Talkin' Google at CDPUG
At tonight's meeting of the Cleveland Desktop Publishing Users Group (CDPUG) I was one of seven speakers sharing our enthusiasm about different Google applications. We spoke in such glowing terms—myself included—we stopped just short of urging everyone to drink the KoolAid. Still, there's no denying that Google offers a lot of ways to manage and use information of all types.
Below are my notes from the meeting, and here's a bit more about Alerts, Notebook, and other Google stuff I love.
Notes for CDPUG via Google Docs (info)
- use Docs because can access it from any computer when inspiration hits
- allows group collaboration (probably not necessary here)
- can be copied & used locally as usual
ALERTS (info)
- set topic(s) you want to follow
- your name, to see how famous you are
- your core interests ("interactive design", "desktop publishing")
- hobbies, friends, etc.
- choose type of search
- news
- blogs
- video
- comprehensive
- set frequency
- as it happens
- daily
- weekly
- sit back and wait for the emails come in
- read a few and impress your friends with your new-found knowledge
NOTEBOOK (info)
- quick & easy way to save URLs, similar to bookmarks, but more flexible
- can save bits of text, images also - notes can include your comments
- notes can use labels to make easier to organize
- download & install browser plug-in (works only in Internet Explorer 6 and Firefox 1.5+)
- use multiple notebooks to keep things organized
- it's just way cool
ANALYTICS (info)
- basic stats (Visitors, Pageviews, etc.)
- visitor overview
- design-related items
- browser
- browser version for IE
- connection speed
- screen resolution
- traffic sources
- direct
- search
- referral (images!)
- content by page title
- search keywords used
- compare time periods to see performance over time
- set up by inserting provided code into every page you want to track
Top |
|
