Awesome Google is Awesome

Last November 23, 2013, at Xavier School, Google launched a seminar entitled GDaySX Philippines. The seminar consisted of various speakers from different professions like managers, businessmen, bloggers, and even students. The speakers also came from different regions of the Philippines and some from other countries. Although they all had different backgrounds, they each shared a common interest with one another. They had a great appreciation for the Google Technologies. It was quite delightful to see a room full of united professionals who valued the idea of Communication and Collaboration.

Before going to the seminar, I had already been familiar with some of the Google Technologies and I had actually used some of them in the past such as Google Maps and Google Drive. I didn’t think I was going to learn much more but I was wrong. After the seminar I was surprised to learn much more about the effectiveness of Google. I learn about Google Analytics wherein a user could further improve his or her blog through the use of statistics. I learned more about Google Maps and how you can add more information to the maps to further improve and update the accuracy of the maps. I also learned much more about business and how communicating with your audience and using blogging in the right way could really affect your sales and reputation. The thing I was most amazed about though was the Crisis Map of Google where in one can pin point the areas affected by a calamity so that solutions could be made as quickly as possible. All these things were incredibly useful especially in terms of communicating and getting work done.

In general, I thought the seminar was a success, not only because of the GREAT FOOD (Big Bite burger is so awesome and yummy! I came back for 2 more rounds), but also because of the effectiveness of the visuals and the speakers to convince the audience to become Google Users. One criticism I have though is the lack of preparation for some of the speakers. Although everyone spoke well, some speakers openly said they were only informed about their talks in a short period of time. Other than that, it was a great seminar.

Hopefully this new technology will bring about change in the ways we work making us more connected and efficient.

    The Google tools have great advantages in both private and public domain. It may work accordingly to an individual's private interest (business blogging etc.). It may also increase public welfare by granting useful information free to the public. Although it seems that blogging is of great advantage, it has some flaws too. 

    We are now in the age of information, where different techniques of disseminating knowledge and ideas are made easier. It is very handy for small time businessmen who have infant companies. One must ensure that their business is on map, meaning that their business is made aware to the public. Take for example CNA Philippines, CNA is originally the accessories shop in Korea. Since CNA is just an infant company, it's bloggers blog about their latest fashion and trends. One timely use of Google tools is providing public goods which is disseminating news. Recently the Philippines have been struck by a super typhoon. Google maps allow us to check and monitor places that were struck by the typhoon. In fact Ms. Aileen Apolo de-Jesus demonstrated the Google crisis response overview. The use of Google Maps/Earth in representing geographic data is fascinating. In fact this Google tool was used by the government in monitoring the devastated areas and with that data they were able to distribute the relief goods more efficiently.  Another very useful tool is the person finder. It is very much more efficient than looking for someone in hospital records. It saves time and effort. We are very lucky that we have the Google response team. They fix the information/data they gather and arrange them in a custom Crisis Map. Crisis Maps contain relevant information such as geographic data, death toll, height of flood and etc. I learned that the Philippine map in Google Maps is just maintained by volunteers. I think that it is very wise to be a volunteer and at the same time a business owner because you can easily put your business on map. I agree that blogging and Google tools are of great advantage, but I can still see some shortcomings however they are entirely in the hands of the user. I think that everyone should be very careful in blogging about other people or other races. I mean this could start a cyber war, which may have just resulted from a simple joke. Another shortcoming is that users who just want to troll and who place wrong information on different sites in the Google Maps.

      Nonetheless, Google tools is very useful in a vast scope of fields. We can benefit a lot from it if we are familiar with the useful tools whether it is for private or of public interest. I think that Filipinos everywhere in the country should be literate or at least be familiar with using such tools. If we are familiar enough with it's functions, we will be able to check the upcoming typhoons any other disasters.