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Webwatch 2007-06: A Big Old Google World

Webwatch is a column published in the Covenant Companion Magazine every month. It is written by Heidi Griepp, manager of Covenant Internet Services and an avid web wanderer. "This month, Webwatch looks at tools from the popular search engine, Google."

Today, in an effort to cheer on a friend working on her master’s thesis, I Googled “cheerleading” and came up with a bunch of cheers to adapt to thesis writing. Then I emailed them to my friend using gmail. Yesterday I looked at the location of a Covenant church using the Google map feature of the Covenant website (www.covchurch.org/lc). Then I helped my cousin add an RSS feed button to her blog hosted by Blogger.com (owned by Google). Using Google Reader, I skimmed a list of forty blogs I watch to see which had new or interesting posts. Finally, I looked at Google Calendar and realized that Mother’s Day was coming up.

Most people know Google, which was started by graduate students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, as one of the most popular ways to search the Web. But they may not know that Google offers a wide range of other free tools—forty- seven in all as of this month (www.google.com/press/descriptions.html). Of those forty-seven, I’d like to highlight seven you should know about. (Go to google.com/accounts to find out more.)

iGoogle
The great thing about an iGoogle home page (www.google.com—click on the link that says iGoogle) is that you can consolidate your favorite content on one page, using a drop and drag feature. Add the www.covchurch.org RSS feed, bookmarks to your local church, your gmail account, a calendar, news, weather info, movie showtimes, and more. Having iGoogle as my home page saves me time because I don’t have to go from page to page looking for what I want. (Yahoo.com has a similar personalized home page.) 

Gmail
All of these Google features are web-based, and can be accessed from anywhere in the world that has Internet service. Gmail (gmail.com) includes over two gigabytes of storage, a fast search, and a chat program (similar to instant messaging). It also has mobile access so you can get your Gmail on your cell phone. Gmail also organizes conversations.

Gmail is linked to three other features. Google alerts sends out an email anytime a topic of interest is posted on the Web. I have an alert set up that sends a note to my email every time the phrase “the Evangelical Covenant Church” shows up online. Google groups makes it easy to send out group emails. And the web history feature allows you to review previous searches. (This is a nice feature for when you search for a particular restaurant and then forget the name of it the next day. All you have to do is go back and view your search.)

Google Docs & Spreadsheets
This tool (docs.google.com) allows you to edit a document  or spreadsheet online, without emailing files back and forth. It’s a great tool for both group projects and travelers without laptops. (You should also back up your documents on a portable USB drive, known as a key chain drive). 

Using Google Docs and Spreadsheets you  can upload documents (Word and Excel formats welcome), use an online editor and spell checker, and download them to your desktop or a portable drive. You can also allow other people to edit the same document online.

Google Reader
Google Reader (reader.google.com) is about the best tool I have found for keeping up with things online. Using this tool, I can skim a large number of websites or blogs quickly. Every morning I look at my list and see who has updated their content  and then choose whatever seems most interesting—it helps me organize and stay current with more content than I could do on my own.
This tool also allows me to highlight certain posts or websites and save them for later, or email something I’ve found online to a friend. This tool might also be of help for pastors in need of  sermon illustrations—giving access to a wide range of possible sources.

Google Maps
The Covenant website has added a Google map feature (maps.google.com), showing the location of every church in the U.S. and Canada.

This tool features point-to-point driving directions as well as interactivity—zooming in and out on the location. Google also provides satellite aerial imagery and the ability to search for a type of business instead of an address.

Google Calendar
When I first saw Google Calendar (calendar.google.com) I thought it was just like any other online calendar. Honestly, what’s special about a calendar?

The more I learned about this tool, the more useful I realized it is. Using Google Calendar, you can interact with your Gmail list and share calendars. You can keep a calender for yourself, your friends, and your family, each in a different color. You can also set appointments using Gmail, and then hit a link to add that appointment to your calendar. Similar to Gmail, Google Calendar can be accessed via cell phone. It can also be downloaded into a desktop calendar.

Blogger
Blogger.com, a free blog hosting site, was started by several friends in San Francisco, and had a million users by the time it was bought up by Google. Blogger is linked to your Google account, making logging in simple. There are several free, and good, blog providers out there—and while several others currently have better tools, I suspect Google will eventually upgrade Blogger to surpass those other blog providers.
I also like using Blogger because of its click and drag tools—if you want to change the order of something on your page, simply use your mouse to drag an item to the new spot. Blogger is also adaptable for those who want to add things like code to display comments on your sidebar.

I expect some exciting things from Blogger in the future. Until then, it remains one of the  easiest blog systems to get up and running.

All Webwatch reviews are for informational and resource purposes only. The Evangelical Covenant Church does not endorse any website, organization, or content. From time to time some of these links will go dead or they will be sold. When we learn about this we will take the link off. If you see a dead link please let us know. All images and content Copyright The Covenant Companion.