My desk-bound work has evolved over the last couple of years until it is now almost entirely dependent on Google products. That they are not only suberb, simple and ubiquitous, but also free, is quite amazing!

I thought it may be of interest to give you an insight into how Google has transformed the way that I work, making my boring days at the desk more efficient and so generating more time and money for me to go do the fun stuff.

I use Gmail to host all my different email addresses (speaking@alastairhumphreys.com etc.). They all come into one Gmail address. When I receive emails they are sorted, using Google’s Labels system, into folders such as ‘Urgent’, ‘Answer anytime’, ‘Website Ideas’ as well as a label for the month of the year I need to take action on the email.
So, if I get a talk booking for October I organise the event promptly and then file it away under ‘October’ and ‘Talks’ ready for the day of the event.
You can also search through all the emails you have ever received as easily as you can search for anything with Google. Invaluable if you suddenly decide you are off to Sierra Leone and want to find out if you have ever emailed anybody about “Sierra Leone”.

It is very easy to add new bookings and meetings that come via email to my Google Calendar which now runs my life. I relied on a little black diary and a pencil for years. There’s less chance of Google going bust and losing my calendar than there was of me losing my diary. On my calendar I have several colour-coded calendars; a normal calendar, a blogging schedule, an admin calendar and so on to help me see what I am supposed to be doing each day.

I used to use Blogger for my blog, but now have moved away from that to WordPress. Blogger is a great place for people to begin from though.
I still use Google’s Feedburner for the RSS feed on my site (don’t know what RSS is? Click here), and I am continually trying to encourage people to sign up for the RSS feed. I’mm not seeing a great take-up though. I’mm not sure if that is something I am doing wrong or if RSS is just not that popular.
Far more successful is my monthly email newsletter hosted, of course, by Google Groups.
I have dabbled with Google Adwords and Adsense but have not found them very helpful or cost effective.

I host the video clips I make on Google’s YouTube site. Whilst I have most of my photos on Flickr I have dabbled with Picasa, Google’s photo site, and an excellent free editing option.

I use Google’s Blogsearch for keeping up with blogs relevant to what I do. I then use the Reader for gathering the sites that I find interesting and want to read regularly.
I use Google Alerts to keep abreast of topics that are of particular importance to my work, with Google trawling the web and keeping me automatically informed so that I do not need to waste so much time online.

The biggest recent change for me is the adoption of Google Documents. I do not use Word or Excel anymore. Everything is done on Google Docs now. My stuff is safer there than on my hard drive and is available on any internet-linked computer on Earth. It is also useful for sharing documents, for collaborating on exped budget spreadsheets or brainstorming new projects. It also allows my publisher to keep an eye on how my book writing is coming along! (Not very well…)

Google has not embraced social media in a big way (yet!), although I have been using Orkut (their version of Facebook) to keep in touch with people I met in India last year. I planned much of that India walk using Google Earth and Google Maps.

Oh yes, you can use Google for searching for stuff too!

Are there any other ways that you use Google to help you?
What free sites have changed the way you work? I would add Skype and Twitter to the list… What about you?
Have your say in the comments.