Google Page Creator

I hate to focus on yet another Google product when there are so many great, free services out there to profile. But I really would be remiss if I didn’t talk about the platform I use to run this page. Google Page Creator is an easy way to make your own Web site if you don’t have any technical knowledge. It’s automatic, intuitive, and self-hosted.

SketchUp

SketchUp is a 3-D modeling program that lets you build genuinely three-dimensional models. The company was independent until a few months ago, when Google bought them out. They still offer a professional version of the software for serious designers, but it’s about $500. However, since the company was purchased by Google, they began to offer a lite version of the program called Google SketchUp Free. You can download it here.

Zoho Writer

Earlier this year Google bought out an innovative little start-up operation called Writely. Writely was a collaborative word processing tool that worked in your Web browser. It had most of the features offered by expensive Microsoft Word, and a few more, like PDF output. Unfortunately, after Google bought Writely, the service closed down to new members while they transferred things over to the Google systems. It took a lot longer than they thought, and while the Writely Blog promised that people on the waiting list would receive invites in early July, we are entering the second half of the month with no opening in sight.

The Clash of the Betas

In the last few weeks both Microsoft and Yahoo! have relased fancy new versions of their popular Web-based free e-mail services. Ever since Google entered the e-mail market boasting more storage space, instant messenger integration, and a refined look, the big e-mail providers like Yahoo!, MSN, and AOL have been forced to improve their products as well. Here’s my first impression of each new mail client.