Thing #7... Google Tools

I don't know if I am just tired and if that is why I am struggling with this latest "thing." Everyone seems to be very excited about the Google tools and I seem to be simply frustrated and overwhelmed. Did all the hype create too high expectations for me? Like almost everyone, I had used Google as a search engine before and was aware of Google Earth (solely because I knew we were not allowed to download the program when we still had the stand-alone computers at school and because it was not available for my Mac at home!). Since imitation is the best form of flattery, I am going to share my review in the same format as the amazing Horatio who masterminds the insightful and well-written blog La Bibliotecaria Loca.

Google Alerts
This tool is pretty nifty and does all the research for you and keeps you posted. I used "hurricane" as my test topic and got a long e-mail this morning about each piece of news around the world that mentioned the word. Since I like to get straight to the info that pertains to me, I wonder if there is a way to further narrow down the alert search...

Google Calendar
I think it can be a very useful tool, though I tend to remain more of a paper agenda kind of girl. There is nothing like scratching out what you have accomplished! Also, I think that I spend more time entering the info online than I actually would by hand. Of course, the advantage is that there are no ugly scratches when a change needs to be made and that you can share with your colleagues, which is obviously not a function a Franklin Planner offers! LOL



iGoogle
To use one of the new terms that I learned this summer, this feature kinda reminded me of a hybrid mashup, since this personalized Google home page draws on info from other websites. I got so caught up with the cool gadgets available, that my iGoogle homepage looked rather messy initially. Being a voracious quotation collector, I ended up having 3 or 4 quotations of the day besides the tops news from Time & CNN, National Geographics Picture of the Day, World clocks --that I couldn't figure to set to France & the USA, and of course... the always much needed daily weight-loss advice! Well, a hodge-podge of my interests that I am still shuffling around and weeding out so that I eventually can use the website as efficiently as intended. A work in progress...

Google Notebook
I dabbled with this feature last night and didn't get it. I revisited tonight and played a little more with it, but I was quickly annoyed as each time I used the web search option within the Notebook page, it would leave my notebook page and go to the new URL. So, it felt very time consuming to click back on the browser each time to paste the information that I had gathered and copied from the website. All I can figure out is that I must not have been doing something correctly and that I must be choosing my usual difficult way of doing things instead of the easier and more sensible route. Did any one else experience that problem? I found my old way of copying and pasting Web info into my Microsoft Word much more user-friendly... and probably easier to explain to my students too.

Google Earth
Woohoo! I have downloaded the GE at last and am thrilled that my townhome is finally visible online. For the longest time, the satellite pix still showed a vacant lot, although the place had been built for 3 years now. Of course, I also looked up my home in France, but when I zoomed into my little village, it remained rather blurry. What a cool tool that my ESL students could use to include in their personal memoir to show the place they are from... Although the 3-D feature didn't work well for me, I was thrilled to discover the "Explore the Sky" feature, where you can learn about the different aspects of the universe around us.