Blog Tipz

While many people use Google solely for web searches and perhaps email, the company offers many other services that may entice bloggers when it comes to managing and maintaining their online presence.  

No matter how you feel about the company (whether it has created a “monopoly” in the market or tires to collect too much of your information), the services the company offers are unbeatable on many levels – offering both simplicity and advanced features – depending on how you want to use them.

In this post, I’ll cover a few of the best ways to use them, along with recent additions to a few of them.

Please Note: Despite the fact that I feel Google’s main intention is to provide the most complete “web”of services, there are other, equally noteworthy companies (Zoho, for one) that provide similar services, which may be just as good as the ones listed below.

The Products

1. AdSense – The lifeblood of many bloggers, AdSense has helped many people earn extra income each month by placing relevant advertising on their sites.
2. AdWords – One of the main methods modern companies advertise on the web, other than direct advertising (going straight to the advertiser), providing rather affordable rates and return for advertising your business or products.
3. Alerts - Allows you to stay up-to-date on web results, news items, etc. based on the search terms you place in the alert.  You will be able to monitor developing news stories, keep current on a competitor or industry, get the latest on a celebrity or event, and more.  No matter what niche you are in, you’ll be able to keep track of any developments from your competitors, without having to search for those terms every day.
4. Apps – This software-as-a-service division allows you to add messaging, collaboration, and security to your site or blog for either free or as an affordable plan.
5. Base – Add items to be searched on Google, possibly related to your blog.
6. Blogger – Many bloggers start here with their blog. It is known best as being the fastest, most comprehensive, easiest, and most affordable (free) ways to set up a basic (compared to self-hosted solutions) blog.
7. Book Search – Appeals to people who want to quote books for on their blog or provide better reviews of books by linking to the previews on the individual book pages.
8. Calendar – Allows you to organize and schedule when and where you need to publish new posts, especially if you have multiple blogs. Can also be used for other purposes; includes labels for organizing content.
9. Checkout – An online payment processing service provided by Google, which helps simplify the process of paying for online purchases – an area that many bloggers are interested in.  You would also be able to sell products using Google Checkout (at 2.0% + $0.20 per transaction if you don’t have an AdWords account).
10. Chrome – A “browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier” – key elements that bloggers need to run their blogs.  In addition, using this browser, you can enable the “Turbo” mode of WordPress, dramatically speeding up the backend load time of your blog.
11. Code – A database of open source code and APIs for use with applications Google has developed; primarily aimed at website coders (who may also be bloggers).
12. Custom Search Engine – You can use this tool to harness the power of Google to create a search engine tailored to your needs. Allows you to include one website, multiple websites, or specific webpages, host the search box and results on your own website, customize the colors and branding to match your webpages, and more.
13. Desktop – An application, which places all your files just a search away as well as adds gadgets to your desktop; most useful when you are placing hundreds of images in posts and need to find where they are on your hard drive or other source.
14. Documents – One of the best ways to share documents, presentations, and spreadsheets online.  You could use this platform to publish directly to your blog or collaborate with others using the tools provided.
15. FeedBurner – A popular tool for distributing your feed.
16. Gmail – While this email service may not contain all the features of desktop-based solutions, it has advanced search and organization features (as well as the man benefit of never having to delete another message).  Recently, emotions (emotional icons) and canned responses were introduced (allowing you to automatically send a reply using text that you have specified).
17. GOOG-411 – Enables you to connect on the road (phone) with business you do not know the number or address of, completely free.  Again, most useful for bloggers involved in traveling a lot.
18. Grand Central – Allows you to connect all phones to one voicemail box and number with advanced features – free, so you won’t have to worry about people calling your cell or home phone.
19. Groups – In Google Groups, you’ll be able to discuss topics online or over email, create custom pages, as well as create mailing lists, which may be specific to your blog/niche.
20. iGoogle – The personalized page, which allows you to keep track of feeds, emails, and more from a central page.
21. Image Search – As the name states, you are able to search for images on the web.  Useful for finding generic (not blog appropriate) images, as many sites do not have licenses directly attached by the authors.
22. Jaiku – An activity stream, allowing you to stay up-to-date with your friends and people you are connected to.
23. Knol – Google’s “Wikipedia,” which you can implement AdSense in and generate a small profit from articles you contribute to the site.  Also serves as another reference point.
24. Maps – Depending on the topic or focus of your blog (i.e. a travel or business blog), this tool will come in more handy than other blogs.
25. News – Finds news-related stories, including those archived in the past.  Useful for people who blog about community or in geo-targeted areas.
26. Notebook – Place information in here related to future or pending posts as you find content.  Although you could place this information in a text document, this allows you to store bookmarks and notes, without having to open up another application.
27. Orkut – A social networking tool, although at a smaller scale than others like MySpace and Facebook.
28. Patent Search – Searches the full text of US Patents, ideal for people writing reviews of patents or are in the legal aspect of it.
29. Picasa – A cross-platform tool for organizing, editing, creating, and sharing photos between your computer and the web (esp. Blogger/Picasa Web).
30. Product Search – Potentially saves you money by comparing prices of different products, possibly for your readers, too.
31. Reader – One of the most popular feed readers for obvious reasons: it’s easy to use and integrates well into the suite of tools from Google.
32. Scholar – Search for articles created by scholars, primarily papers.
33. Sites – Sites allows you to create simple, secure websites for small groups of people – meetings, activities, and share this activity with other people you specify.  You can stay connected using this service.
34. Talk/Lively – An instant messaging tool, with PC-to-PC voice calls, Gmail notifications, file transfers, and more; useful for bloggers in the connection area.
35. Toolbar – Most people search directly from their browser’s address bar or search box, but this toolbar also links to other services and displays the PageRank of websites.
36. Translate – One of the easiest ways to translate an entire web page (or individual words) from one language to another; useful for defining what others’ sites are about if you can’t understand their language.
37. Trends/Zeitgeist – Trends on the web, including how people search and growing queries.
38. Video/YouTube – Powerful tools for broadcasting and sharing yourself on the web; this form of content has proven popular within blogs for promoting yourself and as an alternative method of communication.
39. Webmaster Central – A powerful control panel for managing how people find your site, including other tools such as Website Optimizer, Gadgets, and Analytics (which recently saw a number of design changes and new enterprise-class features added, like AdSense linking, Data Export API, Advanced Segmentation, Custom Reports, Motion Charts, and more (some of which will come at a later point).

Conclusion

Express how you use Google services (or any products not directly aimed at bloggers) in the comments below.  I’d like to hear how they improve the way you blog.

Despite the fact that the list may appear to be simple a re-listing of what can be found on Google, it helps you truly see the scope of what Google offers for bloggers (although many are acquisitions).