SMALL INVESTMENT

• Create word processing documents on the Web

• Learn to format documents using the Google Docs document editor

• Discover how to save Web-based documents to your hard drive in many different formats

• Build your first Google Docs spreadsheet

• Build entire applications with the power of Google Docs spreadsheet formulas

• Manage your Google Docs files online

Google does not have a product or application called Office. That’s why I’ve placed it in quotes. What it does have is Google Docs, previously known as Writely and Google Spreadsheets, two online office automation products. There is no doubt that these two products fall outside of the general goal of controlling the world’s information, but they are related. After all, they are the two most common types of information-handling tools in the world. So, it still makes sense for Google to have these products.

Unlike other office-automation products common in the marketplace, these two products are Web-based and, of course, are free. One of the distinct advantages these products offer is the ease with which others can collaborate on the creation and editing of documents.

• Posting to Google Base

• Learn the Google Base guidelines

• Manage your posts

• Searching Google Base

• Understand the Google Base results

Want the world to know about your chicken soup recipe? Do you have information you want posted and have no idea where to put it? Google Base is the place. Google has created a place where you can post just about any kind of information. Point your Web browser to http://base.google.com (see Figure 17.1). Google didn’t just create a bulletin board like everyone else’s. When you post things on the Google Base, you add attributes used to describe your post. This makes it easier for others searching in one of several Google search services to find your post.

Of course, like many other Google services, Google Base is free. Search Google Base or post your own items of interest.

• Introducing Google Finance

• Use Google Financial News to stay on top of the market

• Review detailed company information using Google Finance and related services

• Participate in discussions and blogs about companies and stocks

• Manage your financial portfolio with Google’s Portfolio Manager

Google Finance combines information it retrieves from the Web with data that it licenses from financial data sources. The Google Finance home page provides timely financial data in an easy-to-read format. Point your browser to http:// finance.google.com to get started toward your next couple million bucks.

Learn detailed information about company stocks and mutual funds, but Google Finance does not cover bond information or option quotes.

• Learn how Google Scholar ranks search results

• Focus your scholarly search with the Advanced Search

• Understand the Google Scholar search results

• Publishers, have Google Scholar index your publications

• Learn some tips on Internet citation

• Add a Google Scholar Search box on your Web site

“Stand on the shoulders of giants.” This appears in bold green letters in the middle of the Google Scholar page at http://scholar.google.com. All research is in some way based on the work of others. The Internet, and now specifically Google Scholar, has made accessing the publication of these scientific endeavors simple. Simply searching the Web isn’t always the most efficient way to do scholarly research. So, Google built a special system that provides access to content not available on the Web but instead resides in scholarly publications that have allowed their content to be indexed by Google. Google Scholar is a free service that has been shown to provide citation ability equal to other expensive services.

• Find your way through the news

• Read the news in your own language

• Search through Google News

• Personalize the Google News page

• Set up a Google News Feed

• Stay up to date with Google Alerts

• Manage Google Alerts

Google is a news service of a different sort. Technically, Google is a news aggregator. Rather than having its own reporters and gathering its own news, Google searches through the news of 4,500 other news sources and presents the best of the news to you in a form that feels like other news pages.

• Search and view locations in Google Earth

• Mark the places you’ve seen with placemarks

• Use Google Earth navigation tools to take guided tours of the earth

• Add polygons and paths to your satellite images

• Select the right version of Google Earth for your personal or business needs

It is not often in life that access to a completely new kind of information enters our lives, and changes them forever. This is what Google Earth has done for many people around the world. Google Earth provides simple, powerful, and rapid access to the entire Earth via satellite imagery, some of it captured in such high resolution that you can clearly see the shadows of the people on the ground and even make out the make and model of cars parked in front of houses.

The Google Earth images are being used for quite a number of different applications. Now, when you get driving directions you can see more than artistically drawn map, you can actually see landmarks, large trees, you can even see what buildings look like from above. Amazing fly-throughs have been created for large events, like air shows, to show people what the events look like, and where certain displays are located. Annotated Google Earth maps provide location information for businesses, national parks, clubs and World Heritage Sites.

• Learn to use the Google Map Interfaces

• Search for local business

• Let Google Map give you driving directions

• Get more visibility by adding your business

• Learn how you can go farther with Google Maps

Google Maps (maps.google.com) uses Google’s powerful search technology to power many map-based services. Dynamic, interactive maps allow you to scroll to new map areas without waiting for the entire map to refresh. Google Maps simplifies getting directions, finding businesses, and obtaining satellite views of the Earth using either your mouse or keyboard. The map information can even be accessed with many mobile devices. Google Maps utilizes a combination of JavaScript and XML commonly referred to as Ajax, for faster screen loading and user customization.

Much of the data Google Maps uses to calculate these routes comes from a geographic information system provider called Navteq. Its digital map database is used by businesses for a variety of things including fleet management and GPS navigation. Navteq was recently selected as the primary map data provider for the U.S. government.

Because Google Maps uses this satellite data to plot your route, these directions are far more useful than those you might plot using a traditional paper map. One-way streets or Do Not Enter signs are already accounted for, and this information can be updated much faster digitally and more frequently than traditional paper maps. Similarly, information about new roads, road closures, and new construction is already included in your Google Maps directions.

• Desktop features

• Installing the Desktop

• Managing Panels

• Preference for Google Desktop

• Plug-ins

• Google Desktop Enterprise

• Create and Share

• Google Update

Google offers software that you can download to your computer and use to perform searches through your files and folders on your personal computer. Google Desktop is a free software program that not only gives you the power of Google on your own hard drive but also allows you to have fun with its plug-ins and gadgets.