My friend Jeremy once said, “If you’ve got a big tool, you’re gonna need a big toolshed.”
Sure, you know Google as the clear web search engine leader… but perhaps you’re not familiar with the rest of the toolshed. Google has many tools, and many of them are big. Here are some you may know, and some you may not know – but all of which may become essential web and software resources in the future.
Give of Googles’ services are listed on their home page: web, images, groups, news, froogle and local. These are the most popular and are in robust use on a daily basis. Yes, all of these are free.
Google Images: allows you to search the web for pictures. Typing in “bono” will get you pictures of the U2 star in order of popularity on the web. Its neat to see some pictures are rather casual and amateur.
Google Groups: enables groups of people to stay connected and have roundtable conversations and bulletin boards, and each member can choose whether to communicate via email or just visit the bulletin board on the web.
Google News: as I’ve been known to say, “Twice a day keeps the TV away.” I visit this first thing in the morning and post-lunch. The site is a sorting of the day’s news by category, updated every few minutes, and is totally customizable to your preferences.
Froogle: is a comparative shopping site, similar to Shopzilla, BizRate and MySimon. The added feature here is you can create a wish list of all your purchases-to-be and then email your list to those who may grant your wishes.
Google Local is a fantastic tool to find resources close-to-home. Type in “pizza” and your zip code and you’ll get both the top-10 pizza shop listings – but also their proximity to you via a very clever map.
Today, Google finally launched Google Earth, a satellite photo and illustrated location finder that performs local/maps functions (formerly Keyhole, which Mark introduced me to two years ago).
They also have Google Catalog (search and browse mail-order catalogs), Google Print (search and browse printed books), Blogger (free web log service) and Picasa (photo sharing).
It is perfectly cliché to say, “what will they think up next?” Well, wait a week – you’ll see.
“The ultimate search engine would basically understand everything in the world and it would always give you the right thing. And we’re a long, long way from that.” ~ Larry Page (Co-Founder, Google)
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