I’ve been very hesitant to talk about anything Google-related over the past year since I didn’t want to end up like Mark Jen, a Google employee fired for saying too much on his blog. I'll try to be more careful…
When I started in June there was an official quiet period. This was necessary to prevent employees from spreading news that might affect the market opinion of Google prior to the IPO. Ever since the Great Depression, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) heavily regulates this process. Google was pretty paranoid about this and basically encouraged everyone to keep their mouths shut throughout the summer. Now that the IPO is over and the quiet period is lifted, I thought I might share a couple of Googlesque things. Nothing too juicy—just a few services you should try if you haven’t already.
In reverse order of coolness, here are the Top Five Google Services You Probably Don’t Know About But Should:
5. Google Desktop
Google Desktop is a program for Windows that lets you search your own local files. The project had a slew of codenames throughout the summer, the latest of which was “Fluffy Bunny.” I got to see a demo of it early in the summer and the buzz inside the company at the time was pretty high. Everyone was expecting a huge splash. I don’t know whether they got their splash, but at least the program is cool.
4. Google Alerts
It’s hard to keep up with all the latest news and changes on the web. One service helps you do this: Google Alerts. All you do is tell it a few search terms and it will send you an email whenever anything happens that mentions your terms. You can also tell it to send you messages daily or weekly if immediate alerts get too annoying. Try it; you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.
3. Google Scholar
Now here is a service that actually adds some real value to the world. Google Scholar allows you to find all the research papers on a particular topic. Most previous attempts at something like this have flopped. It’s nice to see Google still kicks ass at search.
2. Google Maps
Google Maps is amazing. Although the interface can be a bit confusing for even the most tech-savvy computer programmer out there (e.g. my brother, Eric), it generates real perty lookin' maps.
1. Google Suggest
Google Suggest is really awesome. It provides auto-completion as you type your query based on what Google thinks you want to search. The concept is simple, but the demo is amazing. I was lucky enough to be cube mates with the creator of this. I hope this service continues to improve to the point in which this becomes the standard Google interface.
I hope you enjoy these five Google services. Let me know what you think!
Thanks! I really should have known about these—actually I did with the exception of alerts, thanks. About google scholar, I think PubMed is still pretty good competition. Maybe not in the long, long term future, though.
What is interesting is that I've seen an email going around.. type your phone number into google (ie 650-243-2354, land lines only, I think), and chances are the person's name comes up. Along with maps and directions to their house!!! Thankfully you can request to remove it… and actually, other people can also request that it be removed.
Like Matt, I also knew about everything else except for Google alerts…until one of the bad guys on the TV series Tilt was talking about it. It's so weird how Google has gotten its name and services out—so much that it would even be talked about by an imaginary character on a TV show. Wow.
I have to disagree with Matt about PubMed. I get can get so many more articles on PDF from Google that I can't even find on PubMed (or other article database sites). Compared to many other sites, PubMed is not as intuitive in terms of how it searches for the articles. I would even recommend CSA over PubMed because it is much more organized. However, I now go to Google Scholar before anything else. It has saved me so much time from going to the library. :)
This is such a finely crafted blog! The diction and grammar are pristine.
:)
Who is this Jen girl? As for PubMed, the only reason I say it's good competition because my Mom and Dad, in the bio field, still find higher quality results. But what do they know hahah. So when are WE GOING TO VEGAS???