PaulSpoerry.com

The most excellent site GoogleSystem has a write up on how to enable you to chat with your site’s visitors using Google Talk.

Google Talk’s gadget was a nice addition, but you couldn’t use it to chat with unknown people or with the visitors of the site, like in Meebo Me. Now you can do that using the new chatback badges. You only need to add some code to your site and anyone could click on the generated badge to chat with you.

“A Google Talk chatback badge allows others to chat with you even if they haven’t signed up for Google Talk or a Google Account. You can put the badge in your blog or website, and people who visit those pages can chat with you. The badge will display your online status (whether you’re available to chat or not) and, optionally, your status message.”

If someone clicks on the badge, a special version of the Google Talk gadget will open and he will be able to chat with you.

The conversations are private and only one-to-one, so other visitors won’t be able to read them. For some strange reason, they’re not even added in Gmail’s chat section. Unfortunately, being constantly interrupted by other people is not very pleasant, so you can disable the link from your badge by setting your status to “busy” or by signing out of Google Talk.

I’ve put this in place on my site to test it out. It was extremely simple to enable, just scroll down to the bottom of the page and look in the About Me section and you’ll see my Google Talk badge!

“Throughout Lifehacker’s archive of over 14,000 posts, they’ve mentioned hundreds of free web and desktop apps that help you get things done—but which are the best? As they wrap up the year 2007, it’s the perfect time to put together an authoritative guide to their favorite pieces of free software and web services for common computing tasks on every platform. ”

I agree with nearly every selection they’ve made!

Application Launchers

• Launchy (Windows, open source)
  Previous coverage: Download of the Day: Launchy, Take Launchy Beyond Application Launching (Feature), Tweaking Launchy (Screenshot Tour)
• Quicksilver (Mac OS X, open source)
  Previous coverage: A Beginner’s Guide to Quicksilver, Advanced Quicksilver Guide, The Quicksilver Video Extravaganza, Nine Time-saving Quicksilver Triggers, Top 10 Quicksilver Plugins, Quicksilver Creator on the Future of QS (Exclusive Lifehacker Interview).

Backup Utilities

• SyncBackSE (Windows, local backup, freeware)
  Previous coverage: Automatically Back Up Your Hard Drive with SyncBack (Feature)
• Time Machine (Mac OS X, local backup, built into Leopard)
  Previous coverage: The Simplicity of Time Machine Compels You, Schedule Your Time Machine Backups with TimeMachineScheduler
• Mozy (Windows/Mac, online backup, up to 2GB free)
  Previous coverage: Back Up Files with Mozy

BitTorrent

• uTorrent (Windows, Free)
  Previous coverage: Organize Your BitTorrent Downloads with uTorrent
• Transmission (Mac OS X, open source)
  Previous coverage: Download of the Day: Transmission
• ted (Windows/Mac/Linux, free)
  Previous coverage: Automatically Download Your Favorite TV Shows with ted
• See also: A Beginner’s Guide to BitTorrent, Intermediate Guide to BitTorrent

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Google introduced a set of themes for your personalized homepage (or iGoogle) a few months back. But if you’re looking for a few more customization options, check out this new Google gadget. Once you install the gadget on your homepage, you can choose from a variety of custom skins, create your own, or submit themes for other users to install. It currently provides 10 new skins.

 The gadget features three main tabs; a skins directory which mimics the built-in iGoogle theme selector, a tab with details of how to create and upload skins and a skins submission form. Unlike many other gadgets, this one does rely on a server side component to retrieve a list of available skins from the database in JSON format and also to validate and insert new skins submissions. This little gadget will also permit a different skin per tab - and thankfully no more reloading the page when switching skins. Works in IE and FF.

   Custom iGoogle Skins

Check out BonstioNet for the latest.

GrandCentral is an innovative service that lets users integrate all of their existing phone numbers and voice mailboxes into one account, which can be accessed from the web. If you’re like me, you have too many numbers to remember… GrandCentral consolidates all of them into one number. If you have multiple phone numbers (e.g., home, work, cell), you get one phone number that you can set to ring all, some, or none of your phones, based on who’s calling. This way, your phone number is tied to you, and not your location or job. My job offers a similar service where the number will follow you, but it doesn’t allow filtering who gets through to which phone. GrandCentral’s service also gives you one central voice mailbox. You can listen to your voicemails online or from any phone, forward them to anybody, add the caller to your address book, block a caller as spam, and a lot more. You can even listen in on voicemail messages from your phone while they are being recorded, or switch a call from your cell phone to your desk phone and back again. All in all, you’ll have a lot more control over your phones. Neat stuff. Since this is all web based, I assume that Google will attempt to monitize it by offering location aware advertising and services at some point in the future.

Google blog post

GrandCentral

Google Maps lets you set intermediary points in your route and automagically adjusts the directions to the new conditions! Cool hu? You just have to drag the blue line to change its shape.

For example, after getting the directions from Mountain View to Palo Alto, I could change the route to pass through Stanford.

You can also add multiple points in the sidebar and build complex trips.