They have become so big that they have added numerous other services throughout the year. Let’s look at some.
Gmail
Everyone knows Gmail, it is Google free email service. It was launched to the general public in 2007. Initially it was an exclusive invite only service. Each user had a certain number of invites they could hand out. This nice little marketing trick resulted in much hype as everyone was trying to get in on it. Eventually though it was opened to the general public and as of last count there were 425 million users worldwide.Gmail has a very user friendly, minimalist interface and convenient organization. Emails are organized into conversations. This means when you send an email or receive a reply, they are all grouped together as a thread in your inbox. This makes it much easier to see and follow the thread history over some of the other more popular email services. They were also the first to offer a large amount of storage for users.
Google Docs
Google Docs is also one of the more inventive services Google created. Sort of a precursor to the Cloud, this service allowed users with Gmail accounts to store and share data on a server with other Gmail users. It is a comprehensive system that offers a word processor, spreadsheet and even presentation programming. All docs can be changed or edited to anyone given access to it.So a writer in New York can create a document, say a script and upload it as a Google Doc (or just create it in Google Docs) and share it with an editor in San Francisco. The editor can log into his Google Docs though his Gmail and make changes or suggestions and save it. Now the writer can work on the changes. It is incredibly useful for collaborative projects.
Google Maps
One of their most ambitious projects is Google Maps. They have combined information from services like NAVTEQ, TeleAtlas and satellite data to create comprehensive maps that people can use. This isn’t just in America though. You can literally look at maps from all over the world! You can also use it to plot a route between any given points. But it gets even cooler than that because there are numerous views you can use.They have the basic map view, which is just a road map. It is easy to read and use and is basic in design. Then they have a satellite view which is literally satellite images of a given area with roads and buildings overlaid on top. You can also activate a traffic view in either map view or satellite view. This will use color coded lines to show how bad traffic is on any street at any given time. Terrain view will access a topographical map.
Most impressively is street view which is available in most major U.S. cities. They have literally driven around every neighborhood in every city and taken photographs of each address and block. You can zoom in and see the actual location itself.
You can also navigate block by block and “drive” around your town. If they drove by when you were at home you can even see your own used car sitting out front. It is a pretty impressive feat by all means.
That being said, this is just the tip of the Google iceberg. We haven’t even gotten to their Android smartphones and the apps for it. As Google continues to evolve they will no doubt continue in more ground breaking resources.
Jeff JordanAbout the Guest Author:
Jeff Jordan writes from and lives in Southern California. He writes about social media, marketing and SEO. You could probably even use Google maps to find used cars.