DACS General Meeting By Bruce Preston Google was founded September, 1998. Its first and best-known product is Google Web Search, which is now responsible for processing over one billion search requests each day. Google has not been satisfied by just being King of the Search, it has broadened its offerings with such things as Google Mail, Google Image Search, Google StreetView, Google Maps, etc. At our September 4th General Meeting, Google Product Specialist Millicent Branca gave us a tour of many of Google's other offerings, which fall into three major categories: Google Voice, Google Apps, and Google+. Right up front, note that access to all of these capabilities must be linked to a Google Mail account. So if you don't have a Google Mail account, now may be a good time to go to www.gmail.com and sign up for one – it’s free. Google Voice: Years ago it was common for a household to have a single phone number. Now it is common for an individual to have several phone numbers - a basic cell phone or smartphone, perhaps a phone built into a car such as OnStar, a direct-in number at work and maybe even a plain old 'land line'. Google Voice lets you obtain a free telephone number in an area code of your choice, or perhaps a 'vanity' number whose last four digits spell out something such as, say, DACS. You may then publish and link this number to your other numbers such that a call to the Google Voice number rings one or more of your other numbers so that no matter what device you are near you get the call. Google Voice offers many of the additional features that we have come to expect such as Caller ID, voice mail, call screening and, oh yes - toll-free calling in the U.S. and Canada, and pennies per minute for foreign calls. It also has some features that you might not find elsewhere such as voice transcription, where a voice mail is converted to a text message and sent to specified destination(s). You may also customize how calls are directed based upon criteria such as time of day or who placed the call, and even customize the voice mail welcome message based upon who placed the call. You can even block callers, who will get a "number is out of service" message. Google Apps: Google Apps is a category of offerings such as Google Mail, Google Docs, Google Drive and Google Calendar. Google Mail: By now you should be familiar with Google Mail. It is a free electronic mail service, with many features you may not find in a traditional e-mail service. For example - Google does an excellent job at blocking SPAM. It has a very good search mechanism so that you can find an e-mail based upon your search specification. You may view e-mails in a 'conversation mode' rather than having to hunt through your collected e-mails. There is a built-in chat capability. You get 10GB of space for messages and attachments. It works with smartphones, etc. Lastly, as mentioned, your Google Mail credentials are needed to access many of the other Google products that relate to your account. Google Docs: I had been exposed to the Google Docs a few years ago, but had no idea as to its real capabilities. In my situation I was one of several contractors using a shared Excel-compatible spreadsheet to track bug fixes on an extensive project. Anyone with access to the account may modify the files in-place using a web browser client. The document types supported are word processing, spreadsheet and presentation; the files are Microsoft Office compatible formats should you want to copy them to your machine for local processing. Google Drive: You may define an 'in the cloud' Google Drive and store your files there. Then by installing the Google Drive app on your computer(s) or mobile device(s) you may access the files via your internet connection of any type. Changes to the files are made using your software on your device and are synchronized to the Google Drive. From there the file(s) are 'pushed' to the other devices such that things stay synchronized. Millicent mentioned real-time update where you see changes made by your collaborators as you work. Google Calendar: When you create a Google Calendar you have the option of making it available to others as well as access rights to items in your calendar. Your calendar may consolidate entries from others' calendars. You may assign a color code to different calendars so you can see where an entry originated. Events may trigger actions such as sending invitations or reminders. You may use Google Calendar to identify a common time available for multiple participants and thus schedule a meeting. Google Calendar may be synchronized with a client-based calendar such as in Microsoft Outlook. Many people use Google Calendar as the master calendar such that it can synchronize the desktop’s calendar (e.g. Outlook) with the calendar on mobile devices such as iPad, iPhone, Blackberry, etc. Google+: This is a collection of components that generally fall into the social media category. It includes Google Hangouts, Google Circles, and Google Events. Google Hangouts is a video conferencing and chat capability that supports up to 10 simultaneous participants. It includes screen sharing and even doodling. My understanding of Google Circles is that it is a mechanism whereby you may define 'circles of contacts' such that you may restrict who sees which of your postings, unlike (say) Facebook where it is essentially all or nothing. For example, you could create a family circle, a professional circle, and a client circle. You post to your account, and Circles determines who sees the posting based upon their circle membership. Google Events is a mechanism for publicizing events, distributing invitations and so forth. Millicent wrapped up her presentation by answering questions from an enthusiastic audience. I for one am going to take a further look at these capabilities.
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