I’ve praised Google in the past for many of their easy to use, free services. Among these are GMail, Google Talk, Google Maps, Google Earth, and Google Analytics. I especially like the fact that these services, already good to begin with, get better over time. The latest example is embedding Google Talk within GMail. This new service just became active on my Gmail account earlier today. I like it!
On the other hand, I’ve played around with Google Reader a lot and have reluctantly abandoned it. It just doesn’t cut it in comparison to Bloglines, at least, not yet. I also think Google Video stinks. And despite all the hype, Google Base doesn’t do anything for me.
I really like Google Chat inside Gmail as well. I tried to use Google Reader, but I ended up heading right back to Bloglines in about a week. It seemed too cumbersome to handle lots of blogs and blog entries.