Google Blogoscoped

Forum

This teacher's been using Docs & Spreadsheets since the Spring!

ImJasonH [PersonRank 1]

Wednesday, October 11, 2006
17 years ago6,249 views

Read the first "Teachers Speak Out" here: http://www.google.com/educators/p_docs_spreadsheets.html

"Last spring, I had my kids practice graphing data using Google Docs & Spreadsheets and earthquake data from the U.S Geological Survey. They found data for one day (most kids selected their birthdays) here."

That's funny, the "Docs & Spreadsheets" brand hasn't been around even twenty-four hours yet. Writely has only existed as a Google property since August, and Spreadsheets wasn't released until June. How did these teachers get their hands on these hot properties six months ago?!!

And there are plenty more real-world reviews besides this one :)

/pd [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

1) trusted testers or
2) They were using part of the product beta cycle before it was bought out by google.

DPic [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Probably number 2

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Or
3) Google's lying. They're "rebranding" reviews that were about Writely and/ or Spreadsheets.

Sohil [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Definitely lying.

/pd [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

yeah worthy while doing a little bit of investigative stuff here

Take a look at the read more review link

http://www.google.com/google-d-s/tour5.html

and then dive into "From Andrew Spittle, student blogger and Freshman at Whitman College"..which takes you too his pages

http://andsp13.googlepages.com/

nowhere can I actually verify the content so the "Review" as written by google – not even a hint on this guy's hompy that indicates he uses doc/spreadsheets!! :)-

ImJasonH [PersonRank 1]

17 years ago #

[Moved to more suitable thread – Tony]

One of the user reviews (which are somewhat suspect anyway) mentions a "Chart Wizard"...

http://www.google.com/educators/p_docs_spreadsheets.html
"WIthin [sic] this database, they opted to see their data in spreadsheet format (comma delimited). Using the Chart Wizard, kids easily produced several different types of graphs."

Sohil [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

How can they all use Google Docs for weeks!!!!????

Did Google make these up or they "trusted tester" ?

But Google won't select random people for this would they ? I think you need an invite right.

Tony Ruscoe [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

LOL! It bet it wouldn't be the first time that someone gave a product an excellent review only to discover they'd never actually used it. Maybe the teachers are getting mixed up between Google Spreadsheets and Microsoft Excel... I mean... they're the same thing aren't they?

"Yes, our PCs run Google. That's all we really use. Hmm... I guess our spreadsheet program was written by Google too... What? ... Who else could have written it then? ... Microsoft who?"

Haochi [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

No f***ing way! Google bought Writely in March! It's interesting to read some of these "reviews".
1) Google is lying..
2) The "teacher" is retarded.(I don't mean it)

Kevin [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I'm thinking that the teacher used Writely and Google just fudged it for marketing sake

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

So, one of the people whose review were quoted replied to me... turns out the thing had a different name when they were using it, that is, they were referring to e.g. Writely, not Google Docs & Spreadsheets. So I guess we end up with

3) Google's lying.

:)

Mambo [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Liars!

Gary Price [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

A couple of comments from Gary the librarian. I love wireless. I'm now on a train, moving at about 100 MPH porting my wireless into my laptop.

Have you seen Zoho lately? They're on a tear of late and for many months have allowed various apps to be embedded and used together Also, they have just announced (finally) that Zoho now offers a single login for all of their services.
http://forums.zoho.com/viewtopic.php?sid=88aaa2b89e712585b924828a8a1353a7&t=20360

Here's a quick look
http://www.resourceshelf.com/2006/08/13/zohos-web-based-services-continue-to-improve-new-services-too

But better than that post, spend a few minutes visiting the various Zoho Blogs. It seems that at least once a week some new feature or service goes live.
http://blogs.zoho.com/

Btw, the recently released ZohoShow is very impressive.
http://www.zohoshow.com/

The also now have Zoho QuickRead that allows certain file types to be read without the app loaded. (doc, xls, ppt, odt, rtf, sxw, sxc, sxi, pps)

p.s. Zoho Planner is now out of beta. That was fast.
http://blogs.zoho.com/announcements/zoho-projects-goes-out-of-beta/

/pd [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

yeah I really think that google is not presenting the prodcut reviews correctly..

LAst nite,. I did the teacher center review too. and discovered that I am doubting how google works :)-

http://peterdawson.typepad.com/blog/2006/10/i_am_doubtin_go.html

Matilda Krestor [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I believe this is a result of search & replace by one person (to re-brand), and then the lack of attention by the person who stitched the review page.

Gary Price [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

One more comment, if Philipp would like to merge together, he's the boss.

Again, wrtiting as a librarian.

I have no issues WHATSOEVER with Google's Educator program. Once again, Google shows their marketing brilliance. However, from a librararian/educator point of view, it's just as important for a student and/or an educator to be aware of and use a multitude of resources, not just one.That goes for general web engines and specialty databases. I make this point because for many people, they automatically go to one source, look at the first few results and have their answer.

Book search is cool but do they also know about Search Inside the Book from Amazon or NetLibrary from OCLC or ebrary? In many cases, especially the latter two, you can share, take notes, work as a group with these tools.

Are they aware of the full text and free databases that libraries INCLUDING MANY SCHOOL libraries license the full text from?
In fact, one of these databases will soon past the 60 MILLION article mark. Most full text and many full image as PDF. Yes, libraries as Seth said a few weeks ago, need to do better?

Do they know that NewspaperArchive.com offers their COMPLETE search full text, full image database for FREE to any K-12 school. This dbase contains material from 1759-1977. In fact, some of this material is for sale from Google News Archive.

In some cases, especially in the lower grades, are they aware of and making use of directories aimed at these audiences?

Are they aware of the homework chat lines many libraries and schools offer for free?
http://www.homeworknyc.org/toolbox/ask_a_librarian.cfm
or
http://www.loc.gov/rr/askalib/

Again, this is not just a U.S. thing but I know of services and remote databases in many countries including Canada, U.K. and Australia. More countries are offering new services everyday.

As far as other tools go, you just saw my comments about how cool Skyline Globe and WorldWind are.

One of the many reasons I chose my career (and by the way, library and info science programs are very popular these days) is because of knowing about and using the right resource at the right time. No single resource can answer every question correctly all of the time.

Finally, with Google's mass appeal I was disappointed not to read anything on this page:
http://www.google.com/educators/p_websearch.html

about critical info skills. What makes a good web page. Is the info current? Does it need to be? What is the source? What is the sources authority? Where does one go to potentially find an older page that might have been removed from the web. Also, the "I'm Feeling Lucky Button" was yet another good Google marketing move. However, as a librarian I would have wished for more on the page about how web search relevance is not perfect and that first result might not always be the best. I've heard from many teachers that for some students, clicking this button equals an answer. I think we all know that relevance can be manipulated.

So, that's from Gary the librarian. A moment as Gary the Ask.com guy. One example Google uses is
music
http://www.google.com/search?q=music&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official
Ha, a Yahoo result is first.

But they also CORRECTLY suggest trying to be more specific with your terms.

Compare to Ask or Clusty that offer suggestions (right side of page) to expand or narrow
http://www.ask.com/web?q=music&qsrc=0&o=0&l=dir
http://clusty.com/search?v%3afile=viv_572%4025%3a7LXVm3&v%3astate=%28root-0-999%29%7croot&v%3aframe=tree&

Then, music theory
http://www.google.com/search?hs=sEN&hl=en&lr=&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=music+theory&btnG=Search

Both Ask and Clusty might have assited the searcher in finding a topic and focusing on something specific.
http://www.ask.com/web?q=music+theory&qsrc=0&o=0&l=dir
http://clusty.com/search?v%3afile=viv_572%4025%3aspnjfu&v%3astate=%28root-0-999%29%7croot&v%3aframe=tree&

You'll also spot the Wikipedia entry for music theory in both result sets. At Ask, it's above the paid links and clearly marked as an encyclopedia entry. Nice. We can debate the Wikipedia thing at another time.

Forum home

Advertisement

 
Blog  |  Forum     more >> Archive | Feed | Google's blogs | About
Advertisement

 

This site unofficially covers Google™ and more with some rights reserved. Join our forum!