I realized something this morning. I have been in an increasingly serious, fulfilling and positive relationship with Google.
Yeah, I said it, so what? I love all of Google’s tools, how they simplify things and how the people behind Google are constantly trying to come up with the next big thing. They have seemingly perfected the art of seeing the big picture. As I mentioned in a previous post, 2009 was a year where I grew very aware of and interested in technology and social media. It dawned on me this morning when I logged into iGoogle just how much I had learned from Google alone.
It was also the year that I realized I’m a huge nerd. But that’s OK – look what is literally changing the way people and companies communicate – social media and technology. Nerds prevail!
Google Reader
Reader is probably my all time favorite tool right now. I’ve been reading blogs for a while and doing so the old fashioned way—typing one URL after another and checking for new posts daily. Over time, the more blogs I found and enjoyed, the harder it was to remember to check them daily and get to the posts that were actually relevant to my interests and I often felt overwhelmed and behind.
Enter Google Reader. Now I can categorize my blogs, easily see which ones have new content, quickly scroll past posts that don’t interest me, save my favorites, see what blogs my friends like and more. My favorite feature of Reader is the recommended items. Google knows me well and does a great job at this. At times, though, its creeps me out a bit when I realize *just how well* Google knows me.
Google Alerts
What an awesome tool that everyone really should use. No amount of searching the internet could help me find content I’m interested in like Alerts does. The only downside is that I get a lot of Alerts that are not what I was really looking for. I’ve used the quotations trick and this has helped me to get more specific results at times, but I can’t help but feel like I am missing out on the full potential of this tool. If you have any other tips or tricks, please share in the comment area below – I’d love to find out how to better use Alerts.
Google Wave
While I haven’t utilized Google Wave a whole lot (I think mostly because I cannot access it on my work PC), I think Wave has great potential for making collaborative projects much more efficient and organized. I really wish I was able to utilize this tool at work. I try to always keep my e-mail inbox relatively empty, but those attempts are pretty much futile by lunchtime on Monday. I would love to be able to communicate with my supervisors over a Wave and eliminate those 15 reply to all e-mails with the same subject line that act as inbox suicide bombers.
On the home front, my husband was unfortunately not impressed or interested when I proudly offered him a Google Wave invite. I can’t remember his exact response, but I can guarantee you it was along the lines of “You crazy kids and your technology” or “NERDS!! I’m surrounded by nerds!!” Call me crazy, but I think a collaborative grocery list would make my life easier!
Google Docs
How many smaller companies (100 or less employees) require their employees to sign in and out on a paper log in their reception area? I’m willing to bet there are a lot. Mine does. When you arrive, leave for lunch, come back, leave for the day, use the bathroom (OK, I was kidding about that last one). Ours even has a column for notes where you can let everyone know you went to the doctor, or an off-site meeting, etc.
From what I can tell, the main purpose of this log is so the receptionist can notify callers if the person they are trying to reach is out of the office. With almost 100 employees spread over 3 floors, 66% of them typically don’t bother to consistently log their whereabouts because the reception desk is out of their way. Hence, the log is 66% inaccurate and not really helping the receptionist.
Google Docs, people. Google Docs. It would be so much easier to get employees to use it, more effective for the receptionist, and if I want to go on stretch its “going green”. Alright, alright, I just wanted three reasons. That hardly counts for going green.
Google Voice
I’m not so sure about Google Voice. I have an iPhone and love the ease of using its visual voicemail. From my research, it seems that Google Voice doesn’t integrate with visual voicemail and any apps that were made available to solve this problem have been pulled from the App Store. I’m currently using Voice, but I kind of miss my visual voicemail and have considered giving up on Voice, as much as I love the transcription feature. If you know of a way to marry visual voicemail and Google Voice, please let me know.
Google Chrome
Google Chrome is a web browser, obviously made by Google. It didn’t take long for me to prefer Chrome over Internet Explorer. The genius of Chrome lies in its simplicity. There is one bar for both entering URLs and search items. This probably seems insignificant, but when you spend as much time on the internet as I do, a clutter-free interface is a lovely feature. In fact, when I first switched from Internet Explorer to Chrome, I didn’t think I would like it and wondered where all of the options were. Once I got used to it, I realized there was no need for all of the buttons in Internet Explorer, especially if you use iGoogle.
Another feature I really appreciate is that when you follow links, they always open in a new tab, never in a new window. You can pull the tab off of the bar and make it a new window and vice versa. Again though, I don’t like clutter on my browser and feel the same way about my desktop.
Some websites don’t load correctly at times in Chrome. But its rare and not enough to get me to go back to Internet Explorer. Oh, I forgot to mention Chrome is WAY faster. If you’re not already using it, I’d suggest you give it a try.
Oh, Google, you’re so silly.
There are some useless (but fun) Google features out there too.
- Type the following URL in: googlegooglegooglegoogle.com. Enjoy.
- Go to www.google.com, don’t type anything in the search bar, hit “I’m feeling lucky”. (not sure how long this will stay up, so check it out while you can or else you can see the screenshot)
Tangent
Now there have been some annoying Google wannabes that have some seriously irritating features that cannot go without mention. These things only make me more loyal to Google.
Bing – Leave me alone already!!
I refuse to even check Bing out because I find it to be intrusive and annoying. I’ll be catching up on the news and my cursor will accidently go over a word and a all of a sudden a box with Bing search results (that I didn’t ask for) pops onto my screen and blocks what I’m trying to read. Then I have to close the box to get back to what I was trying to do before this interruption. The whole time I feel like I’m navigating a mine field of these annoying Bing search boxes just waiting for my cursor to accidently make contact.
Dear Yahoo, There is a reason why I use my account with you specifically for spam.
Actually, there are two.
- The fact that I have to type in the “@yahoo.com” after my username to log in. Clearly, it’s a Yahoo account if I went to yahoo.com. Why do I have to type in the entire e-mail address. Is it too much to ask that you recognize that I am a Yahoo user trying to log in to my Yahoo account.
- Once I’m finally logged in, I have to click through several links titled Inbox to actually get to my inbox – which really irks me. Then when I get to it, I’m welcomed by a huge 4 X 6 advertisement smack dab in the middle of the page. Lately it’s been this one . . . which annoys me and creeps me out.
Now Back to the Good Stuff
When I was brainstorming about this post and Google’s awesomeness, I was reminded of a great post by Jessica Stillman over at Entry Level Rebel titled the Five Mental Habits of Innovative People. The good people at Google certainly embody this one:
Questioning — an ability to ask “what if”, “why”, and “why not” questions that challenge the status quo and open up the bigger picture.
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