Google: not just a search engine

Google is not just a search engine anymore

By Arthur Glazer

arthur@glazerthepctech.com

Firefox used to be my browser of choice. I never liked Internet Explorer and have dabbled with both Opera and Safari, but always returned back to Firefox — until recently.

One day I downloaded and installed a Firefox update only to discover my browser crashed like the Dow on Black Monday.

Then Firefox would crash almost every time I used it. I would click on a link or type in an address and boom — gone. But they are so polite at Mozilla, the creators of Firefox. Each time it crashed, I would get a message saying they were sorry and would I like to report the incident? Each report I sent got a bit stronger than the last.

With some research, I discovered the Firefox enhancements — or plug-ins, as they are called — don't work under Windows 7. I was told I should update each of the plug-ins. That wasn't going to happen and I just got rid of them instead.

I soon found it was the new Firefox that didn't play well with the new Windows and since I wasn't about to get rid of Win 7, it was time to retire my browser.

Enter Chrome, from the folks at Google. I like their search engine; I use Gmail, their e-mail client; the highly customizable home page iGoogle they offer is superb, so I thought I'd give Chrome a try.

It was touted as a lean, clean, super-fast browsing machine. They weren't lying. I can't think of a single bad thing to say about Chrome. It is wonderful. It's easy to use, stable and extremely fast.

Other browsers needed outside applications to tweak their settings. Chrome doesn't require any tweaking. This is not Googles's first barbeque. They apparently know what they are doing — and do it well.

Chrome can be downloaded here. It will take less than three minutes to download and install it.

You'll find it is also highly customizable with hundreds of themes to use. They will put pictures at the top of your page, from sunsets to SpongeBob. Their plug-ins are called extensions and there are many to choose from to enhance your browsing experience.

At first glance, you may notice there is only an address bar, no search bar like Firefox has. Well, it is an all-in-one deal. In that one space you can type the URL (address) you want to go to or type in your search query, then just hit Enter.

Not only is it a tabbed browser, but it allows you to arrange the tabs simply by dragging them to wherever you want.

It will save your passwords for you, has malware and phishing protection and will import your settings and favorites from another browser.

You have the option of opening it to a home page of your choice or to a page with large thumbnails of either your most recent pages visited or your most often pages visited.

I have mine set to a custom iGoogle page. Once you have any account with Google, you just sign in and make your page. I use my Gmail account to do that. My iGoogle page has local weather, headlines, an editable to-do list, my recent Gmail inbox (with the ability to compose an e-mail from that page), as well as a calendar and a search box. It has all of that content plus a nice tropical palm tree/ocean motif at the top of the page.

There is a shortcut bar you can toggle on and off by typing Control + B. It will keep your most often used website shortcuts there for you. If you are on gainesvilletimes.com and go there every day, just drag the star before URL to the bar below, and voila: You just created a shortcut. You can delete it by right-clicking on it and choosing delete.

Other shortcuts that will make your browsing easier are Control +Shift + N that opens an incognito window that doesn't save your history or cookies.

Alt + Home opens your home page. Control + J takes you to recent downloads. Control + T opens a new tab, while Control + Shift +T opens the last tab you closed. There are lots more.

I like the fact that it saves downloads to bar beneath the main window. This saves you the trouble of searching the system for the file you just downloaded. From that bar, you also have the option of seeing your entire download folder, should you need to.

Google has proved to be a cutting edge company with lots of products I find useful. Recently, I began using their Google Voice, which transposes my cell phone voicemail to a text message and an e-mail. It also lets me play the message on my computer. Now how cool is that?

Google is not just a search engine anymore.

And Firefox is not my browser.

Arthur Glazer is a freelance writer and computer technician in Gainesville. His column appears biweekly. Arthur welcomes your computer questions and ideas for future columns.