Google Labs just came out with a new item called “Social Search.” It will search for items in the social web from people in your Google contact list and include them in any searches you run. I’m not sure how beneficial it will be, but I plan to test it over the next few days and let you know.
This is one of the Google Labs “experiments,” however. It just doesn’t happen automatically. You need to go over to http://GoogleLabs.com and sign up for the experiment, and you can only sign up for one experiment at a time. So, if you’re in another experiment that you’re enjoying, you may not want to stop that to try the social search.
Here’s why I’m wondering if it will be any good: I really like the people on my contact list, but some of them are not really all that interesting in terms of business. They may add something to a social site that doesn’t remotely interest me, while others might really have some cool stuff to add and I really wouldn’t want to miss their pearls of wisdom. And yet, do they post to social sites much? Don’t know.
But I guess I’ll find out.
If you have lots of people on your contact list that are active in social sites and that you want to read, you should probably check this feature of Google out. Otherwise, it’s just another perk that may not cause drooling.
You know the search engine. You even know the mail program. But how strong is your friendship with Google? Do you know that there is a whole world of cool stuff inside? You know about the popular apps, no doubt–calendar, docs, image search, Picassa, YouTube, but do you know Google Labs?
Talk about cool stuff! If you haven’t been, you really need to go and check it out. To get there, just go to your GMail account and log in. At the top of the menu, it says, ” Calendar -Documents -Photos-Reader-Sites-Web-more ?” You can also get there from the Google search home page. But at the bottom of that “more” button, you’ll see “even more,” and that’s the hidden goodness. You need to make a nest.
Did you know that you can search not just for phrases you type in abstractly? You can do direct searches for stuff like patents, scholarly papers, and well.. the earth! But what I really like to check out is Google Labs. The fun stuff really starts there.
How about Google Code Search, for example? If you’re a developer, that has to be pretty useful. Or, even those of us who are geek-wannabes need snippets of code now and again. Well… This is the place to search for it! I just searched “highlight HTML” and it spit back a ton of PHP codes for me. Wow. Cool.
Worried about swine flu? Want to see what the trends are? Google has a flu map for that.
And if you’d like to search what people are saying in You Tube videos… How about Google audio search? I didn’t know that even existed until this very moment. Search bots are even doing audio now. I think that’s pretty freakin’ amazing, don’t you? OK, so it only works for politicians right now, but can everyday humans be far behind?
So, we’re into the Google tree of products, and it’s been expanding over the last 10 years now. Why, I remember when it was just a sapling search engine and my friend Jean sent me an email saying, “You should try this search engine. It seems to come back with the most relevant results.” Oh, so true, Jean. How the heck are you, anyway? To my great regret, I’ve actually stuck with Google longer than Jean. Well, I moved away and you know how those things go. It’s a horrible shame. She was someone I really liked and admired. So, you know…
Think I’ll have to look Jean up.
Probably find her on Google. 
Ya think?
We have a premium level of The ListBuilding Club called “ListBuilding 411,” where members can ask a question each day and one of the Overcome Everything team answers it on video within 24 hours. It’s an awesome service, and I wish it had been available when I was learning. It could have shaved years off my learning curve.
Anyway, today, one of our clients asked how he could get 4 spreadsheets with multiple pages online so that he could collaborate with others. I was amazed that he’d never heard of Google Docs! And then, I’m thinking… Wait. People know how to search with Google, but most folks don’t really get the power of Google!
Google Docs is a great way to store information online. It not only gives you the ability to get to it anytime you need to as long as you have an Internet connection, it gives you the ability to share with other folks and to keep it all private. Google Docs is great!
Of course, it’s not without limitations and irritations. Like sometimes, it won’t let you paste stuff in where you want it to go, or you can’t export or well… it’s just NOT as adaptable as MS Office applications, but it’s still worth the effort to get in there and try it. Why not? It’s free.
Google has given us a whole bunch of stuff that’s free and very helpful.
Google Calendar can help you plan your schedule.
Google Maps is more accurate than MapQuest, in my opinion, and with Google Earth, we can see our own street or what’s going on in London at 2 a..m. Why not?
Whatever would we do without GMail, and Picasa? Email and photos are all that some people do online, right?
Lest we forget, there’s Google Video and Shopping and blogs at Blogger. And now, they’re even putting books online for us! There’s Google Alerts, so we can see what people are saying about any topic, Google Translate, and Google for our mobile phones.
But did you know that you can also create 3-D images at Google Sketchup, create your own keyboard shortcuts, let you see You Tube videos or Picassa images right in your Gmail messages, and a whole lot more through Google Labs.
Google is getting to be a very powerful resource (as though it wasn’t powerful enough already). Try some of the “hidden” perks of Google, and you might find a whole new world of stuff to help you or waste your time and not have to pay a single dime. Amazing.
