God I love Google. I LOVE GOOGLE.

[fuzzybabybunny]

As a business owner Google has been incredible. I just can't get over how good they are.

For a truly minimal price I've got:

1. Email accounts for all of my team members. And the gmail client rocks. Filters, forwarding, canned emails, etc.

2. Integration with everything. My invoicing. My expense tracking. My CRM system. My PM system. One login for them all.

3. Google Drive - collaborate with team members and share documents. Spreadsheets, documents, files, drawings, slideshows. We often brainstorm together hundreds of miles apart while working on the same document.

4. gChat and Google+ - voice chat, video chat, free.

5. Call phones! I make all my calls to clients right through Gmail. On my computer while I have my earbuds in. For free.

6. Google Voice! I can travel anywhere in the world, have whatever SIM card I want, and have my Google Phone ring when a client dials my number. And the calls are free. And everything above is mirrored in text messaging as well.

7. Google Voice! I can respond to and send text messages from my computer, listen to voicemails, and of course call back anyone right from my computer. And everything is searchable.

8. Android Phones - integrates with everything. Mileage tracking with the GPS? Yup. Take a picture of a check and deposit it straight to my bank account? Yup. Take a picture of a receipt and upload it to my expense tracking software? Yup. Send invoices to clients? Yup. Take credit cards with the Square thing? Yup.

9. Navigation and Maps all over the world. Language translation. Photo sharing. Video sharing.

10. Calendar. My entire team is always synced.

11. Data mining - http://www.google.com/ads/agency/toolkit.html

I think that's about it.

/Rave

 

[SSSnail]

You forgot porn.

 

[zinfamous]

11. Google maps to find safe neighborhoods and hassle-free overnight parking?

 

[OVerLoRDI]

Don't you live in a car?

 

[bradley]

Once Google cornered the search engine market, they plateaued for me.

At one time, they were constantly improving their service and ironing out bugs. Now Google cares more about being a front business for data mining.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Don't you live in a car?

Yeeeup. Doesn't matter. Google is there. Google is the reason I'm able to live such a decentralized life. My phone and my computer does everything an office does provided I have internet.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Once Google cornered the search engine market, they plateaued for me.

At one time, they were constantly improving their service and ironing out bugs. Now Google cares more about being a front business for data mining.

Huh? Yeah, and that data mining continues to spur all the new features that they keep on rolling out. And they release APIs for everything so third parties can integrate and improve upon the things that Google doesn't.

 

[ElFenix]

you're like jack reacher.

 

[FelixDeCat]

God created the men who created Google. A company, while not perfect, whos motto is "dont be evil". The best part? Who knew you could create billions in capitalization by giving things away for free?!

God I love God!

 

[ImpulsE69]

To think they've made all those billions off my porn searches. God is indeed great.

 

[notposting]

I've steadily decreased my Google usage.

Also...wait until something goes wrong and you need some customer service. Or they decide to delete your whole account and won't talk to you about it. Or you miss an appointment because of some crap bug in Android that kills your battery by noon.

Not a fan (I know it's hard to tell ).

 

[Sonikku]

And all it cost was selling out our personal information to a couple of well intentioned businesses out to fill our needs.

 

[Yongsta]

Only bad thing is your over-reliance on Google, what happens when they have issues and you cant access these things for a day or two (I remember Gchat or Gmail was down for few hours for me before)?

Google rocks though because most of all this is free but it's also good to have alternative options.

 

[SparkyJJO]

And all it cost was selling out our personal information to a couple of well intentioned businesses out to fill our needs.

They only have as much as you give them. And as far as I've seen, they haven't required any more than anyone else has in most cases.

Same goes for facebook, really. Everyone whines that facebook is invading their privacy. Well, don't put private info on the internet, duh!

 

[shortylickens]

 

[shortylickens]

 

[Nintendesert]

You should Google a place to live.

 

[Kantastic]

God created the men who created Google.

God I love God!

What about God creating AIDS?

 

[Zeze]

My friend got hired by Google when we both graduated. It was few years before they went IPO.

He started as a lowly client support or something. Now he's a Lead SEM manager that probably makes a good 200K/yr.

I'll be man enough to admit that very jealous of him. He's traveling world-wide too.

Yes I'm sure there are craptons of people who are really successful and he's nothing compared to that. But the fact I know him personally and we were in same class is what gets me.

 

[SSSnail]

What about God creating AIDS?

That's because God loves men. :hmm:

 

[xanis]

My friend got hired by Google when we both graduated. It was few years before they went IPO.

He started as a lowly client support or something. Now he's a Lead SEM manager that probably makes a good 200K/yr.

I'll be man enough to admit that very jealous of him. He's traveling world-wide too.

Yes I'm sure there are craptons of people who are really successful and he's nothing compared to that. But the fact I know him personally and we were in same class is what gets me.

I had a friend that got hired at Google post-graduation (CS major, not sure what he does) and he's making over $100K, easy. There's definitely some money at Google if you can get hired.

 

[xSauronx]

Yeeeup. Doesn't matter. Google is there. Google is the reason I'm able to live such a decentralized life. My phone and my computer does everything an office does provided I have internet.

this is why my gf bought a camper and a wifi hot spot for her laptop. she is the manager for an it consulting firm. as long as she can get online, she can do her job. she lives a couple of states away from the business and the boss only wants her in the office like once a quarter.

 

[maziwanka]

FBB - what are you using for invoicing, expense tracking, etc.?

 

[TwiceOver]

Probably not bad for a small company and as long as you don't need the power of a real spreadsheet.

I'd love to move my mail to gmail but exchange has such nice features and outlook is outstanding.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Once Google cornered the search engine market, they plateaued for me.

At one time, they were constantly improving their service and ironing out bugs. Now Google cares more about being a front business for data mining.

That's all google ever cared about, and I still like them.