By Kip Gregory
Have you ever stopped to consider how many hours a month you spend online? Between managing email, monitoring market activity, keeping up with client, prospect and competitor information—not to mention everything else you do with the internet—the total might surprise you. According to Neilsen NetRatings, three years ago the average worker spent 27 hours a month online at work. Do you know what the number is today? 82. Eighty-two hours a month. Three times more.
If ever a statistic underscored the need to adopt more efficient ways of working with technology, that’s it. Here’s a way to cut that time dramatically that doesn’t cost you a dime and will make your online productivity soar: Download and master Google Toolbar, a free browser add-in available for both Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Firefox.
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It lets you access Google’s search engine from anywhere on the web, without having to visit Google’s homepage first. |
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Its inner workings
Think of Google Toolbar as a dashboard of Google’s most powerful search features built right into your browser. It’s ready 24/7 to guide you to the information you need whenever you need it, faster and with less frustration than you ever thought possible.
A big reason to love the toolbar is that it lets you access Google’s search engine from anywhere on the web, without having to visit Google’s homepage first. For example, you’re reading the paper and see someone quoted you’d like to know more about. Just press “Alt + G”; that puts your cursor in the toolbar’s search field. Type in the name (or highlight and drag it there if you’re reading online), hit “Enter,” and—presto!—a list of results is displayed on screen.
Or, have you ever come across a page with especially good information on a topic of interest to one or more of your clients—a hobby, an event, a travel destination, a cause they are passionate about—and wish you could quickly put your hands on other web pages that speak to that same subject? The toolbar’s “Similar Pages” feature can tell you what those pages are instantly.
How would you like to jump to exactly where your search terms appear in the text of a page so you can quickly decide if the page offers something of value? The toolbar gives you that ability. Would you like to forward a page you uncover to others in your network you think would benefit from seeing it? The toolbar’s latest release (version 4) lets you do so in a couple of clicks.
Here are some other ways the toolbar can shorten tasks you perform every day:
- Find addresses and phone numbers for anyone in the phone book. This is a real timesaver for locating individual and corporate prospects. Type in your own name and address and you’ll see what I mean.
- Get quotes and news on stocks. Type stock: followed by the symbol(s) you want to look up (e.g. stock:GE or stock:ECA—with no spaces), and at the top of Google’s list of results will be financial information on General Electric or Encana Corp. from six of the leading sites: Google Finance, Yahoo! Finance, MSN Money, CNN Money and Reuters.
- Search within a site for information. This is a great way to unearth mentions of clients or prospects that may be buried within trade group, company or news media sites—information you might otherwise miss.
Go get it!
Getting your hands on Google Toolbar is simple. Go to http://toolbar.google.com and click on “Download Google Toolbar.” Once you install it, spend a few minutes experimenting with the icons displayed on it to see what they do. Take a look at the different features you can add to or remove from it by clicking on the “Options” icon (Google is continually adding features, so check back regularly to see what’s new). There’s also a comprehensive “Help” section devoted to the toolbar.
Making Google Toolbar a standard part of your web-search process is a big step toward reducing the hours you spend tethered to your keyboard. Take my advice and give it a try. Within minutes of putting it to use, you’ll see a pickup in productivity.
For more tips like this, sign up for Kip Gregory’s monthly e-newsletter Kip’s Tips. Used with permission. All rights reserved.
Kip Gregory, principal of The Gregory Group and author of Winning Clients in a Wired World, is a consultant, trainer and speaker on marketing, sales and technology issues for the financial services industry. Contact him at 202-364-6913 or at www.kipgregory.com.
January 2007
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