Google updates My Maps, Google Talk, and Docs & Spreadsheets
Posted on August 2, 2007 at 8:41 am
I’m a big Google fan and I love using their vast array of services such as GMail, Maps, Apps for Domain, Docs & Spreadsheets, etc, etc. There are way too many Google services that I use to mention all at once! Anyway, a lot of these services are beta or still fairly new, so it’s a lot of fun to know when there is a big update or feature addition.
First off, Google Maps now allows you to customize the content for the maps you create in My Maps. There’s a new link called “Add content”, which will bring you to a directory of “Mapplets” where you can choose to add tools or content such as gas prices, weather, jogging trails, events, etc.
It’s a pretty neat feature! For example, if you add the “Photos from Picasa Web Albums” mapplet to your My Maps, you can then search for pictures shared in the community and they’ll show up directly on the map! Here I searched for Honda as an example.
Secondly, Goolgle Talk has been updated to allow for group chats! That’s a feature that’s been on other IM programs for a long time, but was lacking conspicuously from Google Talk! Finally, it’s here! While in a chat, simply click the “Group Chat” button to invite others.
If you haven’t used Google Talk in a long time, they have also added emoticons like Yahoo. I used to use Yahoo Messenger all the time, but the newest version crashes all the time in Windows XP!
Best of all, however, are the updates to Google Docs and Spreadsheets! These tools are becoming better and better everyday. I still use Excel as my main spreadsheet application, but I have found that sharing and collaborating non-sensitive Word documents with others is much easier through Google Docs!
One of the new features is the ability to freeze header rows and sort data much faster with the new sort tab.
Along the bar that freezes your headers, you can hover over it to sort the columns easily:
Also, another nice feature that I love in Excel was the quick sum at the bottom right whenever you selected a group of cells with numbers. Spreadsheets gives you the sum, average, count, minimum, and maximum for the currently selected cells.
Lastly, you can also color code collaborators and see which cells each person is editing in different colors. A lot of new features released, so give them a shot if you haven’t already played around with it!
[tags]google talk, google docs and spreadsheets, google maps, google my maps, google mapplets, google talk group chat, google spreadsheet quick sum, freeze header rows, google services, google tools[/tags]
» Filed Under Google Software/Tips
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