Thing #21

Google's not just for searching

I have been subscribing to Google for many years but I have never taken the time to learn about all of the different tools that it has to offer. This and others classes that I have taken, have made me take the time to familiarize myself more with the different things that you can do with Google. I recently took a Picasa class and I really like using it. However it is still fairly new to Mac and there are a few bugs that need to be addressed. But I have recommended it to a couple of my PC friends. As I stated in an earlier post, Google docs is a very good tool, I use YouTube and Google video to find clips for enrichment at work, Google maps directs me where I need to travel and being the shopper that I am I know every way possible to pay for goods on the internet and Google checkout is becoming as popular as PayPal. I played with the Google earth tool a little in the past. I don't know that I have any use for it personally but I can see how it could be used in the classroom.

During my exploring I played with the Google SketchUp. It was fun but it will take a little practice to learn how to manipulate the pencil. I also like the calendar. I am going to compare it to the 30 Boxes calendar to see which one will work the best for me. I did find a picture that I want to use on Google images, it said that it might be copyrighted but it did not give any other information.

Google has definitely become more prominent over the last few years. As I stated earlier, I have been using Google for a while, but I realized how popular it has become when my mother, who never even turns on the computer , made the statement "Why don't you just google it." :-)