Google Apps: The Amusement Park for Techies, Advertisers and You

If Walt Disney World is considered the greatest, most magical amusement park in the physical world, then I believe Google Apps would have to be the greatest, most magical "amusement park" in the virtual world. Google has created an entire suite of products – a veritable playground – for techies, advertisers and everyone else that go beyond just Search and Gmail. Listed below are a few of the Google Tools and Apps I researched that can help you market a company, brand or product, or improve your life in some way.

Google Alerts

One of the simplest monitoring tools, Google Alerts sends you email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your keyword(s). From a business standpoint, this is an easy way to keep current on your brand, competitor or industry. Two weeks ago I set up a Google Alert to monitor Silpada Designs for the previous week's assignment. I was thrilled when the alert I received on June 16 was for my homework assignment about monitoring the Silpada Designs brand. Who knew I was so influential!

Google Trends

Google Trends reveals the number of times a particular keyword is entered in Google searches over a specified period of time, based on search volumes in different parts of the world. Businesses can benefit from this Google application in several ways:

• By looking to see which keywords are popular and determine whether any of them are relevant to their website or blog
• By knowing the right keywords to use in the company blog or website to improve SEO
• By examining the regions and the cities where the keyword searches came from to order to decide where to promote their products and services

Google AdWords

Another application I researched was Google AdWords. Advertisers use AdWords to choose keywords related to their business in order to create ads. When someone does a Google search on a keyword or phrase that an advertiser has used, their ad may be displayed next to the search results. Within Adwords is the Keyword Tool that helps advertisers generate additional relevant keywords. With the Traffic Estimator tool an advertiser can enter a few different values in the Max CPC field and find out if they have set an appropriate target bid for their keyword. Based on the values generated by Traffic Estimator, an advertiser can determine a bid value that will get them best returns on investments for their ad budget.

Google Docs

The application that I believe is the most useful to anyone – whether they are in business or not – would have to be Google Docs. Similar to Microsoft Office Suite, Google Docs allows anyone with a Google account to

• Create and edit documents, spreadsheets and presentations online
• Share the documents with whomever they choose
• Collaborate on a team project with coworkers or classmates
• Publish documents online and control who sees it
• Safely store and organize documents in the Google Cloud

Google offers an incredible and exciting array of (mostly free) applications and tools for anyone who wants to market a company, brand or product, or improve their life in some way. Exploring the possibilities of each application is enough to keep even the most enthusiastic marketing manager busy full-time. Achieving positive results is the ultmate thrill ride.