Google has released a very cool tool called SketchUp.  The tool allows you to build three dimensional models that can be to scale. The models can be quickly worked up using a variety of tools like the rectangle, circle, arch, push pull, rotate, and orbit. You can then fill in planes with colours or with textures. SketchUp is a desktop app and proves that Google can, quite successfully, write software for the desktop.  It will be interesting to see what happens as the company moves off the Internet onto our desktops more and more.

Google has a service called Alerts that will monitor News, Blogs, Web, Videos, Groups, or aggregate of all five.

When you set up an alert, you choose terms to follow, what you want to monitor, the frequency at which you wish to receive the alert, and enter an email address to send the alert to.

When your terms and the type of post you are monitoring is discovered by the service, an alert is sent to the email address you've assigned to the alert.

Nonprofits (and others) can use the Alerts to:

I'm always looking for ways to effectively monetize my site. Adsense hasn't been too terribly successful for me and I suspect--with advice from my brother--that a big part has been placement. I have been placing Adsense ads in the right column, a little too low and in the footer.

Placing Adsense ads in the left and right columns and the footer in Drupal is easy. You can come up with the code in your Adsense account and then create a block with that information in it. No brainer.

Placing ads in nodes is another thing altogether. You could manually place an ad every time, but that does not seem like an effective way of placing ads.