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There are certain technologies and things out that that we all use and appreciate (or don’t appreciate). Look at your desktop and you are mostly likely running a Microsoft Windows operating system. Look at your e-mail client and it’s probably Outlook Express, Eudora, Thunderbird, or even a web based system like Yahoo! Excite, Gmail or Juno.

When Google first came onto the scene back in the late 90’s it was pretty revolutionary. At that time I used a variety of search engines (Dogpile, Yahoo!, Ask, etc.) but then Google appeared with this really clean looking page and fast results. Needless to say I quickly became a fan and have used it as my primary search engine of choice since then (just wish I bought stock back then!)

Over the years Google has added a lot of value to the free software scene and if you are a entrepreneur, student, or just a person who likes things simple then they have a lot to offer.

Here is what I have been using for my personal and business work over the course of the past few years:

Google Docs - I love the simplicity of Google Docs. Creating spreadsheets and documents is a piece of cake. Importing from Word is easy and for the most part pretty flawless. Being able to share the documents with others and access them anywhere I have a ‘net connection is awesome. I use Docs for pretty much all my work now.

As an example of how fun and easy it is to use Docs this past Christmas I put together a wishlist of things I would’t mind having for Christmas for my family. Instead of composing an email and sending it out to everyone and then resending it if I thought of something new I just created a Google Doc and share it with them. Everyone was able to access the document from a web browser and see the most current list anytime they logged on. No worries about juggling multiple attachments or emails. Very cool.

iGoogle - Similar to personalized homepages on Yahoo!, Excite, etc. the iGoogle homepage is great to use. Editing it is a snap and adding new content is quick and easy. It’s one of my current homepages and at a glance I can see my e-mail, weather, TV lineup, RSS feeds from different sites, news, and even useless stuff like the moon phase!

Gmail - All I can say is that Gmail is probably the best e-mail system that I’ve ever used. It has incredible spam filtering that actually works with little to no end user training.

Google Notebook - I just recently started using Google Notebook and have found it to be a great resource for ideas and research. I have the Firefox plug-in and when I find a site that has some good info, or I get inspired by something I just click the Open Notebook link and start typing. Very slick.

There are a few more things that Google has that I use (Adsense, Analytics, Checkout, AdWords, etc.) and I’ll try to post some thoughts on those tools in the future. But the four items listed above are probably the most heavily used Google technologies that I use on a daily basis.

Want to explore a little more? Then check out this link and see everything else that Google offers - http://www.google.com/intl/en/options/