced Google Checkout (it was only in the my RSS feed and not on the actual blog post). I don’t know how long it’s been around, but the prospects for this new service seem great. I haven’t used it yet, but I sure as heck plan to–this could make shopping online a ton more convenient than it already is. Hold on to the reins Paypal, Google’s riding up on you.

From Google’s blog:

The debate over “net neutrality” is coming to a boil in the next week as the House of Representatives is due to vote on a bill that could determine the future of the Internet. The big phone and cable TV companies want Congress’s permission to create a new, unprecedented regulatory bureaucracy on the Internet -– a private bureaucracy of broadband monopolists with the power to determine what content gets to you first and fastest. Google believes that forcing people and companies to get permission from, and pay special fees to, the phone and cable companies to connect with one another online is fundamentally counter to the freedom and innovation that have defined the Internet.

This is a big deal and anyone that wants to see the Internet continue to grow and thrive in the organic nature that it has, please visit It’s Our Net and send a pre-written letter to your Legislators. Here’s a sample of the letter that I sent to John McCain, Jon Kyl, & J.D. Hayworth:

Dear Senator McCain:

As your constituent, I am very concerned about the efforts of the telephone and cable companies to fundamentally alter the way the Internet works, and urge you to do all you can to protect the Internet as we know it and to stand up for the principle of “net neutrality.”

The Internet as we know it has fueled tremendous gains in American productivity and launched thousands of businesses that have re-shaped our economy. It has changed the way millions of Americans communicate, conduct business, and seek entertainment and information.

Unfortunately, a recent FCC decision has removed longstanding protections under which the Internet has flourished. As a result, telco/cable network operators–who control 94% of broadband Internet access and face no meaningful competition–have announced plans to use their control over the consumer Internet access market to control the Internet content and services market.

If Congress does not act, the Internet in America will be fundamentally altered, while the rest of the world will continue to reap the economic benefits of Internet innovation and leadership.

I urge you to do all you can to ensure that:
- Consumers have unfettered access to lawful Internet content, applications and services.
- Network operators do not interfere with or impair access to lawful content and services.
- Consumers are allowed to use the bandwidth they pay for however they choose.
- Consumers are not subject to limitations, redirections, or degradations of service by the network operators who want to favor their own content and services against consumer and marketplace expectations.

This discussion is critically important to me. I use the Internet for business and personal use, and I suspect that a majority of your constituents do, as well. I urge you to protect the principles of network neutrality so that the Internet can continue to bring creativity, innovations, and jobs to all Americans.

Sincerely,

Brandon Willey

This release could be one of their best and most important yet.

Google Web Toolkit (GWT) is a Java software development framework that makes writing AJAX applications like Google Maps and Gmail easy for developers who don’t speak browser quirks as a second language. Writing dynamic web applications today is a tedious and error-prone process; you spend 90% of your time working around subtle incompatabilities between web browsers and platforms, and JavaScript’s lack of modularity makes sharing, testing, and reusing AJAX components difficult and fragile.

You can get Google’s Web Toolkit here. And you should. Especially if you (David) don’t use AJAX because of the afore-mentioned “browser quirks.”

via Slashdot

I love the web. I would much rather produce documents on the web and access them anywhere than have to throw files on a thumbdrive and copy them to the next computer that I sit down at (FolderShare helps with this, but there’re still limitations). I thought that Writely.com had a shot as a web word processor (and maybe it still does now that Google has picked it up), but the new Microsoft Office 2007 looks incredible and unbeatable (sorry OpenOffice but it’s true). The functionality is staggering and could really throw some serious weight onto the side of desktop apps, tipping the scales back into their direction. I’m still hopefull though — Web 2.0 has all of 2006 to kick it into high gear and it’s virtually all open source and it has a plethora of readily available APIs.