Just when I was starting to knock Google’s track record of innovation they roll out GrandCentral. While it isn’t truly a Google “innovation” what they will be doing with it sure is innovative. I’m not a user of it – yet, but it sounds like an awesome idea and I’m very excited about getting into the application.

If you never heard of GrandCentral, it’s a phone aggregator…. in a nutshell it will allow all your phones and voicemails to be managed under 1 account.

Here are just a few of the features I’m excited about:

• One number, rings everything
• Let people call you from a Web pageClick2call from your keyboard
• Call Record. Yep… record your calls… this will be fun to see the lawyers debate
• Voicemail notifications via SMS
• Mobile Access, similar to the iPhone visual voicemail

I can just hear the telecos whining about this latest invention by Google. But why are they doing this, I’m only guessing at this point but let’s follow the money for some clues.

• Phone based ads using AdWords
• Click to Call, perfect for tracking AdWords conversions over the phone
• Planting the seeds for the Google Phone
• Searchable Voicemail

OK, I’ve drank the juice and I haven’t even used this yet. I encourage you to visit the site and sign-up as well.

Today I tried Microsoft Visual Web Developer Express as a change to Visual Studio, hoping that it had less bloat and would be a good alternative or upgrade from previous Visual Studio IDEs, even as an Express version.

This was the popup it presented to me when I opened my first site.

What the f*ck!

I respect that Microsoft wants to promote version 3.5 of the framework but this is f*cking stupid, and arguably irresponsible, too.

The Google App Engine is one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a while, allowing developers to create Web apps that leverage Google’s backend. That should get anyone reading this excited about it.

Also – or naturally, depending on your point of view – Google App Engine decided to go with Python as its language of choice, which is pretty much the coolest language ever. Anyone reading this with good taste in programming languages should be even more excited.

In addition, App Engine also includes the Django Web application framework – specifically its template system. If you have good taste in programming languages and web frameworks, you may have just fallen over your chair.

Products and technologies like Google App Engine remind me how cool it would be play with stuff like this all day if I didn’t need to work for a living. In the mean time, I’m looking forward to giving Google App Engine a spin on an upcoming weekend.

Check it out here.

Tonight while working on a proposal I examined a customer’s case study region of their site. The case studies the customer posted were strictly in PDF format with no HTML alternative. When I browse the internet looking for information I’m often miffed when content is put entirely into a PDF.

Usually when I stumble on PDF content it’s by accident and without visual warning that I’m about to download an entire document. Not only does the download clutter my hard drive but it changes the usability experience on the Web site.

As usual, I resorted to a Google search in an effort to find a good study on the pros and cons of strictly PDF content mixed with HTML content. To my surprise I found little to no information about this topic.

So I came up with my own short list.

First the Pros

• Total control of the design
• Document is portable offline
• Can email it to a collegue

That’s it…. now to the Cons

• On PCs the user needs to open Adobe Acrobat. Thank God I have a Mac
• The user-experience has now changed
• Loss of SEO benefits over HTML
• Content often goes stale, while the HTML stays fresh using a CMS
• Another file added to my computer rather then the cache

So, now I ask you good reader, where do you stand?

It’s not hard to be a fan of Mozilla – they have some great products, offer some great resources like the Mozilla Development Center, and supports Web standards in general.

Here are two projects that Mozilla heads up but haven’t received as much press as some of their other efforts, probably because they are still under development.

XULRunner. The best introduction to XULRunner may be Wikipedia’s: “XULRunner is a runtime environment developed by the Mozilla Foundation for providing a common back-end for XUL applications.”

XULRunner is my personal favorite of upcoming Mozilla projects. It will allow developers to use XUL – Mozilla’s “XML User Interface Language” – to build cross-platform (desktop) applications that can do all sorts of cool things. XUL should be a technology that comes naturally to most Web developers.

While XUL provides the framework to build the applications themselves, XULRunner will provide an easy means of installing, removing, and upgrading these applications. In sum, XULRunner (with XUL) will make it easier for developers with certain skill sets to deploy desktop applications. Here’s a list of some XULRunner applications.

Prism. Mozilla describes Prism as one of, or a result of

“a series of experiments to bridge the divide in the user experience between web applications and desktop apps and to explore new usability models as the line between traditional desktop and new web applications continues to blur.“

To summarize: Prism will help bridge experiences of desktop and Web applications. It will allow users to run Web applications directly on the Desktop, fully integrated into the desktop itself, wither the user is running Linux, Mac, or Windows. Prism also wants to let Web applications use features of the user’s environment or hardware – such as offline data storage and graphics cards.

I’m pretty excited about these projects and look forward to observing the development of these applications as they more forward.