Thing #21 Google Cool Tools

Google has many wonderful tools available online. I explored almost all of them in our assignment and in Google Labs (yes, I'm addicted to the computer). Here are a few of my favorites.

I set up a Google calendar and shared it with my husband. He works on his computer as part of his job. We're going to try keeping a joint calendar and see if that makes our busy schedules easier to manage. We'll see.

I looked at Google Labs and found Similar Images. That was handy for finding images visually and not having to think of tag words to find what I wanted. I looked up Hibiscus flowers. Somewhere in my roaming around I found a website in German but flower is Hibiscus. I'm particularly interested in that particular flower right now. I've always liked the way they look. My husband recently bought four to add to our garden. They are beautiful. I get photography tips from looking at other people's prints as well as getting to look at lots of gorgeous flora.

Although I still can't figure out how to rotate a picture in a blog post, take a peak at one of our Hibiscus:

I installed Google Dashboard Widgets for Mac. It's handy having quick links to my Google mail, Google Reader, and Blog account. I've always liked playing around with the Dashboard.

I also have a Picasa account set up. I haven't found a photo editing program I'm really happy with out of the dozen or so that I've tried. Picasa has the advantage of being user-friendly and easily accessible with Internet.

I enjoyed looking at Google Earth. I know some of my students are already familiar with it because they shared it with me last year.

OK. The assignment called for two tools. I'll make myself stop at five in my post. This Thing has had the most content to explore so far. It shows me there is A LOT out there on the web just waiting to be used for lifelong learners.