Google Applications

Those smarties over at Google have won my heart, and they just keep getting better! This is the umbrella post to what will be several separate posts highlighting my favorite google apps, but I thought it would be helpful to start with a big-picture explanation.

Google has lots of web-based applications (ie you don't (usually) need to install anything on your computer and you can access your information from anwhere). They are easy to use, the applications can all be accessed from a main page, and when you're signed in once, all your information is available to you. Best of all, the appliations are all free, and the advertising on the right of the screen in pretty unobtrusive. Here's a list of some of the google apps I will be advocating (read: I LOVE!) in future posts: gmail, g-calendar, igoogle, google docs, google reader, and g-chat (with video!).

The easiest way to start is by getting a gmail account, which will be your username for all the applications. You can do that here: www.gmail.com. And don't worry if you're not ready to change your email account...there are ways to easily forward mail to and from different accounts while you decide if you want to change accounts permanently (also to be addressed later).

So go out, get a gmail account, and breathlessly wait for me to open doors you never even dreamed existed (thank you, Auntie Mame!)...