I regularly read what Google does, and in the past few days, I have noticed that Google has released quite a few things or made announcements of what they are about to do. So I have put together this list of things that Google has accomplished over the past few months.

• Creative Common Images – You can now search for images based on licence types.
• Announced Google Chrome OS – Google now going into the desktop market. Will they compete against Microsoft? We’ll find out in the second half of 2010.
• Google Chrome Web Browser – Finally, more competition against Microsoft
• Removed the BETA tag from Gmail and other Google Apps – After being in BETA for over 5 years, its about time you removed the BETA label
• Evolution of Gmail Labels – Improvements of managing your emails
• Bloggers 10th Birthday – a few stats about Blogger
• New Google Books features – better ways to browse and share books. Read all the new features here.
• Google Translator Toolkit – improvements of Google Translator
• Google Suggestions – surf the web faster with search suggestions given
• Google Apps Education Edition – Google hitting the schools with educational lesson plans and more
• Google Voice – One number for all your phones. Plus it is free and coming soon
• Property Listing – now lists real estate on Google Maps
• Google Latitude – Find the location of all your friends

Going back a bit further, lets recap on some of the best things Google has given us

• Google Web Search – What will we do (and Google) if it didn’t have the web search?
• Google Apps – Including Gmail, Calender, Docs, Sites, Photo’s
• WebMaster Tools – Adsense, Adwords, Analytics, Webmaster Tools
• Google Reader
• Feedburner
• Youtube
• Knol
• Blog Search
• Google News
• Blogger
• Google Checkout – buy things online securely
• iGoogle
• Web History
• Google Talk
• Groups
• Translate
• Google Labs
• Google Maps, street view
• Google Trends – See what the world searches for (Michael Jackson)
• Google Ad Planer – Find sites to advertise on, their statistics, demographics and more about the people who visit the site.

So you can see Google has a lot of very handy web apps that we all use everyday. The internet will be completely different if it wasn’t for Google.

Have we missed something out on the list? Please let us know in comments.

Today, Gmail finally removed its Beta tag after having it for more than 5 years now. As long with Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Talk also had the tag removed. The tag has been removed from both the Enterprise and consumers version so that is more than 1.75 million companies around the world out of Beta.

However, since you may miss the Beta label from Gmail, there is a lab feature that moves Gmail back to beta. If you feel a bit empty with the tag gone, bring it back and fulfil the emptiness.

You can read the official Google Blog post at Google Blog.

In the US and UK only, you can now search, read and access all your downloaded emails from Gmail.

When you do not have an Internet connection, you are not left in the dark. Pretty much everything that you don’t need an Internet connection for in Gmail, you can now access offline.

It now bridges the game between web-based and desktop based.

Although still in BETA, Gmail is on of the best email hosting providers, and now it is getting even better.

Since Google is shutting down its development on Google Notebook, and Google Video, it is giving them more time to work on Gmail.

Google is planing to allow users to send  file attachments up to 20 megabytes in size, or even bigger and is increasing the resolution of their video chat feature which was launched not to long ago.

With features such as online chat, email, video chat, who would want to use anything else other then Google Mail?

A while back while Hotmail was MSN Hotmail and not Windows Live, Hotmail used to be able to connect though POP3, but then they took it away and started charging a Fee for it. But now, it is back to compete with other emails hosts such as Gmail and Yahoo Mail.

So I changed from using add-ons for Thunderbird to access my Hotmail emails to POP3, and I don’t like it. One main reason is that it does mark your emails as ‘Read’ on the server. It at least could archive your emails like Gmail does

So I went back to my 2 Thunderbird add-ons to download my Hotmail emails.

If it wasn’t for all my friends using MSN Messenger, Hotmail will be useless and Gmail the way to go.

You have to admit, Google has revolutionised the Internet, and their still developing more ways to do so. Just have a look at Google Labs. Now Google has put together a list of their own top rated products for 2008. Starting at number 10.

Number 10

Blogger - Heard of a Blog before? Well you probably have now because this is one. Google purchased Blogger a few years back and it allows users to setup their own blog and posting topics that interest them. Other people can read, comment, and share information on the Internet more freely and easily.

Number 9

Picasa Web Albums - This software allows you to manage, edit, organise and share your pictures and images to your friends and family

Number 8

Google Translate allows you to translate text and webpages to different languages so you can read and understand them more easily. It is bringing the world together by allowing people to read text from all over the world.

Number 7

Google Docs allows you to open, edit and create word and spreadsheet documents online so you can access your important files when your out and about on any Internet enabled computer

Number 6

Youtube is another website Google has purchased which allows you to upload and view video’s on the Internet. Everyone should have heard of Youtube by now.

Number 5

Android is a Google Operating system for mobile phones. However, their are some missing features in the OS

Number 4

Gmail offers you a free email account. It is one of the best free online email accounts that you can get. Some of their competitors is Windows Live Hotmail and Freemail.

Number 3

Google Maps is one of the most useful tools that are out their on the Internet. It provides you with the a map of the entire world, and a satellite image as well. Google Maps also has street view in some locations which allows you to basically walk the streets in some parts of the world. It is really useful, especially if you go travelling. See before you go. It gives you directions to go places by car and walking.

Number 2

Google Search - Well this is Google’s main website. It gets millions of hits ever day, and is the most popular search engine on the Internet. If you haven’t head of Google, their is something wrong with you.

Number 1

And Finally, at number one, is Google Chrome. Google’s web browser. It’s fast, and easy to use. If you use Internet Explorer, you should think about downloading for free Google Chrome, or Mozilla Firefox. Those two browsers are much better then Internet Explorer.

Google is now working on version 2.0 of Google Chrome, just after the BETA version was released.

Gmail lists of improvements are forever growing, now with Gmail opening PDF files, who needs a desktop computer after all?

If you received an email before with Gmail and the message had a PDF file attached, you previously either had to download it, or you could convert it to a HTML which removed all the images so it didn’t look to neat.

But all that has now changed. If you receive a PDF attachment through Gmail, you can now open the PDF file and display it in your web browser using Google Docs online PDF viewer. Unlike converting to HTML, you can now zoom and search the first 100 pages of the file.

So say goodbye to Adobe Acrobat or Foxit, and say hello to the online world of Google.

Via Google System

With the recent published article on Jicola.com Blogs with Google soon to leave BETA stage, it has now happened.

After 10 Million active Google Chrome users and 14 release updates to the browser, Google has finally removed its BETA tag. Users feedback of the browsers suggested that Chrome had “Better stability and performance of plug-ins (particularly video), even more speed, Bookmark manager and privacy controls.”

With security being a major issue on the online world, Google Chrome has an unique sandbox technology including a safe browsing option.

Even though the BETA tag is gone, their are still plenty more improvements that need to be done. This includes RSS support, form autofills, an extension platform and compatibility with Linux and Mac.

If you already have Google Chrome, don’t reinstall it, the auto update system which is implemented in the browser will ensure you get the latest bug fixes and security patches. Just click on the spanner button, go to ‘about Google Chrome’ and click on update.

With Chrome out of BETA, the war begins over the Internet between Microsoft and Google.

Other Google vs Microsoft Wars

Search Engine: Google vs Live

Email: Gmail vs Hotmail

Web Browsers: Chrome vs Internet Explorer

Online Docs: Google Docs vs Microsoft Office

Instant Chat: Google Talk vs Windows Live Messenger

via Google Blog

Got Gmail? Not even using 1% of your storage? What a waste. But not for long. Gmail Drive is a solution to fill up the 6000mb + of space that they provide. What Gmail Drive does, it allows you to use your Gmail account as a online file storage system so you can fill up the empty space. The good thing about it is that you don’t need to login to a website and upload/download files. You can do it straight from Windows Explorer. There are a few limitations to this, but once out of the Beta stage, it will be worth it.

So now you don’t have to login to a website to upload/download files, it will be like the files are stored on your computers hard drive, its quick, convenient access to your files. This is how online storage should be… drag and drop.

For more information about Gmail Drive, visit their website at http://www.viksoe.dk/code/gmail.htm

A new free and premium email competitor has entered the market of the email world. Jicola.com’s new email feature will compete against the popular Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo.

Jicola has launched two sorts of email types. Freemail and Premium email. Amazingly, both these are free, but the Premium mail requires registration to the Jicola.com website

Listed are the features of each mail type:

Freemail Features

• Your own username@freemail.jicola.com
• 100mb of email space
• Web based access
• Send and receive attachments
• Limited Support

Free Premium Email Features

• Your own username@email.jicola.com
• Currently 100mb of space - more space can be provided on request
• Easy to use, edit graphical user interface
• Ability to use POP3 to access and download your emails using Outlook or Thunderbird
• Send and receive attachments
• Free support
• Domain Forwards
• Ability to create Auto responders
• Ability to change web interface*
• Password recovery system
• Can create folders to sort your emails
• Mark emails
• Print emails
• Address Book
• Can change preferences and identities
• Much more…

*on special request

With these great features challenging Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo, Jicola email is expected to be competition.

To signup for these products, please visit http://www.jicola.com/freemail or http://www.jicola.com/premiumemail