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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!
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.
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.
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....
"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 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.
