Washington Works Blog

If we told you that someone could guess information about you just from looking at an image, what would you say? You’d probably say, “yeah, no $!#?!” but we’re not talking about minor details… we’re talking about a lot of details. Paragraphs, even—plenty enough to be concerning.

Google is all-in on artificial intelligence, as evidenced by their creation of Google Gemini, the company’s AI platform. As one would expect, this means that Gemini has a substantial list of capabilities that today’s businesses can take advantage of.

Let’s run through some of them as a refresher and, perhaps, introduce you to new opportunities.

The Android operating system offers a litany of additional features and shortcuts in most applications… all you have to do is long-press an application’s icon to pull up a contextual menu of shortcuts. Naturally, Google’s applications are no exception.

Let’s review some of Google’s application capabilities as they appear in these shortcut menus.

On Wednesday, several users found themselves the victim of a convincing phishing attack. The attack was designed to look like an invitation to view and edit a Google Doc, and is designed to steal your Google credentials and spread through your contacts.

Setting up Google Alerts is a useful way to stay informed about topics that interest you. This tool allows you to receive notifications whenever new content related to your chosen keywords appears online. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to set up Google Alerts effectively.

You may have noticed the recent attempts by Google to provide AI-generated answers to your queries. You might not immediately understand why AI is such a prevalent thing in arbitrary technology like search engines, but we assure you that there is a good reason for it—a better user experience—even if it does come with mixed results.

Google Drive is an extremely useful cloud storage and file sharing platform that many businesses use as a part of the Google Workspace productivity suite, or as a stand alone cloud storage solution. We thought it would be useful to give you a couple of ways to use Drive to share large files.

Google Chrome has been pushing a lot of important updates over the last few weeks. Fortunately, updating Chrome is pretty seamless, and it’s important that users do so. Users also need to be wary of fake Chrome errors that insist on installing malware. You don’t want to fall for this scam!

Everyone should soon have access to a very handy feature in Google Sheets that helps close the gap between Sheets and its rival software, Microsoft Excel.

This feature? Simple table conversions, complete with advanced organization features.

Utilizing a form to gather data for your business offers myriad benefits, including insights into customer impressions, service needs, and employee feedback for collaborative decision-making. However, the challenge arises when it's time to consolidate responses—unless you're proficient with the available tools.

One of the nice things about software platforms is how well the applications within them interact with one another. Take, for instance, the applications contained within Google Workspace.

Because of the interconnected nature of the Google Workspace platform, there’s a lot that the different programs can do in tandem. As an example, let’s consider how the word-processing application Google Docs can be used to generate events in the associated account’s Google Calendar.

The Internet is pretty great. You can watch videos of cats being weird, and then watch the London Philharmonic Orchestra perform Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. Then you can go on Reddit and learn how to replace the drywall in your bathroom. Just another typical Sunday afternoon with the Internet, right? 

Unfortunately, the Internet isn’t always perfect. It can be pretty dangerous, and we’d like to share some surprising terms that can lead to dangerous websites and malware if you search for them on Google.

Whatever your industry, there are going to be processes that need to be followed, and this will require no small amount of organization to keep all the moving parts in tandem with each other. Fortunately, tools that can help with your project management needs are readily available, so long as you take advantage of their capabilities.

Take Google Sheets, for instance.

Both Microsoft and Google offer work profile solutions that are designed to separate personal and professional use on mobile devices. These profiles are commonly used in enterprise settings to enhance security and manageability while allowing employees to use their personal devices for work-related tasks. Here's an overview of work profiles from Microsoft and Google.

Since its domain was first registered on September 15, 1997, Google has exploded from a relatively simple search engine to the massive assortment of platforms and services that fall under the Alphabet umbrella. That being said, most people tend to think of very specific aspects of Google’s Search function… like the amusing Easter Eggs that the platform has become somewhat famous for.

Do you have an old Google account that you created years ago, only to replace it later with one that is more on-brand and less filled with spam messages? You’re not alone, but as you might expect, these accounts can create more problems than they are worth if you let them sit around unused for too long. Perhaps that is why Google is planning to shut down any old Google accounts that have remained dormant for the past two years.

Email groups are remarkably useful. Instead of sending a copy of an email to each individual recipient, you can effectively create a simple forum post that everyone can participate in—a feature that certainly helps when collaboration is a priority. Let’s go over how you can quickly and easily create a group in Gmail.

There is a scam going around that convinces organizations to pay for their Google Business Profile, and if you paid for this free service, you’ve fallen for the trick. Google is taking legal action against the scammers who have dragged their name through the mud, using Google’s notoriety to defraud businesses who just want to look competitive.

If your business uses Google Apps, then there is a good chance that you have some sort of integration set up with other services. If you grant permissions to other applications or programs to access and use Google Drive, you should know that you have some power over these permissions, and it’s incredibly important that you understand what permissions you are granting.

Last time, we started our discussion on the best search engines by talking about the behemoth, Google. While Google is, by far, the most popular and commonly used, and arguably the most accurate search engine, it doesn’t mean it’s always the right search engine to use. Let’s talk about some other alternatives and see where they might fit in.