We do over 200 million searches a day. Larry Page Google is a powerful resource for everyone.  Although the average person does not know all the possibilities or tools that this amazing website has.

Google has been around for years as a search engine.  Originally created  as a research project at Stanford and at one point a partner of Yahoo's, it is now becoming more powerful with specialized searches, maps, videos, mail and more.

Larry Page and Sergy Brin were two Stanford Ph.D. students who wanted to improve the internet.  They  had no idea what an impact they would have.

Google Tools?

• Search - Search text, pictures, videos.  This is where is all begins and what most of us use it for.
• Maps - Search the world, literally, for any place you can imagine.
• Mail - Never run out of e-mail storage space.
• Calendar - Manage your calendar through your cell phone and share it with friends and family.
• Talk - Voice chat or text chat with friends, family or business associates.
• Book Search - Search full text books: fiction, nonfiction, educational.
• Labs - Check out what Google is brewing up for the future.
• Blogger - Create your own attractive corner of the internet, post blogs, photos or videos.
• Picasa - Manage your photos or edit them with effects or simple color corrections.
• Youtube - Watch the newest internet superstar or the funniest part from last nights "The Daily Show."

 These are just a few of Google's features and owned companies.  Check the sidebar for a list of even more. 

Google Competition

Everyone has a favorite search engine.  The main search of Google is very clean and to the point.  Yahoo has updated to a clean but busy interface.  AOL is the same way.   

Microsoft now owns Live.com .  This is Microsoft's attempt to take Google's audience. Live.com has many of the same options as Google, including image and map search functions.  You can expect to see Microsoft heavily implementing Live.com into its new operating system this year.

The future of Google?

Google has been slowly purchasing companies that build online web applications such as Writely.  Writely is an online word processor.  

Now Google has Google Documents and Spreadsheets.  This is a very useful and reliable tool that is just as good as Word or Excel. 

The nice thing is that it is free and your data stays online.  You will never need to worry about losing your important documents to a dead computer, a dead flash drive or a defunked floppy disk.  I hope you no longer use floppies.

Google Operating system? 

One can easily imagine a streamlined Google OS. Kris Shaffer Some say that Google will eventually create an operating system.  An operating system is simply a term for systems like Windows XP, Mac OS, Linux, or the new Windows Vista.

Google has tons of storage online. This Google operating system might run on Google's servers around the country.  You will have a display, keyboard and mouse.  These will all be plugged straight into Google's massive server farms.

What does this mean for you, the average user?  This means that you can log in (with your Google ID) to any Google machine around the world and access all of your documents, email, calendar, pictures, videos, games and more.

This list goes on and on.  It will even have your own personalized wallpaper and color scheme.  This is all in theory of course, but it seems to be a natural future step for Google. 

You might be wondering, what will guarantee the safety and privacy of your data?  Nothing yet.  Nothing really guarantees the safety of the data that you work with now.  Your e-mails are like postcards flying about the web.

Thank you for reading and I hope you read my next edition of Web Culture.