Yesterday, I ate lunch at Google in Ann Arbor.

Here is how it happened: At NAR in Orlando, Cyndee Haydon and I were walking around the Expo and Google had a large booth there.

So I go strolling up and met a guy named Payton Dobbs...I asked him to share with me the latest and greatest about Google.

Payton asked me if I was using Google Docs and I said yes we use it for each transaction. My assistant opens a new Google Doc for each file that is under contract. Then the buyer agent and Colleen can access it and add notes and conversations with our clients.

We also use Google Calendar and each of the Buyer Agents has one.

Colleen can overlay each Google Calendar and see what we are all doing that day. Google Calendar can be set up to send us appointments for the day.

So that was it and we moved on to look at other vendors at NAR.

Then I got an email

Hi Missy,

It was a pleasure meeting you at NAR and many thanks for stopping by our booth at Google.  As you happen to live in Ann Arbor I thought it'd be a great idea to introduce you to one of our team members from that office.  Steve Holden (CC'd) is a relationship manager who works with many of our top advertisers within real estate.  

I figured since you're already an expert using many of our products it might be nice to get more of your feedback on the products (as they relate to real estate) and help us better understand how to position them to our advertisers or others in the industry.  I'll let Steve follow up with more information and perhaps an informal chat or even lunch in the office.

 Regards,

 Payton

Payton Dobbs

Manager, Online Sales & Operations

Real Estate, Moving & Storage

Pretty kool, huh?

About 5 minutes later  I received an email from Steve Holden in Ann Arbor-Google to have lunch. I

t was a lot of fun, and I have a few photos but can't post them here because it is part of the terms when you go to Google and sign in at the Reception Center.

Here are my thoughts and feelings on the experience. The food was great and there is a coffee bar with snacks on each floor where people can go and relax and grab coffee or something to eat. We ate in Googles own cafeteria and were able to look out on the skyline of Ann Arbor.

Everything is bright and open, with a Mothers Room, Massage Room and conference rooms both big and small everywhere.

Each room is named after a different city in Michigan. There is a game room with a pool table, snack bar, pop machines and air hockey.What a fantastic work enviroment. There is even a small section where you can drop your computer off if you are having problems and some geeks will fix it.

Did I mentioned this is all FREE?

Steve and I then went into a small conference room and plugged in and he looked at how I use my IGoogle home page, the Ad word campaign I use, etc.  I will post soon on a new feature he pointed out to me, which I have not played with yet and want to make sure I got it down before linking to it.

One thing Steve pointed out to me about Google Alerts, which has been encouraged here on Activerain my many of us that I am changing right now. You can have your Google Alerts go into your RSS feeds.

Since I follow a number of Search Terms that I want Alerts on it can really fill up my email box quickly, so I will be changing to RSS.

Here is my question?

How are you using all the FREE Google Applications to run your business?

I told Steve, Activerain Bloggers were head and shoulders above your average Realtors so....

in your comments let's let Google know which applications you are using in your business.

Proof I was there, sorry for no photos.