Microsoft has launched Windows Live QnA, their answer to Google Answers. Except that it's free.

Is this the first time that Microsoft and Google have had competing services where Google charges and Microsoft doesn't?

Did you miss Google Spreadsheets? Here's the link:

[visit link]

Pissed off with .gvp files whenever you want to download and see the video files at www.videos.google.com offline? Here is a nice bit of information you can use in future:

1. Get to the video you want to download.

2. Click on Download Video; this will probably ask you to download the Google Video Player, which you will not accept.

3. A download link for the .GVP file will appear, click on it and download the .GVP streamer file.

4. Open the .GVP file in any text editor, preferably one that supports UNIX-formatted, ANSI-encoded text.

5. You will see that the file contains several plain text fields, i.e. GVP version, duration, title, description, and the most important of them all: url. Copy the value of the URL field and paste it into your browser - it'll automatically ask you to download the source file, no matter the format it was uploaded in (i.e. MP4, AVI, MPG, MOV, et cetera).

So what are you waiting for, start downloading and no more .gvp files (until Google comes up with some new anti-trick)

Pissed off with .gvp files whenever you want to download and see the video files at www.videos.google.com offline? Here is a nice bit of information you can use in future:

1. Get to the video you want to download.

2. Click on Download Video; this will probably ask you to download the Google Video Player, which you will not accept.

3. A download link for the .GVP file will appear, click on it and download the .GVP streamer file.

4. Open the .GVP file in any text editor, preferably one that supports UNIX-formatted, ANSI-encoded text.

5. You will see that the file contains several plain text fields, i.e. GVP version, duration, title, description, and the most important of them all: url. Copy the value of the URL field and paste it into your browser - it'll automatically ask you to download the source file, no matter the format it was uploaded in (i.e. MP4, AVI, MPG, MOV, et cetera).

So what are you waiting for, start downloading and no more .gvp files (until Google comes up with some new anti-trick)

Aren't you forgetting Google Notebook? One more jigsaw piece...

This new announcement is really about small business. Here's why I think so:

The apps here (Talk, GMail, Calendar and PageCreator) are not going to be of interest in large enterprises. IT directors/managers have repeatedly stressed their concerns about Google-hosted apps and privacy/security.
They will be potentially interesting to small businesses who can use these tools

There's little or no cost to Google to bundle and offer this as a value-added package and create a new channel into the SME market (as part of a diversified strategy to gain SME advertisers)

It also has a general user dimension in promoting Google Talk, Calendar and PageCreator, which haven't yet seen much adoption. While GMail has seen somewhat more, it's still way behind Yahoo!, AOL and Microsoft's email usage.

This ultimately is about establishing a relationship with a small business at little cost to Google, which may turn into an advertiser/AdWords relationship down the line.