I’ve been waiting for the tide of comment following Google’s launch of the gOS - the Google Operating System - early last month (again). But it just seems to not have happened. Tie that in with the almost entirely unheralded launch of a syncing tool for OpenOffice and Google Docs and I can only assume that thanksgiving’s caused a lot of the high volume bloggers state side to rest on their laurels for the festive season.

Personally, I love OpenOffice - it strips out the unnecessary elements of Microsoft Office. In fact it forces me to think about the content I’m producing, and not how it’s formatted. However, I’m a multiple machine kind of guy. I need to get documents synched. Google Docs then, right? Well yes and no. I like the look of Google Docs, but the feel is way too laggy for me. If I’m entering data into a spreadsheet, I want that data going in and updating other cells instantly. When I save a doc, I want that to be done straight away.

Also: I bet I’m not the only one here who finds Google Spreadsheets to be frustratingly simplistic. I’m not talking about pivot tables, but at least a little flexibility in basic editing functions and some support for decent formulas is desperately needed.

So I just don’t get the speed I need from Google Docs and sometimes the product is a little limited. syncing up OpenOffice is a great step forwards. In fact it’s surely the greatest app for the gOS?

Google Operating System Vs Plain Vanilla Ubuntu

I was a big fan of Fiesty, and Gibbon is another great leap forwards, but still the pickup for Linux via it’s friendliest flavour is low. Google’s talent for making the mainstream love the geeky could be just the injection of glamour open source desktop environments need.

I blame it on being ill.

I spend most of my time online. I’m lucky enough to work in a company where I’m more or less obligated to spend all day everyday keeping in touch with the latest trends online. I’d do it anyway of course. In fact I’ve spent a substantially larger part of today fiddling with one such development that I couldn’t even strictly justify to myself. Why? It’s all about Flock & social media.

So sure, Flock’s nothing new. It’s not even unique, or first.

It’s damn pretty though.

GTD for Social Media?

OK, so it’s not in the spirit of GTD* to rely on a fancy tool, but if you are trying to Inbox Zero your social sphere and you’re more than a little active online, then anything you can use to make the complex simple should be welcomed.

Flock’s ‘People’ function allows me to share broadly in my multiple social spheres without having to wade through logins or get tangled up in MMFFT (Massively Multiplied FireFox Tabs). When I’m testing web code I run things through multiple user agent versions and types - and I piggybacked my social presence into these different browsers: Opera for a formal profile; IE for work; FF for play; and so on.

I’m still fiddling (and will be for hours), so I’m not going to bang on too much about some of the other cool features. I do recommend you take it for a whirl though, especially if you happen to be bed-bound by winter flu.

Yeah, yeah - very interesting. But did you…you know?

Did I blog with it? Well you’re reading this aren’t you?

*For those of you unfortunate enough not to have come across this mind-bendingly simple life hack: GTD = Getting Things Done.

I’m watching old episodes of Cranky Geeks (Dvorak is pretending to be Nick Nolte for Halloween) while I work on Thunderbird filters and I think the above.

This is my disclosure moment which will be referenced in future posts (Hello people from the future! Are you sitting comfortably?). I’m a technically minded chap from well known SEO company bigmouthmedia. However everything published on this blog is of course entirely my own opinion and shouldn’t even be taken seriously, let alone considered professional advice.

But is that the real you?

This is what I look like as an SEO professional and as a scruffy geek with little spare time. That’s all there is. Apart from some blog of course.

Hopefully now you’ll be feeling even more relaxed about my stance on anything controversial, potentially libelous, genuinely thought provoking, or simply au courant.

* Of course you are!

Yep. And in that order too. Basically.

It’s a lame theory I had back in the day that has kicked around my head for just too long. It’s about priorities and all about online. Online life. Web design. Search optimisation. It’s the new economy, and a new way of life - wait, no: it’s almost completely *not* about ways of life. Although of course it is.

It’s about building a new blog in two minutes to pass the time because you were looking at Google’s homepage and suddenly went blank with your cursor in the search field.

Fact: it won’t all be like this. And, yes, there are a few changes I’ll be making.

And so?

First up: wordpress transformation sliced and diced into my life, my design, and some good old fashioned SEO nuggets.