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If it’s true that Google is set to take over the world, we should probably all get to know our online overlord a little better. After all, the Mountain View giant moves more than 65 percent of the world’s search traffic, and dominates the rest of the web with a broad swath of free services. Since it’s almost impossible to get through a day on the Internet without crossing Google’s path, we’ve created this comprehensive guide to all things G.
Google AlertsWant to know what people are saying about you (or anything else, for that matter) on the web? Set up a Google alert. Type any search string into the field—the more specific, the better. Be sure to use an exclude operator (-) to cut out common words that are likely to clutter your results with false positives. Or, if you’re only looking for results from a few common sites, follow your search term with the “sites:” operator, listing the sites you are interested in after the colon. Next, narrow your results further by selecting the type of content you want alerts about, such as news, blogs, or video, frequency you’d like to run the search, and the address you’d like results sent to.
Google Books and eBookstoreThanks to the Kindle, Amazon has made digital books commonplace. Now Google is working to make them ubiquitous with Google Books and eBookstore. A convergence of two distinct services, Books is a massive collection of scanned volumes served up as PDFs as well as ebook files from books and magazines on even the most obscure topics dating from the 19th century to the present day. The eBookstore sells current releases at prices comparable to those of Amazon and Apple’s iBooks. The service now pairs with reader apps on Android, iOS, and the desktop.
Google CheckoutOn the heels of PayPal’s breakout success, Google jumped into the online payment game with Checkout, a basic payment service that lets you buy stuff online via a credit card linked to your Google account. Like PayPal, Google Checkout securely automates payments on a wide range of retail sites, including tech retailers like TigerDirect.com. In typical Google fashion, Checkout buttons are now integrated directly into Google ads and search results, urging users to make one-click purchases just about everywhere in Googleland. A word of advice: Linking your credit card account to your Google account gives you even more reason to keep your password ultra-secure.
Google MapsGoogle has emerged as the leader in online mapping. Integrating conventional street maps with comprehensive, surprisingly up-to-date satellite imagery, flyover images, 3D cityscapes, traffic alerts, and street-level views of even the most outlying suburban neighborhoods, Maps can give you a pretty accurate picture of just about any spot on the planet.
For business users, Google offers a multi-service package known as Google Apps Premier Edition. Consisting of slightly tweaked versions of Gmail, Google Docs, Sites, and an additional selection of services from the Google Apps Marketplace, this enterprise-grade suite of tools runs $50 per user per year. Unlike standard Google accounts, which work with all Google services, Google Apps business accounts support a relatively narrow selection from Google’s collection. As a trade-off, however, they support a broad array of third-party business plugins.
PicnikIf you think downloading and installing Picasa on the desktop seems like too much effort, try Picnik, a simple online photo editor that Google bought last year. Upload a photo to Picnik and you can autofix lighting problems, crop, resize, adjust colors and exposure, remove red-eye, and share the finished product via Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, Photobucket, MySpace, and of course, Google Buzz and Picasa Web Albums. A basic account is free, and a premium account adds a truckload of additional features for between $2 and $5 per month (depending on the subscription term).
TranslatePaste or type any text into Google Translate’s text box, and the service will detect the language it’s written in, then translate it into one of more than 50 languages, complete with an awkwardly robotic audio transcription.
YouTubeYouTube needs no introduction. It precedes Google’s ownership, and led the company to kill off its own Google Video service after the buyout. If you’ve ever uploaded or watched a video online, you’ve almost certainly used YouTube.
Google LatitudeBuilt on Google Maps, Latitude is a location-sharing service for mobile devices. Install the app on your phone, and you can invite your friends to share their locations with you (and vice versa) in real time. It’s a fun idea, and useful for families and companies that want to keep track of their people, but also deeply creepy and stalkery. Everyone we know who’s ever tried Latitude disabled it long, long ago.
PanoramioIf Picasa Web Albums and Google Maps had a tawdry little fling, their progeny would be Panoramio, a simple photo-sharing site built around Google Maps. In short, it collects and displays photos taken at specific locations, so you can explore pictures from around the world in Google Maps or Google Earth. Upload a pic and Panoramio will ask you to select the location where the photo was shot. If you enable location tracking with Google Latitude, Panoramio will use Latitude’s location history to match the time the photo was taken in an attempt to pinpoint the photo location automatically. It’s a kludgy setup, and one that’s easily foiled by an incorrect time setting in your camera. Panoramio is still in its infancy, and it’s not at all clear that Google has figured out what to do with it yet.
Google TalkGoogle’s entrant in the instant messaging arena is Google Talk, which lives mainly within Gmail but also appears on iGoogle pages and the Orkut social network, as well as in a stand-alone desktop version. Google Talk integrates with AIM accounts, but works best with other Google Talk users, enabling video and audio chat through the Gmail interface. Oddly, the desktop version doesn’t support video, though—so if you use Gmail regularly, that’s typically the best option for Google Talk.
OrkutNow in its seventh year, Orkut never gathered much traction with American users, but remains huge in Brazil and India. It’s basically a Facebook clone.
Google HealthAs part of an industry-wide push to move health records online, Google Health aggregates all of your medical information in a single, Googley interface. You can input your vitals, such as blood pressure, weight, vaccinations, and so on, and import medical records from 25 different pharmacies and healthcare providers. The idea is to give you an easy way to track your healthcare and share information with your physician. Whether you really want to trust all this information to Google is another matter entirely.
Comments are closed on this article
Eoraptor
April 26, 2011 at 10:24am
Well I have used google stuff for a while now. Did not know about Aardvark, so will have to try that out. I do keep Reader, Gmail, and News tabs pinned.i messed with igoogle, but honestly, I don't use it.
However, I have found that bing maps seems to be faster and more responsive than Google Maps, so I switched to that service.
Send and Archive and Move to Next Message are two great tweaks to Gmail. I hate hot it defaults by making you go back to your inbox when you are done with a message, and wish they would turn those two features on by defualt.
-=GNO=-
April 26, 2011 at 5:27am
Just want to let you know your link to Picnik doesn't work. You have a K between the C and N that doesn't belong. Just an FYI.
Phrish
April 25, 2011 at 5:24pm
I would just like Google to concentrate on making the basic PIM apps as best as they can be, and fully sync'd with Android services.
-Contacts
-Calendar
-Tasks
-NotesMail...
They have the mail thing down VERY well. Great service. However, they still don't have a way (that I know of) to mark messages high/low importance. I'd also like to see inline graphics as well as attachments. There is also a very capable Android app for Mail.
Contacts...
Contacts is getting better. Interface-wise, it opens in the same window as mail, via link on the left. It stores great data for contacts, the search is good, and the types of data are very flexible. Each type of dropdown (email, phone, link) has a custom selection where you can write anything you want (e.g. this number isn't "work" or "home" or "mobile" but it's "workshop"). One thing that does scare me, though, is that changes you make in Contacts are IMMEDIATELY saved. Whoopsiedoodle, I just messed that number up. Crap it's already saved, I don't have the option to "cancel." Still Contacts is very serviceable, and it's my main contacts list and backup right now (Outlook used to be my main backup, with stuff mirrored in Google Contacts... now Contacts is my main). Android also has a very good Contacts app, though with some trouble showing full addresses.
Calendar...
Google Calendar is also very good. Interface-wise, it's not on the left side with Mail and Contacts. It's on the top of the browser window. Nor does it open into the same space as Mail and Contacts, but opens a whole new browser window or tab. Nothing wrong with that functionally, but it's a poor interface choice that's slightly confusing, since it's not in the same place as Mail and Contacts. Any human interface designer would tell you that this is bad form. BTW, Outlook has the interface for all the basic PIM apps nailed. The buttons to access each app are in the same place (in a button array on the lower left of the screen), and they bring the app up in the same "space" so you know what to expect. Beyond interface, though, Google Calendar is very capable, and I love the fact that it can work with multiple calendars, yours or public. Android has a very serviceable Calendar app.
Tasks...
Google Tasks needs some work. It's very, very basic. Interface-wise, you access it from the same place as Mail and Contacts (link on the left), but like Calendar, it doesn't use the same "space" as Mail and Contacts. It's a strange popover window over Mail or Contacts, whichever happens to be active at the time. It's a basic list outliner, but in a style that I like. Works a bit like MS Word's outlining function, type, enter, tab, shift tab... for very fast task entry. Despite simple, I would like to see the interface for it improved a bit. Android doesn't have any Tasks equivalent, which is a glaring omission on Google's part... shame on you Google. Fortunately, apps like Astrid are starting to "sync" with Google Tasks, but still Google should have a dedicated app for it itself. This is a BASIC PIM APPLICATION, and Google needs to get on the stick.
Notes...
Google doesn't really have a notes service. Well, in honesty they do, but no one knows about it. Now, by Notes, I do NOT mean Google Docs, which is NOT a note app. Think again to Outlooks notes, small, sticky-like notes you can keep for yourself. If you are an avid adventurer, you can spelink into the dark, stinky bowles of Google and find Google Notebook (www.google.com/notebook), and this is my idea of notes. However, Google neither advertises it, nor practically supports its use. There is no Android equivalent that will sync. As for the PC it's almost impossible to even find it unless you type the URL directly into the address bar. Again, Google, this IS A BASIC PIM APP and you need to have this supported with the others, in the same basic interface, with full sync compatibility and a dedicated Android app. What's wrong with you? Even Windows Mobile and Palm have been doing this for years... do you even have a human interface expert on staff?
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Well that's my rundown on Google Services. I have no hope that anyone at Google will read this and say "oh hey... dugh!" but you never know. Here's to dreaming the dream...
