What is Buzz? It’s essentially Google’s answer to Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking sites. It just started in February, and it’s quickly becoming a thriving social platform.

It’s only for Gmail users, so you need a Google email account if you want to use it. You can access it right from your account page.
What does Buzz do?

It’s designed to allow you to write new posts, follow other people, comment on other posts and check updates on other social networking sites – all in the same platform. For instance, if you are following someone on Buzz, and they have a Twitter account, you can be alerted every time they tweet without having to visit Twitter.

Read more at Solopreneur.biz

Google Wave is a new web-based collaboration tool that’s notoriously difficult to understand. This guide will help. Here you’ll learn the ins and outs of how to use Google Wave to get things done with your group. This entire book is available to read for free online…

Read more and get the Guide.

• Log into Gmail
• At the top of the page next to the Search bar is the link “Create a filter”
• On this next Screen you will see several boxes and options
  • Form Fields
    • From – It is best to use the exact e-mail address, but you can also use the name that you have saved from your contacts
    • To – If you have more than one e-mail account coming into your Gmail account, you can use the filter to manage where they go by creating a filter for each one
    • Subject – If any part of the subject will be the same in each message, type in that criteria
    • Has the words – If any part of the message will have this same content in each message, type in that criteria here
    • Doesn’t have – If any part of the message will NOT have this same content in each message, type in that criteria here
    • Has attachment [Checkbox] – If what you want moved will have an attachment in each message, check this box
  • Cancel – Will remove the criteria that you just entered in the boxes
  • Test Search – This will perform a search of all messages in you Inbox and list them in the section below the header
  • Next Step >> – Will take you to the next set of options
• Choose action – Now, select the action you’d like to take on messages that match the criteria you specified. When a message arrives that matches the search: [Your criteria will auto fill in this area], do the following:
  • Check Box Options
    • Skip the Inbox (Archive it)
    • Mark as read
    • Star it – Will place a star next to the messages
    • Apply the label: From the drop down menu, select the label that you want applied to the message
    • Forward it to: Type in the e-mail address that you want these messages sent to.
    • Delete it
    • Never send it to Spam
  • Cancel – Will remove the criteria that you just entered in the boxes
  • << Back – This will return to the previous section
  • Create Filter – Will only “create” the filter, to make it active on the messages that were found in the previous step check the box in the next step
  • Also apply filter to [number of found] conversations below [check box]– Will perform the task of applying the filter

Google Friend Connect

One of my most favorite offerings from Google is Google Friend Connect. Why? Because you can build a community. Others can connect with your Google Friend Connect through multiple social networks like Twitter, Google, Plaxo, etc. Also by adding Google Friend Connect to your site, you can increase engagement with your readers and members of your network. You can easily play around with the look and feel of Friend Connect without having any knowledge of programming.

Here are a few of my favorite gadgets:

Social Bar
Put a social bar at the top or bottom of your webpages to give your visitors easy access to Friend Connect’s social features. The bar includes a way for visitors to sign in, view other members, leave comments, and see recent site activity.

Event
Use this gadget to promote an event to your community. Members of your site can get details about the event (including images and video), see a map, indicate whether they will attend, and see who else has responded. Events can be added to a member’s Google Calendar with a single click.

Comments
Bring your site to life by adding the comments gadget to your pages. This gadget enables visitors to post comments and links to videos on your site. Visitors can use the translation feature to read comments in their preferred language.

Ratings and Reviews
Enable your visitors to rate and review the content and pages on your site. Visitors can rate videos, articles, books, photos, songs, or anything else you can imagine. Even put multiple gadgets on the same page to let users review and rate individual items.

To find more gadgets simply go to:

http://www.google.com/friendconnect/
Sign into your account
Click on “Social Gadgets”

How do you use Google Friend Connect for your website or blog?

One of the things I hear from those who aren’t familiar with Google Docs is, “I don’t want to switch because I don’t use the Internet all the time so Google Docs won’t work for me.”

Guess what? Not true. Watch this video and see if it changes your mind…