During today's #thing4 session I learned that I am criminally underusing Google! I have used gmail on and off for years and currently use Google Drive in work for sharing and collaboration, but that was about the extent of it before the Rudaí23 course started. As mentioned in the #thing4 session, Google faces fierce competition from well established social networks like Facebook and I find that I am already signed up to communication sites and apps that provide similar functions to Google's features including Wordpress, Viber, Skype, LinkedIn and Twitter. Admittedly, I have enjoyed using Blogger for the Rudaí23 posts and it's nice to discover a world beyond Wordpress.
As part of today's tasks, I've just signed up to Google + though all my main contacts remain on my hotmail account, which I'm stubbornly clinging to after over a decade. Admittedly, its functions are looking pretty pale in comparison to Google's after this session...
The feature that impressed me the most was Google Hangouts as a way to IM and video chat with contacts who are online. The test video chat was straightforward too so Skype may be facing some competition.
Overall, the thought of using Google as a tool from which to conduct all my reference queries, communications and access apps is a tempting prospect. I'm looking forward to the Rudaí 23 group hangout in a few weeks and in the meantime I can fully explore Google's great features.
I disliked hangouts thought it was a wee bit fiddly to set up and it did seem to have some technical issues it took several go's to get through to the person I was talking to
ReplyDeleteI think a few people reported that there were issues on their blogs but luckily there were no problems when I tried it. It might have helped that the person I was video chatting with was downstairs...
ReplyDeleteGood to hear a positive experience of using Google Hangouts. Broadband capacity seems to be an issue for a number of people #rudai23
ReplyDeleteYes and Google Hangout's main competitor Skype has been known to cut out when I'm using it every now and then so it's good to have other options
ReplyDelete