File this under “how did I miss that?” Looks like Gmail finally released an offline version this week (with Docs and Reader working offline it’s hard to believe it took so long—except, of course, it must be way more complex with the massive amount of email some people have). Anyhow, as the Gmail team explains: “Gmail uses Gears to download a local cache of your mail. As long as you’re connected to the network, that cache is synchronized with Gmail’s servers. When you lose your connection, Gmail automatically switches to offline mode, and uses the data stored on your computer’s hard drive instead of the information sent across the network.”

While there are still lots of question about the journalistic merit of blogs , they do allow for coverage that could otherwise not exist. Such is the case with nytpicker , whose mission is to report “the goings-on inside the New York Times—the newspaper and the institution itself.”

It’s a pretty cool look inside what’s still the most important media outlet in America.

via Where Dave Is

COMMENTS OPEN

I generally like articles that are short and to the point. This Wall Street Journal blog article fits the bill. It simply and precisely goes through three of the reasons many online communities built for businesses fail: 1) “They have a tendency to get seduced by bells and whistles and blow their online-community budget on technology”, 2) “Most … put a single marketing pro in charge of their sites” and 3) “Businesses say that their primary objectives are generating word-of-mouth marketing and increasing customer loyalty. Yet the metric that businesses use most often to measure success is the number of visits to the site.”

Yup, that about sums it up in my mind. Well that and no one cares about their brand.

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Quite a few people have been asking me how I get any work done since they see me conversing on Facebook so much throughout the day. The truth is that I have a secret. I use this wicked awesome Facebook Toolbar for Firefox.

The toolbar is great because it gives me quick updates via its iconography if I have new messages, friend invites, group invites, or event invites. It also lets me update my status easily without having to even open the Facebook website. You can also use the toolbar to search or for its quick links to various sections of your profile that you might want to go, but I don’t seem to use either of those features very much. Instead, one of the most widely used features for me is one that you don’t even see in the toolbar….it’s the Growl notifications.

1. download Growl, open the disc image, and install the Growl.mpkg
2. inside that same disc image, go into the Exras folder, then the growlnotify folder, and read the directions in install.txt (you’ll need to use terminal and the command line to install it but don’t worry, it’s super simple – let me know if you have troubles)
3. download Facebook Toolbar for Firefox
4. restart Firefox
5. in Firefox, go to Tools > Add-ons (this will open up the pref screen for all of your add-ons)
6. in the Extension Tab, find the Facebook Toolbar and click on Preferences
7. at the bottom you’ll notice it says “Growl Settings”, check the box next to “Show Facebook Notifications…”
8. leave the location of Growl Notify as is.
9. click OK and enjoy!