Everything Google

Cool features Google offers to take advantage



Google Earth

"Explore, Search and Discover" reads the homepage for Google Earth. Now the power to search satellite images, maps, foreign lands and any 3D terrain, building, or structure imaginable is just one click away. Going on a vacation? Type in the location and see a street view of the area surrounding your hotel. The images on Google Earth, say of a neighborhood or public building are 1-3 years old via satellite imaging, and some search listings are limited in international countries. The images displayed in Google Earth are not "real time" images. However, the newest version of Google Earth has a time of day option where one can scroll to see the location at any time of day, noon to midnight. The new version also offers a flight simulator feature. Currently Google Earth is available in the free version, Plus version and Pro version. It is also supported in 13 languages, and working towards being accessible in more languages. Google Earth also has searchable astronomical images available.



Google Desktop

The new download from Google makes organizing and searching your computer even easier. Now searching your desktop is as quick as searching the Internet, and the application also allows users to organize their desktop with useful gadgets like personalized searches, e-mail previews, weather, news updates and a handy sidebar that keeps all the gadgets organized. Very similar to Mac's dashboard application, Google Desktop also features smart indexing that organizes web browsing history, and multiple file types.



Google Talk

Google Talk is free. It hosts instant messaging, PC to PC voice calls, gmail notifications and fast file transfers. There is no download needed to use Google Talk and it is accessible on any computer. It can be added to iGoogle, a web-page, and is automatically accessible through any gmail account. Google Talk also allows media previews of videos, URL's and slideshows from multiple media-based sites.



Google Books and My Library

Google Books offers readers access to thousands of titles, and virtually all genres imaginable. This feature allows readers to scroll through and read limited previews of all books, or as much as the copyright holder of each title has released to be seen, by making the books available through PDFs. The Google Book search works by simply typing in a keyword, the title, or author, and a preview of the book covers search results appears. By clicking on a book cover, another page opens that has images of the book front and back, reviews, author info, popular pages, subjects in the book, and links to Amazon.com to buy the book if a reader wishes to have access to the entire book. Users can also create their own personalized library where they can rate, label, review, and organize their own library of favorite book previews.



Google Groups

Now anyone can create a discussion group on any topic fast and hassle free. Google Groups users can discuss topics through e-mail, webpages, and customized discussion boards. Google Group members can share files, and easily share access to a wide variety of info. The newest version of Google Groups is now available with new and improved features: collaborative webpage creation, customization, file sharing and personalized member profiles to learn more about other users in shared groups.



Google Scholar

Although Google Scholar may not be as exhaustive as other scholarly databases, especially those with emphasis in specific subject areas, it offers users "a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature" spanning a wide variety of disciplines. Google lists the sources for GS: "peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations." GS provides links to the full text of much of the searchable scholarly literature. Where the free full text cannot be provided, GS



Google Video

Like Youtube, Google Video allows users to upload and share video content. What makes Google Video special is its search engine, which incorporates results from Google Video itself, youtube, and other third-party websites. According to Google, The Google Video index is "the most comprehensive on the web," making it the most powerful video searching tool currently available.



Google Docs

Free to Google users-Google Docs is a basic and easy to use online word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation application. Google Docs gives users the ability to create new documents or upload existing documents, users can store and share documents online with ease. The most innovative and useful feature in Google docs is real time collaboration. Users can invite people to collaborate on a document, which allows multiple users to edit a single document at the same time. A chat-window keeps track of revisions made and displays which user made specific changes. Google Docs are stored securely online where they are far removed from the risk of computer crashes and accessible from any computer with an Internet connection. Frequent auto-saving mitigates data loss in the event of a browser crashing or disruptions in Internet connections. Docs requiring more advanced features can be exported in popular formats like .doc, .xls, .pdf, and .rtf and used popular document production programs.



Gmail

Back in the invite-only days of Google's e-mail service, having a Gmail account was a status symbol of sorts around the web. Since then, the fervor has died down, but users remain faithful. Using Ajax and JavaScript, Gmail implements a user-friendly interface that was one of the first to boast the feature of archiving. Archiving means that instead of users deleting their mail permanently, "read mail" is saved-a feature that can come in handy in the clutch.



GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411)

Think directory assistance done right-and free. GOOG-411 uses speech-recognition technology to allow users to search and connect to businesses in the U.S. and Canada. GOOG-411 also allows users to have the telephone number and address of a given business text-messaged to any text-accepting cellular phone. The best feature of GOOG-411 is that it is free of charge.



Google Reader

Google Reader utilizes Atom and RSS feeds to aggregate a personalized news feed. Google Reader serves as an "inbox for your news," bringing in stories and posts from the user's choice websites and blogs into a slick interface that makes staying up to date simple. Google Reader is also available on mobile phones that support XHTML or WAP 2.0 and the Wii web browser.



Google Finance

Google Finance features Business News headlines as well as in-depth stock information. Adobe Flash powers the stock charts and feature real-time quotes during trading hours.



iGoogle

Similar to Netvibes and My Yahoo! iGoogle is a personalized start page that offers users a variety of helpful ways to begin their web-browsing experience. iGoogle works in a three-column layout with web-based widgets that focus on a variety of different topics. Some of the most popular widgets include "Google Reader," "Quotes of the Day," and "Youtube: Top Rated."



Google Page Creator

Like the name suggests, Google Page Editor will allow users easily compose, edit, and publish web pages. Frequent auto-saving fast publishing, and a user-friendly interface could make this yet another popular ingredient in the Google mix.



Google Mars

The same concept as Google Earth, this Google feature still in development is the result of a collaboration with NASA researchers at ASU and according to Google, provide "some of the most detailed scientific maps of Mars ever made."



Google Ride Finder

Based in Google Maps, Google Ride Finder offers real time tracking of participating taxi and limousine services using GPS technology. So far, Ride Finder only gives users up-to-the-minute locations of vehicles in the following cities: Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix, San Francisco, and Washington D.C.