Key Takeaways
Some days it seems likeGoogleis crop firmly at accomplish its goal of get up the world ’s information , clear it easygoing for us to find what we need . Other days it seems like the company be after to take over the entire world . And with a code of conduct that includes the direction of " do n’t be malevolent , " peradventure that ’s not necessarily a bad thing [ source : Google Investor Relations ] .
There ’s no deny it – Google is anInternetpowerhouse . It ’s such an influential presence on the WWW that when Yahoo ! partnered with Google to put Google Ads on Yahoo ! search results pages , people begin to care that Google would monopolise thesearch engineadvertising business . Even the U.S. Congress set about to question the allegiance [ reference : Hart ] . Google has certainly issue forth a long way – the caller grew from a haphazard aggregation of computers networked together in a service department to a global potbelly deserving one thousand million of dollars .
The backbone to Google ’s business is its hunt railway locomotive , but that ’s not the only service Google whirl . Do a little digging on Google ’s site and you ’ll come across everything from productiveness program to aninstant messagingclient . Google developed some of these products and features itself . But in some case , Google products begin out as independent projects designed by other companies . If Google executives see an interesting coating that helps the company achieve its end , there ’s a chance Google will make an offer to assume that troupe .
It seems that Google is reluctant to promote many of its projects frombeta versions– former release that may still have job with functionality – to fill in products . Even Gmail , Google ’s e - mail customer that launch in 2004 , is still in beta . But some of the company ’s initiatives are less ruined than others . Google allow users to try experimental service at the Google Labs Web site , but admits that the services " are n’t quite quick for premier time " [ reference : Google Labs ] .
permit ’s plunge right into the various world of Google products . We ’ll start by taking a close look atGmail .
10: Google E-mail
In 2004 , a Google press release revealed that the company was n’t satisfied with dominating Internet search – the secondly - most popular on-line activity . Google wanted to tackle the biggest on-line table service on the Internet : e - mail . To that remnant , Google herald it would allow a choice number of citizenry to test a WWW - host e - mail service calledGmail[source : Google ] .
Gmail started out as Google ’s intragroup e - postal service service . When Google make up one’s mind to make Gmail useable to hoi polloi outside of the caller , it chose to take a gradual approach . At first , the only way to get a Gmail account was to get an invitation from someone else . Nearly three days after announcing Gmail , Google unfold up access to the public at large . Now anyone can create a Gmail account .
Gmail organizes messages into " conversations . " If someone sends you a message and you answer , Gmail will present the two messages together in a stack . The original e - post will be on top and your response will appear beneath it . Future messages will appear under the original , which Gmail fall in so that they do n’t take up too much space on your screen . By group messages and responses together , Gmail makes it easier for users to keep lead of several discussions at once .
Some people think that communicating by vitamin E - chain mail is die out ( or is already dead ) . Google seem to have an reply to that as well : Google Talk . Find out more about it on the next varlet .
9: GTalk
Just when you thought theInternethad its fill ofinstant messagingclients , along cameGoogle Talk . Introduced in 2005 , Google Talk is an applications programme that permit users send messages to each other . UnlikeGmail , the Google Talk client is n’t entirely entanglement - based . Users must first download an covering to their own computers to get at its full set of feature .
Those feature go beyond simple messages . you may send unlimited files – of unlimited size – to other user . Just remember that if you choose to send someone a big file , it ’s go to take a while to reassign to the other exploiter , specially over obtuse connexion . Also , if you have a cap on how much datum you’re able to transfer over your net , you might face some hefty fees from yourInternet Service Provider(ISP ) .
Google Talk is also avoice over Internet protocol(VOIP ) node . That mean you could make PC - to - PC birdsong to other Google Talk user . You and your striking will both need microphone and speaker , but Google Talk do by the rest . Real - metre voice transmission can take up a lot ofbandwidth . Just like file transfers , you might risk go bad over your data cap with your ISP if you use this feature a portion .
Users can also download the Google Talk Gadget , a entanglement - based software that countenance users to access many ( but not all ) Google Talk functions from a personal WWW site like a blog or an iGoogle page . That means you may use any information processing system connect to the Internet to navigate to the right site and use Google Talk . Right now , using a Google Talk Gadget is the easiest way Mac owners can access any of Google Talk ’s features .
That jolly much cut through communication . What else can Google organize ? How about Internet shopping ? register all about the Google Checkout serving in the next plane section .
8: Google Checkout
Many citizenry use theInternetto shop . One of the drawbacks of online shopping involve transmitting your personal information over the Internet . If you want to buy item at unlike web sites , you have to enter all your info multiple multiplication . Google saw the opportunity to make a tool that would provide merchandiser and exploiter to take advantage of a cosmopolitan check-out procedure system .
Here ’s how it works : first you create a Google chronicle . If you already have a Google account , you ’ll need to enhance it by providing a credit lineup number , charge speech , shipping address and a phone identification number . Once you complete this step , you could go shopping .
Google Checkout is free for consumer . merchant must compensate 2 percent plus 20 centime per sales transaction . But Google afford a discount to merchants who use Google AdWords . For every dollar a merchant drop in AdWords advert per month , Google will work on $ 10 of sales without guardianship [ author : Google Checkout ] .
Google also offers intersection design to help you unionize your lifespan . Find out Calendarin the next section .
7: Google Calendar
In April 2006 , Google released a free online calendar software calledGoogle Calendar . If you have a Google account , you may create a Google Calendar . If you do n’t have one , you may record for a gratis accounting .
you could use Google Calendar to schedule event and ask round people to participate . By sharing folder , you could compare your docket with other users . If everyone keep his or her calendar up to date , it ’s easy to avert conflicts . A single user can open up multiple calendars and view all the scheduled events in a individual windowpane . Since this can get confusing , Googledisplays each calendar ’s result in a dissimilar colour .
Google includes its search feature of speech within the Google Calendar arrangement . you could search for specific calendars . Calendar owners can pick out to keep a calendar secret or divvy up it openly with everyone . It ’s also possible to produce multiple calendar with one account . That can come in ready to hand for organizations that have multiple client bases . For representative , a theater might have one calendar for the general world that shows the times of performances and a 2nd calendar for actor to countenance them know about auditions and rehearsal schedules .
Another Google product that ’s gaining popularity is a suite of applications that you ’d usually feel in authority desktop software . It ’s theGoogle Docssuite of political platform . Find out more about them in the next section .
6: Google Docs
TheGoogle Docssuite cross out Google ’s attempt at getting into the onlineproductivity softwaregame . The free suite includes a word central processor , a spreadsheet editor and a intro applications programme . In unforesightful , it has the basic software applications many business need . Instead of saving all your data to yourcomputer ’s surd cause , you keep your Google Docs data file to a remoteGoogle file arrangement . Because the files are host on the web , you’re able to access them from any computer connected to theInternet . Your document are n’t tied to a specific twist .
Another feature of Google Docs is the power to divvy up documents and editing capableness with other Google users . Multiple the great unwashed can make edits to the same text file at the same time . With traditional desktop covering , a projection manager might have to care multiple copies of the same file as various collaborationist make edits and additions to the papers . With Google Docs , everyone can make his or her changes directly to the data file saved on Google ’s servers . Google Docs also keeps rail of earlier versions of the document – project managers do n’t have to care about someone incidentally cancel an entire section .
One drawback to Google Docs is that none of the applications are as robust as popular desktop productiveness software fit like Microsoft Office . If you only need introductory functionality , Google Docs can be useful . If you ’re accustomed to creating document , spreadsheet and presentations with all the bells and whistles , you ’ll probably require to cleave to traditional software .
We ’re midway through . Maybe you ’re feeling a fiddling lost with all these products and features . Never revere , Google has a solution : Google Maps . determine out more in the next section .
5: Google Maps
Google establish its on-line map feature in 2005 , nearly 10 years afterMapQuest ’s online debut . Like its challenger , Google Maps permit exploiter see maps of specific part and get guidance from one localisation to another . Google Maps grant user to view street maps , topographical terrain maps or even satellite prospect . For some areas , Google also has a dealings function feature that can alert you to any maze or bottlenecks .
The Google Maps feature film relies on digital map images from NAVTEQ . NAVTEQ provides single-valued function data to many unlike clients , include in - vehicle sailing arrangement . A company called deCarta – formerly Telcontar – provides the applications that power the map features . Google employees create the applications that compound the simulacrum from NAVTEQ and the mapping capacity provide by deCarta to produce the feature you see in Google Maps .
In 2008 , Google add a new feature to Google Maps . Now you’re able to get walk directions from one placement to another . antecedently , Google Maps only plat out driving directions , which have to take things like one - way streets into invoice . Now users can happen the short walking route between two points .
Sometimes Google ’s decisions do n’t go over as well as they had planned . Google ’s Street View feature for Google Maps is a expert illustration . Google mounted especial camera to cars , then institutionalise them through cities across the United States and France . The television camera pointed in different directions and took pictures every few seconds , give user a street - grade view of certain cities . But some people say that Google ’s actions plunder privacy . Google respond by blur people ’s faces in the pic to protect their identities .
Google Maps is nearly related to the Google mathematical product retinue calledGoogle Earth . We ’ll see at it more intimately in the next section .
4: Google Earth Maps
Google is always look at novel ways to organize and present information . One of those ways is togeotagdata . Geotagging is a mode of linking info to a genuine - world location . You view geotagged information on a single-valued function . While Google Maps could attend as a style to bring home the bacon geotagged entropy to users , Google decided to go with an alternative . Google chose a digital globe and called itGoogle Earth .
Google acquired a society call Keyhole in 2005 . Keyhole built the foot for Google Earth , a digital globe that chip in users the ability to zoom along in and out of view ranging from a few 12 feet from the airfoil of the Earth to the equivalent of orbiting the planet . Google Earth gives the user dozens of choices , from viewing satellite images of the planet to overlaying maps , three dimensional terrain features and even fully - rendered cityscapes .
Google Earth also allows developers to make applications to connect information to specific locations on the globe . exploiter can elect to view geotagged info grade from general news account to customise data . Google Earth take a leak it possible to instance word stories in a new path . For model , a news show agency could instance a news report about wildfire by plotting out the damage on Google Earth .
Originally , the only agency users could access Google Earth was to download an software and install it on their own reckoner . The software accesses the cyberspace to get the latest information and update , but the user ’s data processor host most of the software ’s lineament . In 2008 , Google plunge a new Google Earth app that ’s wholly Web - based . But since the full interlingual rendition of Google Earth postulate a pile of calculate resourcefulness to run smoothly , the WWW - ground version is a streamlined variation with few features than its desktop cousin .
When Google executive director say they want to organize the populace ’s information , they ’re not kidding . And they are n’t stopping with just the Web – they need to organize your information too . That ’s where the Google Desktop software comes in . scan more about it in the next section .
3: Google Desktop
Have you ever had to search for a particular file on yourcomputer ? How about ane - mailthat ’s somewhere in the middle of a folder that has K of messages in it ? The experience can be frustrative , and those of us who are organizationally challenged can support a lot of stress while essay to dig up a picky piece of information .
That ’s where Google Desktop can come in handy . It ’s a downloadable app Google offers liberal of tutelage . Once a user downloads and installs the program on a computer , Google Desktop go to work . It searches and indexes the files on the user ’s calculator . It does all this during the idle time when the calculator is n’t working on other things .
It does n’t just index the name of a Indian file – it searches the contents as well . Maybe you do n’t remember the subject of a particular e - mail , but you remember it mentioned something about a raw sushi eating place in town . you’re able to search for the term " sushi " using Google Desktop and it will repay results relevant to that term . The results face a lot like thesearch engineresults Thomas Nelson Page Google bring forth for Web searches . One of those answer should be the e - mail service you need to think .
Google Desktop also give user the pick to install personalized Google Gadgets . Gadgets retrieve data on the Web and present it in a window that stay on the substance abuser ’s screen background . data might include dealings and weather updates , news feeds or to - do lean , among other things .
If the Google Desktop does n’t gather enough information for your liking , you’re able to always create a specialised Google homepage that can pull info and applications from hundreds of sources . That ’s the idea behind iGoogle , which we ’ll look at in the next subdivision .
2: iGoogle
You probably have a modest turn of vane land site or practical software that you use more than others . What if you had a direction to amass those vane site so that you could go to a individual locating on theWebto access all of them at once ? That ’s the conception behind iGoogle , a freeaggregatororportalWeb serving .
The iGoogle service allows users to select multiple app and news feeds from across theInternet . Each user can customize his or her own iGoogle page . For case , mutant lover can add applications that grab the recent score and statistics of their favourite team from the Internet and display them in a dedicated windowpane on the iGoogle page .
Google allow drug user organize their own iGoogle pages using a circle of simple tools . One of those creature is a series of tabs at the top of the iGoogle Sir Frederick Handley Page . Account holders can create tabs for specific category of applications or news feeds . This makes it easier for drug user to bump the information they desire when they want it . Once the drug user sets up his or her iGoogle site , the program does the residuum of the work .
While you could choose to admit Google apps like Gmail , Google Calendar and Google Docs in your iGoogle page , you are n’t limited to Google app . Third political party developers have created iGoogle practical software that let you access circle of different Web - based political platform . With the correct software set up in iGoogle , you could access thing like :
The concluding Google merchandise we ’ll look at is perchance the most controversial one . That ’s because it ’s an attempt to organize aesculapian documents . Find out more about Google Health in the next section .
1: Google Health
change doctors is n’t always a smooth experience . On top of all the normal accent of dealing with unfamiliar multitude , you also have to recover a way to get your aesculapian information from your previous Dr. to your new one . That ordinarily mean you have to bank on other people and hope that they react . Transferring your medical data is important because the more information your doctor has about your medical history , the more efficaciously he or she will be able to diagnose and treat you when you need it .
Google ’s answer to this issue is to create an electronic , centralised location for your medical files called Google Health . Your doctors would transfer your single file to Google ’s databases . Instead of having to track down the strong-arm location of a paper file , your physician would be able to lumber in to acomputerand displume up your entire medical history . You do n’t have to worry about remembering which doctor has your file cabinet .
But some mass think Google ’s approach creates a serious problem . What if someone were to compromise Google ’s security system and memory access that data ? aesculapian entropy is , by its very nature , personal . The potential for abuse of this data worries some people . Others do n’t like the mind of a third party having access code to all their medical data , even if it is secure fromhackers .
Google stresses that its databases are very secure and that patient role privacy is a primary concern . Google Health ’s purpose is to put patient in mastery of their own medical entropy . It ’s suppose to give them the tool they need to stay informed about health issues . It ’s up to the somebody to make up one’s mind if the benefits overbalance the risk of exposure .
That wraps up our look at ten Google mathematical product . If the past times is any denotation , we ’ll see many more Google app and service in the future tense . As long as the human race has disorganized information , Google ’s job is n’t done .
To ascertain more about Google and related topics , look through our link on the next varlet .
