Students and Google: a Long Term Relationship.

Google defines itself as "an American multinational technology company that specializes in Internet-related services and products" but it has become much more than that.

Before the age of Google, you had encyclopedias and libraries. Kids today are growing up with knowledge right at their fingertips. All they have to do is click a couple buttons, press a few keys, and—voilà—everything they could possibly imagine. Google is one of the greatest tools you could ever use.

As a student there are definitely key things to remember while using Google. In the article Google Tips and Tricks Every Student Should Know, Melanie Pinola, the author, summarized and said that the three most essential tips are, be specific, format, and broaden your search.
Be Specific. What does that mean? It means when searching you can be more specific byfinding pages within sites using site:[website URL] and your search phrase, find authors using author:[name], and type intitle:[word] to find a page with that word in the title.
Formating! You can find images and all sorts of files by typing filetype:[jpg or other extension].
Broaden Your Search. Use an asterisk (*) as a wildcard search operator to fill in the blanks.

This article includes many more tricks you can use to help refine your search including how to find practice exams, limit your search results, and find more research. Pinola also includes a Youtube video that demonstrates the hacks for google. It is a one minute video from Hack College.

This article was very informative and put into terms everyone could understand. It is intended for students and explains all the sites that Google has for students, like Google Scholar and Google Drive. As a student that has been using Google for many years, it was a nice refresher on what I could use for my assignments.


The second article is similar to the first but it's more about what apps and features Google provides that you might not know about. The Best Google Features You're Probably Not Using mentions a wide range of features that are useful in multiple situations. The article starts off with HelloFax, a Google app that is integrated with Google Drive to help send and sign faxes. I have never heard of this app before but in a business setting this app could be incredibly useful. Another Google extension you could download is Pixlr, a photo tool that can also be integrated with Google Drive. This is a really cool extension because it's free and it's great alternative for students that can't afford expensive photo editing software. These are just a couple of the features this article talks about, they also talk about apps that help you with statistics, organize events, and apps that you can attach to your email to help filter and organize your mail.

I didn't know half of these features existed and now I know Google can assist me with basically any job that I could ever get.


Last week, my class had a guest speaker come through on Google Hangout, Mr. Donnie Piercey. Mr.Piercey is a 5th grade teacher but he is also a Google expert and is apart of the Google Earth Trainer Network. During my class he showed us the new updates on Google Earth and he also taught us some neat tricks. Mr. Piercey showed us that there are tours that you could do on Google Earth, as if you were on an actual tour in a country. Google Earth is a crazy fun feature that helps you see the world in just a few clicks. I have always enjoyed Google Earth and it's almost unbelievable with how much it can show you. I suggest hopping on Google Earth if you have some free time, trust me, you won't be disappointed. I would also like to give a huge thank you to Mr. Piercey!

On another note, I'm going to talk a little bit about recent events at Google.

Recently this week Google launched a program called "Startup with Google". This site brings together all the company’s resources for founders and their startups. TechCrunch wrote a great article explaining "Startup with Google" in their article Google brings its resources for founders and startups to a single site. In summation, this new site helps those in startup companies and Google is providing tools and recourses to help them. In my opinion this is a wonderful site that can really get the ball rolling for new businesses but at the same time I can't help to think that in some way Google will technically own what is created in this program. It's just a sneaky suspicion because I don't believe anything is really free in life and that in some way you have to pay Google back. But we will have to wait and see how "Startup with Google" progresses.


If you are interested in keeping up with Google and learning more from them check out their own own blog!

And here is a quick cheat sheet of Google tricks!