I’ve got some big news for you, dear Crashpod readers. Next Monday I become an employee of Google! I accepted an offer just before Thanksgiving to join their AdWords team as an AdWords Associate at the newly opened Ann Arbor, Michigan office. Obviously I’m thrilled about this opportunity and can’t wait to get started. As you all know, I’ve followed Google’s rise very closely for years now and being asked to join such a first-rate organization is an incredible honor.

I’ll still be writing for Crashpod and I think that my new position should lend a unique perspective on the technology and cultural trends that are developing around all of us. One of Google’s most amazing qualities is their ability to transform virtually every industry they touch. Their foray into advertising has been no exception and I’m looking forward to being a part of that process.

If you’ve ever tried Line Rider you will appreciate how amazing this video is. The simulator starts with a blank white screen that users can draw lines on using the mouse. Once you have your lines drawn, a little sledder will start going downhill at your upmost left line. There is no eraser tool and the physics dictating how your sledder will react are very sensitive. If the lines are too steep, he will wipe out. If they are not steep enough, he won’t have the necessary momentum and will get stuck. That’s to say nothing of the wild jumps, loops and scenery that this user has created. Bravo!

Here’s some other great creations:
Underwater Theme
Spelunking

Ever since making the switch back to Mac over two years ago, I have really enjoyed using iCal. I bought a .Mac account thinking that I would be able to keep up to date with my appointments no matter where I was. However, anyone who subscribes to .Mac knows how poorly implemented their online calendar is. All you get is a static calendar that can’t be modified. With the launch of Google Calendar and its ability to sync with iCal I thought that I had finally found the answer to multi-location calendar modification. I was saddened to learn that the synchronization only works one-way: Google Calendar to iCal. Changes made in my iCal software would not be reflected when I logged into Google Calendar while away from home. The result is that I find myself using solely Google Calendar while iCal just sits in my dock looking lonely.

It looks like this may be about to change. Spanning Sync enables two-way synchronization between iCal and Google Calendar. Check out the very promising video demonstration on the developer’s site. The product is planned to go into a closed beta soon. We’ll keep you up to date as more details emerge!

Friendster, Xanga, MySpace, LinkedIn, Gather, when will it all end?? I only have myself to blame of course. Each journalist’s effusive review that “this latest social networking site finally gets it right” attracts my attention like a moth to a light bulb. So, I will bounce around Vox for a while and see what the vibe is all about. I can say off the bat that it is a lot more attractive than most of the aforementioned locations. Vox also seems much more full-featured, including things like spell check and Flickr integration. The site is a product of Six Apart, best known for their blogging software Movable Type, so there would seem to be some pretty capable folks working on it. Only time will tell, of course, whether Vox will become the next great thing or another MySpace ghetto.