Before I start mentioning about those 10 Google apps which the title of the blog highlights, I would like to make you known of the  4 terms – simple, fun, better and profitable – that I used in the title of the post. These four terms simply refers to more organized, efficient, coordinated and possibly more lucrative blogging.

Google helps blogging at every stage. Right from setting up your free blog (at Blogger.com), promoting your blog on social networks (Google Orkut) and finally monetizing your blog (Google Adsense) – Google is always there extending their selfless (free) service for you. Lets see what tools does Google have in stores for bloggers.

10 Blogging Power Tools from Google

1. Google Blogger: Lets get started with Blogging

Blogger.com is the simplest and easiest blogging platform that can be easily used by any new player entering the blogging arena.  Though WordPress is the blogging platform of choice of the most of the professional bloggers, but wordpress themes are now being adapted for use on Blogger platform and  Blogger users can now enjoy some of the features of wordpress like static pages. Further, with an account on Blogger.com, you do not need to look for hosting providers and pay hosting charges.

You are also given an option to use your custom domain. I use Namecheap.com for buying domains. A .com domain with privacy protection costs me under $10 when purchased at Namecheap.com. The default Blogger templates are quite minimalistic and basic. I would suggest to visit www.btemplates.com and use an advanced blogger template.

Once you have setup your blog with a custom or free domain and an advanced blogger template, you can start using the below mentioned Google tools to populate content, organize your blog life and make your blogging activity pretty profitable.

2. Google Alerts

Populate Content for your Blog

You can use Google Alerts for grabbing content for your blog. You can setup an alert using suitable keywords for your blog. Make sure that you select ‘blogs’ from type dropdown. You will then get a digest of all the important blog posts and happenings settled around your keyword daily. You can go through these blog posts,  get inspired and write a blog post for your own blog.

Building Links for your Blog

A few days back I wrote about Google Alerts and told you how you can use it for generating quick quality backlinks for your blog with minimum effort. You can read that post here – How to generate quick quality backlinks for your blog using Google Alert.

3. Google Adsense: Make Blogging lucrative

Once you have setup your blog on a custom or free domain with an advanced template and have started adding some pretty descent posts everyday,  you can start monetizing your blog. There are many ways to monetize a blog – in-text ads, affiliate marketing, merchandising, etc. However, the easiest way to monetize your blog is by using PPC (Pay Per Click) ad programs and Google Adsense stands out as the most profitable amongst all the ad networks available. Just click “Monetize” button on your Blogger layout. Choose where ads will appear by placing them in sidebar widget or in between the posts. Google will pay you a decent amount every time someone clicks on those ads.

4. Google  Analytics: Track your Blog’s Growth

Visit www.google.com/analytics and use your existing Google account (the one used for creating a Blogger account) to use this service. Using the service is easy. Just embed a code in your blog and you are all set to get started with tracking your blog’s performance. It helps you track page views, search queries, and more. Go through these statistics on a regular basis and plan your blogging strategies using these stats for better blog performance.

5. Google FeedBurner:Manage your blog subscription

FeedBurner is yet another power product from Google which can be used to manage subscription. You can access it from “My Accounts” page. Setup a feed to deliver regular blog updates to your blog subscribers. You can use Adsense to monetize these feeds as well.

6. iGoogle: Connect with other Blogs

Bloggers should follow others blog to get updated on industry news, to learn new skills and to network with other bloggers.  You can setup an iGoogle account using your Google account used for singing up at Blogger.com. Once you log into your Blogger account, you will automatically be logged into your iGoogle account. The feeds of all the blogs you follow will appear on your iGoogle page and you will be able to know what is going on  in your niche.

7. Google Docs: Document embedding for your blog

Google Docs is essentially MS Office on cloud. The only difference is that unlike MS Office which stores your files on your PC, Google Docs stores it on internet and you can access it from anywhere in the world.  Using Google Docs you can create accessible Spreadsheets, Presentations, and Text Documents and embed it your blog posts for added value to your blog readers.

8. Google Calendar: Stay Organized

Google Calendar is an awesome tool for bloggers who have more than one blog. Using Google Calendar, you can track how many posts you posted on each blog within a given time-frame. Calendars are color coded and you just need to throw a glance to see how many posts you have made on each blog in any given week, month, or year.

9. Google Picasa Web Albums: Organize blog pictures

Photos uploaded to your blogger account gets automatically uploaded to your Google Picasa Web Album. You can use this service for organizing and sharing your own photos or for searching pictures with creative common license for use with future posts.

10. Google Orkut: Find new readers for your blog

Orkut is a social media community you can join using your existing Google account(I am not on Orkut because I use Twitter.com for this purpose). You can  connect with existing readers and network with bloggers using messages, photos, and information sharing. Further, you can join communities related to your blog for gaining new readers.

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Google recently added the functionality to perform real-time search across social networks like Twitter and Facebook. Though this functionality is added, however, these options are not turned on by default. To perform a real-time search using Google, here is how you should proceed.

As usual, go to the Google homepage and enter a keyword or a search term. Click on ‘Search’ button and you will be on the search results page. Now to see the real-time search results for the keyword (search term) you entered, you should first click on “Show Options” button.

You will see that a left pan comes up. This pan allows you to limit your search results to videos, images, blogs, forums, books, etc. Click on “Latest” option in this pan. You will see that the Twitter and Facebook public feeds will show up and will get updated in real time.

If you use a web-based file sharing service for sharing files with your friends, then a great problem is the amount of time the process consumes. First you will have to upload your file to a server, then a shared URL will be generated which you will need to send to your recipients for them to download the file. This process is really time-consuming. Now if you want to share files directly from your computer with your friends without going through these hassles, you can use G2Peer.

G2Peer is a freeware that simplifies sharing of file by allowing you to share files directly from your computer using Gmail account. G2Peer treats each Gmail address as a unique IP address for all computers with G2Peer application installed.

To send or receive files via Gmail using G2Peer, follow the following steps:

For sending files

1. Download G2Peer and install it (click here to download G2Peer)

2. Start G2Peer application by double clicking

3. Go to Tools -> Config.

4. Enter your Gmail address and password and choose POP3 or IMAP.

5. Go to File -> Change Status and click ‘Online’

6. Go to ‘Tools’ -> ‘Share’ and add your friend’s Gmail address in the ‘address’ field and browse the folder you would like to share in the ‘Folder’ field.

For receiving files

Receiving files using G2Peer software:

1. Download G2Peer and install it

2. Start G2Peer application by double clicking

3. Go to Tools -> Config.

4. Enter your Gmail address and password and choose POP3 or IMAP.

5. Go to File -> Change Status and click ‘Online’

6. Enter sender’s email address in the address field and wait till you see the shared file(s).

7. Select any displayed file and right click and choose download to download it

Receiving files using Gmail account

1. Login to Gmail account

2. Click on ‘Compose Mail’

3. Type the file sender’s email address under ‘To’ field and ‘?_download’ under subject and then click Send button.

4. After sometimes you will receive email with somewhat following subject:
“!_20090622225415421.2103219.1_download_Done”

5. Open the mail and download the file via link provided

G2Peer Website | G2Peer Executable File

I am a voracious reader and I often find it hard to figure out a text extract which I read in some books which I no longer remember. I always wished to have a search facility like Google to scan all my books and find the book where I read the particular info. Now this my “beyond tomorrow’s” wish seems to have been fulfilled.

A Google software engineer Matt Cutts posted a video on YouTube showing how you can easily add your books from off your bookshelf at home to the My Library feature in Google Book using a simple USB powered Barcode scanner.

For the start, just click on the ‘My Library’ link when browsing Google Book followed by ‘Import Book’ links. Now just use a barcode scanner to import the ISBN from the barcode on the back of each hard copy book in your collection.

Once done, you can see your collection in the Google My Library and can scan your books for a keyword or a search term.

Check out the details on this topic in this video posted by Matt Cutts:

Sometimes you may need to search for a result only in a certain file format. For instance, you may want to search a college research paper or in-depth reports on a topic. Such reports and documents will not generally be present in regular HTML pages. Such files are usually found in formats like .PPT, .DOC and .PDF. Now if you wish to search in a particular file format using Google, you can use ‘filetype:’ function.

In Google search, ‘filetype:’ function should be used in the following format:

filetype: [file extension] [search term or phrase]

For instance, if I want to get search results for ‘technology’ in .pdf files, I will enter following line of text in Google search engine:

filetype:pdf technology

It is often that we come across need of calculator when working online. Going to Start –>All Programs –>Accessories –>Calculator is quite a bit of time when you are in a hurry. What do I do in such a situation? I use Google as my web calculator.

Performing online calculation is very easy using Google search engine. To perform calculations, you do not need to use any function. Just go to Google search engine and key in the values you would have fed on a calculator. For instance, to find sum of 4 and 2, go to Google search page and enter the following term – “4+2″ (without quotes) and look what you found, you got the answer = 6.

Not only simple calculations, but you can also use operators such as logs, factorial, trigonometric, sqrt, etc. Here are some examples:

It is often that we come across some words that muddle us. Going to a free online dictionary and then searching for the word is quite a bit of time to waste when you are in a hurry. What do I do in such situations? I use Google as my ‘Quick Dictionary’.

Searching meaning of a word is quite easy and fast using Google. To get meaning of a word, we need to use define: function. With this function called to action, Google aggregates meanings and definitions of a word from several sources on a single page.

Let us assume that we need to search meaning of the word ‘ecstasy’. You just need to go to Google.com search engine and type “define: ecstasy” (without quotes). You will then see aggregated meanings and definitions of ‘ecstasy’ from several sources on a single Google page.

Here is what I found when searching for “ecstasy” using define: function of Google search: