The Power of Google At Your Fingertips

This blog is for Windows, Mac, and Linux users.

If you haven't heard of Google, I wonder how you've gone through life so far without it. The tools they offer can completely revolutionize the way you go about your daily routine. If you have, I hope you find that this blog only reinforces the awesome power that you could potentially have within your grasp.

NOTE: All of these features can be used with the SAME Google account. You don't need to make a new one per feature. Everything is fully integrated for your convenience.

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- Gmail -

This email set up is genius. Though I pull my email into Thunderbird (which will be included in another blog), the set up that Google has for reading emails is clearly designed to not waste your time. All your mail is well organized and most spam is naturally caught by their algorithmic web. One could easily sit down and sort through about 200 emails inside of an hour. This includes reading some, if not most, in detail, and even responding to them. Everything from their quick response feature, starred items capabilities, and mass sorting makes them great for productivity. There's never an issue with slow internet connections making the mail a bit slow to respond from what I've seen. I've tried sorting through mail in Yahoo! and Hotmail and have never felt such a fast response. If you don't have a gmail account, you definitely need one.

- Reader -

Do you have an overflowing inbox of RSS feeds that you never seem able to read through? Well, now you can. Google Reader is also designed for productivity, as are most things created by Google. I love staying connected to as much of the web as possible. I like knowing what's going on in technology world, politics, astronomy, and online marketing. Though I'm no guru, Google Reader allows me to stay up to date with the latest and greatest with just a few clicks. Every morning, I could easily read through 100 RSS feeds while I drink my tea. The layout allows you to glance over titles and find ones that pique your interest. It integrates with many social networking sites so you can share your discoveries with your friends, family, and market. I have yet to find an RSS reader that is designed as flawlessly as this one.

Go to www.google.com/reader , make an account, and sign up to ten of your favorite websites RSS feeds. Check back in a few days and time how fast you can get through the accumulated feeds. After that, go to the websites individually and see if you can catch up on the same amount of information in less time. You'll find yourself smiling knowing how much time you're going to save yourself from now on. While you're at it, add this blog to your Google Reader!

- Calendar -

Technology has finally out-dated those wonderful day-timers, personal agenda's, and even palm or smart-phone calendar's. How would you like to access your calendar anywhere you could access the internet? How would you like it to sync up to your PDA or smart-phone? Google Calendar is for you. Adding an event is as easy as clicking and dragging a mouse. Advanced editing features include sending invitations to your contacts, utilizing color-coordinated schedules to keep your business schedule, home life, workout schedule, and hobbies separate or together for the 'big picture' view on your day, week, or month. Printable versions are available for all of these time ranges, and apparently they're working on an annual view as well. Print your daily schedule before you even get to work, or print out your weekly schedule to post in the kitchen for family and/or room mates to see. Heck, have them make one, too. Google Calendar has many more features that can be harnessed to make your day-to-day life much easier. Go check it out at www.google.com/calendar

- Documents -

Google Documents can be summed up by the phrase "Microsoft Office On-The-Go", or for Mac users "iWork On-The-Go". There's really not much to say aside from giving you a link. Words cannot fully express the potential that this has. For the regular technology user, having your documents where ever you have internet can be incredibly useful. Google Docs, however, extends much farther than this. It has collaborative capabilities that beat emailing revised documents back and forth over the internet. Why send and download documents when you can simply click save and know that your coworkers or project partners will be able to log in and see what you've done? This isn't just limited to text documents. Google Docs offers these products: Documents (Word or Pages equivalent), Spreadsheet (Excel or Numbers equivalent), Presentation (PowerPoint or Keynote equivalent), and Forms, which doesn't seem to have a direct equivalent. All of them come with many diverse features that can easily help you create quick, professional, collaborative files that are easy to convert into Windows or Mac formats. They all come with easy print capabilities, as well, which means that converting may not even be necessary. Overall, I'd highly recommend them for both personal and business use. You can check them out at www.google.com/documents

- Web Search -

The final feature that I'll discuss today is Google's web search capabilities. Eventually, I'm going to have a blog with advanced searching techniques, because that deserves plenty of attention. For now, I'll simply highlight the tip of the iceberg. Suppose you want to find out more about the war in Iraq, tutorials on Microsoft Excel, or more information on that ski trip you've been wanting to take. Google can help. You can enter an "exact phrase" to search for, or a series of words. Whatever you type in, Google will make the best of it. Plus, it's location based. Your search is going to include finds that correlate with your area. A search in New York, NY will differ from San Diego, CA. Overall, it's the most comprehensive web search online today. With Google at your fingertips, there's very little that you can't find in today's world.

I hope you have found this blog helpful. Feel free to bookmark this page or add me to your RSS reader! Despite recently missed days, I'll make sure this blog is updated daily with valuable technology information. Thanks for reading!

-Nick