We recently started centralizing many of our agency’s backend items using services provided by Google. Sure, a lot of these can be (and are) duplicated on our internal server, but we thought that many of the items that are relevant to everyone here should be housed together somewhere that is easy to find. Believe it or not, as of today, they have 269 (!) services for online users – everything ranging from organizational tools like calendars to photo organizing programs like Picasa. Here are some of the tools we’re using that you might want to check out for your personal use.

We’ve filled our calendar with all of our clients’ projects and due dates, when team members are meeting with clients, even when the conference room is booked. To me, it’s much friendlier to use than Outlook’s calendar as it’s easier to switch fields off and on so that you only see what you want to see. With the calendar, everyone can easily identify what’s on the agenda for the day, and plan for the workflow.

Another cool feature is Tasks, which allows you to add specific to-do’s for a given day that can then be crossed off once completed. For G/J, it’s a great feature because we can move jobs around throughout the day if something unexpected and urgent enters the picture.

If you’re not using Google Reader, start using it! It lets you consolidate all of your RSS feed subscriptions into one location – everything from blogs to Twitter searches. We use our Reader to stay knowledgeable about what’s going on in the industry, and to find news and inspiration for Facebook, Twitter or blog updates.

Everyone here obviously has their own organizational system for keeping track of everything. But let’s say I am out one day for some reason – instead of someone trying to maneuver their way through my particular section of our server, they can easily find my contacts’ info on a file that I created and saved in Google Docs. For my own personal use, I utilize Google Docs to save a lot of the random information in my life (like my address history or vacation checklists).

If you’re new to Google, these three features represent a good way to start exploring what you can do through their services. You might be thinking “I already have these,” but after you start playing around with Google, you might find that it’s an easier way to consolidate all of the online tools you use throughout your day.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 11th, 2010 at 11:58 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.