Sunday, August 19, 2007

Gabcast - Google and Web 2.0

In my gabcast, I reviewed the Google Web2.0 applications. Below is th text version of the gabcast. Enjoy!

Google Taking over Web 2.0

Web 2.0 to me means a higher level of interaction of people, ideas, and overall activity on the web. Interaction such as email, groups, and photo sharing are all part of the Web 2.0 experience. I will be reviewing some Web 2.0 applications and how Google is quickly becoming the front runner.

Google Email: This email tool goes above and beyond other email services such as hotmail by keeping a conversation with the same people and same subject. It will also detect an invitation and automatically link Google Maps or Google Calendar to assist in getting to the party

Google Maps: The Google maps are 3-D dynamic, and can be viewed with or without satellite overlays. Google Maps is the fastest over Ask.com and Yahoo maps per CNET reviews (http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-9239_7-6526615-3.html?tag=txt). Some of the competitors such as Mapquest, Yahoo, and Ask have more features, but overall Google was a trailblazer for satellite imaging.

Google Earth: Another interactive tool from Google that allows users to visit places around the world using satellite imagery to get the feel of being on vacation. For those longing to be somewhere else but don’t have the money or time to travel, it’s a great tool to immerse you in another world.

Google Calendar: Calendar allows you to manage appointments and bring in from various sources. The added feature of integrating email and appointments send by email to the Calendar makes the tool integration a plus (http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-10442_7-6514569-4.html?tag=btn).

Google Talk: Google talk also integrates with Google Calendar and Gmail with additional instant-messaging tools built in. This beta tool has ideal ease of use and is clear as a regular phone when speaking to users.

Google Spreadsheet, Writely beta, SketchUp: These tools replace the traditional Windows hard-drive hogging applications. The one dependency is that the users have to be online to use the tools.

Google Picasa: This tool allows for photo sharing by uploading albums to the web and photo organization. In contrast to Flickr, the ease of use is better and automatically loads all pictures from your computer in the tool. You can then decide which ones to upload to the web.

Google Desktop: Google also provides search tools of the entire hard drive as well as linking to your Google email. You do have to configure the preferences based on your acceptance of the amount of data Google will catalog, but that seems to be the Web2.0 world we live in now.

There are other vendors providing many of the same tools, however Google provides the packages to interact throughout each tool which enhances the overall experience. Google is definitely branches out beyond search capability and leading the way for Web2.0 applications.

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