Google is changing the definition of a web browser. What was once a tool only used to search the internet for different information is now an instrument allowing people to go way beyond simply searching the web. Not only is the company of Google itself expanding rapidly, its ideas and web innovations are as well.
IGoogle is the first noticeable and user-friendly feature I have seen in Google's extensive bag of ideas. This site allows you to change your Google page to display basically anything you want. You can show weather, time, date, quotes, financial information, news, and much more. You can customize your background to many different things including a beach, a winter scene, a country, and much more. I have made IGoogle my homepage. It displays the time and date, financial information, and a gadget that gives me new and updated brain teasers everyday…it was a great idea on Google's part and the site is gaining much popularity.
In addition to IGoogle, the Google docs application is a genius idea. Before this program, members of a group had to write their part of a paper, email it to each group member, then one of the group members would have to compile all the information to form the paper. With Google docs, each member can simultaneously edit the paper. There is only one paper, so everyone is reading the same thing, and all members can add their parts, without the long process of compiling each separate part. I had not heard of this application before my it101 class and have since used it for group work. For my gb102 term paper, I was assigned to a group and our group was assigned to write a paper on a certain theory. I introduced my group to Google docs and they were all very happy with it. Each member edited it until we were pleased, then we copied it and pasted it into Microsoft word to change the text and format the paper to our discretion. In my experience, Google docs is a very useful tool and will grow as long as people pass the word along.
Another interesting Google application is in the same category as Google docs, but it allows multiple people to edit a spreadsheet instead of a document. This may be even more convenient than the document editor, because it is more difficult to compile spreadsheet data than it is to compile text. The spreadsheet editor is just another innovative Google idea.
Google is a very 21st century company. It is based on the internet, however seems to be a more powerful company than many other companies. The stock is very strong and it is my prediction that it will continue to go up, which shows the growing strength and popularity of the company. What will they do next?
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