#Week 6: Google - the King of Internet Tools

Google is amazing. It has the most incredible collection of internet tools, which I really love. Just imagine a day of an ordinary college student without Gmail to exchange project information, Google Docs to compile works with group mates, Google Search to look up for ideas and inspiration, or Google Translate (well…perhaps just for me!) to understand English words…Oh Gosh, it must be horrible!

Hence, it can't be denied that internet tools have become a significant part of our daily life. And it’s also important to notice that Google is a giant in developing or acquiring numerous internet-related products, some of which have really amazed me.

Google Image Search: Okay I’ve recently acknowledged that you may have encountered this tool at least several times. However, this is a total brand new concept to me *cry*! What I like about it is this time, we don’t need to type in keywords to find correspondent images but use images to search for images. Wow! In a nutshell, Google Image Search is an image search engine, with results based on the filename of the image, the link text pointing to the image and text adjacent to the image. We can also make a search by uploading a picture from our computer. When searching, a thumbnail of each matching image is displayed. Isn’t it awesome! Thanks to Google Image, our pool of possible results once type in the keyword has been remarkably expanded. Google Image Search has allowed us to explore the web in an entirely new way!

Google Shopping: Hey shopaholic fellows, welcome Google Shopping. Google Shopping, formerly called Google Product Search, Google Products and Froogle, is a Google service created by Craig Nevill-Manning which allows users to search for products on online shopping websites and compare prices between different vendors. Recently, Google Shopping has changed its policy to only show paid results where merchants have to pay Google to list their products on the service, with results influenced by both relevance and the bid amounts they pay. Even though it creates a controversial among small businesses who wish to promote their products but worry about their ability to compete with larger companies, we as customers still benefit from this tool as it provides us with a whole new shopping experience. Am I correct?

3.       Google Moon, Google Mars, and Google Sky: First thing first, they are Google directory tools that allow users to view objects beyond the globe: the moon, the stars and galaxies at night times. Awesome! Generally, these services are created in response to the popularity of Google Earth but they go a step further of showing NASA imagery of the moon and the sky via Google Maps interface. Even though I’m not that much interested with viewing celestial objects, aren’t these concepts of providing visual tours to the outer space cool and inspiring?

To wrap up today’s blog entry, here’s my fan-made music video posted via YouTube which has recently become a member of Google family! In this music video, I was in charge of writing plot and direct, meaning you will not see me that much in this video as I was not one of the actors. Teehee. However, for those who would like to spot me, I was wearing an orange dress/long shirt (well, I only wear it at home, please don’t judge why I look so bad!). And one more thing, please watch for the sake of watching as I bet many of you guys may not understand: first, the storyline will not be smooth as I was a mediocre writer; second, it’s a Vietnamese song – no English sub… So, GOOD LUCK and have a nice day! I’ll see you in my next post!