Tech Week In Review: Google Drawings, Justin.tv, Barack Obama, Meebo and RTM

Google Docs Adds Drawings

I’ve been using Google Docs as my primary office suite for a little while now. It’s great to be able to access my documents from anywhere. Google has recently added a new feature that allows you to insert drawings directly into your documents. Sure, you could use some external program to do the drawing and then upload it and insert it into your document, but this feature lets you draw directly inside of your web browser. Very cool. Check out the Google blog or RWW for more details.

Justin.tv in the Worldwide Top 5

Looks like Justin.tv has been putting in work because they are among the top 5 video sites worldwide. Turns out, on a global scale, they are even beating out Hulu. As TechCrunch points out, most of the traffic comes from outside of the US, but traffic is traffic. RWW also provides an interesting perspective on this. I haven’t actually been using Justin.tv, but this data definitely makes me curious.

@BarackObama Finally Updated His Twitter Status

Before 3/25 at 2:04pm, Obama hadn’t graced us with his presence on Twitter since Jan 19th. Looks like he broke silence to invite us to ask questions about the economy for his recent town hall meeting. The questions were chosen using a digg-like rating system and Obama provided answers during the live event. It was quite informative and I hope you caught it. Barack is always open for questions online, so feel free to go ask your own.

Meebo Comes to the Desktop…Kinda

I have been using Meebo as my primary Instant Messaging application for quite a while now. Meebo has recently made it that much easier by providing a desktop notifier application. Basically, you can login to Meebo when your computer starts up and it notifies you when you receive an instant message. Clicking the notification bubble opens Meebo in a browser.

This is cool for those who are trying to make the transition from desktop client to web application. As it stands, I have Meebo running in a separate tab at all times and rely on the title bar to flash when I get a new IM. Meebo notifier makes this setup that much simpler. More on Meebo at Mashable.

Remember the Milk Kicks Off Tips & Tricks Tuesday

Looks like Remember the Milk is trying to help users understand how useful the service really is by posting tips every Tuesday. I think everyone already knows how much I love this service. The coolest part about this move is that the tips come from actual users. Each week, RTM is giving away a 1yr Pro account to the user with the best tip.

This is exactly the type of promotion that social sites should be doing to get users interested. I know I’ve referred over 20 users to DropBox to make sure I got my extra 3GB.  If you have anything interesting to share about how you use Remember the Milk, head on over to the Tips and Tricks forum for your chance at a free Pro account.