Why I love Google

Jackie West

There is only one thing, in my house, which is guaranteed to strike up an argument… and it’s Google!

My partner cannot understand why someone in marketing would, as he puts it, ‘fall for it’.

So, why am I such a big fan of a corporation which dominates the web?

I know that they track my activity, and I really don’t mind. I have a quiet admiration for all they do – especially those geeks who write all those complicated algorithms.

All their tracking and research brings me lots of tools and applications that are really useful for my work – and they certainly make my life that much easier.

In no particular order here’s an overview of some of the Google products I’m using:

iGoogle:
Mine is set up in Firefox (and that’s another story), iGoogle is my homepage set-up purely for work. It contains live feeds from websites I like to keep an eye on. I currently have a view of over 25 sites – all easily digested, and laid out in an orderly fashion, so I know, at a glance the ones I need to view first.

I can search from here, bookmark, and enter my Google accounts page.

Google Alerts:
This is the best way of keeping track of what anyone (yep!) is posting on the web. It’s good for keeping track of what’s being published on the web about you, your company, your competitors, your clients. Just set up with key words, and specify when you want to receive updates, and they’ll just keep coming.

It’s easy to set-up, and equally easy to amend and stop.

Recommend, if you’re tracking competitive stuff, that you select to receive ‘as it happens’.

Google Mail:
This email client hosts all your emails for free. No brainer really.
You can still POP or forward to your Outlook (or whatever) if you wish, keeping all your mails online, archived.

I’ve had my account for over five years now, and I’m nowhere near to reaching the storage capacity they allocate. (Last count I had around 75,000 emails sitting there).

It’s easy to search and find ancient mails (try finding a five year old mail in Outlook!). And flexible enough for you to set up filters, out of office message, etc, etc.

And the spam filter is very, very, efficient.

Picasa web albums:
Store all your pics online. Save valuable hard drive space. You don’t have to allow public access, and you can easily create links to give out to those you want to view.

A great way to store all those, now digital, product photographs, and create product ‘albums’. Easy to share with anyone (in your company? Or customers?) by just giving them a link. Saves attaching images to emails.

And, if you just happen use all the 1024MB they allocate you, you just upgrade and purchase 10GB for around £15 a year.

There’s lots more from Google, do take a look at
http://www.google.co.uk/options

Further information from SiteProNews:
Oodles O’ Google Tools

Five Google tools for researching your market