In the last 18-24 months Google has expanded from being the best search engine to being the best computer intergrated everything! When Google started out, the inventors of it were coders, which explains the simple, white, bland search page
(See Here) that we have grown to know and love. Eventually it grew into the leading search engine in the entire world wide web.
The order in which the following occurred is uncertain, because it all seemed to happen at once. And if it didn't, it certainly seemed like it because of the way they were released. There was no public announcement of these things, yet, there they were - and as soon as you had just sat down to work one of their additions out and get used to it, along came another, and another...and another...and maybe one or two more!
So I will approach these as I came across them, rather than chronologically ordered.
Google.com/IGFirst was a personalized google search page.
(See Here) which allowed users to add their own content modules to their favorite white spacious search engine. As time progressed, more and more modules became available, and Google did not limit this to their own creations. No - they released the know how so that other people could make their OWN modules, which people from all round the world could then add to their now highly customized search engine. No more white empty space! Not only that, but dynamic placement, layout and content allowed people to fully customize it on the actual site using a drag and drop method. The idea must have been a hit because Microsoft, in light of their new "Live" concepts and additions have been somewhat forced (being the dominant computer company) to come up with a rival to Google. This is what they came up with
(See Here). I'll leave you to work out the differences!
Google ToolbarNext came the ever popular
Google Toolbar. It added Google's search engine plus all the Google functions which few people knew about into a simple to install one time download package which placed itself onto your favourite browser and soon became everyone's trust companion. It allowed people to see what the page rank of a page was, seach the different sections of google, check spelling, automatically fill in annoying registration forms with your custom details and block annoying pop-ups from all sites unless otherwise specified. It had all your usual addons which people would download and apply to their browser, except it was all inclusive. And as Google relaesed more components to the public, such as GMail and things like building partners with
Blogger.com, Google updated the tool bar adding these new functions into its already wide range of uses. It was so important to people that when Mozilla Firefox became one of the more popular and common browsers that people were beginning to use instead of Microsoft's Internet Explorer (which everyone was getting bored/annoyed/frustrated/all of the above with... that people designed a "Google Toolbar" for it, using the same things as Google had for its Internet Explorer Version. But, Google came and saved the day and released an official version of Google Toolbar for the worlds best new internet browser. I will review
Mozilla and all its revolutionary insights next week!
Google EarthWith web searching and browser support now under their belts, Google introduced the world to its world...
Google Earth. A download which shows a fully interactive globe, with ability to zoom in, zoom out, move around the globe to find every location known to man. Whats more, is it allowed users to submit their own placenames. This meant that it soon grew to be an entire community of people letting other people know where things were. Built up areas such as London, Paris, Rome, Los Angeles, New York and every other major city have details satelite maps projected onto the screen. You can see the street in Rome you walked down to get from the train station to your hotel! This then later helped Google with Google Maps, although this hasn't really taken off anywhere but in the USA.
GMailNext,
Gmail. You say Gmail today with your mates, and there is still some who do not know what it is. This is because it has hardly been publicized - like so much of Google's new initiatives. Gmail is Google's free email. It works like every other Web Based Email account in that you access it from a web browser - but, like everything that is new and pushing the limits of computing, it has a twist. Does it has 3.0megs of space like
hotmail.com - the supposed leader with
yahoo at web based email? No... it has a bit more than that. How about over 2.5
Gigs when it started out, is now pushing 2.8 Gigs.... Gigabytes...ONE Gigabyte is 1,024Mb...
Some might say that is a bit excessive for an email inbox. But thats exactly the point. Your Gmail inbox is no longer just used for your emails. Instead, people can upload files to it, almost like an extra 2.5gigs of hard drive for your personal files, music collection or just simply archive storage. Add to this the fact that you basically don't have to delete another email for the rest of your life! An email generally doesn't exceed 6kb!!! (depending if it has images/attachments etc...)
So how do you get Gmail? Well - it used to be the case that in the Beta version of it, you had to be invited to a Gmail account by another person who was using it. There was no other way. This somewhat limited the publicity and public release of Gmail. However, I think now that it you can sign up for a new account without having to be invited. Any questions about this I'm sure you could
Google it!
So Hotmail and Yahoo were pretty much ousted. Their adequate, yet now inferior 3.0megs leaving people the annoying task of deleting emails wasn't going to cut it with the public. They boosted their inbox's, with Hotmails now being a whopping 25Mb. Thats still WAY short of Gmails 2,500Mb, but its better than the miesley 3Mb that they had before. But one thing Hotmail and Yahoo had over Google was their Messengers.
Not for long.
Google TalkOut came
Google Talk. Google's instant messenger. Now, using your Gmail account you could log into Google Talk and use their simplly white yet efficient Messenger to be in contact with your friends in real time. But, this didn't take off as much as Google had hoped. The reason? Well - only people with Gmail could use it. And who could access Gmail? Anyone who got invited... but thats not everyone! Google Talk does however add your whole Gmail contact list automatically, is intrisically linked with Gmail in every way shape and form and is now even part of Gmail's inbox where the instant messenger actually can be displayed next to your list of inbox folders and you can chat to them inside the web page inbox! Last time I did use Google Talk I only had one friend on it, and since he had MSN Messenger, I found little need to actually use Google Talk. New Technologies like that take time for people to have enough of their friends using it to make it worth while using. This is why the introduction of new compeditors is so hard to break through, because at the end of the day, people are going to use whatever works best for them at any one time. Because
Yahoo Messenger or
MSN Messenger works best for people because all their friends which they have gotten to know over the years are on them, they wont change over to Google Talk until they have more friends on Google Talk than their other messengers.
But this didn't discourage Google. No. They kept releasing new stuff. Its like that had been saving up Christmas presents from the last 20 years and had opened them all at once!
Google DesktopGoogle Desktop is probably the newest and most functional piece of technology which is taking the world by storm. It takes Google's search engine and indexes your entire hard drive. It sifts through all your files and their contents, emails, internet history and recent chat messages and makes record of them. Once installed, Google Desktop allows the individual user to type in a keyword and within seconds will display any file which is named or contains the keyword. This means that users can find files faster than using Microsoft's built in "Find" option, and they don't have to browse through their whole hard drive when Microsoft's built in "Find" option either takes too long or doesn't find what you're looking for!
Whats more, is with it installed on your harddrive, when you type in any search in Google's search page, it will also display the results from your computer, even if you intend on searching the web for it!
Whats more is it now comes in different forms. When it was first released it didn't have the search your computer when you search the web thing, but it also appeared as a little search bar on your taskbar next to your running applications system tray. It now has developed into the possibility of having it as a sidebar - much like the one which will be released by Microsoft when Vista hits our shores. It allows the user to add modules, such as battery monitor, clock, email checker (particularly for Gmail) and to-do lists - much like the sorts of modules you can add to your Google homepage. It sits on the side of your desktop and is fully customizable in shape, position and size and although the colour cannot be changed and is the traditional "Google White", it is unobtrusive and functional, unlike a lot of things from Microsoft.
Google VideoGoogle Video was the next to land on our shores, providing quick, streaming video to our computers. Users from all over the world could add their videos to Google's server and Google would process it into a completly new video format which made it quick and easy to view while on the net. There's simply nothing like it.
It may seem that from this rather long post, that I am not a huge fan of Microsoft. While this is true, there is some credit I have to give them. While their products are not super, they do work to some extent and they have managed to create a world where they have complete monopoly. Because everyone else has Microsoft and places like schools, universities and the like also run Microsoft, it means that even a rival company such as Apple/Mac has little hold on the general populous, with things like file types and intergration between Microsoft and anything else is almost impossible. Microsoft have it made. All I am saying is that Microsoft do fall short in a lot of cases. While they make good systems such as Hotmail and MSN Messenger, they fail to make these
the best - unless a rival makes a better alternative for the public, such as Google's personal homepage, or voice capabilities that Google Talk introduced for free, which MSN Messenger and Yahoo both introduced shortly after. There are many sites which show the many downfalls of Microsoft products. Just Google it!
From its humble beginnings Google has grown into one of the best and most important tools of this information age. It has many, many tools which are all so simple and yet all so functional and useful that you just want to use all of them (a full list to date can be found
here). And why do you want to use all of them? Because all the other Google additions you have tried have not only worked, but have worked so well that you use them everyday. It also seems like Google have released source codes and the like, so other people can contribute to the already growing world of Google. Its a shame that they haven't made an opperating system - yet! (And I wouldn't put it past them - even through they'd have a built in background of "Google White"!) With these, there is a page called
Google Labs, which is a page with all the ideas Google has, but aren't ready for public release just yet! While some will be contempt with using Hotmail and Live.com as their email and search engines for a little longer, Google; with its completely free, completely helpful, easy to use, functional to use, completely useful, easy to understand and completly compatable, will soon become man's best friend.
Sorry Fido.
'Till next time...
Labels: web
