Tools for Organizing: Google Desktop

Google Desktop is a gadget that allows you to search your computer's hard drives and any external devices (like flash drives) for key words, just as you do when you search the Web.

In addition to your files, Desktop will search your email, your chats, and even any web pages you've viewed that contain your search term. It will also organize them by category, allowing you faster access to the information you are seeking.

Desktop actually takes a complete inventory of your computer (called indexing). Because it created snapshots of your files to cache copies of them, you can sometimes retrieve an accidentally deleted document!

A word of caution: If your computer is running very slowly, don't install this gadget--it will only run slower! I also recommend only the Desktop search, not the extra Google Gadgets.

More information can be found on the Getting Started pages for Google Desktop.

Tools for Research: Google Notebook

Google Notebook provides you with the ability to bookmark sites and add personal notes with one click, organize them into folders with subheadings, and tag your bookmarks. Best of all, your Notebook is available from any online computer.

It's easy to enroll--Just sign in to the Google Notebook homepage with your Google Accounts username and password. As soon as you restart your browser, you'll see a Google Notebook icon in the bottom-right corner of your browser window. Click on this icon to open your mini Google Notebook, where you can save all the clips of content you want.

When you are using the Google search engine, look for the words "Note This." Clicking that link will open Google's Notebook gadget in the lower-right corner with options to categorize your link.

Google Notebook can be accessed at anytime at www.google.com/notebook.

If you like this gadget, download the Notebook browser extension, too, which allows you to use the mini Google Notebook and prevents you from toggling between windows. As soon as you restart your browser, you'll see a Google Notebook icon in the bottom-right corner of your browser window. Click it to open your mini Google Notebook.

The Notebook Help page is located at http://www.google.com/googlenotebook/faq.html and is the source for some of this information.