Gmail and Google tools that I have found useful

I will sorely miss the ability to bring information to me and have access to so much information. I have over the months gotten used to making information come to me and making technology organize it for me.

I use google reader to help keep me informed about the world. I recently added a Shanghai paper into my google reader so I could be up on issues happening in Shanghai. I have enjoyed reading it and I have a list of some cool spots to hit. I have also added google's blog about gmail and other technologies so I can better use the tools that I love. The amount of information available at your fingertips in google reader is amazing. (when I set up my Chinese blog I suggest reading it in google reader that way you don't have to keep checking if I posted something). I also read fun things like comics in google reader. I used to go on check the site each day to see if they posted something and I knew friends that went through and checked several different sites to read the new comic. Now I don't have to keep checking the site. I have made google reader bring it to me. You can click on the orange button or you can find it in google read and suscribe. Now whenever there is a new comic posted it shows up in my google reader and I read it there. Being the organized person I am I made a folder called entertainment. So all of my comics or webstories are sent to that folder. So if I need some fun things to read I read through the posts in my entertainment folder. I also have a folder for news where my news subscripitions are located. I also have a folder for technology related subscripitions. I subscribe to all of googles blogs. I found out about almost all of these tools and services because of these subscriptions in google reader.

The next goggle tool that I think is super useful for having information come to you is something called google relate. I found Google recently released a tool that allows you to easily find related articles or sites to the one you are viewing. I think this allows you to easily find more related information. Often when it comes to politics or other issues I need to hear others thoughts to make sense of my own. This tool will help me easily find related articles on issues.  I see this as being useful in my personal life when I am trying to stay informed. However I think this could also be a useful tool in education. If this works well I think you could teach students to use it when researching a paper. It will help them find other related articles or information. If you want to know more about it here is the link to the google blog. When I saw this I automatically wanted to know more and set this service up. However then I stopped myself thinking that it probably won't be available in China. However I suggest that all of you try out and think about using it in the education field. (Another good research tool I learned about in Teacher research was google scholar. So you should check that out too)

I have also gotten used to using gmail to help manage my emails and help get information. Recently google released importance markers. The message will have a little yellow flag next to it so you can read it first. You can take of the importance marker if the message is actually not important. Gmail remembers this responses and does not highlight it again. So basically you train gmail what messages are important and which ones are not. This tool has been handy recently because all of the messages about my visa and related correspondence about China were then marked important. I then started using the priority inbox Gmail released so that way my important messages were sorted and placed at the top. Then after that was the other unread messages. I have enjoyed this because it helps me got to the important emails first then the other less pressing emails. However when you set up your own priority inbox you can choose the order or the categories you want to see.

I have also discovered the wonders of filters. I think I heard other people talk about using them, but I finally found a need for them. Well really I got sick of getting those border coupons in my inbox and then made a filter for them. Although I won't be getting anymore of those since Borders is out of business now although that is a topic for another post. Anyways I went to my settings in gmail and set up a filter. Anything that had borders in it was automatically labeled borders and moved into the folder I made for the emails. I never saw them in my inbox again. If I wanted to see what coupons I had or books that were suggested I could go and check the messages. I also set up filters for correspondence about my visa. I set up the filter to label it with visa. That way I could clicked on the label title on the side and all the messages would come up. I set up other filters for other correspondence with my principal and company members as I saw fit. Basically I got filter/label crazy. If you can't tell I like being organized. However this made it easy for me to go back and find a certain e-mail so much easier. So I really suggest using labels and filters to help manage your e-mails.

I also started exploring google labs. This is where google is coming up with great new features for your mail. You just need to go to the cog button at the top and go to mail settings. Then go to the tab called labs. Here you will find lots of interesting tools to help you manage and enhance your inbox. The one I have found most useful is the gadget lab. I have installed a currency converter gadget. So when I kept getting e-mails from my company about the cost of living in China I could convert it right there as I was reading the e-mail. I also installed a poly clock gadget. This has been useful to me so I could see what time it was in China when I was sending them an e-mail. I also have a url shortner gadget. You may have heard of or used TinyUrl or other services. However I would e-mail out links, but hated how they were so long. So I would leave the tab my inbox was in open a new tab and go to TinyUrl. Then paste the new tiny link in. I wondered if there was an easier and quicker way to just do it from my inbox. Well several months later I discovered this gadget. So this way if you are e-mailing out a link and think it is too long you can shorten it right there in your inbox. So you should check out other gadgets and find gadgets that are useful to you in your life. There is a lot of gadgets out there to help you enhance your inbox and bring information right to your finger tips.

And now for a safety tip. Google released a tool called two step verification. After you enter your password you have to enter a generated code. This way hackers have to have your password and the code. You can get the codes delivered to you by text message or using an app called google authenticator. You are also given a file of codes in case you can't access your phone or application. I use the app on my ipod touch. The only downside is that other google applications need specific passwords instead of the codes. You can easily generate these when needed. Whenever my password does not work I know it is because of the two step verification and I go get and application specific password.

All of these gmail tools and settings can help teachers manage the large amount of email that they recieve and help protect those e-mails. I also think students should learn how to do this to help manage all of their e-mails. These tools are also useful in the business world as well. I think everyone should know how to manage their e-mail because in this day and age we get lots of e-mail. I also think the two step verification will help stop the many hackers that are out there.

I also started using picasa which is google's picture service. (I learned about it in Educational Technology class, but I never got around to using it or exploring it in more depth.) You have to download the program on your computer. However I found it is a great tool to use to manage your photos on your computer. I started using it cause I wanted to put all my pictures on the a online dropbox. I used some other services, but none would give me enough free space. (I have gotten addicted to putting everything in the cloud. Also I just found out that Amazon has 5gb of free space on their site which got me super excited.) So I downloaded picasa. Then found that in picasa you just hit a button and it syncs the folder online. Then you have a web album. So I went through my pictures and made a bunch of web albums. I promptly then shared the links with family so they could see the wedding photos I had taken recently. My dad then used those photos to make a thank you card for the bride and groom. I loved how easy it was to share with my family. You can tag people in the album. The privacy settings are similar to those in google docs. Then I discovered that all those photos were then availble to me on Google plus(of course I am on Google plus and if you want an invite holla). I then was able to share them on Google plus as well. However I discovered if you change the share settings in Google plus then it automatically changes the share settings of the picasa web album. So be aware and clear about who you want to see the photos. Then after uploading them I played with picasa some more. I made this really cool collage of photos of my friends and family. I plan and putting them up in my apartment in china. It was great.

Since I brought up google plus and this is a tech post then I guess I will share my thoughts on it. I think that Google has really looked into what people liked about social networking sites and what they didn't. I think that the circle idea and controlling who gets to see what is a great feature. They saw users on facebook trying to figure out a way to only share items with certain people. I think we all have gone through that. There are certain posts and pictures we don't want our bosses, co workers, students, or other community members seeing. I think Google took that into account and made it easy to share posts only with the people you want to share with. So far I have enjoyed it. I have been able to share whatever I want with the people I want to share them with. I read somewhere that explained it as if you share it with your circles, extended circles, and the public then it is a blog post. If you share the post with your circles then it is like a tweet/status update. If you just share the post with one person it is like a letter.

I also think that google plus listened to complaints about having game notifications or game related stories filling their news feed. Google plus has made it so game realted stories are in a seprate feed. So when you go to play games you can see them if you want. I really appreciated that. They have a few games right now which I have gotten addicted to. The are just offering games to some users and field testing them. It should be interesting to see more game developers work with google plus.

Then google plus incorporated a service similar to skype called hangouts. I have hung out a couple times. People can just join in and chat. It is a great way to commuincate with friends. I think if you want to talk to a lot of people and do a group chat then it is a good service to use. When someone in the group talks their video is featured in the middle. So basically the video feed follows who is talking. It is interesting feature. However I think if I am going to talk one on one I would use skype.

The other feature of google plus I like is the plus one button found on the web. So if you like a link, site, or webpage you can hit the plus one. People can look at those sites that you plus oned on your profile. I think that this way your feed isn't filled with people sharing links. However I think google plus should let people comment on the links in this area. Cause right now I don't think it is utilized in a social interaction way.

The other feature I like about google plus is that you can decided if you want people to be able to reshare the post. If you do allow people to repost it your name is tied to the post so you get credit. I guess this will stop people from stealing your status or seeing where a thought originated. This feature gives me even more control of my thoughts and words.

Another interesting twist that google plus incorporated was that you can follow people who you don't know kind of like twitter. I have been following google ceo's so I can keep up with the changes to google and google products. I also like seeing that the creators of the project using the tool and their thoughts.

 However I find it funny that Facebook ceo Mark Zuckerburg has more followers on google plus than the google ceos. I personally think it is because people want to see his reaction to this new social network that could possibly dethrone Facebook. Now I don't know if I will ever truly leave facebook since it will take a while for people to switch to google plus and use it to its full potential. I know the older generation was slow to pick up facebook and often have trouble learning a new tech device. So I will keep using facebook. However right now I like google plus so much more. I also trust the people behind google more(if you have not figured that out already). I think they will work to try new things and enhance the service. They already have taken my comments and other user comments into the design. I think the features they introduce are usually useful, easy to use, and enhance the customers experience. I usually find facebooks new features pointless and annoying. I mean the labs feature in gmail is a great example that is the testing ground for features. They run field trials and labs and get user feedback about it before releasing it to everyone. I don't think facebook tests their features or listens to users in that manner. However I could be wrong. So that is why I am behind google plus. However I don't think it will kill facebook entirely, but we will see. I am not advocating that you switch. I am just informing you about the service and telling you what I think is useful.

However I am writing all of this before I leave for China. They control the internet and information available. The great firewall of China blocks lots of useful services. I have read that this site is not availble in China. I have that most of google's products are not available. Although I have also read that gmail and other products are available, but are slow to load. I hope that I can still use gmail since I have made it organize and manage my e-mail which simplifies my life. I also have all of those useful gadgets that are tools I would like to have at my fingertips. So basically I writing this to make you aware of the great technology that you have at your fingertips and you should take advantage of it since others are not allowed to use it. I am not trying to speak out againsit the goverment or country or advocating for change. I just want people to know that technology can be used to educate yourself or others, manage and organize information, and even simplify your life.