Go Get a Google [Account!] & Catch the Wave!

If you haven’t yet swallowed the Google Kool-Aid, it is now time. Every day you don’t do it, is one day you lose on the learning curve. It also seems like every day there is a new Google announcement that makes the case for a Google account even stronger. (Disclaimer: I realize that what follows will read like a full court suck up to Google but since I actually use the services mentioned, I feel don’t feel too guilty about it.) While you may not think you need a new email address (and you do) the Google account itself unlocks dozens of internet feaures and free programs that have nothing to do with search or email. Having them all work together (often seamlessly) and under a single account and password will make your computing experience easy and more mobile than ever. But first back to email: if you are still using an email address given to you by your service provider, say like Cox or Comcast (accountname@cox.net) or if you are still using an AOL email (is that company dead yet?) it is time you started the task of moving your email address to Gmail, an email address that will move with you if you should change service providers or move to another geographic location.

Changing your email can be a difficult task requiring updating a lot of contacts and notifying online accounts but gmail has new features that make it easy and even more desireable than ever to bite the bullet and get it over with. The time to do it is now when you and your contacts can make the change comforably and not when you are stressed out, moving, or possibly up against a service loss deadline. One by one the engineers at gmail have eliminated all the usual objections to going to the online email provider. Gmail Desktop will now allow you to download and store your email on your local computer. Gmail integrates easily with Outlook and any other email reader including an iPhone and just about any other messaging device. (I even read my email on an old fasioned cell phone without a data plan.) While you could always configure Gmail to “collect” all your email from all of your email accounts to read in one place, as of last week you can now configure Gmail to to reply without showing the world that you aggregated in Gmail. That is a direct hit at Outlook if you ask me! (I have about 7 email accounts for various projects, legacy accounts, etc. and they are all now going directly to Gmail and nobody will be the wiser!)

Want to write a blog? Get Blogger. Want to organize and edit your photos? Get Picassa and they will be available to you online anytime you want them. (They will also be available to show through your Tivo for fun slideshows when friends are over.) Google Finance will keep track of your portfolio, Google Calendar will not only keep track of your appointments but also those of your spouse and allow each of you to enter things in the other’s calendar. (Make another calendar for your kids!) YouTube ,of course, is also Google company that also uses your Google account name and password. There are dozens more including Google Toolbar (which will make all your web bookmarks available to you anywhere in the world on any machine) and even free anti virus programs that good enough for most consumers. Free.

In addition to Gmail, My daily Google fix includes Google Reader in order to read all my subscribed blogs in one window. Additionally, Google Voice is the phone number I give out as my one and only phone number keeping me in total control of my phone and voice mail. (Read this piece by NYT columnist David Pogue.) GV is still invitation only but when it comes out of Beta it will be a force to be reckoned with.

You can’t take advantage of any of these products without a Google Account. So go get one and then you can sign into iGoogle which will let you access ALL of these apps on a single web page or home page! There are more, but you can find info on them here. Also, you will want to be ready for Google Wave when it comes out. It may just be an email killer! Watch the developer demo here and you will see what I mean: