Good Stuff from Google
The founders of Google aren't known for their modesty - but then again, neither are their results so maybe we shouldn't scoff too much when Sergey Brin & Larry Page ambitiously say this about the Google Foundation:
 | We hope that someday this institution will eclipse Google itself in overall world impact by ambitiously applying innovation and significant resources to the largest of the world's problems. |  |
Now, how are they going to achieve that? Well, in the short term it seems that whilst they have supported a few organisations, there's still a lot to be worked out. In the meantime it is worthwhile looking at their "In-kind advertising for non-profit organizations" - which is currently in beta. As of writing it is available in: in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK – select your country link for details and to apply. Here's the blurb for the UK programme for your convenience:
"The Google Grants UK beta programme supports organisations sharing Google’s philosophy of community service to help the world in areas such as science and technology, education, global public health, the environment, youth advocacy, and the arts. Designed for registered charities, Google Grants provides free advertising on Google AdWords, to charities seeking to inform and engage their constituents online. Google Grants has given free AdWords advertising to hundreds of charitable groups whose missions range from animal welfare to literacy, from supporting homeless children to promoting HIV education. As a result of this free advertising many charities have experienced an increase in the recruitment of volunteers and sponsorship. Applications to the programme can be made at any time". - http://www.google.com/grants
Now, that's not all - Google also has a stack of useful resources that you won't have to fill out a grant application to use... Yet, they can yield cost savings and increased collaboration.
Works like Word and Excel – You can either create one from scratch or upload an existing (up to 500kb). Then share with colleagues and collaborate in real-time. It rocks.
Tool to keep your various bits of update-able software up-to-date… Includes Google Earth, Picasa, Google Desktop etc. and a third-party Spyware scanner etc. Worth it.
In their own words: “Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.”
Also see the bit about Google Reader in the section about RSS feeds above.
Just like Google on the net, except it searches all of your hard disk. And it is FAST.
Once installed and indexed, try Ctrl+Ctrl and plug in any word in the search box and it’ll be clear how powerful it is.
Go to http://www.google.com/advanced_search and you can find this any much more:
Google Book Search - Search the full text of books
Google Scholar - Search scholarly papers
Google News archive search - Search historical news
Also, learn how to refine your searches: http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/refinesearch.html
Last but not least – there are stacks of shortcuts. Try for example to type ‘define:’ in front of a word.
But don't just take my word for it - here's an example of how the indefatigable Tom Ball from Cognac uses it to improve his working day - in his own words:
"There are loads of new internet based "widgets" which are free, simple, easy - and make work / communication / remote working much easier. Because they are internet based, they are independent of the computer you are using. I work from home, from the office, on the road, a library, an internet cafe... and everything I need is wherever I am."
And how does he do this? He went to www.google.co.uk/ig and simply customised the page. Again, in his own words:
"It doesn't sound that exciting - but it allows you to add links, widgets etc to your home page - which you can then access from any computer. My home page includes:
- A search bar for Wikipedia (As well as Google above)
- A list of current documents on Google Docs (Like Recent Documents in windows)
- My favourite links - links to edit my blog, to key sites I use etc
- The latest headlines from a few blogs I keep up with - which means I can instantly see what's been said without having to go to that site..."
Do check out the Cognac blog - http://www.cognac.co.uk/blog - especially their website if you need to figure out how to explain something complex in ten minutes (Tom once taught me how to convey the importance of managing insurance premium tax payments and compliance ... Not interested in that? I wasn't either - yet I got it - so imagine what they can do for something a bit less complex, say ... your project?
