10 useful Google services you might not know about

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-13 00:26

Google is not only a search engine, Gmail and YouTube. Dozens of different projects are associated with this brand, and not all of them are equally well known. The life hacker has selected interesting Google services that may have escaped your attention.

1. Google Authenticator

To securely protect your account, a password alone may not be enough. Therefore, social networks and other services are increasingly resorting to additional protection methods. For example, they request a verification code sent to the user via SMS or generated in a special application. Google Authenticator is one such program. She creates security codes for the accounts linked to her. If you are concerned about the security of your personal data, use Google Authenticator for your accounts.

2. Google Alerts

The Google Alerts service informs about new posts that contain mentions of words or phrases selected by the user. You can configure several alerts at once by selecting the desired parameters for each of them: sources, language, subject and number of articles, as well as the frequency of messages, the time of sending and the mailbox (or RSS feed) to which they will be sent.

Don't miss out on news about your favorite celebrities, companies, products, and other points of interest with Google Alerts. If you are a public figure, you can track mentions about yourself.

Google Alerts →

3. Google Fonts

Google Fonts is a large directory of free fonts especially useful for layout designers and web designers. A convenient resource filter helps you quickly find the desired fonts, sorting the results by type, date of addition, popularity and other parameters. The database contains sets of both Latin and Cyrillic characters. The font you like can be connected to the desired web page or downloaded for local use.

Google Fonts →

4. Google Drawings

This editor will help you quickly draw a flowchart, build a diagram or make notes on a downloaded image without leaving your browser. Google Drawings are integrated into the Google Docs suite and interact with other Google services such as Sheets and Google Drive. Therefore, in Pictures, you can create charts based on data from your spreadsheets and save them in the Google cloud.

Google Drawings →

5. Google Academy

Google Academy is a search engine for scientific publications. It scans the websites of publishing houses, professional communities, universities and other academic resources to find texts for the requested keywords. As search results, the user sees a list of links to fragments or the full content of scientific papers, sorted based on citation in scientific circles. Importantly, the service shows a list of similar publications for each text. Google Academy can be useful for any scientist or student.

Google Academy →

6. Google Sites

Having your own website opens up tremendous opportunities for promoting ideas or products on the Internet. But what if you don’t know how to program and don’t want to spend your budget on developers? In this case, the Google Sites service can help you out - a simple website builder that does not require advanced technical knowledge from the user. With it, you can quickly create, fill, and publish a set of templated web pages customized for your purposes.

Google Sites →

7. Google Forms

Google Forms is a convenient cloud-based survey tool. The user sets up a questionnaire with the required fields, sends a link to it to the participants and gets access to statistics based on the responses received. The service is great for both business tasks like customer surveys and household chores like making a guest list. Forms can be designed to your liking, supplemented with images and videos. Survey results are available in the form of visual tables and diagrams.

Google Forms →

8. Search by picture

What if you find the image you want, but it is spoiled by someone else's marks or is of the wrong size? In such a situation, the "Search by picture" tool saves, with the help of which you can find other copies of the image in different sizes. To use it, you need to open the Google Pictures page, click on the camera icon in the search bar and download the original image. You can simply drag the picture from the folder to the search bar area.

When the system shows the results, you need to select "All Sizes" or "Similar Images" - depending on what you are looking for.

9. Think with Google

Think with Google informs visitors about research results, trends, ideas and cases from the world of digital marketing. Much of the content is devoted to working with Google products. On the portal, you will find articles from Google employees and interviews with experts from other companies. The content for the resource is created in Russian. In order not to miss new publications, you can subscribe to the mailing list.

Think with Google →

10. Google Primer

With this app, Google helps marketers understand new professional tools and trends. It contains English-language mini-courses on SEO, content marketing, analytics, online advertising and strategy. The theory is complemented by small interactive tasks that help to better assimilate the material. All lessons can be downloaded to your smartphone for offline viewing. Many courses in Primer are designed for the initial level of knowledge, but there are also some that will be of interest to experienced professionals.