All the things you can do with Google

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This month, Google, the Internet Goliath completed its 13 years of existence. Widely recognised as a search engine there is more to Google, writes Get Ahead reader Indresh Kumar in response to our reader invite (below).

Indresh, 26, a tech enthusiast, works in the automobile sector in Bhubaneswar as a sales and marketing consultant.

Google says its mission is to organise the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. This might make you think they are talking about Internet search. But in fact, apart from the ubiquitous search engine, Google does quite a few things to make information and services available to you. Let's take a look.

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All the things you can do with Google

Image: Google Chrome

1. Google Chrome

Since most of your time on a computer is spent within your browser window, Google decided to make a browser of their own. There were many browsers around in 2008 when chrome was launched, but the security, speed, simplicity and added features made chrome stand out.

Today it is used by one in every five Internet user. Chrome is now used as an operating system in Chromebooks making use of Internet-enabled applications for all tasks. Thus, chrome as a project brings Google into the sphere of both browsers and operating systems.

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Are you a gadget/gaming wizard/afficianado? Would you like to write on gadgets, gaming, the Internet, software technologies, OSs and the works for us? Send us a sample of your writing to gadgetsandgaming@rediffmail.com with the subject as 'I'm a tech wizard/afficianado' and we will get in touch with you.

All the things you can do with Google

Image: Google Maps

2. Google Maps

You might never think of it this way, but Google is the one of the world's largest map company. Their online map, simply called 'Google Maps' is a dynamic map interface for both computers and mobiles. The map enables you not only in finding your way but also to see where you are at the moment, navigate with voice assistance to your destination, catch the points of interests around you and to find any shop or service that you need to visit.

Their 'Google Latitude' app will let you share location on the map while their 'My Maps' app will let you save your own trips for future use all within Google Maps. You can even see your location history to see where you were at any time in the past.

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All the things you can do with Google

Image: Android

3. Android

We took phone from bulky fixed lines to mobile, now Internet is moving from bulky computers to phones and tablets. In this fast changing industry of handheld devices, Google Android is the most widely used operating system around the world with a whopping 50% market share.

Taking into account that it has been just 3 years since the first android phone came out, it can be considered one of the most successful products from Google.

It has been in news recently for a flurry of patents related lawsuits, which may have been the reason why Google acquired one of the biggest android phone manufacturers, Motorola Mobility for US $12 billion thus making Google a phone manufacturer in its own rights.

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All the things you can do with Google

Image: Google Apps Suite

4. Google Apps Suite

You have used Gmail for emailing and are well aware of it, while you might not be aware that it hosts office communications for many organisations, though 'Google Apps' which includes services similar to those of Microsoft Office with email, and document editing.

Many of the companies around the world use it as their sole business communication provider and you will be surprised to know that many email addresses like info@xyzcompany.com are actually hosted by Gmail as a part of Google Apps.
Google Docs and Google Calendar are parts of it and are available for personal use to you with the same Gmail user name.

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All the things you can do with Google

Image: Youtube and Picasa

5. Youtube and Picasa

We all love to share videos and pictures with each other; Google owns the most widely used video hosting service which is a phenomenon in itself -- the Youtube.

Apart from video sharing, Google provides tool for photo sharing with 'Picasa' which is also a photo editing application on your computer or android phone.

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All the things you can do with Google

Image: Google Plus

6. Google Plus

The recently launched social networking site by Google is simply called Google+ as it is seen as an extension to Google as a whole. It brings some new ideas in social networking like Circles (to control what you share with whom), Sparks (to find interesting content to share) and Huddle (for group messaging from phones).

The +1 button is now visible on many sites and in the search results by Google which helps in ranking these pages and in sharing with friends.

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All the things you can do with Google

Image: Google Books

7. Google Books

Websites don't contain all information that is there in the world; some are stored the old way, held up in pages of the millions of books.

Google has simply scanned all books that it could and has made the text searchable, which is to help you find which book and which page has the information you are looking for. You can even read some of the books online, while for others you can buy it from the sources listed in Google Books.

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All the things you can do with Google

Image: Blogger and Buzz

8. Blogger and Buzz

One of the most used blogging service 'Blogger' is also owned by Google. The blogs are created with address blogspot.com and hosts millions of blogs which help you in publishing your ideas and creations instantly to a global audience.

Also, with advent of micro-blogging sites like Twitter, Google created Buzz which didn't take off like other popular Google products.

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All the things you can do with Google

Image: Google Translate

9. Google Translate

How can information be available to you if it you don't understand the language in which the information is available?

Google helps you reach to sites in foreign languages through its translation service and has taken forward this to phones where spoken words are also translated to language of your choice.

It can be handy for tourists and for researchers who come across websites or books in a foreign language.

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All the things you can do with Google

Image: Orkut

10. Orkut

A popular social networking site in Brazil and India, Orkut gave the first taste of social networking to many of us and made attracted us to Internet as a whole. Many Indians will recall how they started their online lives with Orkut and learnt how to use social networking for personal use and professional networking.

Orkut is also owned by Google, though it is now redundant to an extent as Facebook, Linkedin and Google's own Plus are now leading the social web.

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All the things you can do with Google

Image: The rest of them

11. The rest of them

Google Reader aggregates deeds from sites you like to keep updated with and presents all updates to you at one place. Google Checkout is an online payment service to make payments without entering your credit card information for every other site.

Google Alerts will send you emails for any of your interests to keep you updated with latest on the topic. Google Talk is the instant messaging service we found on Gmail, Plus and Orkut.

Google Voice is an internet telephony service which can be used to make cheap calls across the world and also provides a phone number on which people can call you (not in India), the call transcripts are saved in Gmail and can be searched. Google Ad-sense and Ad-word are the advertisement service which earns most of the revenue for Google Inc.

Conclusion

In their quest to make all information available, Google will wake you up in the morning and present the day's agenda with its calendar on your android phone, it will get you where you want to go with the Google Map, it will help you work in office with Google Apps, it will serve you entertainment on Youtube, it will help you socialize with Plus, it will help you communicate with Gmail, it will be your phone with Android and Google Voice, it will be your computer with Chrome and we have not even counted what Google is known for at the first place- search the internet.

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