I love Google… just a little bit

GoogleLoveHi, I’m Sharyn and I’m a Google Groupie.  In fact, I love Google, just a little bit and here’s why….

Google is pretty much everywhere these days, and most of us are probably regular users of their search, email and/or maps services at the very least.  Other services include an office suite, cloud storage, analytics, social networking and advertising.  All of these services are great to use in the most basic way, however most also have tricks, easter eggs, or functions that you might not be so aware of, but that can make your life much easier.  

Here’s a list of my favourites from some of their services:


Search

Cool search tricks
There’s a heap of cool search tricks, but these are some of my favourites.  All you need to do is type the query in the search bar:

  • “Time in city/state/country”Map
  • “Convert US$45 to $A”
  • “How do I get to Brisbane CBD from Sandgate” will bring up the map on the right, and if you click on the map it takes you to the Google Maps page with full driving instructions.
  • “4.5kg in pounds” (in fact, even with a typo of “4.5kg in pounts” Google knew what I meant and gave the right answer. *swoon*)
  • “37cm in inches”
  • Maths queries, i.e.: 368/15 or 1+1
  • When holidays are, for example: “what is the day for xmas” brings up the result of Wednesday 25 December is Christmas Day 2013, or “when is Easter 2015” tells you that Sunday, April 5 is Easter Sunday 2015.

Voice search
At the end of the search box, there’s an image of a microphone.  If you click it, you can perform your search by speaking into your microphone rather than having to type it.  Super duper useful if you haven’t got any idea how to spell a word, but also great because it allows you to keep using your hands for important things like patting the cat and making coffee.

Search

 


Maps

My Places
Using the My places button, you can set up your Home & Work and any other places you go regularly – then you can easily get to them via Google Maps on your phone when you’re out and about

Driving Time
When you get Driving Directions to a place, it also offers the time it will take to get there in current traffic, which I find to be surprisingly accurate.  If you’re interested in finding out how it’s done, there’s an article from Mashable here:  But short story…it’s basically from GPS data sent by mobile phones.

Traffic Information
Using the same sources that give the driving time, plus historical data Google offers traffic information which shows how heavy the traffic is and where there are problems.

Map displaying driving instructions only
Map displaying driving instructions only

Map displaying traffic information
Map displaying traffic information

Analytics

I’m 100% not in any way familiar with Google Analytics, I know I don’t get the most out of it, and I’d strongly advise that if you want to learn about Google Analytics, you find someone who does understand them.  However, there’s a couple of really cool things, that are easy to see and can give you some good insights into your website. 

  • Firstly, in the “Standard Reports” on the left under Audience there is a report on Visitor Flow.  This report shows you what happens when people come to your website. Do they look at one page and go somewhere  else.  Do they go to your “contact us” page, but never contact you?  Do they hang around and read a bit?  These things can give you an idea of what is and isn’t working.Analytics
  • Secondly, in the “Traffic Sources” section there’s Sources.  If you select All Traffic, you can see where people are coming to your page from, and if you go down to Search – you can click on Overview and you can see Source (which search provider), the Keywords used to find you and other things based on campaigns and browser types.  I’m honestly really not sure what you’d use this for, but I still think it’s kind of cool.

Google+

GooglePlusGoogle+ may not be as popular as Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter, but it’s by no means the lonely wasteland that it’s often accused of being.  One of the issues I find is that there’s a lack of integration with other apps that allow cross posting.  So for example I can schedule posts to my Facebook page, my Facebook Business Page, LinkedIn and Twitter all via Hootsuite , Buffer and some other apps  – Google+ has not been quick to join in.  You can now schedule to Google+ via Hootsuite and Buffer, but it’s limited and fairly new.  What that means is that while you can post to and monitor most of your social accounts from one place – you can only use Google+ by logging into Google+.

Some of the best bits of Google+ are the Communities where most of the time spam is not tolerated and the hangouts where you can have a group of people chatting, sharing and communicating as if they were in the same room. 

To get a list of  hangouts open to everyone that are currently running, just search #hangoutsonair

Lastly, your Google plus URL is probably quite long, unwieldy and difficult to share.  However, if you go to http://gplus.to/ you can set up your own Google+ nickname.  If you want to see it in action, feel free to connect with me at http://gplus.to/sharynmunrova (my business page) or http://gplus.to/sharynmunro (my personal page)


 

GoogleDrive

Google Drive


This is the Google office suite and cloud storage app.  It includes word processing and spreadsheeting functions, which are solid apps. Neither are quite as functional as Microsoft Office, but in general most people don’t need all the functionality of Word or Excel anyway.  Apart from those two functions however, there are some great additional apps that allow you to create forms, create presentations and draw images.


Others

Goo.gl
Goo.gl is a URL shortener, similar to Bit.ly which shortens your URLs for sharing. It also offers comprehensive statistics on clicks etc. You can check it out here.

Google Alerts
Google Alerts allow you to set up alerts for words or phrases occurring on the web and will send you an email “As-it-happens”, “Once a day” or “Once a week” whichever you decide.  You can set up new alerts, and edit existing ones here

Google Translate
Most of the time, text is automatically translated on the web . However if you do have something that needs translation, or the automatic translation doesn’t work, Google Translate is the place to go.  You can save a word or phrase, get an audio pronunciation and get an example of the words usage in a sentence. 

Translate


So these are just a few of the really cool things you can do with Google.  Of course the catch is that to get the best results and most useful experience, you need to be logged into your Google account – and once  you do that, you’re sharing your information with Google. So that’s a decision you have to make for yourself – is the extra convenience worth the potential loss of privacy.  For me the answer is a resounding yes, but it’s a decision you need to make for yourself.

What about you? Do you have any favourite tricks or tips? If so, please let us know in the comments.