Honey, Has the Blog Been Fed?
Transforming Google Mail Into a
Research Database Embedded In NoteTaker
Now time and distance
melt away
No digital delay
And some things
can be written down
that we're too shy to say
Send me an email
that says "I love you"
--Neil Tennant/Chris Lowe
Yesterday, I had one of those 2001: A Space Odyssey Moments. You know--like the ape, downstream of touching the Monolith, looking at a bone and slowly understanding its tool-cum-weapon potential. In my case, however, the Monolith wasn’t that minimalist piece of alien alloy (which, in retrospect, resembled a high-end kitchen counter top), it was Google, the new mothership in town.
While it's already becoming fashionable to look askance at the burgeoning ubiquity of the Big Polychrome G, I've always perversely enjoyed the early days of any first-class invasion—whether Pod People, cicadas or Windows v.3. There's something Very Casablanca that appeals to me—the whole "We'll always have Paris" thing, respectively recontextualized as Earth, Our Gardens Next Summer and Cupertino. And let's face it, Google is beginning to resemble Thomas Jerome Newton's World Enterprises ("I don't believe it. I can't believe it. You have nine basic patents here. Nine! That's basic patents. Do you know what that means?"). But like Farnsworth, I'm not looking the gift horse in the mouth, content instead to queue-up at Google Labs to eagerly use the inevitable next step of the Occupation (which for a brief moment was GoogleX—presumably before the Apple legal department stirred and woke).
So you folks over in the Resistance might as well save the e- cards and letters; I'm simply not ready to be Turned at this point: See me as a Digital-Age Louis—content to play both sides in a state of amoral grace.
Which brings us to my aforementioned epiphany. Like many of you, I'm beta-testing Google Mail, but given my conceptualist nature, I've been doing so in the reasonable belief that Gmail is a shard of a larger master plan for world domination. I mention this because I'm always surprised at the number of people who seemingly Balkanize the Google services, sealing-off Internet search from email from maps. And while they may pay lip service to the "search space," and admit that all Google services ultimately roll-up into a particularly vast iteration of Metasearch, I have little sense that the typical user is looking for ways to integrate various Google services in the course of daily use.
But not me. Blame it on paranoia or enlightenment or the fact I am a Mac user (which, after all, is the convergence of the first two), each time I use a Google service I am never without the feeling that I'm dicking with Something Much Larger. This is actually a good thing: If history tells us anything, it's that the real trouble starts when we’re mistakenly dismissive of stuff that seems Of No Real Importance . . .
So anyway, I get into the Gmail beta program, and I'm wandering around the nestled screens, wrapping my head around the concept, and I start thinking about other Google forays into email, and wham! Google Alerts spring to mind: Useful, incremental Web- and news-based searches driven by custom search-strings that are helpfully email to the user.
I wish I could repackage this connection as positively Edisonian, a real rocks-tinder-spark instance, but it was just me doing my bricolage thing. Less Edison, unfortunately, than the Professor building a radio out of coconuts on Gilligan's Island. Given this, let's dispense with overwrought prose replete with cartoon light bulbs going off over my head. (Damn, I should have made this a podcast: I could have alternately faded-up thoughtful and urgent music under my not-thoughtful, not-urgent tale--basically like Fox News does every night.)
And so, in the overly nonchalant tones of the Desperately Hip, here's what I devised:
(1) I created Goolgle Alerts for every topic I thought I might conceivably blog, stuff that you might more properly see filtered in my RSS reader. Many of them used highly complex and gnarly search strings. It's important to point out that Google Alerts have evolved (another benefit of a first-class invasion), and now allow the combination searching of both the Web and news feeds. In all cases, I pointed my alerts at both targets.
(2) I had all of my newly created Google Alerts sent to my Gmail account. There, the alerts can be indexed and parsed with the full force of Google's search muscle. Here's an example of what I'm talking about. My little scheme has already generated 32 Google Alerts on all manner of specified topics. But let's say I want to write about the state of podcasting and wonder what's up recently with podcast founder Adam Curry. In the search box at the top of my Gmail account, I simply input Curry and lo, the two emails containing Adam's name are instantly revealed as search results. Clicking on one takes me to the Google Alert in question, with Curry's name helpful highlighted. Further clicking on the Web or new link takes me to the content source.
So let's review: I'm basically using a combination of Google Alerts and Gmail to deliver a search/subsearch one-two punch. Given both the gig of space and power of its searching abilities, my Gmail account will allow me to assemble and search a vast archive of alerts—at this point, I can't even begin to guess how many. It should also be noted that I've configured the Gmail search results to display in reverse chronological order rather than relevance—I want to benefit from both an archive and the freshest possible information.
(3) So far, so . . . well, you know. The next thing I did was walk this combination of Google services over to NoteTaker. I created a new entry in my notebook that contained the URL of my Gmail account. Double-clicking on the NT @ icon opens my Gmail in its own embedded browser. Everybody still with me? Good.
(4) Now it gets both tricky and interesting. With Gmail account still in the embedded NT browser, I Control-Click in the little left-hand "margin" that selected NoteTaker entries present. I scroll to the center of the resulting contextual menu—to View—and chose the Floating option. Ooooo,
(5) I then perform my search of all the Gmail alerts—indeed, a search of all mail in my inbox. To keep things clear, let's stick with the Adam Curry example. Yada-yada and, yup, there are those two Google Alerts that currently refer to Mr. C. (Keep in mind this isn't déjà vu--I'm doing all of this within a floating NoteTaker browser entry.) I next choose one of the two alerts by double-clicking it to reveal three search result updates, one of which contains the highlighted Adam Curry reference.
(6) I now turn to another page in the notebook. I could have just as easily created a new page—neither operation will affect the status or placement of floating Gmail palette. I can then select the email search result and drag it to the NT notebook page. The determining factor here is whether or not I want the snippet of summary (where the search string is actually highlighted) to accompany the result to the notebook page. As a matter of actual practice, I usually just select and drag the source URL to NoteTaker.
(7) Dragging the source URL to the NT page automatically creates an embedded browser which can be opened by—you guessed it—double-clicking the NT @ icon.
See? I warned you it was a radio built out of coconuts—but a contextually useful one. Think of this collage of tech and workflow in terms of using a NoteTaker notebook to drive a weblog. If not precisely better than RSS feeds (which, by the way, can also be easily integrated into NT), it is an undeniably beneficial adjunct to RSS, since this Gmail/Google Alert solution is based on automatic, straightforward searches of the Web and not dependent on the existence of a a recognizable feed. Additionally, the full power of Google search technology can be brought to bear on the compiled content--something that's not an option with all RSS readers. Third, this approach neatly sidesteps the copy-and-paste problems that plague so many RSS readers. (This blatant ignoring of proper Apple paste board implementation has been ranted about earlier.) Dragging source URLs onto a NoteTaker page is a clean and flawless operation. And unlike exclusively using RSS, a Gmail solution has the obvious potential of becoming two-way communication: If you need more information than the source site is provider,er, you can send them a note.
Again, to be clear, I'm not advocating that this melding of Gmail and Google Alerts embedded in NoteTaker is a replacement for RSS. So save the cards and letters. But its dynamics and benefits are sufficiently different from RSS that this solution becomes a kind of oblique companion approach.
Increasingly, this site is examining the pre-blogging research that occurs upstream of the actual post. (What are you waiting for? Nod your agreement--you are getting your thoughts properly collected prior to exercising your fingers, aren’t you? And if not, nod anyway, because it’s better to humor me regarding this than to break my authorial heart.) This combination of Google services neatly enhances notebook-based research: The ability to float the Google Alert results enables the efficient compiling of information that the inherent capabilities of NoteTaker can further distill via the establishment of hierarchical relationships, melded cells, additional embedded browsers and hyperlinking between cells and across notebooks. And--ahem--whether or not you actually avail yourself of these powerful research tools, doesn’t negate their potential.
Well, that’s my story--and, as usual, I’m sticking to it. Even though a year from now, I may have undeniable reasons for despising our New Google Masters, right now, I’m having a splendid time: The invasion has, briefly, at least created an authentic Interstitial Moment, and I’m hardwired to thrive in that circumstance. My unvarnished admission is that I look at Google and think this could be the start of a beautiful friendship . . .
The composition of this entry was made possible in part by All The Young Dudes from the album "David Live (Disc 1)" by David Bowie
Monday, March 21, 2005 4:11:24 PM
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