Google Labs

For my Google labs assignment I checked out igoogle, google trends and google mars.

I had seen igoogle before and sort of poo-pooed it, but I decided to give it another shot. I'm glad I did, because igoogle is totally my favorite now. It really makes a difference when you get to add your own widgets! I loved adding all kinds of news feeds and such to my site, this one is definitely a keeper.

I enjoyed google trends as well, my compulsive statistical side really enjoyed being able to track how often a search is performed and how often it is performed relative to other searches, the way it tracks searches by geographic area is also pretty darn cool. I'm not sure this site has any useful application, but it's cool to look at.

Google mars was my least favorite tool. Partially because it was hyped to me by other people, but mostly because of a major glitch i encountered. When you scroll back all the way mars repeats over and over again. I guess this isn't really a glitch, it allows you to work your way all the way around mars and then back to the beginning again, but I wish it could be accomplished in another way. I was about to say google maps doesn't repeat, but then I checked and it does and now that bugs me too. It's sad that google mars has managed to tarnish google maps- one of my favorite sites- but it has and it makes me wish google mars had never been created. Shame on you google mars!