The Top 5 FREE Google Services You're Not Using

Ok, we all know that Google is king of search engines by a mile and a half. First off, allow me to explain a very important term: Marketshare. Basically it means the amount that one product/service is being used compared to competing products/services in that market. For example, Google is currently dominating the search engine market with 65%, with Yahoo! in second with 17%, and Bing at 11%. But as many know, Google isn't just being awesome in search, but a ton of other stuff too, and the majority of it is free! Here's what you're probably missing out on:

1) Buzz. Now, to be fair here, Buzz is brand spankin' new this week. Essentially it's a cross between the all-powerful Google Maps and Twitter. Buzz doesn't require any additional programs and works through Gmail and Google Maps apps on mobile devices, which is really nice. You simply make sure your GPS is on, type in what you want the world to see, attach a picture if you like, and it becomes available to anyone following you (friends) or anyone who is nearby and looks on Maps or clicks "Nearby". It's very new, but it seems it's catching on so far. In my explorations in Maps (I got as far as Savannah, Georgia in Maps), I saw one Buzz that said "If you mention this Buzz, get $2 off your meal!" It made me realize that it could be used for quick reviews, speed trap warnings, special sales, all kinds of real-time, real-place goodness. All you need to start is a Gmail account, which is free and will be further discussed in a bit.

2) Trends. Ever feel like you're the last person to hear about something? Google Trends can end that. Since the majority of information is spread online and so many people use Google to find it, Google Trends allows you to tap into what's being searched for. For example, one of the Hot Topics (don't mind the name, you won't find many "edgy" teens there) right now is "what is Google Buzz?" It's also pretty entertaining, since you can view timelines and compare between two searches, making the relationship between Vibrators, Dildos, and Brokeback Mountain hilarious (search it, you'll see).

3) Calendar. This is a big one that will make your life so much more organized (like I'm qualified to talk about that!) Calendar is incredibly easy to use. You can set up appointments, reminders, locations (for easy Maps use), and invite contacts that are involved too. You can also sync it to your smartphone so it will automatically remind you that you're late to work. And you can set up multiple calendars to be even further organized. You can have a work calendar, a TV calendar to remind you of your favorite shows, sports calendars, etc. They can be viewed seperately or together to make sure there are no conflicts.

4) Gmail. This one was not in my Top 5 at first (this spot was for Documents), but I decided to double check the email marketshare, and it made me want to cry. Yahoo! is winning by a very wide margin, with Windows Live/Hotmail in second, and then Google's Gmail. Ok, seriously, what is this? 2000? Gmail is so simple, yet so powerful, allows for limitless organization and customization, and gives you access to all of Google's services in one place. http://mail.google.com There you go. No more excuses.

5) Chrome. Last but not least, Google's killer web browser. This statistic made me even sadder than the email one. 58% of people are still using Internet Explorer. REALLY? I mean, it's better than Netscape, but as a friend said: "IE is good for one thing: downloading another browser" (All credit to Neckbeard Ned, big ups sir). Now, Firefox takes second place, and given its age, it's rightfully so. While it may be a much better choice than IE or Safari, it is a big memory hog and is prone to crashing whenever least convenient. This happened to me once, and I got sick of it so I decided to give Chrome a try for a full week. It's been 3 months now, and I've never looked back. While Firefox has a lot more, Chrome has the extensions I needed. I've got drop-down style extensions for Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, and even Woot! (feel free to talk about your favorite extensions in the comments!) And it's all much quicker than Firefox was, and I greatly appreciate how minimalistic it is. Plus, Incognito Mode allows you to browse without saving any cookies or adding to your history. I'll leave you to find a use for that (I plead the Fifth).

So there you have it. The top free Google services that aren't used enough. There's a lot more, like Documents, that may make your life easier or more entertaining, and to find them just click "More" and then "Even More". Also make sure to check out the Labs section to see what's being worked on. Google Mars anyone (not making that up)?

Being Smarter With Your Online Identity

As Travis alluded to in his post, smart phones will predominantly be the phone used as one of the four still relevant gadgets. But a bigger implication is in how much more we will be connected to the internet as a society. We use the internet as a means to stay in touch with the rest of the world, our jobs, friends and family, and even tasks like banking and purchases. In doing so we start to share more and more until our life stories end up online. Ultimately, our information becomes available for any one to view.

Most everyone can remember their mom warning us about making a good first impression, but where are the 21st century mothers telling us to also watch after our online presence too. Why is this important? Well, people who will make decisions about the type of character I am will read this blog knowing full well I participate in it (aka my background investigator) and make a judgement on me based on what is said. But other than the qualitative information my presence may yield, there is also the quantitative data such as where I live or how I can be reached on my cellular phone. This is information that has, at least for me, an inverse proportion over how much I want to share vs how many people I would like to share it with.

Now while all this sharing is going on, Google called light to something else: openness. They believed that for the internet to really thrive in its best form, information needs to easily be accessible to anyone [who should have access to it]. And to do that, better controls need to be put into place so that the user can see their presence and make appropriate decisions about what is shared and what isn't. In the case of what Google knows about you, the easiest thing you can do is to simply Google Yourself. Immediately, you will be able to see almost every part of where your online presence has been. Taking this a step further, most people have a Google account which allows you to use one of several services they offer (Mail, Blogger, Contacts, Docs, etc). In all, I have about 17 services my primary user account is linked to. Google wanted to take its own advice with openness and created an entire section where I can view everything Google knows about me from using their services. I can view it from their Dashboard, where I also have complete control to manage the content all from that one page.

Another website a lot of people use is Facebook. This is a perfect example of a way to better manage your content as Facebook recently updated their privacy settings to allow you to more accurately specify who can view your information and to what extent. I've created a simple / dynamic solution that groups people by how much I would like them to see. In my case, only three groups were created. The first group is just my overall friends on the site, the second is a select group of my closest friends (this group being the one that I want them to see everything about my profile) and the last being a group with only very limited access to see my profile. To separate them, I've created two lists and sorted friends into them: "myFacebook" and "Limited View" with my regular friends being left out of the list and in their regular "Friends" grouping as they are already technically grouped. Then on the Privacy Page, I set things like my phone number and current address to viewable only to the "myFacebook" list where as things like the about me section to everyone. Then there are things such as my wall where I want any of my friends to see, but maybe not the older relatives of whom I've added into my "Limited View" list. For that, I set the wall visible to Only Friends *Except* "Limited View". Now as I add new friends, Facebook asks me which list(s) I want my new friend to be in and I can add them into the appropriate group of people right then and there which automatically applies all privacy settings to them.

My last reminder is to set your profile(s) to private. If you aren't my friend, I don't want you to see anything on there. The same holds true for my Twitter accounts. Sometimes I'll add location data to a comment / post I make. I wouldn't be too comfortable with the fact if some random person I had never met just shows up where I am. I have even gone to the extent of disallowing someone not in my region to be able to search for me on Facebook simply for the fact that if I meet someone and I want to friend them on there, I'll go through another arrangement to do so.

There are a couple other tricks to do with lists and later on down the road, I'll probably share them here as a way to help you better your Facebook experience. Either way, I hope this post not only helps, but preserves your enjoyment with your online presence all while keeping you safe.