Journal of Post-Ralphaelite Thought

I got a Google Plus invite a little while ago. In case you ignore some of the chatter in Geek Land, it's Google's latest attempt at Social Media. After trying it for a couple of weeks. my verdict: thumbs up. It's still in "Field Testing," which means you can't just go and sign up - you need an invite from someone who's already in. Which is easier than it sounds. There are numerous sites that will send you an invite just for asking (just Google " Google Plus Invites ."). Heck - even I will. Why would you want to get Google Plus (or G+ as it is sometimes referred to)? Let me list a few reasons I see. Biggest reason you'll like Google+ : "Circles." Circles are how you organize the subtle balance that exists within your relationships. They allow a high degree of granularity in what you choose to show. By putting someone in a Circle, you define what you want to share with them. When you post something you choose who to ...

I regularly go off on how great I think Google's application suite is. The centerpiece of all this goodness is Gmail . PCMag.com has a good great article on getting the most out of this first class (and free) service, from managing your mail most effectively, to using the many options and add-ons. Enjoy.

Gmail is now five years old. This has to be one of the longest and most stable "betas" around. I remember when you had to get an invitation to get a Gmail account. If you wanted an account, you had to badger all your geek friends until one of them agreed to send you one of their invites. One only had a limited number of these chits and they were jealously guarded. Matt T (thanks, TDawg!) generously shared one of his with me. My "welcome" email from the GMail team is dated 10/21/04. Gmail was actually announced on March 31, 2004 with an unheard of 1 GB of storage. At the time, Yahoo mail gave users with free accounts a measly 30 MB. The amount of storage was seen as so large, many people assumed it was yet another of Google's April Fool jokes. Early concerns over privacy, based on the fact that advertising keyed off words in the body of the current message, were eventually forgotten. Features were constantly being added; some cool, some (in the opinion of some) r...