By:Ted Samson | Source: weblog.infoworld.com

Despite all its fans, Google opened up public sign-ups to Writely, its online word-processing application, late last week with little fanfare.

Google snagged Writely last March, and until last Thursday, only a limited number of beta users had a crack at playing with it. Now anyone with an e-mail address can have a go.

Google and the Writely team weren’t particularly forthright as to why the application, still in beta, is opening up to the public now. According to the Writely blog, "Maybe it was because we just won a very nice product review on CNET … or maybe it was that ten-billionth person who emailed us to say, "Hey what’s UP? When will Writely open again?" Well, in fact, now Writely is truly ready to open its doors to everyone, so let’s just do it!"

For the time being, users won’t be able to log in to Writely using their Gmail accounts (as they can with other Google applications, like Google Calendar), but according to the Writely blog, that will soon change.

Of course, the question still on many a pundit’s mind is, what is Google’s aim with its collection of Web-based productivity apps, including Gmail, Calendar, and Google Spreadsheets? Microsoft Office’s market share seems to be a likely target, though as InfoWorld Contributing Editor Oliver Rist notes in his Enterprise Windows column this week, for the time being, the brows in Redmond need not sweat too much: Web applications just don’t have what it takes to replace productivity applications on the desktop.

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Source: webpronews.com

Google has entered a new market yet again, although the company isn’t doing its own press on this one. Intrepid bloggers found, while exploring Gmail, that there is a new feature present - an MP3 player. This is probably not going to replace any other player you use, but it’s a nice bonus.

As Amit Agarwal described it, "A new GMail feature lets you play MP3 files right inside the Gmail interface without having to download the MP3 or open an external media player." Agarwal posted one of the most thorough write-ups that has yet to appear.

"Now digging into the GMail MP3 player code, I discovered that it’s actually the Google video player that’s playing the audio file," Agarwal wrote. "In fact, you can play any MP3 files from the embedded Google Video player without even having to login to Gmail."

As if that’s not enough, "You can embed the Google MP3 player in your website or blog just like the Odeo plugin," Agarwal discovered.

On Google Blogoscoped, Philipp Lenssen used "Google’s MP3 wrapper in a simple Iframe . . . and now you have streaming capabilities and a Google Video-like interface with a progress bar and sound adjustments."

Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Watch pointed out "one thing to note, as a Mac user. This does not rendered on Apple’s Safari web browser, even thought Google Video works fine."

And on the Google Operating System Blog, Ionut Alex wrote that the MP3 player "was initially used only for the voicemails sent from Google Talk. Google uses a Flash player, similar to the one from Google Video." Also, "You can create a new filter for MP3 files, so it’s easier to find them."

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By: Loren Baker | Source: searchenginejournal.com

MSN Search / Live.com is now serving more than 250 search results, for those people who actually sift that far into SERP’s who do not work in the SEO industry. More from Barry Schwartz:

Until some time recently a search at MSN only went up to 250 results displayed. For example, if you searched on “web” you would get up to 250 listed results, and nothing beyond that. Today, if you search on a phrase that yields more than 1,000 results you can go as far as the first 1031 results.

I can’t find it, but I am pretty sure that the explanation used in the past by MSN for only showing 250 result was that no one goes beyond 250. I guess no one goes beyond 1031?

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