There’s still some time before any deadlines relating to the 2008 Google Summer of Code pass. So, in the event you’re looking for ideas, Matt Cutts has suggested 21 possible projects.
Since the suggestions appeared on his personal blog, neither he nor we can guarantee supporting them will get you any special attention. Some are quite interesting, though, and the first one seemed especially applicable.
Cutts writes, “Synergy is a fantastic way to control multiple computers with one mouse/keyboard. You can even move your mouse directly from one computer’s display seamlessly to the other computer’s display. But Synergy currently doesn’t support drag/drop between computers or file transfer between computers. Adding drag/drop sounds like a great summer project to me.”
Matt Cutts Suggests Summer Of Code Projects
Why? Well, if you have to ask, we’d suggest you take a not-so-close look around the Googleplex. The vast majority of employees use paired monitors.
As his fifth idea, Cutts later proposed that someone “[e]xtend Firefox 3 Places to provide more complete tab history: when a tab was closed, whether a page was opened in a new tab or a new window, and basically anything to let a user see a ‘watertight’ view of their surfing.” More info is always good, especially when you’re trying to track down that interesting page you saw six days ago and now can’t remember.
One last idea – we won’t elaborate on all 21 – is the concept of “[a] simple tool to backup your entire Google account (email, calendar, docs, feeds, etc.).” The key here would be “simple,” but we think such a tool would be pretty nifty.
Students, mentors, or anyone who would like to influence the Summer of Code should at least give these things some consideration.