Embracing Online Technology

The other day I was helping my brother with his computer issues. He had reinstalled his OS because of some buggy virus like problems. So we began to reinstall things and I took the opportunity to show him some nifty tools many people know about but still are new to some.

Since we were planning our end of the month camping trip, I wanted to show him the benefits of Google Docs to create and share text, spreadsheets, and presentations. That led to a tangent of documenting things online and I directed his attention to the Google Toolbar Beta 5 which has a button for Google Notebook which lets you make notes without leaving your current web page, clip links, and copy sections of the web page kind of like creating an online Favorites that you can share with others. Then of course we had to install Adobe Air (so we could install Twhirl), Acrobat Reader, and Shockwave. I then directed him to install Quicktime followed by Divx and Firefox.

He sat there thinking for a moment wondering what else he was forgetting to update his computer with so it would run with the technologies and programs he was used to using. With all these online tools and technologies available to us today, it's easy to forget what's working in the background to make everything work everyday so we can enjoy our online lives of business, entertainment, and a wide variety of other purposes.

As an offline tool for on the go, I showed them GOOG-411 and the competing free service from Microsoft, Live Search at 800-225-5411. I hadn't played with Live Search too much before but we liked how they would send you text messages about business you were trying to find and connect you for free to that business. Live search also let you find movies, weather, and other services for free from any phone by responding to your voice commands.

We agreed that we look forward to using these existing tools and waiting to see what these great minds will be bringing us in the future.