Lesson #21, the labs of Google

I experimented with a numer of things in Google Labs. I like Google Transit, but it seems to do the same thing that the Metro site does. I typed in my locatation at work and my home address and discovered that if I caught a bus at the local park and ride at 12:01, I could be home by 3:17pm. This is one of the drawbacks of living out of the city and one of the reasons I don't commute by bus. I have been using Google Reader to keep up with some of my blogs. While it doesn't have all the blogs I have in my bloglines account, I find that I use it more because I am always logging into Google to read my gmail. Interesting how the ease of the user really matters. Hmmm... I also tried Google Suggestions. I think people will either hate it or love it. I love it. It lets you know all of the phrases that begin with your search term and how many sites are available with that particular search term. Fascinating. For instance, when I began to type in "Early literac" it showed that there were 6.9 million results for early literacy, 1.5 million results for early literacy skills, and 1.4 million results for early literacy activites and 3.3 million results for early literacy development. This would help users guide their search to get more results. However, they may not be better results. Google Trends was interesting, but I am not sure how I would apply it. It was interesting that the Australians are the ones searching the term "early literacy." However, the links off to the side were all two to three years old and I know there is newer material.