A Month in Software (01-09-2012)

Over the last few months the 'A Month in Software' articles have been all about antivirus software applications. Today this all changes as we have finally armored our vehicle for the long road ahead on the Windows framework. Don't fool yourself as all I have done is equipped you with the tools for your protection however it is and will always be up to you to use them.

I know I have skipped a few months due to a busy work schedule so today I will try and make up for this by introducing you to three of my favourite applications. I give you Google Chrome + Google Desktop + Google Drive.

Chrome
Google Chrome is a freeware web browser developed by Google and supported by the open-source Chromium community. It was first released as a beta version for Microsoft Windows in 2008 eventually becoming a stable release later that year. Chrome started out just as Google did by having a clean and simple interface and doing best what it was designed to do, browse the web.

However with the introduction of Google Chrome OS, Chrome has changed considerably as well becoming more of an operating system itself than just a simple web browser. One of my personal favourite solutions is the ability to sign in to Chrome and sync my personalised Chrome experience (open tabs, bookmarks, passwords) from my computer over to any other computer including my smart phone and take it with me anywhere I go.

Google Desktop
Google Desktop is desktop search software made by Google for Linux, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows. However as of September 2011, Google announced it would discontinue Google Desktop having  witnessed a large number of users moving towards cloud based storage and computing solutions. However considering the program allows text searches of a user's e-mails, chats, and web searches as well as the personal computer files, music and photos, I still find it a very useful tool to have.



Google Drive

Google Drive is a file storage and synchronisation service by Google that was released publicly earlier this year. Google Drive is now the home of Google Docs, a suite of productivity applications, that offer 

collaborative editing on documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and more anywhere you go.

It integrates well with Gmail allowing links to be emailed of a document instead of the document itself so that everyone is working on the same file, same version, automatically all the time. 

Google Drive helps you get to your files faster. Search for content by keyword and filter by file type, owner and more. Google Drive can even recognize objects in your images and text in scanned documents.

It allows you to open over 30 file types right in your browser—including HD video, Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop—even if you don’t have the program installed on your computer.

Google Drive tracks every change you make—so when you hit the save button, a new revision is saved. You can look back as far as 30 days automatically, or choose a revision to save forever.