Tag Archives: google

The Better Person plug-in

Posted on by

Imagine an email plug-in that scans what you have written and then runs it through a “tone” algorithm. “Neutral,” “Friendly,” “Sympathetic,” “Encouraging,” etc. If your words and phrasing do not match the tone you’ve selected, the plug-in rewrites accordingly. If unable to do so, it asks you do re-word the message.

It could know something about the recipient, based on previous emails, text messages, and voice-to-text phone messages (i.e. Google Voice)

If such a plug-in existed, it could eliminate misunderstandings. It could make you seem like a nicer person.

Would you use it?

Google Voice now for everyone

Posted on by

Google Voice was “invitation only” for a long time but now they’ve opened it up so I’m going to start using the number I’ve had for a while. Only way I’m going to get the hang of it. Video above runs about 90 sec. The link in the sidebar will probably take you to my voice-mail, at least until I learn the ropes.

Image above is the Google Voice in-box. Google Voice does a fair job of transcribing the voice mail message (close enough). I can also play the message, of course.

I also received an email that had pretty much the same thing. You can also set it up for a text alert.

Google voice does a lot more but I’m not going to try to explain it until I have a better grasp. And the video at the top of this post really has all you need.

While I might not wan to give out my mobile number to everyone, I can safely give out my Google Voice number (573-200-6776) and rely on Google to help me manage it all. For example, I can have Barb’s calls come straight to my iPhone… while sending calls from her sister right into voice-mail.

Google Buzz Redux

Posted on by

I’ve been (unconsciously) dividing web stuff into two piles. Something that has a little shelf-life (to me or others), and stuff that does not.

Increasingly, the first group is being made up of things I have written or created. These usually get posted here at smays.com. In the days before YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, and all the rest… pretty much everything was posted here because there was nowhere else to park them. (This became very clear to me during my recent weeks-long clean-up.)

The second pile really never makes it to pile status. It’s commonly referred to as a “stream.” Bits and pieces that flow by but don’t warrant saving in the sense described above. In fact, tags and permalinks make it easy to find just about anything that drifts by.

There’s no real point to this post other than I’ve been thinking about this, so I write about it.

I’ve added Google Buzz back to my Gmail page and think I might make it the stream into which my other little tributaries flow. It really seems well-suited for this. If you’re a regular here and use Buzz as well, let me know.

I won’t abandon the blog because I have a good bit invested in it and it has more of a permanent quality to it. A place that I own and control.