What a funny name for a company: Google. It sounds kind of silly but they make it work for them. I actually like Google and their products (so far) that I’ve tried.
Blogger – Well, obviously since you’re reading this I’m using Blogger. It’s clean, efficient, not a lot to fuss with to make it work. I like anything that is easy to use and intuitive. I better stop or I’m going to run out of adjectives.
Docs – We all know they didn’t come up with the Office Suite… that ‘other’ company made it famous. But that other company couldn’t make it work in the browser. That’s where Google came in. It isn’t super complicated but it does what it’s supposed to do.
Toolbar – I have to admit I was a skeptic on this product for a LONG time. People would ask me if it was okay to install and I always said “No” because I didn’t trust it. I figured it was something that was going to be ‘in your face’ and take up a lot of memory. I’m not afraid to tell you I was wrong. I currently use it now on all my home pc’s and my computer at the office. When I sit at someone else’s workstation and open their browser, it feels naked without the Google Toolbar installed.
Bookmarks – Before I installed the Toolbar (see above) I was looking for a place to store my bookmarks online. There were all kinds of suggestions for backing up and restoring them to the needed PC but I wanted something automatic. Now that I have the Toolbar installed, it allowed me to import all the bookmarks I had – whether they were at work, home or on the laptop. Now (after a little work) all my bookmarks are in the same place no matter where I am. Just what I wanted.
Google Earth – What can you say about a product that even the TV broadcasters are using. It’s so very cool to be at one location, type in another and then ZOOOM… off you go to the new location. I remember the first time I used it I entered the location of the Egyptian pyramids. I swear it made me feel a little funny looking down on the site like I was flying over. Not quite breath-taking, but pretty close.
Picasa – I can’t speak with any great depth on this product since I just recently started using it. Pretty simple and straightforward. You upload pictures, it creates a link, you send that link to all your friends, and they view the pictures. How much more simple do you want it?
Maps – Whenever I need a map of an area or directions to a location I use Google Maps. I happened to be on there one day, looking up an address, and I saw a link that said ‘Street View’. I almost flipped out. I then put in the address of my house and was amazed at the clarity of the picture they had of my house. I can tell it was taken some time in September of 2007 because that’s when the air conditioning guy was parked outside my house. (If you know my address and look at street view, that’s the yellow van out front).
YouTube – For whatever reason I never really got into YouTube. Even before Google owned it, I rarely visited there and I’ve never uploaded any video. In the year or two since then, I have viewed a lot more videos that are attached to other people’s sites. A lot of the blogs I read use the videos to support a point they’re making. I’m still not sure what the hullaballoo is, but… whatever.
Translate – For a number of years, when I needed something translated, I’d use this advertising based site. Basically, you had to sift through advertising to get your word or phrase translated. Now, it’s almost a no-brainer to translate. I still think the overall syntax of translated statements are clunky but are really workable.
Gmail – Superman invited me to use Gmail back when they were still by invitation only. Now anyone can sign up for an account and I strongly believe they should. You have so many services all tied to one Google account (all the ones I’ve mentioned above). With the help of the Toolbar, I don’t even have to login to Gmail… it just comes up automatically (actually, it stores my password is what it does). I like the way that ‘tags’ are used in Gmail. You can give the same e-mail several different tags in case you need to find it different ways.
I’ll be the first to tell you that I’m not using Google or any of its products to their fullest. Whatever I ask of that product, it seems to not only give me what I need but do it in a way that is simple and logical. It usually doesn’t take very long to figure something out – or figure out that Google is not the product needed.
In a late-breaking story, Google is “apparently” coming out with a browser (named “Chrome”) but I haven’t seen hide nor hair of the actual product itself. I’m sure it will be both Spartan and utilitarian.
Blogger – Well, obviously since you’re reading this I’m using Blogger. It’s clean, efficient, not a lot to fuss with to make it work. I like anything that is easy to use and intuitive. I better stop or I’m going to run out of adjectives.
Docs – We all know they didn’t come up with the Office Suite… that ‘other’ company made it famous. But that other company couldn’t make it work in the browser. That’s where Google came in. It isn’t super complicated but it does what it’s supposed to do.
Toolbar – I have to admit I was a skeptic on this product for a LONG time. People would ask me if it was okay to install and I always said “No” because I didn’t trust it. I figured it was something that was going to be ‘in your face’ and take up a lot of memory. I’m not afraid to tell you I was wrong. I currently use it now on all my home pc’s and my computer at the office. When I sit at someone else’s workstation and open their browser, it feels naked without the Google Toolbar installed.
Bookmarks – Before I installed the Toolbar (see above) I was looking for a place to store my bookmarks online. There were all kinds of suggestions for backing up and restoring them to the needed PC but I wanted something automatic. Now that I have the Toolbar installed, it allowed me to import all the bookmarks I had – whether they were at work, home or on the laptop. Now (after a little work) all my bookmarks are in the same place no matter where I am. Just what I wanted.
Google Earth – What can you say about a product that even the TV broadcasters are using. It’s so very cool to be at one location, type in another and then ZOOOM… off you go to the new location. I remember the first time I used it I entered the location of the Egyptian pyramids. I swear it made me feel a little funny looking down on the site like I was flying over. Not quite breath-taking, but pretty close.
Picasa – I can’t speak with any great depth on this product since I just recently started using it. Pretty simple and straightforward. You upload pictures, it creates a link, you send that link to all your friends, and they view the pictures. How much more simple do you want it?
Maps – Whenever I need a map of an area or directions to a location I use Google Maps. I happened to be on there one day, looking up an address, and I saw a link that said ‘Street View’. I almost flipped out. I then put in the address of my house and was amazed at the clarity of the picture they had of my house. I can tell it was taken some time in September of 2007 because that’s when the air conditioning guy was parked outside my house. (If you know my address and look at street view, that’s the yellow van out front).
YouTube – For whatever reason I never really got into YouTube. Even before Google owned it, I rarely visited there and I’ve never uploaded any video. In the year or two since then, I have viewed a lot more videos that are attached to other people’s sites. A lot of the blogs I read use the videos to support a point they’re making. I’m still not sure what the hullaballoo is, but… whatever.
Translate – For a number of years, when I needed something translated, I’d use this advertising based site. Basically, you had to sift through advertising to get your word or phrase translated. Now, it’s almost a no-brainer to translate. I still think the overall syntax of translated statements are clunky but are really workable.
Gmail – Superman invited me to use Gmail back when they were still by invitation only. Now anyone can sign up for an account and I strongly believe they should. You have so many services all tied to one Google account (all the ones I’ve mentioned above). With the help of the Toolbar, I don’t even have to login to Gmail… it just comes up automatically (actually, it stores my password is what it does). I like the way that ‘tags’ are used in Gmail. You can give the same e-mail several different tags in case you need to find it different ways.
I’ll be the first to tell you that I’m not using Google or any of its products to their fullest. Whatever I ask of that product, it seems to not only give me what I need but do it in a way that is simple and logical. It usually doesn’t take very long to figure something out – or figure out that Google is not the product needed.
In a late-breaking story, Google is “apparently” coming out with a browser (named “Chrome”) but I haven’t seen hide nor hair of the actual product itself. I’m sure it will be both Spartan and utilitarian.