Google....

I have mentioned “Google” in some blogs because it is simple the best search engine on this planet. I have tried the others, but Google is by far the best. What I like best is it’s simple to use, the screen is not cluttered with a bunch of advertising and once you start the search, it stays nice and clean and you rarely get nothing in the search results.

I recommend getting a “gmail.com” account with Google because then you can set up your “iGOOGLE” home page (http://www.google.com/ig). You can set up your “iGOOGLE” page with as many “widgets” as you choose. Click on the “Add Stuff” tab at the lower right of the top panel of your theme, which you can also change as you please. Once set up click on “My Account” and they give (for free) the Google Product line of applications.

I especially like the “Google Desktop” for searching for documents on my hard drive or anywhere else the keyword you entered is found. Simply hit the “Ctrl” Key twice or if you have installed the “Google Tool Bar”, click on the “Google” Tab on the Task Bar and a small search window pops up. Type a keyword and it searches your hard drive and the web for the keyword you entered. Then you get a Google style listing where on your hard drive or the web the files that contain the keyword are located. “Sweet”! This has saved my day on many occasions.

If you have Google “gmail” and “iGOOGLE” a must have is the “Google Tool Bar”. I need to warn you about one of the icons on this Tool Bar. There is a Google “Pop-up Blocker” Icon that works separate from the normal security “Pop-up” Blocker. If there are sites that suddenly stop working when you install the Google Tool Bar, this is where to look. This happen to me and because I wasn’t aware of the icon and I spent a few hours attempting to figure out what was going on. Then I did a “Google” search and found the answer and that was when the “Popup” window appeared at one of the sites I was on, I simple clicked the Icon on the Tool bar and this allow the page to continue as normal. I must say at this point, if I would have watched the tutorial on the “Google Task Bar” after I installed it, I probably would not have wasted the time it took to figure out what was going on.

For just “messing” around I also use Google “Earth” and Google “SketchUp” These two applications work together if you so desire, but that is something I am still learning how to do.

Try this on Google “map”, enter “google ca” and zoom in on the “A” highlighted tab. This is the Mountain View Google Head Quarters. Click the “satellite” tab when you get zoomed in as far as you can go. Then do the same thing with Google “Earth”. When you get zoomed in you can change the way you view the site you are looking at. This is “way cool”. You can do this on any site on earth. I am not going in to any of the details (of course) you just have to try it. There are so may features on Google Earth I can’t even start to describe what you can do. The same with Google “SketchUp” . On both applications there are so many options that learning the application is best done by watching the tutorial, especially for Google “SketchUp”.