GMAIL
- Pros:
- Best search capabilities
- Lumping email threads into "conversations"
- Labels instead of folders (you can use multiple labels for a particular email for organizational purposes),
- Priority Inbox (as the name suggests, it helps your prioritize your emails)
- Amazing integration with Android
- Customizability - lots of shortcuts, labs, and widgets you can add to make Gmail do what you want it to do
- Call or text a phone from GChat (currently all domestic calls are free!); can tie your Gmail account to your Google Voice number for seamless use
- Videochat from Gmail
- Cons:
- Limited offline access
- Slow load time in countries without reliable/fast internet access
- Bottom Line: Switch to Gmail! I promise it will make your life easier.
- Pros:
- Stellar collaborating functions--I can't imagine collaborating on anything without the help of Docs.
- Visible realtime editing among various people helps reduce the hassles of emailing docs back and forth. You can edit a document at the same time!
- You also never have to worry about documents "getting lost," because it's all backed up in the cloud.
- Cons:
- Limited functionality as compared to MS Office (especially Excel), though it's constantly improving
- Limited offline access
- Bottom Line: Really great for collaborating, if you don't need a lot of formatting.
- Both are really cool on computers and mobile devices. A new feature was recently added that allows you to see the height of buildings.
- Google Maps directions now also have options for walking, biking, and public transportation. Walking and biking routes are still in beta, but in San Francisco, they also take into account the amount of time it would take you to walk up vs. down a hill. In biking mode, it gives you directions for routes that are less hilly.
GOOGLE CHROME
- Pros:
- Fast... really fast.
- Syncing across multiple computers (keeps your settings, bookmarks, extensions intact)
- Wide variety of useful extensions:
- Too Many Tabs: Manage your tabs, improve your browsing, and maintain your sanity when you have many tabs open.
- Session Manager: Session Manager lets you save sessions of your opened tabs and windows, and to quickly re-open them whenever you like.
- Downloads Bar: Access the Downloads window directly from the toolbar
