I 'HEART' Google
I am a Google groupie. So what if they are well on their way to the world domination? I still ‘heart’ them. The sheer breadth of tools, gadgets, and goodies is splendid—and the Oxford Dictionary-approved status counts for something.
Here are a few reasons to love thy:
You’ve come a long way, baby, since the cumbersome web stats of the past. Google Analytics is invaluable for any DotOrg. The tool slices and dices data every which way and presents information in cute-as-a-button interactive graphs. My personal favorite is the map overlay feature that allows you to drill down visitors to the city level!
The set up is incredibly simple. After signing up, with your trusty Gmail account simply paste the java script snippet that’s provided into your pages’ code. Warming: The side effects of Google Analytics may include compulsive page refreshing and other symptoms of mildly obsessive behavior.
Whether you are planning a tea party, a rally of thousands, or a board meeting, Google Maps are a must. Just link to the darn map in the invitation.
Creating decent looking web pages is ridiculously simple with Google Page Creator. You pick the page layout, one of a handful of templates, paste in your content, a few photos, and voila!
If you’ve ever tried emailing a giant PPT out on a deadline or encountered the hidden monster of team work called ‘version control,’ this one will make your heart sing. Docs & Spreadsheets allows you to share your documents and even control permission levels of your collaborators. The RSS feed of changes to the document is also pretty 2.0.
Just for fun, there is nothing like Google’s nifty holiday logos to remind you about Thanksgiving, or Chinese New Year, or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s birthday first thing in the morning. If you crack the code of how to get Google to feature your charity on its logo, give me a call.
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