Online Apps and Tools

OK...I admit, I did deviate a bit from the assignment.  I've been working with one of our IT Specialists to create a Google Apps class for summer and decided instead of spending time with ZoHo Writer, that I would use this post to focus on what I learned about Google Apps, to me, the ULTIMATE in online apps and tools!

Google is phenomenal...the fact that they can put such high-quality information out there FOR FREE, is mind boggling.  When I think of what they could be making if they charged for even half of the features in Google Apps, I cannot even count all the zeros!  If you haven't had a chance to look at them, now's a great place in the modules to do so.  However, in the interest of time, I'm going to only talk about two of them - Google Docs and Google Labs.

Google Docs is a "place" where folks can collaborate online, provide instant feedback, work on documents as a group, etc.  In the spirit of learning to work with Google Docs, I decided to place a document up there and direct some colleagures of mine to the spot where they can suggest changes, modify as they see fit, and post comments.  I am eagerly awaiting the exchange of information that we can do via the computer, instead of trying to find one time we can all get together to discuss it.

Google Labs is a playground for the folks at Google to experiement with new and upcoming ideas.  If you go to the site, you'll see some items still in beta and others that have been approved and are being rolled out at a slower pace.  Check out Google Swirl, Google Goggles, and Google Squared, three of my favorite playground pieces.   Web address is http://www.googlelabs.com/ and of course, everything is free!!!