It's more than just a search engine

Google is one of the greatest resources on the Internet today, not just as a search engine, but as a provider of free services—services which are imaginative, varied, and eminently useful. The purpose of this report is to tell you about some Google features you may not yet have discovered, and to open a door for a whole new panorama of computing on the Internet.

Most of us know that Google is the premier search engine on the Web but it is much more than that and offers, free of charge, both software and services that can greatly enhance your computing experience.

In order to take advantage of what's offered you'll need to establish a Google account. Don't be put off by the name—it doesn't imply that you will be required to pay a fee. Many Internet "accounts" work on the same basis – for instance, those associated with some news media sources – and you can safely sign up.

In the list immediately below this paragraph I'll outline what each of Google's services offers and will add a link in the bi-coloured table below that. You only need to click on the link in the table to go to the appropriate Google download page.

• Google Earth is a space-eye view of the planet and it's details are remarkably clear. It can also be useful if you want to inspect an area before you travel there, or even take a close-up peek at the White House. When I needed a new hot water service recently the supplier, in Seven Hills, inspected my roof on Google Earth while we spoke by telephone.
• G-Mail is Google's popular, accessible easily from anywhere, e-mail service.
• Picasa is a useful photo program. It's not a graphics editor but has many useful functions for handling and displaying your photographs, both on your computer and on the web.
• Blogger allows you to write your own blog ("blog" is a contraction of web log) where you may post your thoughts on the state of the economy, the game of golf, your family history, or an account of that trip you took last summer.
• Web Sites: If blogging isn't your thing you might like to create your own web site. People do it for a ny number of reasons. Our U3A web site keeps our members informed and up-to-date; my own Tomorrowland is a show-place for my stories; personal travel sites abound, and so on. Google "Sites" makes it easy for you to set up a web page with absolutely no knowledge of HTML.
• Google Docs allows you to upload documents from your computer or to actually create them on line. It's a great way to back up documents away from a hard drive that might crash at any time. You can share them with other people or keep them private. That's up to you.

Apart from all those services, Google offers many more. To find them, go to Google's search page and click on the "More" link at the end of the list of options in the top left corner, immediately below the Tabs display bar. You'll find a translation service, a Google search of You-Tube, a Calendar/Organiser and so on. The "Photos" link you'll discover on this menu searches all the Picasa on-line albums (including the U3A Nepean album).

And still we're not finished. There are certain words you can use in the Google search box that are a bonus for users.

• Define: Do you need the dictionary meaning of a word? Type "define" followed by the word and Google will do the rest. So "define sesquipedalian" will tell you that this is the use of long words.
• Time: Is it OK to ring your family travelling in Sweden, or will they be in bed? Type "time stockholm" in the search box and Google will tell you. Substitute any major city you can think of for the local time.
• Weather: Do you want to know whether to take your raincoat on that U3A outing? Type "weather sydney" to find out. But why stop at Sydney? Is it worth a day trip to beautiful Mollymook Beach? Type "weather ulladulla". It's a bonus.
• Unit Conversion: Would you like to convert a metric measurement to imperial? Easy! Type "10.5 cm in inches". The same will apply for other conversion types. It's a lot quicker than looking up tables or using a calculator.
• Calculator Did you just win a lotto prize and need to divide $83,471 between thirteen people? Type: 83471/13 to find out how much you get to keep. The calculator can cope with much more difficult orders than that, so "5*9+(sqrt9)^3" actually means "(5 times 9) added to the cube of the square root of 9". You work it out. Or better still, ask Google!

There is much more to Google than this and from time to time I'll add a little more. For instance, they have an excellent web browser called Chrome which is probably better than Internet Explorer. I'll write about that soon and do some comparisons with the most popular web browsers. If I make a recommendation, it won't be either Chrome or Internet Explorer: we Firefox users have a lot to boast about.
          —David Evans