Words and Links

We all know that Google is the best and most useful tool for finding information on the internet.  What you might not know is how much the company has to offer that is at least as useful as the search engine itself. 

1. Google Alerts.  Google can send you updates and pointers to information that you request, as it happens.  For example, if you are interested in keeping informed about your local representatives actions in Congress, just enter their name and when they are referenced on the internet Google will send you an Email telling you where to find the information.
2. Blogger.  Did you ever want to talk to the world about what you find fun and interesting?  A blog is the perfect platform, and Google will set you up with one for free.  They also have all the support and help a beginner could need to start blogging in a professional way.
3. Knol.  Share your knowledge by writing articles that can be shared with the world.  You keep your authorship rights, and quality writing will be propagated through the internet.
4. Calendar.  A great online calendar with typical Google quality features.  Import events easily from your Gmail account.  Share your events with friends and family.  Get important reminders via Email or text to your phone.  Never forget an important event again. 
5. Talk.  Chat with your friends using text, voice, or video conferencing.  Another free fun service from Google that will keep you connected to family or friends or even your business contacts.  You can also leave voicemails and transfer files with no size restrictions.
6. orkut.  An online social network where you can manage your existing relationships or form new ones.  Orkut allows you to search out and interact with new people based on common interests and your search of profiles. 
7. Google Blog Search.  A convenient and fast way to search the blogosphere for content that will interest you.
8. Google Groups.  A Google Group is a user owned group that allows you to manage your mailing list and provides a forum for communication and collaboration with your fellow group members.  You also have online storage and customizable pages to share.
9. Picasa and Picasa Web Albums.  Picasa is a photo organization, indexing, manipulation, and sharing tool that can be downloaded from Google.  Picasa Web Albums allow you to share your photos arranged in beautiful interactive web albums with your friends and family.  As usual this is a free Google service with generous amounts of online storage.
10. Google Pack.  An easy and convenient download of Google’s more popular and fun applications for your use.  Most of the above listed products along with Google’s web browser, Google Earth, Google Desktop, and more can be downloaded and installed with Google Pack.  You can also pick and choose which apps you want to install.

Have fun with this list, and explore Google’s site to find more useful tools and applications.

Are you ever just bored and wandering around the web looking for something new and interesting?  Maybe you have used up all of your usual sites or none have been updated lately.  Where can you go to find something else that is not spam or useless?  StumbleUpon, of course!

StumbleUpon is a social site that allows you to find new websites that other users with similar tastes to yours have discovered, categorized, and rated.

The way the process works is as follows…

• You or another user finds an interesting site.
• You find a category for the site and briefly describe or tag it.
• The site is now available to be stumbled by other users searching for sites within that category.
• As more and more users give the site a thumbs up or thumbs down it becomes more accurately rated.

The more you use the service, the more accurately your preferences and tastes will be reflected in what you are seeing.

All of this is done from a toolbar that can be installed in all of the most popular browsers.

You can also create or join a group of friends who have the same interests and share good sites with each other.  Your StumbleUpon home is the place to talk about yourself and connect with your friends.

Once you get started stumbling, you will be hooked and find it hard to stop.

Firefox logo

…Well, of course it is. So is the entire web. But because Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is forced upon almost everyone from day one, it has become the standard of the day. According to my logs almost 75% of you are using IE.  Unfortunate because Firefox is the superior browser.  Between the speed, configurability, stability, and security issues it is worth trying out, if only for your own curiosity.  The selection of plugins alone is worth upgrading to Firefox.

You can check out some of the add ons here to get an idea of the variety of useful and appealing applications that are available for Firefox.  Personally, I keep my browser very minimalistic with a CrystalFox Qute theme and Tiny Menu as you can see here.

My simple Firefox menus

This gives me a little more working area in the main window where I need it, and also keeps me a little more organized with whatever I’m working on at the time.

Cnet Reviews pretty well sums it up:

Firefox 2 still rules the browser roost for now, despite a much improved version of Internet Explorer. The most obvious new feature for IE 7 (tabs) has been in Firefox forever, and the security additions from Microsoft aren’t enough for us to allay concerns over new possible exploits. Lastly, the extensibility of Firefox 2 is its knockout punch, and IE’s add-ons cannot compare. The flexibility and customizability of Firefox might be best suited to more advanced Web users, but it has earned its spot at the top of the browsers.

And if everyone switched from IE then web developers could work four day weeks because the wouldn’t need all that time to make everything display correctly in IE

You can download Firefox here.  The download and installation process is very simple so give it a try.  I’ll bet that after you play with it for a while you won’t go back.