#2 Google and Gmail

What is Google?

It’s what you think it is, and so much more.

Google now has a lot more to offer the world than a speedy, thorough search engine. We’re talking huge storage capabilities for email and documents; free software applications to replace proprietary Microsoft Office and others; picture editors; news feeds; and more, more, more, every day. So much, in fact, that Google has several blogs out there to help you navigate their components and keep up on their new innovations. For now, we want you to keep it simple and get you a Google account, which will come in handy in later lessons.

Discovery Exercise* There is a difference between an iGoogle account and a Gmail. Gmail is Google’s webmail program. Once you set up a Gmail account, you have access to both Gmail and iGoogle (and all of the other Google applications). If you do not want yet another email account, you can set up an account to access iGoogle features by following these instructions:

iGoogle Account Setup  
 
1. Go to iGoogle.
2. Click on the link on the far right called Sign in.
3. Follow any link on the bottom of the page that says create an account now.
4. You can use any email address to establish this account–work, yahoo, hotmail or any other account.
5. You do not need a Gmail account to use iGoogle.

Why should you know about Google?

Search engines are the preferred choice for people looking for information. As the Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources report tells us, only 1% of people go to a library website first when looking for information. Most people start with search engines. They’re easy, fast, and 24×7x365.

Google offers libraries some tools that libraries think they’ve got the corner of the market on:

• Google Book Search allows you to search the full-text of books
• Google Scholar lets you look up scholarly content on the web
• Google Patents has info on over 7 million patents

And because the more Google adds, the more Google becomes THE info resource people turn to first.

 

More information for the curious

Once upon a time Google was a noun (spelled googol, a number equal to 1 followed by 100 zeros). Now it is a verb (“I googled it”), an adjective (the “Google generation”), a proper noun (“from the fine folks at Google”), an institution, a gateway…

Google offers a lot more than just search or email (or the things listed above). To get an idea of all that it offers, look at this list of Google Products.

Some of our favorites:

• Google News
• Google Alerts
• Google Maps – Try the search restaurants near (your city) and see what happens.
• Google Groups

Want to learn more?

Google Tutor – Read tips and tricks that make Google apps even more useful.

1. Create your own iGoogle account (personalized Google service).

2. Go to iGoogle *

• Click on the link on the far right that says Sign in.
• Follow the link on the left of the page that says Gmail
• Click the large link on the bottom that says Sign up for Gmail  

3. Explore all Google has to offer. Some applications will be explored later in the 23 things, such as blogs and Google Reader for RSS feeds. Others are below in the “More Info for the Curious”. Google tends to be user-friendly and easy to explore so take some time to look around! Just Play!

4. Write a paragraph about what applications you discovered or new things you learned about Google apps you’ve used before. Maybe how handy your Google calendar is now that each family member has their own.
Or how on top of it you are now that Google Alerts sends you every news item that mentions your library.

5. Save this paragraph until the next discovery exercise, where you can post this paragraph to your blog.