It is a well-known secret in our family that I am a Google otaku, or Google geek. As a translator by profession, I spend many hours each week searching for obscure terminology and usage examples. Spending so much time with a website makes you rather fond of them. I've watched the company since it was simply a little-known, but very accurate, search engine to the 'monolith' software/services firm it is today. Believe it or not, Google is actually an excellent frugal tool.
Here are five reasons why:
1) Froogle
http://www.froogle.com (Beta)
Froogle is Google's shopping search engine, which essentially harnesses the company's search technology to locate a desired item and points you to the place where it can be bought. Simply entering what you want to buy ("ipods" for example) in the search window will show results both from Froogle's webcrawler and information submitted electronically by sellers. You can toggle "local shopping" or "online shopping" to help you find items available near your physical location ("ipods in San Jose"), or online.
Froogle is not a store, nor does it accept payment for listings. It's a fast and efficient way to compare prices for the same item across a variety of websites - useful for the web shopper browsing from Japan, or about to go home on holiday. Anything that saves time, and money, is (in my book) frugal!
2) Google Catalogs
http://catalogs.google.com/ (Beta)
Do you miss browsing the funky catalogs from home? Looking for a particular item to send to relatives in the United States or Canada? Look no further. Google Catalogs features full color versions of printed catalogs available for your viewing pleasure. Everything from fly fishing tackle to knitting yarn can be found. Unfortunately, some of the catalogs are old, so take care in your selections. Why is it frugal? It's a great resource for price
comparison and shopping for many niche items.
3) Google Maps
Japanese: http://tinyurl.com/qadqv
If you're familiar with the Google Maps English version, then this should be fairly simple to use. Simple type in (or copy and paste) the Japanese address of the place you want to find in the search box, and press enter. Use the "+/-" scale to reduce or enlarge the map, and the arrow keys to move about. I've found these maps quite simple to use and fairly accurate. You can also search for businesses and services. Why frugal: Cheaper than buying a map or using your keitai navi system!
4) Writely
http://www.writely.com (Beta)
A new web-based word processing program recently acquired by Google, Writely lets you share your documents instantly and collaborate in real time, edit your documents from anywhere using your web browser, and store your documents securely. It's compatible with MSWord, and you can save to your desktop, publish to the web, or upload to a blog. Cool, and free! Why is this frugal? You can save yourself a few license fees for MSWord, and avoid buying a flash disk or other storage media.
5) Google Labs
http://labs.google.com/
So, what cool stuff does Google have in store? Check out the Google Labs collection to see what applications and services are currently under development. Some interesting offerings include: Google Mars ("view some of the most detailed maps of Mars created by NASA scientists), Google Spreadsheets (a Google version of Excel?), and Google Notebook ("Clip and collect information as you browse the web."). Why is this frugal? It's *such* a cheaper time-waster than manga, movies, or TV!
By Wendy J. Imura. Copyright 2006.