Wednesday, May 19, 2010

The Web According to Google #88: Wave, Buzz, and Mobile

1. I can see that Google Wave could be very useful for projects undertaken by a group, especially in a work setting - a committee, perhaps? It could also be helpful on a personal basis for planning a party, family trip or reunion. I really don’t currently use an online collaboration tool, but this exercise could lead me in that direction!
2. If I had a web enabled phone, I could easily see using Google search, Google Calendar, Google Maps, Gmail - well, the list goes on and on! Can’t see spending the extra $$$$ at this time, though. Plus we do spend a huge amount of time during our work day on the internet already!
3. The answers are above! (#1 and #2).

The Web According to Google #87: Google Reader

The Web According to Google #87: Google Reader
1. I don’t currently use a feed reader – I did sign up for bloglines when we did another exercise earlier. I can see the value of Google Reader – handy for emailing. I don’t believe I would get into the sharing and “liking”. I did go ahead and subscribed – somehow I saw I was already subscribed to things like BBC and New York Times – not sure how that happened so I unsubscribed to those. If I were interested in regularly using a feeder, I probably would use this one.
2. Ok, as stated above, I did subscribe to a couple of feeds – The Houston Chronicle and HCPL (I took the hint) – however, I had trouble importing the feed from HCPL.

The Web According to Google #86: Calendar and Documents

1. I created a calendar in Google Calendar – very easy and cool! I can see how this would be very helpful – forget the printed desk calendar where you write everything down! This one is available anywhere there is internet access! Of course, you could print one out, if need be. Yes, it would be very helpful in my case to share my calendar with family. It could be useful for work as well, but our online calendar does the same job.
2. Speaking of online calendars, I uploaded our reference schedule – again, very cool and useful! I could also see myself using Google Docs in addition or instead of a desktop application. It would be handy to be able to create or modify documents without being tied down to the computer they were created on (or on which they were created!), or to use Google Docs on a computer that does not have a word processing program loaded on it.

The Web According to Google #85: Resistance is Futile

1. Google products I have used: books, images, maps, web search, blogger,google mail, and YouTube. Actually, most of these I have used for work purposes. I really can’t say what makes them better than a competing product, since I spend little time comparing – if it works for what I need, I don’t search for alternatives!
2. I checked out Google Labs and found the following products of interest to me: Google Reader Play, City Tours, and Google Desktop.
3. I have used Google Books before when researching ILLs for customers so did not expect to find free downloadable books/magazines still governed by copyright. I did look up the bestseller, The Shadow of Your Smile by Mary Higgins Clark, and saw that Google Books does offer a preview of this and other titles, which could be useful for someone wanting to read a page or two before committing to buying/borrowing. “Gems” would include classics, and older titles which might be difficult to find . I already use this instead of ILL – sometimes customers are happy and willing to read or download an online version.