Do you Google as much as you could?

A year or so ago several of my colleagues at Northampton Community College were surprised when I recommended the creation of a three-hour course on Google. Many were concerned that three-hours was an awfully long time to spend learning how to do searches with a search engine. I was the one with the last laugh when I started asking them about all of the other Google features that were available for FREE that could support a variety of tasks.

Do you Google as often as you should? Are you aware of the other features that Google offers?

One of my favorite Google tools is Google Groups. While you now have to use the Document feature to share files, Groups allows you to create personalized, private discussion boards for any number of folks that have a common interest. I have worked with several non-profit entities and now have them using this feature to continue committee work outside of committee meetings.

Another tool that can be added to a Google Group would be Calendar. This feature allows you to share a calendar with anyone you designate. If the people sharing a calendar also have a Gmail account (also FREE), they can add things and edit items on the calendar. To help those less tech-savvy, Google also provides the widget code to post these calendars and the events to websites and various pages.

Google Docs allows people to share word processing, spreadsheet, presentations and forms and have them stored in an Internet location that anyone could access via a connection from anywhere in the world. This is a great backup solution for non-profit committees or boards that need documents to move from one set of officers to another and/or for workgroups that have changing membership.

This is not an exhaustive list of the tools that Google offers, but just a few of my favorites that I have found very helpful when doing volunteer work or trying to keep even my personal life organized for FREE.  How could you Google?