Google Tools to Keep Up in the Info Age

How do I keep up on everything? I lean a lot on computers.

A few simple tips:

• Use Google Reader:
  Google is such a great service, that in my opinion the founders should get a Nobel Prize.
  
  Three things Google does for you beyond providing the world's best free search engine:
  
  1) Google gives anyone who wants it a FREE lifetime, email address with nearly limitless email storage space. Never delete an email again! Just sign up here for Gmail. With GMail comes Google Documents which provides a FREE word processing program and nearly limitless document storage for your writing.
  
  2) Google created Blogger which hosts this blog, and countless others, for FREE! With Blogger comes a FREE photo- and graphics-storage system (Picassa)
  
  3) Google created Google Reader (it requires a free Gmail account). Google Reader will allow you to read new content on any blog or web site; just strip in the URL, and it will search and pull up all the new stuff on a daily basis. No more "web surfing" back to sites you would like to read evry day (such as Terrierman's Daily Dose). Quickly scan through all the stories and "dump out " the stuff you are not interested in, while giving a "star" to any stuff you are interested in coming back to and reading later. In Google Readers, nothing disappears -- you can search for it all later -- even the dumped stuff! -- and find it again. Perfect! Over 200 articles a day come to me via Google Reader. A small point: Be sure to include other points of view in your Google Reader! Working against opposing forces is how you strengthen muscles, and that includes your brain!
  
  
• Google News Alerts:
  If you are trying to stay up in your field, very few tools are more helpful than Google Email News Alerts which will send you an email alert every time your issue or issues pops up in the news. I get about 40 Google Alerts a day.
  
  
• Make Sure You Actually Talk to People.
  Not all information is digital, and not all relationships are cyber. Turn off the phone once in a while, make eye contact in the elevator, smile, stand in a few doorways drinking coffee, and pick up the phone sometimes instead of sending an email. At least once a week take the dogs and go walking in forest and field.

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