Today we used the new Google Hangouts “with Extras” to showcase some of the features of Google. As mentioned previously, Google has a host of services and features that can increase business and personal efficiency and while there is a learning curve, you sometimes have to jump right in and take it for a test run. In this case, however, you aren’t going to break anything. I want to thank a few of the random people within Google+ that joined us in the hangout today. This is one of the cool parts about G+ Hangouts; you can get anyone from anywhere joining in. In this case, we had Pat McGovern from Ireland and Anthony Foster from Macon, Georgia.  Although Pat and Anthony are not in the turfgrass industry, they decided to join us to learn and share their experiences with using Google.

In this episode, we talk about:

0:00 Participants introduce themselves (below is a list of those that participated:
5:19 John Kaminski gives general overview of some of the features found through Google
10:12 Greg Shaffer talks about integrating Picasa images into his blog.
20:21 John Kaminski talks about adjusting image settings to show “stress” of turf
22:25 Chris Tritabaugh shows his updated version of Picasa and how it integrates into Google+
25:28 Larry Stowell starts a discussion of using services to backup data/images
28:36 Anthony Foster (from Macon, Georgia) talks about space allocations for DropBox and introduces himself
31:37 Chris Tritabaugh breaks down the basics of blogger for creating your own blog
34:23 Bob Porter talks about the use of html5 to enhance mobile optimization
42:52 Scott Morrison talks about Google Docs and how multiple people can edit a single document in real time.
50:20 Scott Morrison pulls up a doc that John Kaminski and Greg Shaffer begin to edit in real time
55:47 Scott Morrison shows how you can use a form from Google docs to collect data and then puts that data on a map to show Geo Location.
1:03:45 Scott Morrison talks about some extensions used in Google Chrome and also discusses the Omnibar
1:06:17 Larry Stowell talks about using Google Earth and APS Assess to monitor turf quality of your golf course over time.
1:09:44 John Kaminski discusses the basic use of Google Maps to document items on your course. In this case, he uses specimen trees as an example.
1:11:34 Bob Porter starts us on the closing comments and talks about his upcoming GIS presentations.

Additional people hanging out:
Dave Hensley
Pat McGovern
Anthony Foster