Yewell's Jewels

Google needs no introduction. We've already turned the word into an acceptable verb ("have you tried googling it?"). However, there are aspects of the world's most popular search engine that I'm sure many don't know about.

First up is a great online resource to help you become a googling master, googleguide. corn. For instance, do you know how to use quotes to find exact terms and phrases? Maybe that's too easy and obvious.

How about this... do you know how each of the operators +, -, -, OR, I, ", and .. affect your searches? Did you know that Google is also a unit converter? Do you know how to use Google to search within a specific website? How often do you refine your searches? There's incredible power and flexibility available in everyday Google searches.

www.Googleguide.com explains it all, and has sections for everyone, from the beginner to the advanced, with examples and exercises to make sure these new skills stick. Googling is a skill in my books, and the better you are at it, the more effective you become at finding what you're looking for. As they say, knowledge is power!

Next up is the fun little feature... iGoogle. Found at www.google.com/ig, it's essentially a Google-branded home-page. Once signed in to your Google account (gmail), you can set up your iGoogle page to contain all sorts of info; RSS feeds of your favourite sites, "pics of the day", weather reports, games (such as Pacman), there's tons of stuff. You can change the theme of your page to set how it looks, arrange the placement of things on the page and so on. Go to www.google.com/ig to try it out.

Now for an aspect of gmail (Google-mail) that I use constantly. Do you know that gmail can act as a POP email client? Or in plain English... for my work email, we don't have a way of logging into our accounts via the web, I have to use a client to check my work email (such as "Outlook" or "Mac Mail"). In the past, when I wanted to check my email from outside of work, I had to be on a computer that I had already set-up (using Mac Mail in my case) to access my work email remotely.

Then someone told me I could create a new gmail address, and use gmail as a web-client for my work emails. This way, anywhere that I have access to an Internet connection, I can just log onto gmail, and there are all my work emails, I don't have to have Outlook/Mac Mail set-up on the computer I'm using. Like any email client, I can also send emails through my work address. I have my gmail account set-up so that it leaves a copy of the retrieved message on my work's email server, so that all emails are still also retrieved by my computer at work (you can turn this feature on/off). I highly recommend this if your current POP email account doesn't have a web interface (the only kink is your mail server must support POP access).

One final note, a minor annoyance, gmail will only automatically check the server periodically, perhaps 1 or 2 times an hour (if it acted like a normal client, constantly checking, I guess Google figures that would bog down their system). However, you can force gmail to check your server for messages at any time by going to Settings--> Accounts--> Check Mail Now. Just Google "gmail mail fetcher", and the top result should be the proper www.mail.google.com/support... address, and there you'll be able to view step-by-step instructions on how to set this up.

Lastly is a simple and powerful tool called Google SketchUp. SketchUp allows you to create 3D objects without being a 3D modeller. Before you pass this off as something you'd never use or think would be too difficult to learn, I suggest you check out the "What is SketchUP?" video. Go to google.com, select "Video" at the top of the page, and search for "what is sketchup". If you're inspired by what you see, go to www.sketchup.google.com for video tutorials, a 3D warehouse of created objects, and lots more! (that's where you also download the program). There's a "Pro" version of SketchUp that's NOT free, but mostly that's for professionals who need to export their creations into other 3D programs. For most users, the free version is all you'll ever want/need. SketchUp is available for both Mac and PC.

Until next month!

- Ryan

Note: Ryan Yelland © Permission to copy or quote extracts from this article may only be done with the written permission of the author.

Reprinted from the April 2009 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia

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