With great power comes great responsibility, so it is very easy to misuse Google Alerts, causing you more grief than convenience. There’s a smarter way to monitor new web content using Google Alerts and we’re here to point you in the right direction.

Craft the Right Search Query

Nearly anything that you can search for on Google can be converted into a Google alert. What this means is that the way you put together your search query follows the same kinds of rules that you’d have with a regular Google search. You know all those boolean operators like using “or” and quotation marks? Those work.

The same is true when it comes to using the minus sign to filter out words you want to exclude. You can also limit your results to a specific domain using the “site:” modifier. It’s important that your Google Alerts search query is as specific and precise as possible; otherwise, you’ll just get overrun with results. Two additional ways to reduce the number of results is to choose a result type (news, blogs, video, discussions, or books) rather than “everything” and to select the “only the best results” option rather than the “all results” option.

Filter the News of Interest

Let’s say that you want to stay on top of a current news story, but you don’t want to search manually for the latest reports. Google Alerts can do that.

Google Alert for iPhone 5

When I did a search for “iPhone 5” in Google News, for example, below the list of results was the link highlighted above. This lets you create an email alert for the chosen search term. You can do this manually from the Google Alerts main page, too, which will then preview the results for you before you create the alert.

The problem with using something like “iPhone 5″ as the search query is that you’re going to get far too many results. Narrow down your search term further by using a query like: “iphone 5″ display size

Watch Social Mentions of Your Brand (and Your Competitors)

One of the most powerful ways to use Google Alerts is to keep tabs on your brand and your company, as well as those of your competitor.

Brand monitoring with Google Alerts

I’ve had a Google Alert set up for “Michael Kwan” for years. This way, I can know if anyone is talking about me on the web. In like manner, you can do the same for your business name, having a good sense of what the public has to say about you. This is also a good way to keep track of inbound backlinks. All you have to do is the use the “link:domain.com” construction in your search query.

Monitor RSS Feeds in Google Reader

By default, Google Alerts will send you either a daily or weekly digest of the search results. It can also send them to you “as they happen,” but you can see how your inbox will just get inundated far too quickly.

That’s why it’s good to see that these Google Alerts can also be delivered in the form of an RSS feed. You can then subscribe to the feed in Google Reader, perhaps setting up a category for nothing but Google Alerts. This way, you have one place to look for all your alerts and they’ll all be stored in a searchable archive for later perusal.

There used to be tools like AlertRank and Alerts Grader that further filtered your Google Alerts, but they no longer appear to be available. And so, the onus is on you to craft the best and most manageable Alerts possible.

Image credit: Gunnar Assmy / Fotolia

###

As a quick refresher, PERT stands for Project Evaluation and Review Technique and the associated charts map out how a project will be completed when time is at a premium. Using one of the five tools listed here, you can now satisfy all your PERT chart diagramming needs online.

Creately PERT Chart Template

Creately PERT Chart

Designed primarily for team collaboration, Creately is an online utility that allows for “smart” diagramming. There hundreds of different features that you can use, including curvy connectors and pretty shapes, but the easiest way to get started is to use the PERT chart template. That’ll give you a good idea of how the system works and how you can create your own PERT charts using it. Creately has a free option, but you’ll need to sign up for a paid plan (starting at $5/month) to really get the most of what it has to offer.

Gliffy

Online Diagrams with Gliffy

What you’ll find with most online PERT chart tools is that they’re meant to be used for more than one purpose. That’s the case with Gliffy Online. It’s the most widely used online diagramming application, so people are using it for PERT charts, flow charts, SWOT analyses, wireframes, technical drawings, and more. As with Creately, the interface is drag-and-drop, making it a breeze to use. There is a small free plan again, but the $4.95 standard plan is probably a better idea.

Cacoo

Cacoo Web Tool

I know I’m going to start sounding like a broken record here, but Cacoo is a very similar web-based application as Gliffy and Creately. It’s an online diagram tool that has free and paid plans (starting at $4.95 per month). You can use it to create the PERT chart you need, as well as all sorts of other diagrams. Going along with the regular shapes and lines are stencils, aligning functionality, and freehand options. And yes, real-time collaboration is definitely at play here as well.

Draw Anywhere

Draw Anywhere

Not to be confused with Draw Something, Draw Anywhere is a much more utilitarian-style online diagram creator in approach. The focus is more on flowcharts and network diagrams, but you can see how the web tool is easily adapted to make PERT charts. As before, everything runs on the web, so you don’t have to install anything locally. There’s a 30-day free trial and then plans start at $30 per year for a single user.

Lovely Charts: Online Edition

Online Version of Lovely Charts

One of the more interesting things about Lovely Charts is that it comes in multiple versions. In the context of this list, the online edition is where you’ll get your online PERT chart tool. It’s simple, but effective with drag-and-drop functionality and easy object continuation. Beyond that, there’s a more robust desktop version, plus a mobile version for the iPad. The online version is 29 Euro (about $36) a year, making Lovely Charts the cheapest paid version on this list.

The whole point of PERT charts is to help you save time and figure out a way to do things more efficiently. While it would be great to see some good online PERT chart tools that easily integrated with existing paradigms like Google Docs (Google Drive) and Basecamp, the above cloud-based web utilities are a good start.

Image credit: TommL / iStockpho

###

The idea behind S.M.A.R.T. goals is an age-old concept, but it’s always worth revisiting if it means that you can lead a smarter life, get more done, and really make yourself a better person in one way or another. As we make our way through some of these examples, you’ll get a better sense of why some the goals you’re currently setting don’t really hold any real weight until you’ve made them SMART to go along with what you hope to be a smart life.

Specific

The value of a vague goal is pretty minimal. It can give you a general direction, but you want your goals to be as specific as possible. You wouldn’t want to follow a road map that leads you to “somewhere out there.” You want the map that leads you to the corner of Main Street and 3rd Avenue in Vancouver, Canada.

Bad Example: I want to be healthier.

Good Examples:

• I want to lose 20 pounds.
• I want to eliminate chocolate bars from my diet.
• I want to quit smoking.
• I want win a tennis match against my brother.
• I want to reduce my half-marathon time by 30%.

Measurable

Measurable Goals (Flickr / Public Domain Photos)

Having a specific goal is good, but a real SMART goal is one that is also measurable. This makes it so that you can clearly assess your progress and determine whether or not you’ve accomplished the goal that you set.

Bad Example: I want more money.

Good Examples:

• I want to completely pay off my student loan.
• I want to have $200,000 in my savings account.
• I want to earn a $100,000 salary.
• I want a part-time job for an extra $10,000 a year.
• I want my investment portfolio to earn a 10% annual return.

Attainable

Setting goals that are too lofty are very unlikely to be met. Your goal should stretch your limits, to be sure, but it should be within reasonable reach given your current circumstances. If you’re goal is completely unattainable, you’re just going to get demoralized and demotivated.

Bad Example: I want to visit every country in the world this year.

Good Examples:

• I want to backpack through Europe this summer.
• I want to visit every continent before I die.
• I want to see the new seven wonders of the world within the next 15 years.
• I want to travel to 5 countries in the next 10 years.
• I want to go on a cruise through Asia by the end of next year.

Relevant

Timely Goals (Flickr / lululemon athletica)

SMART goals are ones that placed within the context of your wider ambitions and your perceived life’s purpose. It’s all relative what it means for a goal to be relevant, so you have to look within yourself and ask if the goal you’re setting really matters to you.

Bad Example: I want to collect every local phonebook since 1950.

Good Examples:

• I want to own my own home.
• I want to donate 10% of my income each year to charity.
• I want to reduce my body fat percentage to under 17%.
• I want to run my own small business.
• I want to get married.

Time-Sensitive

Setting a goal is meaningless if there’s no deadline. Otherwise, you can just keep procrastinating and avoiding the issue. Your goal needs to be accomplished by a certain time and date.

Bad Example: I want to buy a house.

Good Examples:

• I want to buy a house within the next 5 years.
• I want to save up a $100,000 down payment by January 2015.
• I want to buy a 600 square-foot condo by the beginning of next year.

Templates and Worksheets for SMART Goals

SMART Goal Planner (GetOrganizedWizard.com)

Following the five basic elements of SMART goals — specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-sensitive — is a great way to stay on track, but having some additional templates and worksheets can be helpful too. Listed below are some resources for you to try, including some that let you work out resources, schedules, milestones, and rewards.

• Get Organized Wizard
• Coaching 4 Impact (PDF)
• Cornerstone (PDF)
• Worksheet Place
• Canvas (mobile app)

Now that you’ve set your SMART goals, get out there and achieve them.

Image credit: Flickr / ollesvensson

###

I know what you’re thinking. You see the word refurbished and you just assume that the product has been used and abused, not living up to the standard of quality that you’ve come to expect from Apple iProducts. The irony is that the refurbished Apple could very well be the better purchase than a brand new Apple. And it has to do with more than just the price too.

The Deal with Apple Refurbished Products

First, let’s get one thing clear. I’m only talking about the Apple refurbished products that you are buying directly from Apple. If you go to the official Apple online store, you can scroll near the bottom of the page and you’ll find a whole section of “special deals” in the left sidebar. Most of these are for the discounted refurbs.

You may find some refurbished Apple products through other third-party retailers and clearance houses, but these are typically not Apple certified. What this means is the quality of the refurbishing could range considerably; you might get a good deal, but you could just as easily get a lemon. By contrast, the refurbished items sold directly by Apple all go through the same process.

This is key. Whenever you have mass production, there are going to be defects. Even if the manufacturing process is 99.5% accurate, it means that one out of every 200 products is going to be defective, buggy, or otherwise have some sort of problem. When you buy an Apple refurbished item, though, each and every one of these items is stringently tested for issues before it is sold. In this way, the refurbs are arguably of higher quality and reliability than their brand new counterparts. And you save some cash along the way too.

Save Money on All iPods

Refurbished iPod touch

Let’s take one such example of an Apple certified refurbished product. The refurbished 8GB iPod nano is currently listed at $99. If you were to buy the same iPod nano new, it retails for $129. This nets you a savings of $30. You still get a one-year limited warranty and you still have a 14-day return policy. The only downside is that engraving and gift wrap are not available for refurbished iPods. The refurbs also aren’t available in physical stores, so you will have to order online. Shipping is free.

If you look at some of the other refurbished iPods, you’ll see that some even better deals can be had. If you don’t need the absolute newest model, the 2009 version of the 64GB iPod touch is available for $249, which is 32% off ($120) the regular retail price. You still get Wi-Fi, Safari, iOS apps, and all that good stuff, but at a very substantial savings.

Refurbished Apple iPad and iPad 2

Refurbished iPad

The same idea applies to Apple refurbished iPad tablets. The new third-generation iPad is not yet available as a refurb, but you can get the iPad and iPad 2 at a discounted price. The savings vary depending on the exact model that you would like, but they are mostly in the $80 to $150 range. A refurbished 32GB iPad 2 with Wi-Fi is currently selling for $399, which is $100 off the regular retail price.

Peace of Mind with Macs of All Sizes

Apple refurbished products don’t only apply to the mobile devices. The full range of Macs are also sold as refurbs. Apple tests and certifies all of these products to make sure they are as problem-free as possible. As before, they still come with the one-year warranty and free shipping.

Refurbished Macs

You can start with up to $100 savings on a Mac mini, or you can step up to $300 savings on a refurbished MacBook Air, $200 savings on a iMac, or as much as $580 savings on a MacBook Pro. The inventory changes all the time, so it pays to check every once in a while. Most listings will tell you when the product was originally released, giving you a sense of its age and how the specs stack up against brand new Macs.

Even greater savings can be enjoyed on clearance items, but these aren’t necessarily Apple refurbished products and the availability can oftentimes be quite scarce. In any case, the refurbs from Apple shouldn’t be dismissed just because they aren’t new. They’re oftentimes warranty returns or overstock, but they’ve gone through stringent testing and really are better than new. And having that extra money in your pocket doesn’t hurt either.

Image credit: Apple.com

###

Summer is right around the corner and that means you’ll likely be spending more time on patios and at backyard barbecues. Not that you’d really need either of those excuses to get a drink, but it could mean more alcohol in your future. How do you avoid packing on the pounds, though? You could consume one of these healthy alcoholic drinks for women, but what about more manly alternatives?

The good news is that there are plenty of manly drinks that won’t have you moving your belt over to the next notch. Yes, you just may be able to save yourself from that unsightly beer belly, though it could mean that you should avoid “having yet another brewsky” with the boys. They do call it a beer belly for a reason and, let’s be honest, it’s not exactly flattering when you’re trying to hit on the girls at the beach.

So, what are some healthy alcoholic drinks for us alcohol-enjoying gents? How do we get the buzz without the gut?

Wine: White or Red

Red Wine (QuinnDombrowski / Flickr)

Of all the alcohol on the shelf, one of the best options is to go to the cellar. Offering the least number of calories on a per-ounce basis, wine is great with your health-conscious dinner. In fact, most wines are only 20 calories per ounce and they have no fat, no sodium, and no cholesterol.

Wine has also been demonstrated to have some healthful benefits in moderation. Red wine is an antioxidant, protecting your body from cancer. It’s also good for protecting you from heart disease. White wine has fewer carbs (2g) than red wine (4g) per 5-ounce serving, so you’ll get good stuff either way.

Liquor on the Rocks

A man’s man doesn’t need a mixer and, if you’re staying on the healthier side of things, skipping the mixer altogether is really the way to go. Most of the calories that you find in cocktails are coming from the soft drink, the juice, and the sugar-laden syrups used to mask the taste of the alcohol. But you’re a man and you want a manly drink. Ditch the mixer.

Jack Daniel's Whiskey

It’s up to you if you want your drink neat or on the rocks, but drinking it straight is how you can cut those calories and the sugar intake. For instance, a double Scotch whiskey on the rocks will put you at just under 140 calories with zero carbs. Purists will say skip the ice.

Vodka and Soda with Lime

Vodka and Soda with Lime (Baileyaros.blogspot.com)

Maybe you want something lighter than shots of hard liquor. One of the best healthy alcoholic drinks is to mix your liquor of choice with club soda or sparkling water, squirting some lime juice for flavor. Have the whole thing on ice and be a happy boy.

I personally prefer doing this with vodka, but you could just as easily use gin, whisky, or whatever else you want, so long as it’s not some sugary liqueur. It should be noted that tequila has signifantly more carbs (5.3g per ounce) than most other liquors. Gin and white rum, for example, have zero carbs.

Whisky and Green Tea

Whiskey and Green Tea (PeckTheBeak.com)

If you’re looking for a warm drink in the evenings, this really hits the spot. The whisky doesn’t have much in terms of calories and the green tea comes with all sorts of additional health benefits, like boosting your immune system and lowering cholesterol levels. If you prefer other teas, like Earl Grey, that’s not a bad choice either.

Healthy Alcoholic Drinks Include Beer?

Yes, beer isn’t the healthiest choice, relative to straight hard liquor or a glass of wine, but you can still make some relatively healthier choices within this realm. Light beers are typically the least offensive with the fewest calories and carbohydrates. Lagers are generally better than ales in both respects too. In general, having fuller body and fuller flavor is usually associated with having more carbs and more calories.

Beer Calories and Carbs

Check out this useful chart to find your favorite brand of beer. For instance, whereas Michelob Ultra has only 95 calories and 2.6g of carbs, Michelob Amber Boch has 166 calories and 15g of carbs. That’s a pretty huge difference.

As with all your other alcohol-related decisions, try to be wise about which drinks you order too.

Image credit: indi.ca / Flickr

###

Just as switching from soda pop to a nice herbal tea is great option, the same can be said when it comes to the drinks with alcohol. Before you load up on that seriously sweet lime margarita, perhaps you should consider some of these healthier alternatives that pack just as much of an alcoholic punch, but without the dietary regrets.

Wine Spritzer

Wine spritzers are a low calorie standby that can be just as enjoyable as their more caloric counterparts. And they have two very important advantages worth noting. First, the wine itself is good for you in moderation. Red wine potentially prevents cancer (antioxidant) and heart disease. Second, the spritzer is a zero calorie mixer, letting you dilute your drink without packing on additional calories.

Wine Spritzer (toolmantim / Flickr)

A typical five-ounce glass of wine is about 100 calories, but if you’re diluting it with spritzer, you can get away with less than five ounces, bringing the calorie count down even further.

Honey Mojito

Honey Mojito (CocktailTimes.com)

There’s nothing quite like a refreshing mojito on a hot summer day, but all that simple syrup is inherently packed with sugar (and calories). A really simple solution is to replace the simple syrup with honey. You still get the sweetness and you don’t have to turn to artificial sweeteners to do it.

To make your honey mojito, take out a tall glass and combine 2 ounces of rum and 4 ounces of club soda. Dissolve half a teaspoon of honey. Then, muddle one sliced lime with some mint leaves, adding the mixture to your drink. Fill with ice and you have a 150 calorie treat.

Christmas Cooler

Christmas Cooler (Shape.com)

See the beautiful colors? The Christmas Cooler was featured in Shape Magazine and it’s perfectly suitable for seasons other than the winter holidays too.

What you’ll need to do is muddle together four whole blackberries, half a cinnamon stick, and one ounce of pomegranate grenadine. That last bit is made in advance by combining equal parts pom juice and sugar, cooking on a stovetop until reduced to a third. Add Tanqueray gin and 1/2 ounce of lemon juice. Shake with ice, strain into an ice-filled glass, and top with club soda.

Pomegranate Wine

Pomegranate Wine (SeriousEats.com)

Speaking of the popular superfruit, pomegranate can be fermented into wine too. Following the instructions on DailyFruitWine.com, you’ll end up with four liters of finished product. Remember that pomegranate offers three times the antioxidants as an equivalent amount of red wine! This is certainly more involving than just mixing a vodka cranberry, but you’ll get a much more unique beverage to show off to your other health-conscious friends.

Vodka and Crystal Light

Vodka and Crystal Light (EllenClarke.blogspot.com)

As I said above, mixers are largely to blame. For a nice variety of healthy alcoholic drinks, simple replace the less healthy mixers with healthier alternatives. You might already be drinking Crystal Light and other similar beverages, so why not spike it with some vodka? Alternatively, you can use diet cranberry juice, which can be as low as five calories a serving. Add in about 100 calories for 1.5 ounces of vodka, which won’t alter the taste of the juice that much, and you’ve got a 105 calorie drink that’s actually good for you.

Sangria: The Best Healthy Alcoholic Drinks?

Sangria (Dinner Series / Flickr)

Counting calories is only one consideration when it comes to healthy alcoholic drinks. You should also think about where you’re getting those calories. A popular drink among men and women alike is sangria, both in red wine and white wine varieties.

There’s a reason why some people call sangria one of the healthiest alcoholic beverages when on a diet. You get low carbs, low fat, and low calorie, but you get all the nutritional goodness of fresh fruit, coupled by the benefits of moderate wine consumption. A typical glass of sangria is about 150 calories.

Here’s to drinking to your health! Enjoy responsibly!

Image credit: miss karen / Flickr

###

Beta testing among your co-workers and colleagues can only go so far. For some real beta testing, you might consider giving uTest a try. Used by the likes of Groupon, Netflix, Amazon and Intuit, uTest has a long track record of helping companies of all sizes meet their testing goals.

What Is uTest and How Is It Different?

In a nutshell, uTest offers a software testing service where you can submit your app and they’ll have their QA team run it through its wringer. This service encompasses web-based applications, desktop applications, and mobile apps across multiple platforms. In the case of web-based apps, for instance, you can request that the app be tested in Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera, and multiple versions of IE. When it comes to mobile apps, uTest can handle Android, iOS, Windows Phone, BlackBerry OS, and webOS.

One of the bigger points to note here is that uTest offers real-world testing. Many app developers have likely experienced this problem: they run and test the app on their own and everything seems to be problem-free. With the utmost confidence, they launch the app into the world only to find that it is actually riddled with bugs. These bugs are encountered by users in different countries, using different platforms, on different devices, under different circumstances.

“Most software testing vendors help companies to test better inside the QA lab. This is necessary and important work, but it doesn’t replicate the conditions and experience of end users,” said Matt Johnston, Chief Marketing Officer at uTest. “Conversely, uTest’s software testing services enable companies to test their web and mobile apps in the wild — that is, under real-world conditions, with professional testers using real devices, imperfect connectivity and in 190+ countries.”

Needless to say, there’s a definite value in getting your app beta tested by uTest. By finding the bugs before any kind of public release, you are able to protect the perception and performance of your app. This gives you the opportunity to iron out the kinks that were discovered through real-world use, giving you the chance for a cleaner and more successful launch. It doesn’t matter if you have a great app if it’s riddled with bugs; that’ll spell doom right from the start. Find those bugs and fix them now before they end up costing you down the road.

Who Are the Testers and What Do They Do?

Yes, the tester pool for uTest just about spans the entire globe, but that doesn’t mean that you’re getting second rate testers. Matt Johnston says that the “50,000+ professional testers…have an average of five and a half years professional QA experience, and 95% work full-time or part-time in the QA profession.”

If you have a look at the How It Works page, you’ll see that uTest offers five main types of beta testing: functional testing to ensure your apps work the way they should; security testing to help you avoid common security and privacy vulnerabilities; load testing to see if your app’s performance doesn’t degrade with heavy traffic; localization testing to cover content translations; and usability testing to help you launch products that are intuitive and clean.

The testers are assigned through a proprietary matching algorithm. “So when uTest tells you that a tester is a great functional tester on iPhone apps, or extremely strong in usability testing of web apps in the retail industry,” said Johnston, “it’s because our customers have rated those testers highly based upon their past performance.”

How Much Does It Cost?

Aye, there’s the rub. In order to get pricing for the service, you must first select the type of testing that you want and then fill out a basic contact form. While uTest would certainly prefer if you put in your legitimate information, none of it is verified, so you can enter whatever you want.

You’re then directed to the planning wizard where you define the app type, operating systems, app industry, testing deliverables, app complexity, team size, testing duration, and testing regions.

Using my hypothetical example above of an iOS app for exploratory testing in North America and Europe for a period of six months, the price estimate comes out on the $3001-$3667 range per month. That works out to an approximate total cost of $20,000. This won’t fit everyone’s budget, to be sure, and the cost goes up with greater complexity or a larger number of platforms. As such, uTest makes more sense for companies that are willing to invest that kind of cash. That’s why the customer list includes the likes of Google, Microsoft, and Associated Press.

Who Else Can Beta Test?

If you’re looking to save yourself some money, there are some alternatives out there like TestFlight and iBetaTest. That said, there are at least two concerns that you should keep in mind: these alternatives are mostly public, so they might affect public perception of your app before it officially launches; and the beta testers aren’t necessarily professional and may not be able bring the same kind of valuable experience to the table.

Yes, uTest isn’t exactly cheap, but can you really afford to launch a bug-ridden app?

###

Sifting through this overwhelming array of choices and finding the perfect program for you can be nearly as difficult as actually completing the work itself. Every college will try to persuade you that their program is ideal for your needs and aspirations, and there’s very little objective, unbiased comparative information to help with such a difficult decision.

Narrowing Your Choices With Limited Information

Even if you can narrow your choices down to a single college or university, you’re then met with yet another vast variety of choices consisting of majors, minors, training programs, certificates, and courses to choose from. Having little basis to compare these programs, students often have no choice but to base these life-altering decisions on, “hunches,” “vibes,” or trivial differences between them. As crazy as it may seem, even smart, diligent students have to take their chances and commit several years and thousands of dollars to a program based on very little information.

That’s why resources like RateMyProfessors.com can be indescribably valuable in helping students choose colleges, majors, minors, and courses based on millions of reviews from their peers. Students from over 7,500 colleges and universities rank their courses and their professors based on their own experiences, and younger students can use these reviews to compare colleges, professors, and they courses that they offer.

RateMyProfessors.com is not for lazy students seeking easier classes and laid-back professors. While each review contains a rating of “easiness” for each professor, they also contain ratings for helpfulness, clarity, and even a rating for rater interest to provide an idea of how enthused the rater was by the course material itself. Obviously, a person who is fascinated by computer science will leave a more favorable review of a robotics course than someone who hates programming and can’t stand computers, so the rater interest metric is quite helpful when comparing professors and courses.

RateMyProfessors.com lets students rate their teachers on a variety of carefully-chosen criteria

RateMyProfessors.com has aggregated these 13 million ratings to create lists like “Highest Rated Professors” and “Top Schools.” These lists are rarely in alignment with the US News & World Report’s annual list of top colleges, most likely because while US News & World Report’s findings are based on broad, macro-level data like admission rate, graduation rate, and average classroom size. RateMyProfessors bases their rankings on individual student experiences, which are arguably far more relevant and helpful when faced with the difficult choices of choosing an educational path.

When we’re choosing a restaurant, a car dealership, or a babysitter, we rarely look at “big picture,” macro-level data. We’re far more likely to look for individual experiences like restaurant reviews, dealership experiences, or babysitter referrals. These more personal recommendations are apparently far more meaningful and influential, suggesting that RateMyProfessors.com’s reviews should be just as influential on your college decision-making process as any other information. If your next professor has reliably good ratings, you should enter his or her course with confidence. On the other hand, if your next class has dismal reviews, you might want to save yourself a lot of frustration and find a different course to meet your requirements and ambitions.

Making The Most of Your Education Takes More Than Good Grades

A smart student will study diligently, prepare well for tests and earn a good grade. An even smarter student will plan ahead, seek out the best professors, avoid unworthy classes, and make the most of their education by studying not only the course materials, but the courses themselves. This will almost certainly lead to a more thorough education and a happier, more talented graduate.

Image credit: Viorika / iStockphoto

###

While Google+ hasn’t quite been a runaway success, to put it lightly, Google continues to dominate the online world and that domination is continuing with the recent launch of Google Drive. We’re once again going to the cloud with yet another Google service and there’s a very good chance that it’ll become an indispensible part of our daily lives on the world wide web. Will it squash the cloud storage alternatives like SugarSync and Dropbox, or will it fizzle out like Google+? Before we get that far, let’s just get a closer look at Google Drive and what it’s all about.

The Evolution of Google Docs

Many people are saying that Google Drive is positioned to be a direct competitor to cloud storage solutions like Skydrive and Box.net, but that isn’t completely true. While it’s there for cloud storage, it’s probably more accurate to say that it’s the natural progression of Google Docs. In fact, after you “sign up” for Google Drive, Google Docs will disappear altogether from your account.

Uploading with Google Drive

When you try to access Docs, you’ll simply get redirected to Drive. From a user experience perspective, it’s really not all that different. You still get all the usual files and folders from the web interface, but there’s the added function of being able to upload additional file types, as well as the ability to upload entire folders.

In either case, all of these files will still work in a very similar way to Google Docs. You can share the files with your colleagues and collaborate on them in real time. Select file types can be converted to the corresponding Google Docs formats, like spreadsheets and word documents. One difference is that you can switch to “grid” view rather than “list” view, if you prefer a more visual layout.

Synchronizing with Apps

Perhaps the bigger difference is the introduction of desktop applications. Google has already pushed out the apps for Windows PC and Mac OS, as well as an Android app. The iPhone app is being planned for the near future.

What you’ll find here is that the Google Drive desktop app works not unlike the Dropbox application you may already have. There’s a folder that is then synchronized with your account. You can go ahead an install the app on multiple computers and it’ll all sync up accordingly.

Drive Desktop App

Normal file types that can be natively read by your computer can be easily accessed offline, but you’ll need to go through a setup process if you want to view Google Docs file types.

Upgrading Your Storage

Since this is Google we’re talking about, the basic plan will always be free. You start off with 5GB of Drive storage (Google Docs doesn’t count against this), as well as 10GB of Gmail and 1GB of Picasa. From there, the storage plan pricing starts at $2.49/month for 25GB of Drive storage (plus a free bonus upgrade to 25GB for Gmail), going all the way up to 16TB for $799.99/month. There are seven additional plans between those two.

Is It a Dropbox Killer?

I’m still convinced that Dropbox is one of the best cloud-based apps out there, especially now that you can share any file and not just those in the “Public” folder, but Google Drive is certainly an intriguing proposition. It also helps that the Google Drive pricing undercuts Dropbox: 100GB with Drive is $4.99/month, compared to $19.99/month with Dropbox.

Native support for over 30 files from right within your web browser is certainly appreciated, as is the ability to collaborate on files in real time, though the latter was already available through Docs. The terms can be a little scary — “When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works…” — but we’ve come to expect nothing less from the Big G.

Image credit: ZDNet

###

And here is the fourth and final installment in our series (1-10, 11-20, 21-30) on Y Combinator startups that just might help you save some time, save some money, and even save you from some unneeded headache. These Internet startups have all received seed funding and much needed guidance from Y Combinator, allowing them to get off the ground and into the public eye.

Today’s list is a little more special, because they’re all startups that have only “graduated” from the Y Combinator program within the last two years. Many of them are still trying to get the exposure that they need, but they’re all up and running, ready to help you live the smarter life. Are you ready to get a little more organized and have a few extra nickels in your pocket?

31. Gantto

Gantt charts, originally developed by one Henry Gantt, are an organizational tool that help you illustrate a project schedule. This is particularly effective when the project elements have timelines that overlap, giving you a better grasp of what needs to be done, what is currently being done, and when it all needs to be done by. With Gantto, creating these charts on your computer are a piece of cake and you can even have multiple people collaborate on the charts in real time.

32. WorkFlowy

On the surface, WorkFlowy might look like just another “to do” app, but it’s actually much more powerful than that. The idea is that you can jot down notes (and yes, these can be to do items) in a manner that is similar to how your brain operates. Create nested bullet points for what you need to do and use it to organize your ideas into something a little more digestible.

33. AnyLeaf

Even though I pretty much live on the Internet, I still get a little giddy when the flyers get dropped off at my house. Yes, it’s mostly junk, but I do like seeing what deals are happening around town. With AnyLeaf, the process is a lot easier, because you can sift out all the products that don’t interest you. You’re then left with “unbelievable deals on local groceries” based on your individual preferences and these are sent to you as a daily digest for free.

34. AeroFS

AeroFS

While services like SugarSync and Dropbox are a great way to synchronize your files across computers, they inherently come with limited storage. AeroFS takes a different approach, synchronizing files without having necessarily to turn to the cloud. Your files aren’t saved in the cloud unless you specifically enable Cloud Backup; otherwise, your files can then stay in their respective local locations. In essence, you have your own peer-to-peer network for your personal files, all without having to resort to servers.

35. TellFi

There’s something to be said about the appearance of professionalism. If you want to have a business phone system, complete with extensions and voicemail, but you don’t want to invest in the physical infrastructure, TellFi could be an intriguing solution. You get all the features that a business phone system would normally have, but it’s all handled online and it costs as little as ten bucks a month.

36. HelloFax

On the subject of communications, many of us feel that fax machines should have gone the way of the dinosaur ages ago, but somehow they linger as a necessity for many businesses. Why not do away with the hardware and use HelloFax instead? It’s basically an online fax machine that works with both sending and receiving, getting signatures, filling out forms, and all the rest. The free plan includes five fax pages and five signature requests per month.

37. Tutorspree

Tutorspree

The Pythagorean theorem have you confused again? Can’t figure out all this quadratic equation nonsense? Little Timmy asking for help with homework, but you haven’t a clue where to begin? Instead of sifting through Craigslist and browsing local bulletin boards, you might want to use Tutorspree to find “great private tutors in your area.” This is a simple, straightforward, and hassle-free way of finding the right tutors quickly and effectively.

38. ZeroCater

Need to feed a bunch of people in the office and many of these people have certain dietary preferences? Take the hassle out of catering with ZeroCater. They “arrange delivered meals for your company from the best local restaurants.” They’ll cycle through a rotation of more than 90 local restaurants that you can then rate, giving ZeroCater the opportunity to adjust the kind of food they send. The fee is a 7% charge on the normal cost of the meal.

39. ScreenLeap

Want an easier way to collaborate or offer tutorials? ScreenLeap allows you to “share your screen instantly to any device with a browser.” The cool thing is that you don’t have to download or install anything, so it works from right within your browser. It doesn’t cost a thing and the viewing can be done not only on PCs, but also tablets and smartphones. This is great for seminars and team projects.

40. Science Exchange

Granted, this is going to be a pretty specialized service, but it is one that could “dramatically change the weay in which scientists do research.” Science Exchange is essentially a marketplace where researchers in different facilities and institutions can offer up their machines and services to other scientists and researchers. This makes it easier to outsource experiments, getting access to specialized equipment, reduce the cost of science, and expedite the pace of innovation and discovery.

And there you have it: forty Internet startups that couldn’t be more different in the services they provide, but they all got some great seed money and guidance by way of Y Combinator. Do you have a favorite Y Combinator startup that you think we missed in our list of 40? Let us know through the comment form below!

###