Showing posts with label Google. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Google. Show all posts
My Old House on Google Street View
I just read about New Orleans being included in Street View in Google Maps, so having grown up there, of course I was excited. I actually lived in Kenner, a suburb of New Orleans, for 10 of the 15 years we lived there until we moved to Pelham. I thought surely that Google didn't go out into the suburbs but I thought I would check. The roaming Google picture-taking vehicle actually drove down the street right by the house I grew up in. I had heard that it was under about 9 feet of water though I'm not sure if I got those facts right and I didn't know its condition. I actually assumed it was leveled. A quick search and a switch to Street View showed me that it is still there. See it for yourself. It is the house on the corner. In fact, you can see the FEMA trailer sitting just to the right of it. The house next door has a FEMA trailer also. I wish I knew the story behind all of this but it is pretty cool to see it is still there.
Labels:
Google,
New Orleans
Google Apps
Our family was at my wife's brother's house in South Carolina this weekend. He and his wife have been using AOL for all of their e-mail. Like many AOL customers, they were not happy. The AOL interface was slow and, in my opinion very klunky. I showed them Gmail, which is what Laura and I use. I love Gmail. It is very easy to use and has spam filtering that is simply amazing in its accuracy.
I initially thought I would get them set up on Gmail. However, my brother-in-law has his own landscaping business and had no web site of its own. I have read a good bit about Google Apps but haven't actually used it and it seemed like a good fit for solving their e-mail problems and providing a simple web site for the business. I went to the Google Apps site and it was very easy to set up. Setting up a web page was as simple as using some very simple WYSIWYG tools, much like using a word processor. Also, it gives you unlimited users, each with 6 GB of e-mail (and their fantastic spam filtering). Instead of johndeaux@gmail.com, you can have an e-mail addresses like johndeaux@cajunbasketweavers.com (in addition to having your own www.cajunbasketweavers.com web page). It even gives you the ability to create word processing documents and spreadsheet online that users can all collaborate on. All of this was free except for the yearly domain registration (so that you can register cajunbasketweavers.com, for example). Google walked you through setting up, which was a very simple process. The domain costs only $10 per year.
How is it free? It's free the same way that Gmail is free. There are very non-obnoxious text ads next to each e-mail, based on the content of the e-mail.
For personal use, I highly recommend Gmail. If you are running a small business and need some simple to create web pages, Google Apps is an excellent choice that is simple to use and simple to set up.
I initially thought I would get them set up on Gmail. However, my brother-in-law has his own landscaping business and had no web site of its own. I have read a good bit about Google Apps but haven't actually used it and it seemed like a good fit for solving their e-mail problems and providing a simple web site for the business. I went to the Google Apps site and it was very easy to set up. Setting up a web page was as simple as using some very simple WYSIWYG tools, much like using a word processor. Also, it gives you unlimited users, each with 6 GB of e-mail (and their fantastic spam filtering). Instead of johndeaux@gmail.com, you can have an e-mail addresses like johndeaux@cajunbasketweavers.com (in addition to having your own www.cajunbasketweavers.com web page). It even gives you the ability to create word processing documents and spreadsheet online that users can all collaborate on. All of this was free except for the yearly domain registration (so that you can register cajunbasketweavers.com, for example). Google walked you through setting up, which was a very simple process. The domain costs only $10 per year.
How is it free? It's free the same way that Gmail is free. There are very non-obnoxious text ads next to each e-mail, based on the content of the e-mail.
For personal use, I highly recommend Gmail. If you are running a small business and need some simple to create web pages, Google Apps is an excellent choice that is simple to use and simple to set up.
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