Mitch Wagner

A long time ago, most people who used webmail were cybercafe-frequenting, patchouli-scented trustafarians backpacking through Europe. Just about everybody else used a real e-mail client that ran on the desktop.

But times change. With Google's launch of Gmail in 2004, webmail became powerful enough to replace a desktop client. Since then, Microsoft's Hotmail and Yahoo Mail have added features to catch up, but Gmail is still my favorite; I've been using it as my primary work and personal e-mail for most of the past three years.

Note: This review addresses the beta version of the software. It has since left beta.

Boomerang for Gmail from Baydin lets you schedule e-mail to send later. It installs as an extension in Firefox or Chrome and adds a big "Send Later" button to the top of your compose window. Use it to schedule e-mail to go out in an hour, or tomorrow, or next month--anytime in the future, even if your computer is offline or shut down completely.

The latest career move by Google's Marissa Mayer demonstrates that location-based services are strategic to Google. And a good thing too, because location services are the Next Big Thing on the Internet. Google has already stumbled big in that area, and faces tough competition.

Mayer headed up user interface for Google search, making her the most visible person at the company. Go to google.com and you're looking at her work. Now, in addition to heading up location services, she's moving to Google's operating committee, an advisory group that counsels CEO Eric Schmidt and co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

Google's self-driving car is a wonderful invention. But why is Google messing around with this? Shouldn't it be paying attention to problems with its core business?

Google this weekend disclosed its breakthrough work in self-driving cars, which have navigated 140,000 miles with very little human intervention (although trained humans are at the wheel to take over should the car decide on its own to do something dangerous, like, say, run over a pedestrian or kill everyone inside the cabin and eat their brains).

Sure, Google Android phones are open, offering unlimited options for customization. That's why they're better than the closed-off, proprietary, locked-down iPhone. Just ask any Android fan, they'll tell you. But that's just plain wrong.

Well, it's part-right. Android is open -- for the telecom vendor. They're free to modify and customize Android as they see fit. And they use that ability to lock users into their crapware and limited options, argues TechCrunch's M.G. Siegler in a post with the pungent title: "Android Is As Open As The Clenched Fist I'd Like To Punch The Carriers With."

Google Instant could be a revolution in Internet navigation. Or it could the 21st Century's Microsoft Clippy. Either way, it's fun to play with. Read on to find out how to get more from the latest from the wizards of Mountain View.

It's localized and personalized. The service weights results in favor of your search history, and searches that are local to you. For example, I live in San Diego, when I type "D" the first search that comes up is the California Department of Motor Vehicles, and "S" gets me "SDG&E," for San Diego Gas & Electric.

Facebook launched its Places service with a lot of fanfare on Wednesday. Once it rolls out, which is happening gradually, Places will let you use your mobile phone's GPS to "check in" when you visit movie theaters, restaurants, and other locations. If you're familiar with Foursqare and Gowalla, it's a lot like that.

Facebook offers one clear advantage over the competition: Critical mass. With more than 500 million users around the world, chances are your friends are on Facebook, and they're not on competing location-based services. The competition works around that problem by integrating with Facebook and Twitter, where your friends actually are. But Facebook has a direct line to your social and professional circle.

Stop me if you heard -- and believed -- this one: Pretty young woman gets revenge on her jerk boss by revealing his loutish workplace ways in a presentation on a dry-erase board. It's a great story of real-life revenge that everyone can relate to. Too bad it's a hoax.

The tale, as told in a photo gallery on TheChive.com, goes like this: Jenny works as assistant to Spencer, and hates the job and her boss. When she quits the job, she writes out her resignation on a dry-erase whiteboard, and then takes a series of photos of herself holding the whiteboard, and distributes them to her co-workers.

Google Wave was a vast, ugly experiment, a one-man band of a collaboration tool that played piano, guitar and harmonica simultaneously with cymbals between its knees and a trained monkey keeping time on a garbage can lid. But it had worthy goals.

Google Wave was designed to be a collaboration tool that combined the best features of e-mail, Google Docs, instant message, and Web application development, and put them all in a single package. But it didn't work out, and Google pulled the plug on Wave on Wednesday.

Artwork: Chip TaylorEvery company has its opponents, but Apple really gets people worked up. Some people hate Apple a lot, more than they hate Nazis or Smurfs. They leave angry comments on Apple blogs. Based on my extensive observations of the species, Apple-haters fall into five categories. If you're an Apple-hater, which one of these categories do you fit in?

You believe buying Apple undermines your individuality. You see yourself as making a bold stroke for your individuality and freedom by your refusal to buy Apple. You use words like "brainwashed" and "lemmings" to describe Apple fans.

Users of old iPhone 3Gs are complaining about slowness and bugginess on their phones after upgrading to the latest operating system version. Now, Apple is looking into the problem.

I wrote about my experiences upgrading my iPhone 3G to iOS 4 in late June, when the new operating system version came out. I wrote, "As for performance: There doesn't seem to be any net change over iOS 3.x. My faithful iPhone 3G doesn't seem to run any faster under iOS 4, but it doesn't seem to run any slower either."