A Rough Guide to Free Google Services

From its humble beginnings as “just” the worlds most popular a search engine, the Google empire has seen a considerable growth of its remit over recent years. Indeed, you would be hard pressed to think of something Google has not covered in its bid for world domination of our net connections (and, potentially, our desktops).

In this feature article I will over a condensed list of some of the many services now offered by Google, some of which may be unknown to you. This is by no means an extensive list but there are a number of gems here (22 to be precise) – some of which offer practical and viable alternatives to commercial software packages such as Excel.

Even if you consider yourself to be a Google aficionado you may well find something in this list you perhaps did not know about.

Google Alerts

Http://www.google.com/alerts

Tell Google what you are interested in and, whenever a relevant entry appears on its search engine, Google will helpfully let you know.

Google Analytics

http://google.com/analytics

A professional, feature rich stats service for webmasters and site owners for free. Provides a wealth of information which includes not only the obvious stats but marketing trends, advertising performance, etc. I use this for Thoughts from the Sidelines and I have to say, I’m impressed.

Google Answers

http://answers.google.com

A pay per use question and answer section – so not free, but worth a mention – where researchers will find the answer to your question and offer a comprehensive reply for a “bounty”.

Google Blogger

http://www.blogger.com

Still uner the EBlogger banner, but now in Google’s hands, this is the internet’s most popular, free blogging service is now under Google’s ever expanding sphere of influence. Create your own blog online for free and without the need to set up your own hosting service.

Google Bookmarks

http://google.com/bookmarks

Store your favourite bookmarks remotely with this handy service (one of many, I hasten to add). Surprisingly, considering Google’s influence, this is still no where near as popular as competing services.

(Please note that the link may not work if you do not have a Google account)

Google Calendar

http://google.com/calender

A integral part of Google’s Gmail service, Google Calendar works exactly as one would expect. Never miss an appointment, or your family’s birthdays again.

(Please note that the link may not work if you do not have a Google account)

Google Desktop

http://desktop.google.com

Features numerous applications, such as running Google searches to search your own PC. Also boasts an ever growing list of gadgets which can be dragged and dropped into a sidebar.

Google Earth

http://earth.google.com

If you haven’t heard of this, where have you been? View the world and zoom down to street level with terrain mapped detail.

Google Gmail

http://www.gmail.com

Google’s free email service offering an inbox space that is constantly growing (and is presently sitting around 2.8GB). Integrates seamlessly with Google calendar.

(Please note that the link may not work if you do not have a Google account)

Google Groups

http://groups.google.com

Formerly known as Deja News, Google Groups is a community bases discussion forum. Create a group from a fresh or join other groups to meet like-minded individuals.

Google Ig

http://google.com/ig

Created your own, personalised homepage with a wealth of plug-ins – from games to clocks, webcam feeds to sticky notes – and news feeds.

(Please note that the link may not work if you do not have a Google account)

Google Images

http://images.google.com

Searching for pictures? Based on Google’s standard search engine this variant searches specifically for imagery.

Google Maps

http://maps.google.com

A visual mapping service covering the whole earth down to street level with satellite imagery or a hybrid of map of photographic mapping overlaid with street maps and tagged places of interest. Indispensable. Google Mars and Moon are also available.

Google News

http://news.google.com

Create your own channels featuring the news you want to see. Don’t search for news of interest, have your individually tailored news sent to you.

Google Picasa

http://picasa.google.com

Image searching, tagging and cataloguing for your own files with a handy share function.

Google Scholar

http://scholar.google.com

A specialised version of Google’s standard search engine focusing in particular on academic papers, texts and studies. A marvellous tool for researchers and students.

Google SketchUp

http://sketchup.google.com

Available as a full commercial product or a feature restricted free variant. Create 3D models online with the possibility of exporting your completed models into Goggle Earth.

Google Spreadsheets

http://spreadsheets.google.com

A free, online spreadsheet tool that, whilst no where near as versatile as Excel, is feature rich and without doubt certainly a viable free alternative to MS’s offering for basic to mid-ranger users.

(Please note that the link may not work if you do not have a Google account)

Google Store

http://googlestore.com

From fridge magnets to pens, lights to mouse mats – the ultimate store for Google branded merchandise.

Google Toolbar

http://toolbar.google.com

A feature rich toolbar for Firefox and Explorer featuring page ranks, pop-up blocking, suggest functions and even a spell checker.

Google Video

http://video.google.com

Like Google’s standard search engine but focusing on video content. Not quite Your Tube, but still a fantastic and versatile service.

Google Writely

http://writely.com

A free, online word processor capable of handling documents up to 500kb in size.

In conclusion, I hope that, in some way, this list has offered you some insight into the numerous services on offer from Google. Of course, as indicated earlier, whilst this is a reasonably comprehensive list it is by no means complete as I have omitted services such as Google Hello, Froogle, Dodgeball, Mobile, Mini, MeasureMap, AdSenSe, API and the list goes on.

I have, however, tried to list services that may be of interest to the majority of users. For example AdSense is the advertising division of Google so, unless you have a site or you have products that you wish to advertise, I have assumed that it will be of little interest to you. Thus, services such as these have been omitted from this list lest it stretch on forever….

If this article interested you, you may also find this page of interest – concerning a curious fact regarding Google Search Engine Ranking.

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