This is based on mostly personal experiance. I did this for my Final Research Paper for my BOCES class. Thought I would share it.
In these times, Google made a really huge leap to assist in redefining the twenty first century; however, they are continuing to innovate today. How did Google assist in the redefining of the twenty first century? The direction is pointing forwards; when Google started their search engine, it made it possible to discover new websites, business and so much more. Google has made a history around the globe just as a search engine alone...Now, they are more then a search engine. They are now a company to help innovate in many ways, such as glass, fiber optic internet, voice, Gmail, Chrome, even the self driving car!
Gmail has been a really friendly email service provided by Google, by providing top notch spam filters and a clean user interface. My personal experience with Gmail has been nothing but ease of use. Over the years I have been using Gmail, the changes that Google made have really made it very useful in many ways. One of the interests that caught my interest, is being able to call a land-line or cell phone directly within Gmail itself...via Google voice that is. Since Google introduced Google+, I am now able to also talk to people, basically like the way Facebook has their messenger setup. I really like that feature a lot in Gmail; it has really became a center of communication. Being able to place direct phone calls, instant-messaging people on Google+, being able to join a hangout with a single click, and also emailing as well. A new change is when you want to send someone am email, the way Google has that setup is a little window pops up; just like a IM window, but for an email. Same setup as it was, but without having to wait for a new page to load in your browser, which means emailing someone won't take near as long to do then before, especially if that person has a very slow connection. The options are huge on Gmail alone, one of the options I often use is the signature. I have a signature for my tech email, and you can use unlimited amount of characters. There are many themes to select from that will fit your business environment or your personality. Something else I use is a forwarding options for a couple of my emails. What that does, if you don't often check an email account that often but still want to view them; you can have those emails forwarded to your main Gmail, which is very convenient. The future of Gmail looks very prominent, I personally feel Google is doing the right thing for Gmail.
Google made their appearance in the mobile market in 2007 with the Android operating system. Android has became a huge success due to the openness of the operating system. Google's counterpart, Apple has completely overhauled how smart-phones work; however... Google made it possible to offer a better selection of phones. Back in 2011, Google Android overtook Apple in market share for mobile phones, and late in 2012 the market share favored in Google's favor. Google really put a huge dent on Apple's progress of revolutionizing the smart-phone industry because of very truculent rivalry between the two companies. Android for me, has been really useful in many ways. Many of the advantages of having android is completely immense. Being able to customize the user interface, how the phone works, the list really goes on and on. The biggest from my experience is Rooting my phone. The phone I currently own is the HTC Droid Incredible 2, it was a pain to root that phone, but after rooting it; the boot times have drastically decreased, the performance increased, being able to take off all the apps I don't even use, and being able to use my mobile hotspot or USB tether when I am out and about with my laptop or other mobile devices. Based on personal experience, Android isn't near as buggy as the iOS from apps constantly crashing. I also know from personal experience when I owned an iPod Touch, the apps were constantly crashing time and time again; meaning I just got rid of my iPod. Going back to the user interfaces, I find that android has a much better user interface compared to my iPod. There are a plenitude of themes for Android which I can choose from in the Google Play Store to match my personality. Seeing there are so many things I love about Android, it's nothing to shake a stick at.
Google Voice is an alternative to a home phone to make phone calls with or if people don't want to use up minutes on their cell phone plan. Google has made it possible to have a completely free phone service. One of the services with Google Voice is the voice mail. The way they have that setup, is when someone leaves a voice mail, A transcript of the voice mail is inputted; word of warning, not fully accurate so results will vary. You will also get a notification in you email and text letting you know that there is a new voice mail. With the voice mails, you can send them to other people or you can embed them on a website or a blog. Google Voice Mail can also be used for a single center for all voice mails from a home phone and cell phone. I use Google Voice very often. It's a really good service to use for when you are on long distance calls, which really saves on minutes in the long run. All you need is an Internet connection and your off. There are also apps you can link up with Google Voice with smart-phones, making it possible to call on wifi, or your 3g connection. Another use of Google Voice is texting, I often use it when my cell phone services goes down, out of reception, or if I don't want to give my number out. I use wifi the vast majority of the time at home. It comes in handy especially if you have limited texts per cycle. It'll be great for kids who love to text a whole LOT.
Google Chrome is the most popular web browser as of right now. Chrome also has a very clean interface making it so you can view more of the web-page. I have been using Chrome for the past few years. The speed is slightly faster then Mozilla Firefox, but it's the Internet connection that really limited the web performance. The clean user interface made other web browsers clean up themselves. The extensions and add-ons for chrome are very plentiful. Chrome has it's own little app store. Basically like the Android Play Store almost
Overall, I feel Google has a road paved ahead for the repaving the 21st century. There is a long road ahead for Google. They have really make progress!
Works Cited
Beavis, Gareth. “A complete history of Android.” Tech Radar. Future US, 23 Sept. 2008. Web. 11 Apr. 2013. <http://www.techradar.com/us/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/a-complete-history-of-android-470327>.
Geere, Duncan. “Google Android: Its history and uncertain future.” Wired. Conde Nast Digital, 10 Apr. 2010. Web. 11 Apr. 2013. <http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-04/15/google-android-its-history-and-uncertain-future>.
Raphael, J.P. “Google Voice: 5 Reasons to Use It, 5 Reasons to Think Twice.” PC World. N.p., 25 June 2009. Web. 11 Apr. 2013. <http://www.pcworld.com/article/167424/google_voice_pros_cons.html>.