Google Power!

Google Trends - Stay On Top Of The World

2009-06-27T16:07:00.004-04:00

If you have never heard of Google Trends you don't know what you are missing! Google Trends is a tool that you can use to see what people in the world are searching for in real time. I can't tell you how many stories I have discovered through Google Trends way before they ever hit CNN, or any other source just by using their handy IGoogle gadget on my IGoogle homepage. It not just news stories either, it could be any quirky thing that people are searching for. You never know what you are going to run into that is for sure. You can add it to your IGoogle page just by clicking this link.

For those of you who publish blogs like me, this can be an invaluable tool to stay ahead of the public and give them what they want before they even know it. Since Google Trends link directly to sources that are related to that individual Google Trend, you can also generate traffic. Just make sure your page is relevant to the Google Trend and bam your site will show up and you will start to see traffic coming from yet another Google source. You can try out Google Trends right here, just don't forget who sent you there : )Now sure that sounds pretty cool right, but that is just the beginning of the many uses of Google Trends. My favorite use is to compare keywords to see which one gets more search volume. This is an amazingly useful tool when it comes to choosing keywords for Google Adwords or when you are choosing a URL or just a title for your blog post. For example you could compare Coke and Pepsi or Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. You can do more than two keywords at once to like Microsoft, Google, Yahoo. The results are displayed in graph form like the one above, over a period of several years. They even break it down by region, cities and languages. As you can imagine the possible uses for Google Trends is, like the Internet, endless.

What are your thoughts on Google Trends? Do you have any tips or tricks that you use to have your website show up in Google Trends? If so please leave them in the comments below...

Google Voice And Video Chat

2009-03-31T21:59:00.004-04:00

This is a really cool application that Google just introduced. Basically its a downloadable application that allows your gmail to have voice and video chat right on your computer. After all who really needs phones these days. Have a look at the video below for more information and instructions to install Google Voice & Video Chat.

Google Introduces Google Voice

2009-03-15T20:01:00.002-04:00

In case you missed it last week Google released Google Voice, formerly known as Grand Central. This handy service allows you to combine multiple phone number to ring on a single phone. For example if you have a cell phone, home phone and an office phone you can get one unique number that will ring on all three phones! No more confusion! They also give the ability to turn your voicemails into text so you can read them in e-mail form! Very cool...

Here is a bit more info about the Voicemail features...

What do you think about Google Voice? Has anyone tried it out yet?

Google Introduces Google Powermeter

2009-02-10T01:47:00.004-05:00

Google.org announced that they will be making Google Powermeters available to hook up to your system so you can identify wasteful sources. What a great idea! In early testing it is showing a vast improvement in energy use. Take a look at the video below to learn more about Google Powermeter...

Explore Google Oceans

2009-02-05T22:28:00.003-05:00

Google Earth does it again! They have now given you the opportunity to dive into the depths of our seas and check out the strange creatures that roam these waters. Observe the effects of climate change, find places to dive or surf, discover shipwrecks and even take guided tours! Check out the video below to learn more about this latest Google Earth project or just click here to visit Google Oceans...

Get More Sales With Google Store Connector

2009-01-04T15:16:00.004-05:00

I never would have come across this useful tidbit, but I started selling stuff on Ebay and I stumbled into Google Store Connector while looking for ways to get more traffic to my Ebay store. Basically what Google Store Connector does is link up with your Ebay store and download all your products into Google Base. Now maybe you have never heard of Google Base, but it actually a great way to get your products noticed and of course like most things Google (including Google Store Connector) it is 100% free!

Think of it this way, if someone is searching for a product they are not necessarily going to go to Ebay, they will go right to Google. So lets say you are trying to sell Hummel Figurines, if someone types in "Hummel Figurines" and then hits "Shopping" on the top of Google's search page they are indexing things that are in Google Base. You need to be here!!

So basically what you do is download the program Google Store Connector, which is free and then enter in your login info for ebay so it knows where to pull your items from. After that you are just 2 clicks aways from having your entire store posted on Google Base and in turn Google Product Search/Shopping! Just hit Copy Items From My Store and then Publish To Google Base and you are done!

One important factor to note though is that you need to have a "Buy It Now" price and a set (not calculated) shipping price or Google Store Connector will not publish your item. Just make sure to post your items to Google Store Connector soon after you put them on Ebay and you will avoid any problems. Run Google Store Connector again after your items have sold and it will automatically delete the items that are out of your store and add in the new ones!

Now Google Store Connector doesn't just work with Ebay, it also works with Yahoo and osCommerce as well. This is truly one of the best ways to get more traffic and in turn more bids to your Ebay store so go ahead and try it out, just don't forget who told you about it when your sales start piling up : )

Google Mobile Apps - Voice Search

2008-11-22T14:35:00.002-05:00

Just a few days ago Google released its much awaited voice search. Now the only way you can get it right now is if you have an Iphone, but don't worry I am sure they are working hard on getting a computer version out soon. I can see why they started with the phone though. It is so hard to try and type anything into a phone with those tiny keys! Check out this video from Google below for a bit more information on how exactly this Google Mobile App Voice Search works. O did I forget to mention that like most things Google, it is free!

Google Releases Chrome

2008-09-04T13:44:00.004-04:00

Google Chrome is an Internet browser that has just been released in 100 different countries just the other day. There are a few different tweaks in Google Chrome that are lacking in Firefox and Internet Explorer. First of all, and I think I like this one the best, when you open up Google Chrome is automatically gives you a screenshot of the 9 most visited webpages that you frequent. On the side there is also a easy way to find recent searches, bookmarks and even recently closed tabs. Of course like a lot of other things Google, Chrome is open source, which makes it much easier for people to develop applications on it. Don't forget the speed either! Google Chrome has built a JavaScript Virtual Machine called V8, this makes it the fastest browser on the market. Google Chrome has also incoropate the popular tabs feature only the tabs are at the top instead of below the address bar like in Firefox. Google Chrome's address bar is actually called an omnibox and is complete with auto complete and search suggestions to help you find exactly what you are looking for. If you need privacy Google Chrome has you covered there too with Incognito mode. This mode makes it so nothing that occurs in that window is ever logged on your computer. No more cookies to delete in this mode. So well, what is the price, well like most things Google it is 100% free. So what are you waiting for try it out. You can download it here or learn even more first by watching the video below...

Google Calculator

2008-08-16T22:24:00.004-04:00

Another one of the little known uses of Google is the Calculator. The Google Calculator is a very useful tool that is actually built right into Google Search. All you need to do is type something like "1m in cm" or how about "1mile in feet" or "5739f in c" (for temperature). This will work with many mathematical measurements and is very handy when doing time consuming unit conversions.

You can also type in math equations into Google, for example "55*90+(sqrt 10)^3=" surprisingly this works quite well even on more difficult equations. So don't go out and waste your money on a fancy Calculator just type it into Google...

Share Your Expertise With Google Knol

2008-07-25T16:08:00.002-04:00

After 7 months of testing behind closed doors Google has finally opening up Google Knol to the public. This site is similar to Wixipedia, but with more of an emphasis on the author of the post. You the expert can write your own Knol on the area of your choice. You then have the option to allow other people to edit your Knol or just suggest edits that you would need to approve. You can even make it so no one can ever edit your Knol. Google is basically building an encyclopedia for all of the worlds information from the ground up and is making it possible for its users to profit from it as well. That's right Google has made it so you can display Google Adsense on your Knol! So you to can make you money for your knowledge. The possibilities are endless...

Google Gives Us Virtual Reality For Free!

2008-07-08T20:38:00.007-04:00

Unlike the popular Second Life which cost $9.95 a month, like most things Google Lively will be completely free and only requires a plugin to get started. Lively's users will be able to sculpt an avatar that can be male, female or even a different species. An avatar can assume a new identity, change clothes or convey emotions with a few clicks of the mouse. You will also be able to create virtual rooms that you design yourself and visit your friends rooms, coffeehouses and even exotic islands! Google even gives you the ability to setup TV where you can watch Youtube videos in your room. A Google spokeswoman said that there isn't any currency in Lively, but that users will be able to add objects from Lively's catalog to their rooms free of charge. And users can't yet create their own items but should be able to down the road. This application already works on Facebook and Google is working to get it operational on MySpace. I can only imagine where it will go from here! Check out the video below for some screen shots...

To check it out just click here!

Use Google To Answer Any Question In The World!

2008-06-25T01:02:00.004-04:00

A lot of die hard Googlers might not even know this one. You can use Google to fill in the blank for pretty much anything you can think of. Just use the * key as the blank. That's right try out a couple and see what comes up.

Try something like...

The inventor of something is *

Portugal is West Of *

Best time to fish for walley is *

What other good ones could you come up with?

Google Signs A 40 Year Lease With NASA

2008-06-05T22:10:00.004-04:00

In a show of just how tight the Google and NASA releationship has become, Google announced today the lease of 44.2 acres for a office complex that will be built on a NASA's federal government research center. The 1.2 million-square-foot campus announced Wednesday fulfills a vision that Google first laid out with the NASA Ames Research Center in 2005.

With the release of Google Earth, Google Moon and Google Mars who knows what could be on the horizon for these two giant innovators. If you think about it NASA has a ton of data and they need efficient ways to organize it. Google's mission to organize the world's information fits it perfectly with this bold project. Here is what NASA and Google had to say...

"With this new campus, we will establish a new era of expanded collaboration with Google that will further enhance our Silicon Valley connections," said Ames Director S. Pete Worden. "This major expansion of NASA Research Park supports NASA's mission to lead the nation in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research."

"This long-term lease agreement is a key component of Google's strategy for continued growth in Silicon Valley," said David Radcliffe, Google's vice president of real estate and workplace services. "We believe this collaboration between Google, NASA and the city of Mountain View is emblematic of the mutually beneficial partnerships that can be created between the public and private sectors."

Advertise On Television With Google Adwords

2008-05-02T22:57:00.006-04:00

Google yesterday unveiled that they would be opening up Google TV Ads to most Adwords customers. This potential breakthrough in advertising should level the playing field against some of the more entrenched advertising players. In the end though, it will only benefit the consumer. More competition = lower prices for the purchaser, and isn't that what everyone wants?

I can only imagine we are just a step away from more real local ads on cable and satellite, instead of the barrage of car and drug company commercials that really don't do much good. After all, I already have a car and feel in tip top shape. Google has created the ability to target ads locally so well, that any small business should be able to advertise only in a small target location, therefore costing less, and not waisting ad dollars.

Google has already given their Adwords users the ability to advertise on the radio, but television is a giant leap. Plus, we are now more than every seeing the transition to computers and television working together for example TIVO and Youtube new partnership. The convergence is well overdue...

Check out this video that shows you how to setup your account and let us know what you think about Google's new push into advertising on television?

Get To Know Your Universe With Google Sky

2007-08-24T22:33:00.000-04:00

You can now explore galaxies, planets, view the constellations and a few other features. Looks like a great upgrade to the already view cool Google Earth...

Sally Ride, the first American female astronaut. Here is a look at the new Sky Feature in Google Earth...

Become More Worldly With Google's New Langauge Tools

2007-08-20T22:59:00.000-04:00

Google today announced that it has extended it's ever growing language tools by leaps and bounds! One of the new features is the ability to search in 14 different Indian and South Asian languages. Not only that but it doesn't require any kind of a special keyboard to search in
অসমীয়া (Assamese), বাংলা (Bengali), ગુજરાતી (Gujarati), हिंदी (Hindi), ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada), മലയാളം (Malayalam), मराठी (Marathi), नेपाली (Nepali), ଓଡ଼ିଆ (Oriya), ਪੰਜਾਬੀ (Punjabi), संस्कृतम् (Sanskrit), සිංහල (Sinhala), தமிழ் (Tamil), or తెలుగు (Telugu)!

Another new feature is the ability to actually write in Hindi through their popular blogger service. This will allow companies or individuals to better communicate with a growing part of the population. Maybe the most amazing part it that no special keyboard is require, pretty impressive.

Like most things Google, it is free so check it out and discover a whole new audience for your website or blog.

You can read the official Google post here!

The Power Of Blogger

2007-03-31T22:50:00.000-04:00

You may not know it, but Google owns Blogger. They have for quite some time now in fact. Google even allows you to use your Google user name and password now to login to your Blogger account.

Anyways, in case you have been living under a rock for the past year or two blogs are beginning to take over the Internet. From personal diaries to photo sites to video sites to corporate sites it seems that everyone today has a blog or two. Well how about you? If not I would suggest signing-up. It is a free service and can actually become a source of income, whether it be through Google Adsense or simply by selling items directly through your blog using Google Checkout "Buy Now" buttons.

Even if you are just looking to promote yourself or your business a blog is a great way to highlight your product or the services that you provide and get feedback from your customers.

As you can see I have a bit of a head start, but with a little hard work you can start shooting for early retirement like me : ) So what are you waiting for? Go sign up today!

Google Talk (Unlimited, Everywhere, Free)

2006-12-28T19:46:00.000-05:00

It took me a while to try out Google Talk, but as soon as I did I was instantly hooked. All you need is a microphone and you can talk to anyone you like for free and anywhere in the entire world. This technology has already been developed by companies like Skype and Vonage, but Google puts in a few different features. You can send files directly through Google Talk to the person that you are chatting with. Google Talk also allows you to setup a profile with a pic and you can even leave voice messages to someones e-mail! This service is also integrated with G-mail so you can be notified when a new message is sent to your G-mail account. If you don't feel like talking you can also instant message just as easily.

Yes, like most things Google it is completely free so you have nothing to lose. You can find out more about Google Talk here.

Zeitgeist Gives Us The Top Searches Of 2006

2006-12-19T18:16:00.000-05:00

Google's Zeitgeist has complied a list of the top search terms for 2006 and are available now. Zetgeist shows the top searches on Google.com of 2006 and the top news searches of 2006. I was very surprised to find out that the top search is bebo a video service.

That's not all though they have categories like "what's hot", "Current Events", "Milestones", "Entertainment" and "Sports". This can be a good way to judge what people are searching for on the net. On the Zeitgeist Home Page you can also even find out what people are searching for in certain countries. This can be very useful to judge trends and hot spots on the net. So check it out and let us know what you think.

Using Google Base For Just About Anything

2006-12-11T18:03:00.000-05:00

Google Base was released over a year ago now, but it just now beginning to gain traction. It was designed as a place were Google users can post anything including images, products, services, real estate, recipes, vehicles and pretty much anything else you can think of. Google Base gives you the option to upload one item at a time or you can even do a bulk upload if you have your information in the right format. The beauty of Google Base is that it is free to list your items unlike other places including the mighty Ebay.

Google has recently updated Base to include the ability to upload pictures of your item as well which are displayed in a slideshow format when a user clicks on your item. Google has also integrated Google Checkout and Froogle into Base so a buyer can purchase an item directly from Google Base simply by clicking the Buy button. As a merchant you can check your orders and view all of your items without having to go to the Google Checkout site. They also track how many impressions, clicks and page views your items receive. You can check out an example of an item here or you can go directly to the home page here and start posting your items.

Just imagine the possibilities....

Change The World With Google.org

2006-12-05T14:57:00.000-05:00

"We hope that someday this institution will eclipse Google itself in overall world impact by ambitiously applying innovation and significant resources to the largest of the world's problems." Sergey Brin & Larry Page

That is a pretty bold statement for a part of Google's business that doesn't really get a lot of press. It seems like most people know about Google, but really have no clue about Google.org. Basically, Google.org is a "for profit" business that has been designed to combat such things as climate change, energy, health care and global poverty. Right now, if you check out the site you can see a couple of the projects that they are working on. These projects include Acumen Fund which is designed to deliver affordable goods and services like water, health care and housing to poverty stricken regions. Google.org is even taking on such projects as creating a car that will get 100 miles to the gallon (boy I bet the oil companies won't like that!) Other projects include the PlanetRead project and Technoserve.

Dr. Larry Brilliant was appointed executive director of Google.org back in February. He is well known for his work in the successful WHO campaign to eradicate smallpox and has also worked for the UN in the fields of blindness and polio eradication. It certainly seems like he is the right person for the job with his extensive background. So what do you think of Google.org?

Google Groups (This Time In Beta)

2006-11-29T19:16:00.000-05:00

Google has released a new version of it's Google Groups application. They have updated groups to include features much like page creator. You can now create webpages inside of your group were you can add pictures, links and anything else you can imagine just like a website. The new beta version also allows the owner of the group to customize the colors and fonts of the group. You can even create welcome messages!

Members of the groups can create pages or you can choose to only allow managers to create pages. Once these pages are up anyone in the group can edit them, add to them or simply comment on these webpages. This makes it very easy for a group to collaborate on any one page and even saves multiple versions of the webpages just in case someone really screws it up! Members of the new beta Google Groups can now create user profiles that include a pic and a quote about yourself among other things. You can check out an example how Google Groups Beta work here. This particular group is called Photoholics Anonymous and really takes advantage of the new formats.

Google Checkout Holiday Site

2006-11-27T13:51:00.000-05:00

Google has released a special site in Google Checkout just for special holiday deals. It includes deals from places like Buy.com, Toys R Us, Zales, Areopostal and Starbucks. Google Checkout is also offering a special promotion of $10 off purchases of $30 or more before shipping and tax. You can check out the special site here. You can also view a demo of Google Checkout by watching the video below or read more about it here.

Google Updates Page Creator

2006-11-20T13:50:00.000-05:00

Google gave it's page creator program a much needed update recently. Page creator is a free service that Google offers to anyone with a gmail account. Users can create their own website using Page Creator with little or no knowledge of html. This was orginially one of my favorite programs, but I quickly saw it's limitations as the formatting and placement of pictures was very difficult to deal with. Google only gave you three sizes to choose from when placing a picture and this could lead to the sidebar not show up in the proper places when using Internet Explorer (not firefox for some reason.) Google has since updated the Page Creator program and now you can resize the picture to any size. You can also format the picture right on your screen including cropping, rotating, lighten and darken. Not only that, but they have given you the option to create up to 5 different urls. This means that you can register maludanplants.googlepages.com, plants.googlepages.com and maludan.googlepages.com. This is really amazing as each of these seperate domain come with a 100 megs of storage for your uploaded pictures. That means that Google is giving out a total of 500 megs for free to store your pictures... not to mention the 100 megs that they give you to use in web albums. Another upgrade is the ability to add "gadgets" to your site with just the click of a button. You can read more about Google Gadgets here. At long last Page Creator is ready to be easily used as a tool for any business to create a website. Google is pushing this very hard with it introduction of Google Apps for Your Domain, which is a service that allows companies to host their website and e-mail through Google for free. The web just got a little closer to meeting the needs of small business with this timely upgrade of Page Creator.

Using Google Checkout

2006-11-19T14:38:00.000-05:00

Google Checkout is a recent addition to Google's growing arsenal. It work a lot like Paypal as Google processes your online sales from customer's who use their credit cards including Mastercard, Visa, Discover and American Express. Checkout is a leap up on Paypal though as it streamlines the process into a matter of two clicks.

First an online store needs to put up buy now buttons on their site. These buy now buttons make it so a shopping cart is not even required. Checkout lets you design the buttons yourself by filling in your price, description, quantity and size. Then Google generates the html code for you and you simply cut and paste it into your site. Once the button is in place customers can click on the buy now button to purchase your product. Google saves all of your customer's credit card information so all they need to do is press the place your order button and your transaction is processed.

The business then needs to review, charge and ship the order which they do from the google checkout site. Once the Google Checkout order is charged the money from the sale is directly deposited into the bank account of your choice. Customer's can then review the merchant and give feedback on how well the transaction was process as in paypal with seller's ratings.

If you are still not converted from paypal you should consider these two extra bonuses. First all of there are no Google Checkout processing fees from now until Christmas! Also if you use Google Adwords already you are really in luck as for every dollar that you spend on Google Adwords you get $10 free processing from Google Checkout.

You can see a couple example of how Google Checkout is used at this website Easy To Grow Plants.

Use Google Co-Op To Create A Custom Search Engine

2006-10-26T13:29:00.000-04:00

Co-Op is yet another platform that has been released to the public by Google. You may ask yourself "why in the world would I want to create a search engine?" Well, if you have more than one website or have an adsense account, the answer is quite simple. You see when you design the search engine, Google allows you to include any sites you would like in your custom search. For instance, if you have a blog all about global warming, you could have your custom search engine index websites like Greenpeace, The World Wildlife Federation, and The United States Environmental Protection Agency. If you have a site all about sports you could customize your search engine to search, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, NBA, NHL, and NFL sites. Now where the story really gets juicy is when you use Google Co-Op to help improve your adsense results. This can be accomplished by creating search engines that include all of your websites or blogs. Google gives you the option to search only the websites or blogs that you choose, or to set a priority on results from certain sites. This way when you someone types a search term into your Google search box, your website will be listed first in your custom search results. This allows you to keep users on your sites as long as possible, by sending them to other parts of your "network". You can also have other users on the web edit you custom search engine if you so choose. Google allows you to let anyone edit your search engine or you can invite people you trust to edit it. Google Co-op also allows the search to work on your myspace page as well, so you can finally start making money from your myspace page. So what are you waiting for get your customized search engine today, all you need is a Google account and you can start generating even more cash flow from the big Goog!

You can check out my Google Co-op search here. Feel free to sign up as a contributor and add your sites today!

By Popular Demand Google Webmaster Tools!

2006-10-20T00:09:00.000-04:00

Becoming a webmaster just got a little easy with the formal release of Webmaster Central by Google. Webmaster Central is a convenient way to submit your site to Google, and access webmaster tools that can be used to see how their "crawlers" view your site. These tools can also inform you if there are any errors or other "technical" difficulties crawling your site. Webmaster Central even has a site status wizard that allow you to simply enter your url (website address) and Google lets you know when your site was last crawled.

Check out these examples of simple webmaster tools to see how these "bots" crawl your sites, just type the following into a search.

site:________.com (simply fill in the blank with your sites address for example site:www.maludan.googlepages.com and see the results) This first one is to see if you are indexed at all in Google.

link:________.com is another one that you can type into a search. These results are what others pages link to your site.

related:_______.com shows what sites are related or similar to yours. I have not had to much luck with this one yet.

Be patient though, it does take a while sometimes to get indexed at all. Let me know what I am missing, or what you would like me to discuss in future postings.

Google Gadgets (All 1,220 Of Them)

2006-10-04T19:30:00.000-04:00

Google has released the perfect storm of miniature programs for your website or blog. These Google Gadgets, as they are know can be easily add to your site through a simple cut and paste. As with Google Adsense they have written all the html code for you! Google Gadgets include 1,220 different programs that you can run on your site. This list is really amazing! It includes Wikipedia, Pacman, Netflix Quick Access, AOL Video, NASA Image of the Day, Magic 8 Ball, Stock Charts, Daily Trivia, Crosswords, Tetris, Moviefone, Local Radar, Daily Show Videos, Horoscopes, Jokes, The Periodic Table, Daily Nature Photos and even 100's of Bushisms. I found all of these in just the first few pages. Once you have found the right one for your site click the add to your webpage button and Google generates the HTML code for you. Most of these Google Gadgets can be customized for your site as well. They allow you to resize the gadget and add the border of your choice among other things. So go out and customize your website or blog with Google Gadgets. As with most other things Google it's all free!

Speak In Many Tongues With Google Translator

2006-10-02T23:22:00.000-04:00

For all of you out there that are addicted to the next blog button, but don't have the time to learn 15 different languages, you should check out Google Translate. It is an amazing tool that you can use to translate a piece of text or an entire webpage. All you have to do is type in the URL (web address) into the box that says "translate a web page:". Then you select what language the page is that you would like to translate, and which language would like to read the page in. Press the translate button and Google pops the page up all nice and formatted. Congratulations you can now understand all most anyone in the world! For instance, you can translate from Spanish to English, German to French, English to Italian and Portuguese to English. Remember this works for pieces of text too, so it could be useful in many other applications. For instance if you wanted to learn how to say "hello" and "goodbye" in Italian or "where is the bathroom" in French you can. So now every time you hit that next blog button and something catches your eye, you can use Google to find out what exactly they are really blogging about. You can also check out Google Languages to surf the net for page written in certain langauges or even in certain countries!

Don't Forget About Google Groups

2006-09-17T18:24:00.000-04:00

Google Groups can also be a promotional tool of sorts for your website/blog. You can either create your own individual Google group about the topic of your website, or you can search for existing groups with similar subjects. It can be a great way to "network" your website. Inside these groups you can post messages about whatever you like. Once these messages are up anyone in the world can comment on them. Most of these groups below are there for people to ask technical questions or get feedback on their site. Just make sure when you do post a message to include your url so people can easily click on your link. These are a couple groups I have found that you might find useful. The first is Blogger Review, this is a google group that is specifically design for getting feedback on your blog. For all of you Google Pagecreator fans, you can try Google Page Creator Discussion Group, this group is in place to help you with errors and get input on your creation. The final group I will give to you is Promoting Your Site, this is a group that was created by "Google-Power" very recently, and is designed to find the numerous ways to get your website or blog in front of people. If you have a tracking program like Google Analytics, you can see the traffic from Google Groups for yourself. Good luck building your "web" of contacts! Let me know if you found any other Google Groups that were useful to you, I know there are quite a few groups out there, it's just hard to find the great ones.

Using Google's Picasa As Promotional Tool

2006-09-08T21:56:00.000-04:00

Google Picasa has become one of my favorite freeware product releases. It wasn't until recently though that I realized how easily Google's photo software could be used as a way to drive traffic to your site. The first step will need to do is take a few pictures of what your business or website is all about. For instance, if you are a fence company, you would want to take pictures of all the different types of fences that you install. If you run a florist shop you would take shots of all of your various plants and flowers. Next, simply select the pictures that you would like to make a movie/slideshow. Hold down the CTRL key to highlight multiple pictures. Once you have selected the pictures, go up to "create" in the menu and then to "movie". Now, you will select the second delay between the pictures. I personally like the full 5 seconds, but you decide. Then, you select your movies screen size. In this case the smaller the movie size, the smaller the file size, so keep this in mind. Next you select your compressor. I have been using Indeo, but you can choose. Remember, the more you compress the smaller the file size, but the lower the quality. Finally you just hit ok and wait for the movie to render. Congratulations, you just created your first movie for your business, or web site! Now you can upload this movie to Google Video and ad a link to your site, maybe some keywords and let the traffic flow.

Check out this example of a florist! or

This one I designed for a fence company!

Google Dates Back to the 1700's

2006-09-06T14:13:00.000-04:00

Google released today a new version of Google news service. You will now be able to search through it's vast database of news articles from such publications as the New York Times, Forbes, The Financial Times, Time Magazine and Washington Post. Some of these articles date back as far as the 1700's! The articles will show a few lines of text and then you will have the option to be re-directed to the provider if you would like to view the entire article. (Much like Google's Book Search) The best part about this service is that it will show the articles in chronological order, so you can see how news stories were viewed throughout history. For instance, you could see how differently the media portrayed Iraq and Afghanistan in the past, and see how it evolved into the situation we are in right now. This is just another tool in Google's race to organize the world's information.

Don't forget to visit our article on becoming a webmaster!

Google Book Search At Your Fingertips!

2006-08-31T15:06:00.000-04:00

Google announced today the available of many out of copyright "classic books" for download. These writings include the works of Dickens, Shakespeare, Joyce, and Dante. With Google Book Search they are now just a click away, and best of all they are all free. Google has been working in partnership with the University of Michigan, Standford University, Oxford University and the New York Public library in this endeavor, which began in late 2004. Basically, they are scanning all of these books page by page to make the content searchable. Just imagine the possiblilites of being able to search thousands if not millions of books just by typing in a word or phrase! I have a feeling that kids these days will have a much easier time with books reports, to say the least.

Many copyrighted books are also available to search, but Google only displays a small sample of text of these copyrighted books. Google just got one large step closer to organizing the world's information with this mind-blowing project. I know you all you bookworms will certainly love this one! What do you think of this project, and Google's stance on copyrighted materials?

Google Launches Apps For Your Domain

2006-08-28T14:12:00.000-04:00

Google today highlighted it's offering of a suite of personal productivity applications just for business called "Google Apps For Your Domain". Basically, what Google is doing is integrating it's e-mail, calendar, instant messages, web site creation (pagecreator) and Internet phone (google talk) into a bundle designed for specifically for small businesses. This will be a free service that Google offers to small businesses that sign up for the program. Each individual in the company will be able to have their own seperate account. Google is also expected to release a premium fee based service later on in the year for larger organizations. They had released a similar service just for it's e-mail service called "Gmail For Your Domain" back in February of this year. While Apps for your domain is impressive, the real story here will be when Google implements their Writely program and spreadsheet application in this "Google Apps".

Google Opens Up Writely To the Public!

2006-08-22T19:13:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, Google released it's newly acquired program Writely to everyone in the world. Writely is a word processing program that was gobbled up by Google in March of this year. Writely is no Mircosoft Word though, it is a completly web-based program that allows users to store, compose, and even share their documents with others on the net if they so choose. This seems to be another push towards storing even more info online for Google. You can now access your documents from any computer in the word and edit in real-time. This would even work well in a business sense, as employees can colaborate on the same document from different parts of the world. Try it out, like most things from Google it's free so you have nothing to lose. Let me know what you think of Google's Writely below in comments.

China.com And The Goog

2006-08-17T14:21:00.000-04:00

Google anounced today that it has formed a strategic partnership with China.com. Google will help China.com by providing it with search engine technology. Google and China.com will also be sharing their branding and advertising power. This seems to be just another part of the big push into China for Google, and other Internet companies like Yahoo and Mircosoft. Many experts believe that the Internet advertising market in China is largely untapped. This could be a big win for both Google and China.com. What is your take?

Google Ranks #1 in Customer Satisfaction

2006-08-16T22:21:00.000-04:00

Google again proved why it is the top Internet search provider. This time it was official from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). Google continued to reign supreme as Yahoo dropped 4 points. The University of Michigan helped to conduct this annual survey by the ACSI. Google scored a 81 out of 100 while Yahoo scored a 76. MSN and AOL both scored a 74. This is the fifth year in a row that Google has lead all e-businesses in customer satisfaction. How would you rate them on a scale of 100?

Google's Printable Coupons

2006-08-15T21:49:00.000-04:00

Google today announced that it will offer a free printable coupon service for small business owner's. What do you think? Will this bring more local smaller companies to the net? They even offered this to business's that do not have a website, which could really drive up interest in this product. This service will be intergrated into the Google local maps listings. The listings will now show an icon for the coupons beside it. A business can even design it's own coupon through Google. Google could provide a much needed boost to many local economies. They also made a partnership with valpak, which mails a monthly envelope full of coupons to just about every residence in the USA. Could be a huge upside for both companies.

My Google Space

2006-08-10T03:15:00.000-04:00

Google and MySpace together at last. What do you think is $900 million too much to pay for Myspace and the other News Corp sites. Personally, I think they well get a huge return on their investment with the booming popularity of MySpace. MySpace has now become the most popular site on the web, overtaking Yahoo just last month! Just imagine how many searches are made on MySpace in just one day. Not only that, but I am sure Google will make it easier to implement Google Adsense into the MySpace pages to generate revenue for the individual user. Yet another reason Google has such a bright future and is continuing to pull away from the rest of the pack. What do you think of this deal?

How to Use Google Analytics and Google Adwords

2006-08-08T04:06:00.000-04:00

Now that we have discussed Adsense, lets flip the coin and take a look at the advertiser's side through Adwords, Google Analytics and Google Checkout. First of all, let me give you an overview of Google adwords. The easiest way is simply to see it in action with your own eyes. First, open up a google search and type in whatever you like, for instance "computers". Google automatically brings up pages sorted by relevancy in the middle, and the sponsored links on the right side of the screen. We are concentrating on the sponsored links as this is directly related to adwords. Here's how it works, a company that would sell "computers", bids on these keywords in order to have them show up on the right side of the search window. They would also probably have bids on such words as "hardware", "software", "monitors" and any other relevant term that they might sell. So here is the beauty of it, not only can you bid on these keywords, but you can also choose exactly what you are willing to spend on advertising per day, and where you want these ads to show up in different parts of the of your country or even the world. For instance, if you were a small business out of Detroit, your ad could only show up in Michigan, or even just around the Detroit area. Then, every time a potential customer clicks on your sponsored ad, you can track it through Google Analytics down to what city your potential customer clicked on, how long they spent on the site, and what depth they looked into your site. There are so many options that I have not even come close to mastering this "art". Google Analytics is a free service offered by Google. Just do a search for Google Analytics. After you sign up just add your website address, and Google will write a piece of html that you simply paste into your page at the bottom before the "body". Once this code is in check the status and you should be up and running. The rest is all taken care of by Google. They collect the stats from users that enter your site and put them in a variety of customizable reports. Trust me you will love Google Analytics! Feel free to ask questions or leave a comment below.

Harnessing Google Adsense For Extra Cash Flow

2006-08-03T20:54:00.000-04:00

Adsense is still in it's infancy for me, but I can all ready see why it has become so wildly popular. Simply put, Google produces a piece of html (the guts that make your website work), that you paste directly into your webpage right where you would like the ads to appear. They give you several different formats to choose from, for instance vertical, horizontal or square. Google also gives you the option to choose text ads, image ads, local business ads, video ads, or any variation of the like. Then, once the adsense code is in your website, Google automatically scans the text on your site, and almost immediately you start seeing ads that are relevant to your site's content. So now for example, if your site is all about plants you will see ads for flowers, seeds, and the like. They even have an option to report if ads from your competitors are showing on your site. Not only is it a free sign-up for adsense, but they also offer two mediums in which you can use it in, as usual for free. One is blogger, and the other is Google Pages. All you need to do is create relevant content that attracts web traffic, and soon you will be throwing pennies in the jar at no cost to you except the time and inclination to create the quality sites. So, what are you waiting get started today? Or, whenever you feel like making some extra cash in your pocket. Leave me a comment below if you like....

The Evolution of Boring Old Traditional Advertising

2006-08-02T23:11:00.000-04:00

Isn't it just amazing that traditional advertising still receives the kind of market share that it does. I mean how can a company even track how effective their advertising really is on mediums like TV and radio? Just because I see an ad for a Dell computer on the TV over and over and over again doesn't mean that I need a computer, does it? I suppose their plan is to pump it into your head until you eventually link computers with Dell instinctively, a lot like "brain washing". Nowadays, people are obviously very annoyed with TV and radio advertising, otherwise things like TiVo's, DVRs, Siri and XM wouldn't be so popular. Amazing that people will actually pay money to avoid having ads shoved in their faces. This is why there is such a giant push towards Internet advertising. People want, and need targeted advertising to help cut costs. If they are searching for a new computer it's because they want or need a new computer, not because Dell told them to go out and get it this second. Plus, the company can easily track this advertising directly through Google Analytics to the purchase in some cases. Instead of the traditional way of advertising, which is throw money at it and hope something sticks. Just wait until the local advertising really catches on the local web. Then we will really see just how big the market is for Internet advertising. It will essentially give more leverage to the little guy as it levels the playing field. Maybe someday when you search for computers in Detroit it will come up Discount Computer and not a big world wide corporate like Dell. I don't think this is very far off. How about you? Leave your comments below.

Google Upgrades Picasa & Google Analytics

2006-08-01T23:49:00.000-04:00

Just today Google updated two of it's most successful products Picasa and Analytics. Google's Picasa has been upgraded to make it easier for people share photos online with the push of a button. The newest version of Picasa has created a web album feature that you can share out to as many people as you want. All that you have to do is hit the web album button on bottom on the screan and start sharing. I think this could be one of the best features yet, as it will allow family and friends to share pictures from across the globe even easier.

Google Analytics also got an upgrade of sorts as the number of website profiles that a user can have jumped from 10 to 50. Another great leap for Analytics, making it even easier for the webmaster to tracking their traffic. Best of all, both of these products are still free, I wonder how long that will last?

Google Power!

2006-08-01T22:23:00.000-04:00

This blog will be used to find different ways to use the power of Google. From Google Analytics, to Adwords to Google Adsense to Google Webstats to Google Pages Creator, to Google Gadgets, to Google Comment and whatever else is released to the public. Please comment on what aspects of Google YOU think we should discuss and we will publish articles regarding your questions.