Google is, no doubt, the biggest powerhouse in the Web 2.0 age.  Yesterday, I wrote about the major enemies that Google will face in 2010.  They are Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, and Twitter (read the article).  Since there are ten companies on my list, let’s wrap this up by introducing the last 5 companies here: Mozilla, Yahoo, Cisco, IBM, and Nokia.

6. Mozilla

There are two areas to watch between Google and Mozilla. Firstly, there is no doubt that Chrome will be competing intensely with Mozilla Firefox in the Internet browser market. Recently, Chrome just surpassed Safari to become the third widely used Internet browser after Mozilla and IE. Chrome has also released its 4.0 stable version this week, which is supposed to work better with all Chrome extensions.  Secondly, it’s about default search. Rumor has it that Mozilla is currently talking to Microsoft, with the purpose to make Bing the default search engine for all Mozilla browsers.  If this deal comes through, Google may lose market share in the search engine market.

7. Yahoo

Yahoo has been in the Internet market much longer than Google. The site has a very strong Internet user base. Yahoo is still the leader when it comes to the following areas: email, news, photos, and market analysis services. Yahoo partnered up with Microsoft in 2009 in the search engine market to pool together their resources.  As a result, Google will face more fierce competition in the search market.  Yahoo news continues to challenge Google News. Furthermore, Yahoo’s Flickr photo sharing service is extremely popular nowadays, which is a direct threat for Google’s Picasa.  Yahoo’s Delicious also poses great threat for Google Bookmarks. Last but not least, although Gmail is the most popular email service today, Yahoo mail still has a huge user base, especially outside of the US.

8. Cisco

Cisco’s WebEx and VOIP services pose immediate threat for Google Wave and Google Voice.  Moreover, Cisco is continually improving its video conferencing quality. Pure Digital and Flip were the two companies acquired by Cisco, which shows Cisco’s intention to enter the smart phone market, another great challenge for Google’s Nexus One.  Another competing area between Google and Cisco is cloud computing.  With Google rolling out more digital products and Internet services, its competition with Cisco can only get more and more intense in the future.

9. IBM

Google Wave will be competing with IBM’s LotusLive collaboration tools.  According to iResearch, LotusLive service will be attracting more than 2,000,000 users in the next two years.

10. Nokia

The mobile phone war shows no signs of slowing down this year.  Nokia now has 40% of the global cell phone market.  Google’s Nexus One is the most recent hit in the mobile phone market. Nokia will not easily give away its market share to Google.  Its strengthened Symbian OS is a great threat for Google’s Android.  Plus, Nokia has reached an agreement with Microsoft that it will add Office Mobile to its Symbian system.  Inevitably, to win the mobile phone war, Google must battle Nokia first.

Conclusion

Google’s future is interesting.  The fact that the company never stopped innovating has attracted countless Google fan boys and gals.  While I am rooting for Google in 2010, I also want to see more companies standing up and challenging Google in different ways.  Let us know whether you have any comments to add.

This article is inspired by an iResearch.cn report

Related posts:

1. Google's Ten Biggest Enemies in 2010 (Part I) Google has been innovating in the Internet market for...
2. How Big Will Google Get? (Google 2009 Recap) We are living in a very interesting day and age....
3. 20 Great Google Chrome Extensions You Must Have I have made it very clear in my previous post...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Google has been innovating in the Internet market for the last decade. With over 150 products and potentially more products coming this year, Google is, no doubt, accelerating its growth both domestically and internationally.  If you want to predict future trend in the cyber space, just watch Google, and I bet you will get the hint.  Since Google has a wide range of product categories, it inevitably faces many competitions accordingly in the marketplace.  There are 10 major enemies for Google in 2010.  Let’s start with the first 5.

 

1. Apple

Apple has made a name for itself in the marketplace for its ability to innovate.  Apple is currently competing with Google head to head in the following areas: smart phones, operating systems, mobile ads, and online music.  Meanwhile, Apple’s Safari is a direct threat for Google Chrome browser. In 2010, it’s predicted that the markets in digital music and smart phones will be growing exponentially. When it comes to music search, Google has been partnering with MySpace and Pandora, which makes Google a strong competitor for Apple’s iTunes. Furthermore, expect to see a smart phone war triggered by Google’s new Android phone.   The iPhone will not give up that easily.

2. Microsoft

The role Microsoft plays in the IT industry is paramount and indispensable.  Microsoft will be competing with Google in the following areas: search, Internet collaboration tools, and Internet browsers. It’s known that Microsoft has invested a fortune in its new search engine, Bing.  Bing is now gradually gaining more market share.  What makes Bing even more powerful if the fact that Microsoft has partnered up with Twitter, Facebook, and Yahoo.  To fight back, Google introduced real search feature last year.  Other than search, Google and Microsoft will mainly be competing for their cloud computing services.  For lots of enterprises, Google Docs tools have already replaced the Office Suite as their work collaboration tools.

3. Amazon

In 2009, Google was scanning thousands of books online.  Moreover, Google Book Search provides 500,000 free online digital books for users of Sony Reader and Barnes & Noble’s Nook. Amazon’s Kindle is the king among all eBook readers nowadays.  But Kindle’s got some tough competitions this year given Google’s strategic partnerships with both Sony and B & N.  Recently, Google also rolled out Google Editions, Google’s eBook Store, competing directly with Amazon.

4. Facebook

Facebook is leading the trend of social media worldwide.  It’s attracting 350 millions active users. A tremendous portion of Facebook’s current users also utilizes Google’s search engine. The intense competition between Facebook and Google narrows down to one word: future. Where would Internet users seek for information in the future? Through search engine or via social networking sites?  In 2010, Google’s Orkut will be competing with Facebook.  Orkut is the provider of the Google Friend Connect service.  On the other hand, Facebook has the Facebook Connect service.  In general, Google and Facebook, the two Internet giants, will be competing mostly in the social networking sphere.

5. Twitter

If you still remember, Google tried to buy Twitter in 2009. But now, Twitter becomes the biggest competitor for Google when it comes to real time search.  Both Google and Twitter have very nice real search features. It would be interesting to see how future unfolds itself in this regard.

In the next article, we will cover the last 5 major competitors Google faces in 2010.  If you are not a WebStudio13 subscriber, please take a minute to subscribe to our RSS feeds (via email) so you won’t miss the next one.

Update: You can now read the 2nd part of the article here.

This article is inspired by an iResearch.cn report

Related posts:

1. Google’s Ten Biggest Enemies in 2010 (Part II) Google is, no doubt, the biggest powerhouse in the...
2. My Official 7 Predictions On Web Trends In 2010 I just had my birthday on March 13, which...
3. Social Media Will Be Bigger In 2010 Twitter might have been the most popular word for 2009,...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

As a Chrome fan, I’ve definitely found great usage of the Chrome browser. If you are still trying to decide which one to choose in between Chrome and Firefox, read this article.

This morning, Google released its stable version of Chrome browser, called Chrome 4.0.249.78 officially.  I just installed it.  Having tested it for the past hour, I do feel this new version works better with all the extensions and bookmark sync.  If you have a hard time finding the right extensions, begin with these ones that I recommend.

Here are the new features included with this new version:

• Extensions
• Bookmark sync
• Enhanced developer tools
• HTML5: Notifications, Web Database, Local Storage, WebSockets, Ruby support
• v8 performance improvements
• Skia performance improvements
• Full ACID3 pass, due to re-enabled remote font support (with added defense against bugs in operating system font libraries)
• HTTP byte range support
• New security feature: “Strict Transport Security” support
• Experimental new anti-reflected-XSS feature called “XSS Auditor”

To try it out, download it here.  This version is only for Windows for now.  You can check out more information about it at the Google Chrome Blog.

Related posts:

1. 20 Great Google Chrome Extensions You Must Have I have made it very clear in my previous post...
2. 7 Reasons Why I Switched to Google Chrome from Firefox As a media professional who devotes most of his time...
3. The Simple Google Chrome OS Guide (With Resources) What is Google Chrome OS? According to Google’s Weblog, “it...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Google's Top 30 Holiday Logos

In 2009, Google experienced accelerating growth. The search giant seems to be innovating in every area possible. As a Google fan, I’ve been paying close attention to this company through multiple lenses. One thing interesting about Google is its innovatively simple design for its front page logos. Often times, I would intentionally type in Google’s homepage just to watch its new design.

Now that it’s the holiday season, I’ve collected a list of the top 30 Google’s holiday logos. Guess this is my special way of saying “Happy Holidays” to all WebStudio13 readers.

1. Dec 23, 2009 – Happy Holidays from Google 2009 (Global)

2. Dec 22, 2009 – Happy Holidays from Google 2009 (Global)

3. Dec 18, 2009 – Jan Evangelista Purkyne’s Birthday (Czech Republic)

4. Dec 17, 2009 – Discovery of the Aztec Sun Stone (Mexico)

5. Dec 11, 2009 – Qian Xusen’s Birthday (China)

6. Dec 11, 2009 – Nageeb Fahouz’s Birthday (Egypt)

7. Dec 08, 2009 – E.C. Segar’s Birthday – Popeye (Global)

8. Dec 05, 2009 – Father’s Day (Thailand)

9. Dec 02, 2009 – UAE National Day (UAE)

10. Nov 30, 2009 – St. Andrew’s Day (UK)

11. Nov 26, 2009 – Thanksgiving Day (US)

12. Nov 22, 2009 – 50th Anniversary of Sandmännchen (Germany)

13. Nov 20, 2009 – National Teacher’s Day (Vietnam)

14. Nov 18, 2009 – Father Frost’s Birthday (Russia)

15. Nov 17, 2009 – Isamu Noguchi’s Birthday (Japan)

16. Nov 14, 2009 – Doodle 4 Google India: ‘My India’ by Puru Pratap Singh (India)

17. Nov 13, 2009 – NASA finds water on the moon (Global)

18. Nov 11, 2009 – Polish Independence Day (Poland)

19. Nov 10, 2009 – Sesame Street (Selected Countries)

20. Nov 04, 2009 – 20th Anniversary of the Wallace and Gromit Characters (Selected Global)

21. Nov 03, 2009 – Melbourne Cup (Australia)

22. Oct 31, 2009 – Happy Halloween! (Selected Countries)

23. Oct 29, 2009 – Turkish National Day (Turkey)

24. Oct 26, 2009 – Austrian National Day (Austria)

25. Oct 13, 2009 – 150 Years Since Multatuli (Netherlands)

26. Oct 10, 2009 – Giuseppe Verdi’s Birthday (Italy)

27. Oct 09, 2009 – Hangul Proclamation Day (Korea)

28. Oct 03, 2009 – Moon Viewing Day (Tsukimi) (Japan)

29. Oct 02, 2009 – Mahatma Gandhi’s Birthday (Selected Countries)

30. Oct 01, 2009 – China’s National Day (China)

Related posts:

1. The Simple Google Chrome OS Guide (With Resources) What is Google Chrome OS? According to Google’s Weblog, “it...
2. HOW TO: Use Social Media to Its Fullest During The Holiday Season (15 Tips) Thanksgiving is right on the corner. We are soon...
3. The Best of WebStudio13 2009 Today is January 1st, 2010.  Let’s start the New Year...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

We are living in a very interesting day and age.  In the 21st century, every company around us seems to be striving for innovation all the time.  Today’s marketplace demands for creativity and uniqueness.  So what are some of the great companies that have innovated big?  Google, the Internet behemoth, is an excellent example.  As a matter of fact, 2009 seems to be an accelerating year for this search engine giant.  Indeed, Google almost has its finger on everything.  Its competition, such as Yahoo and Microsoft, has only been playing catch-up all this time.  Let’s review some milestone events in 2009 where Google has excelled.

New Products/Features

Earlier this year, Google launched Google Voice.  It’s a telecommunication service by Google, an upgrade from GrandCentral.  The idea is to forward inbound calls to the Google Voice number to other phone numbers of the subscriber.  Google Voice is currently hugely popular but it’s invite only.

In this year’s Google I/O back in May, Google announced Google Wave, a product that helps users communicate and collaborate on the web.  This product is getting mixed reviews so far.  At least for now, no major breakthroughs are found with this product.  But personally, I think Wave deserves more credit because I believe more useful featured will be discovered as developers invest more time to develop this product.

In late October, iLike and LaLa music services were integrated into Google to stream song directly from search.  In early December, Google announced real search.  The real-time search enables its users to discover breaking news the moment it’s happening.  The most recent Google hot topic indicates that Google will have its own phone, which has the most controversial facial recognition feature, triggered by Google Goggle.  The story will get more interesting in 2010.

Acquisitions

Back in April of this year, Google was attempting to buy Twitter for $250M, but the offer didn’t come through.  The most recent news has it that Google will spend half a billion or more on Yelp.  Although the Yelp deal hasn’t been confirmed, but it was indicated as highly likely according to TechCrunch.  During the time in between, Google has acquired the following companies in order: Omnisio, Tatter & Co, TNC, On2 Technologies, reCAPTCHA, Gizmo5, AdMob, Teracent, and AppJet.

So who is likely to be the next acquisition target for Google?  Yesterday, when I was listening to TWiG (This Week in Google), somebody predicted that bit.ly is likely to be acquired by Google.  I am about 50/50 on this one because Google just rolled out its own URL Shortner service.  From my perspective, it just doesn’t make a lot of sense for Google to buy another URL shortner company.  But we shall see as 2010 unfolds.

Issues

There is no doubt that Google has been expanding faster than usual this year.  This trend is accelerating and seemingly unstoppable.  What if Google empire has everything we need to the extent that we couldn’t live without Google?  Are we concerned about our own data and privacy?  Is it a good thing for us if Google has too much control on everything?  These are some questions to leave you with.  Now, let’s end this post by reviewing an interview clip about Google’s future with Melissa Mayer, the Vice President of Search Product and User Experience at Google.

Related posts:

1. Google’s Ten Biggest Enemies in 2010 (Part II) Google is, no doubt, the biggest powerhouse in the...
2. Google's Ten Biggest Enemies in 2010 (Part I) Google has been innovating in the Internet market for...
3. Google's Top 30 Innovatively Simple Holiday Logos In 2009 In 2009, Google experienced accelerating growth. The search giant seems...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Chrome Browser

I have made it very clear in my previous post that I am a big fan of Google Chrome browser.  Not only do I like its speed, here are also many other reasons why I cam crazy about Chrome.  However, Chrome is not perfect.  Compared to Firefox, often times I am troubled by its lack of extensions.  Sometimes, it took me a long time to search for useful Chrome extensions.

This post summarizes the best (most popular) 20 Chrome plugins that I’ve found.  If you are a Chrome user, you will find them extremely helpful. Enjoy!

1. Google Mail Checker – Download
Gmail is the most popular email client nowadays. I don’t know about you, but I check my Gmail numerous times a day. This plugin displays the number of unread messages in your Google Mail inbox. You can also click the button to open your inbox.

2. Google Translate - Download
This extension translates entire webpages into a language of your choice with one click. It shows some very cool features.

3. AdBlock - Download
Have you ever find ads annoying and distractive? AdBlock removes Facebook ads, Flash animations, and ads from all over the web. It helps you focus on the real content on the Web.

4. RSS Subscription – Download
Like the content of this website?  With this plugin, you can subscribe to any site with just one click.

5. Xmarks Bookmark Sync – Download
I installed this plugin when I used to use Firefox.  I found it extremely useful. It backs up and syncs your bookmarks across all your computers and browsers. Now you can do this easily with Chrome as well.

6. Chromed Bird – Download
Supercool feature.  With this extension, now I don’t need to log in my Twitter site to check my timeline and tweet. With one click, Chromed Bird allows you to interact with your Twitter account.

Related posts:

1. 7 Reasons Why I Switched to Google Chrome from Firefox As a media professional who devotes most of his time...
2. Download Chrome's New Stable Release As a Chrome fan, I’ve definitely found great usage...
3. The Simple Google Chrome OS Guide (With Resources) What is Google Chrome OS? According to Google’s Weblog, “it...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Google Chrome OS

What is Google Chrome OS? According to Google’s Weblog, “it is an open source, lightweight operating system with three key aspects: Speed, simplicity and security.” I am a current user of Google Chrome browser. And I really like Chrome’s speed. Google debuted its Chrome OS last week.  Since then, different tech blogs have been writing about Chrome OS nonstop. While there are many tutorials and opinion articles about Google Chrome OS, it is important to identify critical resources and dive deeper with the Chrome OS. I am a big Google fan. Over the past several days, I’ve been reading a variety of Google Chrome OS articles. Here I want to share some of the useful things I’ve learned.

Let’s just call this the “Simple Google Chrome OS Guide.”

1. The Official Google Blog

The Official Google Blog

This is one of Google’s first posts to introduce the Chrome OS. It offers a bird’s-eye view in terms of what Chrome OS is and what it does.

2. TechCrunch

TechCrunch

This is a step-by-step guide on how to run Chrome OS on your computer. You must take Google’s open-sourced code and turn it into a bootable computer.

3. TechRadar

TechRadar

TechRadar has written a very informative and easy-to-understand Google Chrome OS guide, named “10 things to know about Google Chrome OS.” And they are:

1. What exactly is Chrome OS?
2. When will we able to use Chrome OS?
3. So Microsoft need not worry about competition for Windows 7 then?
4. Will it run on my computer?
5. If it’s so heavily web integrated, will it be secure enough?
6. So is this being done entirely in-house by Google?
7. So how will this make my computing experience better?
8. What does this mean for Android?
9. Will this sound the death knell for Ubuntu and Fedora?
10. How much will it cost?

4. CNET

CNET

Peter Glaskowsky offers interesting perspectives about Chrome’s future. Personally, I don’t think Mr. Glaskowsky is a fan of netbooks to begin with. But it’s always interesting to hear second opinions about the Chrome OS.

5. Mashable

Mashable

An interesting article comparing Google and Microsoft. I find it’s too early to put Chrome OS up against the Windows. But hey, it’s Mashable.

6. Gigaom

Gigaom

This article poses four challenging questions Google must solve in order for it’s Chromes OS to move forward. Very interesting analysis, indeed.

Do you have any thoughts on the new Google Chrome OS? Feel free to share.

Related posts:

1. Google's Top 30 Innovatively Simple Holiday Logos In 2009 In 2009, Google experienced accelerating growth. The search giant seems...
2. 7 Reasons Why I Switched to Google Chrome from Firefox As a media professional who devotes most of his time...
3. 20 Great Google Chrome Extensions You Must Have I have made it very clear in my previous post...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Google Wave is one of the most chatted subjects about Google now. I have written about Google Wave in a previous post.  When I was researching Google Wave earlier today, I found 4 impressive Google Wave videos.  I thought it would be cool to share with our readers here.

1. What Is Google Wave?

This video predicts the awesomeness of Google Wave as an email replacement tool.  Although I have different views when it comes to anything replacing emails, I do like Epipheo Studios‘ analogy and like the video they’ve created.  To read my view about “the Demise of Email,” click here.

2. Google Wave Presentation in 10 Minutes

This is a brilliant edited/abridged version of the Google Wave presentation back in May at Google I/O. Since the long version runs more than 1 hour, this abridged version allows you to check out some killer features of Google Wave in 10 minutes. To watch the longer version, click here.

3. Google Wave Cinema: Pulp Fiction

Originally, I saw this clip on TechCrunch.  It’s really cool seeing what Wave does.  Let us know how you think about this one.

4. Google Wave Cinema: Good Will Hunting

This is a video response to the “Pulp Fiction” video.

Related posts:

1. 7 Reasons Why Google Wave Is Going To Be Awesome Back in May at Google I/O, Google revealed its next...
2. 20 Great Google Chrome Extensions You Must Have I have made it very clear in my previous post...
3. 15 Essential Google Tools for Successful Business People Google is probably the greatest Web 2.0 company we...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

As a media professional who devotes most of his time online, I pay a lot of attend to the speed of my internet browser.  It means efficiency for me.  Before I was introduced to Google Chrome, I have always been a Firefox fan.  I’ve even written a post about how to make Firefox go faster (Check it out).  Lately, I started experimenting Google Chrome.  Surprisingly, I really began to like this browser.  Although Chrome is new (debuted on Sept. 2008), there is definitely potential for its future.  In comparison to Firefox, I will outline 7 things that make Chrome a better browser for me.

1. Much Faster Loading Time

On Chrome’s home page, it says “Google Chrome runs web pages and applications with lightning speed.”  Basically Chrome uses something called “multiprocess foundation,” meaning one slow site won’t slow down your browsing experience.  In other words, each site is isolated.  Besides, when I click on the Chrome icon to launch the browser, the program itself opens within seconds.  To be fair, this distinct feature has separated Chrome apart from most of its competitors.

2. No Browser Crash

Because of the multiprocess feature, a bad web page won’t drag down your entire Chrome browser.  My Firefox browser used to crash all the time, which was really frustrating for me.  Since I am used to keeping many tabs open, it usually takes a long time to recover all those tabs.  For Chrome on the other hand, every tab, window, and plug-in runs in its own environment.  This limited environment won’t let an individual site affect other sites that you are browsing simultaneously.

3. Impressive Tab Features

Unlike Firefox, you don’t have to install addons to have those impressive tab features.  With Firefox, I used to install Tiny Menu and Tab Mix Plus.  Chrome does them all by itself. My favorite tab feature with Chrome is its ability to close those unwanted tabs all at once while keeping your current tab open (Use features such as “close all other tabs” and “close tabs on the right“). Again, sometimes I have around 20 – 30 tabs open. This feature allows me to close unwanted tabs at once altogether without wasting time.  For other tab-related features, check out the following video.

4. Amazing Default Home Page

The default home page is the newly opened tab. It displays a snapshot of the most frequented websites and recently closed tabs (See my screenshot below).

My Chrome Default Home Page

As you can see from the above picture, here is a list of my most visited websites:

• My Entrepreneur Group on Meetup
• PayPal where I manage most of my online payment transactions
• My Facebook Account
• Gmail
• My Tech Blog – Web Studio 13
• My LinkedIn Account
• My Twitter Account

Every time I want to frequent any of those websites listed above, I just open a new tab and click on the corresponding link.  The whole process takes me no longer than 3 seconds.  As you may have noticed, at the bottom of this default page is a list of recently visited websites.  In the scenario where I mistakenly closed a tab, I now can always find it from this list and reopen that tab (or use the “reopen closed tab” feature).

5. The All-Purpose Omnibox

The Omnibox in Chrome is what we refer to as the address bar in Firefox.  Chrome merges both address bar and Google search, meaning you can type in either an URL or a search term in the Omnibox and Chrome takes you to the right place without asking any questions.  See the following demo for example.

6. The “Incognito” Mode

By staying incognito, you are actually participating in Chrome’s private browsing option.  Under the incognito mode, Chrome will not record any of your login information, browsing history, etc.  Chrome’s Incognito window is isolated from your regular browsing windows.  So the incognito feature won’t interfere with your normal browsing experience and will operate independently.

7. A Promising Future

Unlike Firefox, Chrome was just released on Sept. 2008. Currently, Google is still experimenting many new features with this browser.  It’s safe to assume that there will be more exciting features and addons to this browser in the future. That’s why I choose to stay with Chrome now.  In general, its future seems very promising.

Conclusion

To clarify, by writing this post, I am not saying Chrome is better than Firefox or any other browsers.  Instead, I indicate it works better for my particular needs, such as faster web browsing experience.  I have introduced some killer features that the current Chrome browser has to offer.  If this is something that sounds promising to you, you should definitely try it out.  Would love to hear your opinions about it.

Related posts:

1. 20 Great Google Chrome Extensions You Must Have I have made it very clear in my previous post...
2. Download Chrome's New Stable Release As a Chrome fan, I’ve definitely found great usage...
3. The Simple Google Chrome OS Guide (With Resources) What is Google Chrome OS? According to Google’s Weblog, “it...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Google Tools

Google is probably the greatest Web 2.0 company we have ever witnessed in the history of mankind.  I am a big fan of all kinds of Google tools.  This company has become so big over the last couple of years that it is near impossible to be an expert on every single product/service that Google offers.  As an entrepreneur, I’ve benefited handsomely from a list of 15 essential Google tools that I am about to reveal in this post.

1. Google Search

This is a no-brainer.  Google has the largest share in the search engine market in comparison to Yahoo, Bing, and AOL. I use Google everyday now to search for materials I am interested in.  Google has replaced the library I used to use in school.  Most importantly, Google search engine has become smarter and smarter as more and more people are using Google. As a result, you get better relevancy and more accuracy when you search.

2. Gmail

Oh, need I say more? Gmail is probably one of the greatest inventions in Google history.  Nowadays, I integrate all my other email accounts with Gmail (Hate Yahoo…. It never lets me forward my Yahoo emails to Gmail with a free Yahoo account).  Even better, Gmail lets me send emails from my own domain directly from the Gmail platform.  For example, if an email hits my Gmail inbox, I can simply reply that email using Andrew [at] WebStudio13 [dot] com without leaving Gmail.  Isn’t that amazing?  Bottom line, Gmail equals efficiency!

3. YouTube

YouTube is a great marketing tool.  You can design your own YouTube channel which will then appeal to the maximum amount of subscribers.  If you are a video blogger and like to teach people by recording your own video tutorials, YouTube is a great place to upload all your video clips.  I’ve written a previous post, which summarizes 13 greatest YouTube videos of all-time.  Check it out here.

4. Google Reader

Google Reader allows you to keep up with your favorite websites as easy as checking your email. Google Reader constantly checks your favorite news sites and blogs for new content.  To share with your friends, you can use Google Reader’s built-in public page to easily share interesting items with your friends and family. Google Reader is totally free and works in most modern browsers, without any software to install.  Personally, I use Google Reader to subscribe to my favorite tech blogs such as TechCrunch, Problogger, TwiTip, Mashable, etc.

5. Goolge News

Google News is an automated news aggregator. Google News provides searching, and the choice of sorting the results by date and time of publishing or grouping them.  Who needs print media when you can get Google News for free?  Instead Wall Street Journal, Google News has become my newest power breakfast that I “eat” everyday.  Be in the know of what’s happening in your industry and stay up to date with what your competitors are doing, all by using Google News.

6. Picasa

Picasa is free photo editing software from Google that makes your pictures look great.  Sharing your best photos with friends and family is as easy as pressing a button! Along with Photoshop and Picnik, Picasa is another main photo processing tool that I use.  I usually use it to mass resize a number of pictures all together so they are small enough for me to email people.

7. Google PageRank

If you have heard of Alexa, chances are you also know Google PageRank.  PageRank is a link analysis algorithm. If you have a website or a blog, you should be concerned about your own PageRank.  Here is how Google defines PageRank:

PageRank reflects our view of the importance of web pages by considering more than 500 million variables and 2 billion terms. Pages that we believe are important pages receive a higher PageRank and are more likely to appear at the top of the search results.

PageRank also considers the importance of each page that casts a vote, as votes from some pages are considered to have greater value, thus giving the linked page greater value. We have always taken a pragmatic approach to help improve search quality and create useful products, and our technology uses the collective intelligence of the web to determine a page’s importance.

8. Google Analytics

As an Internet marketing professional, I don’t know how I am every going to live without Google Analytics.  Basically, Google Analytics is the enterprise-class web analytics solution that gives you rich insights into your website traffic and marketing effectiveness. Powerful, flexible and easy-to-use features now let you see and analyze your traffic data in an entirely new way. With Google Analytics, you’re more prepared to write better-targeted ads, strengthen your marketing initiatives and create higher converting websites.

9. Google Adsense

Are you a website owner? Is earning money one of your goals?  If the answer is yes, then Google’s Adsense program should be a big component of your monetization mix.  The essence of Adsense is to display targeted Google ads on your website’s content pages and earn from valid clicks or impressions. AdSense gives you access to Google’s vast network of advertisers, so you can show ads that are suited to your audience’s interests.

10. Google Adword

What sets Google apart from the Magazine and Newspaper advertising strategies is its Adword program.  In short, Google only charges you when somebody clicks on your ads.  This, in turn, allows you to get the biggest bang for you buck.  Here is how Adword works:

1. You create ads and choose keywords, which are words or phrases related to your business.
2. When people search on Google using one of your keywords, your ad may appear next to the search results. Now you’re advertising to an audience that’s already interested in you.
3. People can simply click your ad to make a purchase or learn more about you. You don’t even need a webpage to get started – Google will help you create one for free. It’s that easy!

11. Google Wave

This product is still in beta now. Back in May at Google I/O, Google announced this product.  Google Wave sounds very promising. As business owners, we should position ourselves ahead of the wave and get to know this efficient tool as early as possible.  For a full coverage of its features, refer to my former post “7 Reasons Why Google Wave Is Going To Be Awesome.”

12. Google Alert

Are you concerned about your reputation and wonder what others say about you? Google Alerts will send you email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.  Here are just some topics to help you get started:

• monitoring a developing news story
• keeping current on a competitor or industry
• getting the latest on a celebrity or event
• keeping tabs on your favorite sports teams

13. iGoogle

iGoogle lets you create a personalized homepage that contains a Google search box at the top, and your choice of any number of gadgets below. Gadgets come in lots of different forms and provide access to activities and information from all across the web, without ever having to leave your iGoogle page.  It’s my one-stop shop for all the topics that pique my interests.  Here is how I use iGoogle personally:

• Check Gmails
• Read headlines from Google News
• Check other news from NYTimes, BBC News, NPR, etc.
• Watch weather forecast
• Inspirational quotes gadget
  
• Wikipedia search box
• Hulu & YouTube video gadget.

14. Google Voice

Google voice is probably one of my most anticipated upcoming Google products. If you haven’t heard of it, here is a sneak preview.

15. Google Doc/Google Calendar

They are actually two Google tools.  For the sake of simplicity, I put them together here because they both represent well as time management/scheduling tools. They allow you to achieve the maximum efficiency and make your workload flow smoothly for all business people.

So what are your favorite Google tools?  Let us know if you want to share your creative Googlejuice with us here.

Related posts:

1. My Favorite 26 Facebook Applications for Business People Facebook is the biggest social networking site in the...
2. 20 Great Google Chrome Extensions You Must Have I have made it very clear in my previous post...
3. How to Run a Successful Business/Entrepreneur Meetup Group? Being an entrepreneur myself, I’ve always wanted to build...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.