Monday, May 7, 2007

Google Labs

For my lesson I was instructed to visit Google Labs and play around with a few of the tools. So, I quickly perused each one in the list and the first one decided to explore further was Google Reader. Basically this is a free service that constantly checks your favorite news sites and blogs for new content. You can use this Lab by signing up with your email account, Google Reader's built-in public page also lets you recommend and share interesting items with friends.
Another neat tool is Google Suggest. As you type your search, Google offers keyword suggestions in real time. Let's say you type in "Dog" automatically Google Suggest gives several dog related searches such as, dog food recall, dog breeds, dog names, and so on . Every word or phrase I typed I had dozens of choices to help me to find what I want. Very useful if your just not quite sure what you need!
One more that I thought could be useful is Google Ride Finder. This tool helps you Find a taxi, limousine or shuttle using real time position of vehicles. Just type in the City and State and the location will pop up on the map then you move you mouse pointer over one of the "map pins" which shows the location, gives you the name and a telephone number to contact the company.
There are more useful and fun tools to explore so log on and have fun.