Earlier this week we ran a competition to win a free ticket to Google I/O, Google's conference for web developers being held May 27 - 28, 2009 in San Francisco. We had 10 tickets to give away and so we asked you to give us your feature requests for current Google products, or if the product has an API what third party app you would like to see. We got a great response, well over 100 comments on the post, with feature requests for popular Google products such as Google Reader, Google Health and the new Google Latitude. In this post we announce the 10 winning entries; and we find out how our readers want to see Google innovate!
There were many more than 10 good entries, so it was difficult to stop at 10. But thanks everyone who entered and sorry if yours didn't win on this occasion.
In no particular order, here are the winning entries (some are edited slightly for the purposes of this post):
Daniel Goodwin says: "My suggestion is a two step process. First, it would combine two of Google's apps that are constantly open in my browser, Reader and Gmail. They already look a lot alike and combining these would not take me off guard. So following that, I would love to see Reader (in Gmail) support viewing and posting comments, in a similar fashion to how Gmail shows an email conversation between you and others."
Daniel did a mockup of this concept, which you can see below.

Suggested by: Daniel Goodwin
Google Latitude should include semantic location data (as opposed to addresses, coordinate, or map data, which is how latitude currently allows you to find your friends), which would allow you to know where your friends are via textual data such as "friendx is @ locationame".
e.g.: "Jon is @ UC Berkeley" or even "Jon is @ Dwinelle Hall"
This could be integrated with the user-defined locations in gmaps; gmaps already has a vast directory of semantic location data, [so] it can be put to good use in location-based networking/services and then mashed together with other location-based services (everyblock, etc) or location-relevant services/data (yelp, movietickets.com).
Suggested by: ricefield
There should be an established process to deploy from Google Code:
Integration is the key feature. Just look at using Gmail, Google Sites and Google Docs WYSIWYG features. Same, but then again, quite different. In other words: simple templates for building a new google/open-stack powered app, to target mashups / enterprise / browser / labs / mobile (all powered by app engine?).
Suggested by: Björn Klose
Google should provide an API to GMail that allow third party developers to build plug-ins like [in] GMail labs.
Suggested by: Leo
Let Google Calendar access Latitude data to help you leave on time for your appointments and to send notifications if it detects you are running late.
Google Calendar knows when and where your meetings are. Google Latitude knows where you are. Therefore, it could easily do two things:
1. Send you a message for when you should leave for an appointment, if it detects that you are not in the same place as your appointment.
2. If it detects that you are too far away from the appointment location to make it in time (e.g. your appointment is in San Jose in five minutes and you are in SOMA), then it can send you a text message asking what you want to do: a) have it e-mail the other meeting attendees on your behalf or b) send you the contact info of the person you are meeting. You can respond simply by replying to the text message. There are other scenarios Calendar+Latitude would allow, but this one would be really useful.
Suggested by: Jamie Stephens
Add ability to access protected feeds with Google Reader. Right now you can't even add a Google Groups feed unless it is public (even though you are already logged in).
Phase I - allow access of non-public Google Group feeds;
Phase II - allow access to other protected RSS feeds using OpenID or other SSO method.
Suggested by: Rob Weaver
Eric says: "I love Google Analytics. I build websites for Unions across the country and teach them how to update their own websites once I establish the architecture. Everyone enjoys analyzing their metrics and seeing how their site is doing. But I would really like to introduce all of my non-profit union clients to a visual web developer program by Google. I know Google has Google Sites, but what if you already have an architecture that you would like to update? How can Google help non-profits update existing websites?"
Suggested by: Eric
Embed Google Chrome into Google Toolbar, which has a HUGE install base. This would be huge driver to accelerate Google's web platform, convert more folks over to a modern browser experience. Imagine a Chrome "Lite" running inside Toolbar inside IE, billed as a "web accelerator".
Suggested by: Charles
Google could provide an infrastructure to bring crowdsourcing solutions for all (especially for use with non-profits).
Suggested by: Sidney Hargro
Imagine using Google to book "Seats", e.g. in an Restaurant (maybe near to you: LBS could help), or in a theater or cinema show (an extended example below). Think about an "Expedia" for any kind of business.
Detailed Movie/Cinema example:
Do you already use Google Movie Search? It's great! The only thing I miss is that I cannot buy my ticket online, but I have to get there and walk the line to the desk, which in a multiplex is quite annoying. And do not bother me with paper tickets: I could show a QR matrix or codebar on my device. It would be great if I could simply book/buy it online.
Note on constraints: I know that real time availability is a tricky thing, But, things like Expedia work because big operators WANT to appear in search related results, so they have an option to provide their services with some kind of API to enable the on-line booking process. Small/medium operators can evaluate mixed strategies. Many of these services could require a transaction. But I suppose that the payments (micro) business is an inevitable mark for any operator in the industry. How many years away? Two? Three? I hear that in Japan (which has quite a lucky situation, with a single dominating operator) something in this field is already being done.
Suggested by: Eugenio
Thanks again to everyone who commented on the original posts. To the winners, you will receive an email in the next 24 hours with further details about your Google I/O ticket.
Comments
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This is a pretty cool list. I missed the call for ideas, but my suggestion would have been similar to the one that calls for a combining of Google Reader with Gmail.
I'd instead suggest the opposite. Combing Gmail with Google Reader. Google Reader's ability to tag, sort into folders, etc. is better for information management. One could sort email addresses and blog postings into relative categories.
Also, if Google Reader would let you "share" items with certain groups of contacts (ala Facebook), that would help me target my shared items more appropriately... instead of spamming all of my Google Reader contacts with everything I want to share.
Thanks for making a call to readers, and compiling this list!
For the Add Password-protected Feeds to Google Reader part, those phases are completely unnecessary if they just allow you to use the standard HTTP authentification:
http(s)?://user:password@host/path
Using OpenID, ect. will just complicate the process when there ALREADY is a very widely deployed (in browsers) standard for this kind of authentication.
Too bad I didn't win, but I still hope Google will one day implement some of my suggestions.
I'll try to post some of the gmail ones here:
http://groups.google.com/group/gmail-labs-suggest-a-labs-feature
My number one request for Google: Analytics API. My lord do I not want to build that out myself.
Just for fun since the contest is over:
User feedback for Google Maps Mobile
For users without GPS activated on cell phones, allow suggestion for a more accurate "My Location" and use that data to improve the location estimation process.
When I am in the burbs, "My Location" is usually off by 1-3 miles. I'd love to be able to tell Google where I really am so they could use that info to more accurately estimate the location of other users when they are in this area.
Mix Gmail and Google reader into one is an awesome idea.
hello...??
gmail + reader has been around since '06 and i can testify that it's lovely.
http://www.winstonyw.com/2006/11/03/greasemonkey-script-gmail-and-reader-integrator/
Plz send me 1 ticket for the show since i am making dreams come true.
kthxbai
Great Post, I love google 'NOW' thanks for helping others!
I have 'done this % it's fantastic'
= also I've integrated twitter also, the trifactor
throw in thweetdeck twirl, and firefox tool bar and your rocking it.
'need anything jusy holla'
DM or Tweet max @ max247 on 'twitter'
"thats personal friend and business account"
Peace. ( ☺ ) ♠ ♣ ♥ ♦
FreeMyFeed.com allows you to create standard RSS feeds for password protected feeds. Then you can use that feed to load info into Google Reader. I have been using FreeMyFeed to create feeds of my "non-standard" Gmail accounts and Trac and SVN feeds for more than a year now. It's sweet!
Give google apps an the same features a gmail account has, and don't ditch google notebook. :)
I love the idea of combining google reading and gmail. That would certainly save me a lot of screen changes. I will have to check out that link you posted James. I didn't know something like it existed already.
While I have no tickets, if it works as advertised I will be eternally grateful, and provide punch and pie as requested.
www.adaptiveengine.com
I would love just one simple thing - a thin synchronization from MS Outlook to Gmail *contacts*. We have people in our office that would die without Outlook - I just want to see Exchange Server die in our office. IMAP mail works great, Calendar works... but not contacts!
Add "Contacts Sync" to this page soon please: http://www.google.com/sync/pc.html
(Mobile Google for Blackberry works great - including contacts).
No search related suggestions?
We should be able to permanently block entire domains from search results.
In response to wanting google latitude to recognise semantic address data. There are lots of services out there that let you do this, and some which are already hooked into other popular services..
For example tweetmapper lets you use a twitter with a hashtag (#at or #loc) followed by an address to put your location on a map which your friends can see - you can even embed the map in any webpage.
http://www.tweetmapper.com
Mix Gmail and Google reader into one is an awesome idea.
Combining Reeder and Gmail is the best idea.
The "Embed Google Chrome (Lite) into Google Toolbar" suggestion has come true.
See: www.google.com/chromeframe