There’ a new option in the Google Template Gallery called Press release template, Google Docs version. Use it as a starting point for your press release because, unlike other templates in the gallery, it uses heading tags properly for maximum SEO juice. It also looks good in print thanks to judicious use of formatting. Here’s how to find it.

• From the Google Docs File menu, click the Create New button, then choose From template…
• Search for the template called Press release template, Google Docs version (preview found at https://docs.google.com/previewtemplate?id=0ARw-SgzIBldIZGR4OGM3ZHhfNTQxOTkzcjJxZmI&mode=public )
• Replace the contact information, headlines, and article text with your own matieral.
• Click the logo, then Change Image to replace the logo with your own (or simply click Remove Image for a minimalistic look).

Google Docs aren’t just word processor documents. They can be published in a variety of ways with incredible ease. Generating a PDF for publication to document sharing sites such as Scribd, Slideshare, and Docstoc, is this simple:

Creating a PDF File of Your Press Release

• From the Google File menu, choose Download as, then PDF.
• Give the output file a keyword-rich name (I’m not sure it matters, but why leave these things to chance?) and save it to your local machine.

You can do the same thing to create an HTML file.

• Publish this PDF file to document sharing sites like Scribd, docstoc, and SlideShare.
• Add the PDF file to the Media section of your site.

Publishing Your Press Release on Google

You can publish your press release on Google in just a few mouse clicks.

• While editing or viewing your press on Google Docs page click the Share button, then choose Publish to the Web…
• You probably want any changes to the document propagated to the Web instantly, so leave Automatically republish when changes are made checked.
• Click the Start publishing button.
• A warning asks Are you sure you want to publish this document? Kind of them. Remove any drunken or naked pictures of yourself from the press release, then click OK.
• The document is published and you’re given its Web address, which will look something like http://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1OQiATcRIAFrn01S7GrJj19IiQoLT-dLAWXcuvBQ-34M, thus making it somewhat hard to memorize. But that’s okay-it’s indexed on Google!

It’s that easy. Legacy media can still print the PDF format of your press release. Now bookmark it on sites like Onlywire. Visit EasyOnMe.com/google-docs for additional templates as they become available.

When I typed "I want to buy" into Google, it offered me choices like Monkey, Live Ostrich, and Island

If you think you know what people want to buy online, you’re probably wrong. Here’s what happened when I typed “I want to buy” into Google.

Here’s an example of a presentation I just created using 280Slides:

280Slides is different all the rest because despite its beta status, it is the first in-browser app that feels every bit as slick as a desktop app from one of the big guys. It doesn’t have PowerPoint’s massive, industrial-strength feature set. What it does include, however, is what most of us need 95% of the time we make presentations, plus a few extras. My favorite features are:

• Unbeatably simple integration with SlideShare.net, allowing you to publish your presentation to a high-ranked site in seconds
• Awesome text editing
• Ability to insert pictures and videos into a presentation
• Even has Speaker’s notes
• Supports the Google Chrome browser
• Saves to PowerPoint, PDF, and OpenDocument (the one thing that didn’t seem to work in the beta)

This is the most mature early beta of a product I have ever encountered. They hit the sweet spot between size of feature set and ease of learning. Only Apple manages to do the same thing the first time out, and only in their iPhone and desktop apps, certainly now browser apps.

Browser apps can’t save files to your computer. It’s a security risk. 280Slides gets around this problem by silently saving files to its own server. I don’t know what the maximum you can store is, but my PowerPoint decks are usually pretty small. Its publish to SlideShare.net feature has the simples signup process ever. It’s the same dialog as used to log in, so if you don’t have an account it just asks you for the password a second time (the confirmation step) and creates the account on the fly.

Though many would prefer this not to be case, most slide decks are just bullet points. In an upcoming post I will defend this widely reviled convention, but for the moment let’s just accept reality. This means if you’re going to create slides, editing the text on them should feel comfortable to users of desktop apps. If you’re not a programmer, you may not appreciate how big a challenge that is. Browser apps have to be small, because they load every time you visit the web page. WYSIWIG text handling is very hard to get right under any circumstance, but doing it well in a browser has thus far eluded every major developer I know of. I didn’t blame them.

Another area where web apps understandably lag is Undo. It’s not as nasty to implement as text editing, but it’s not pretty, either. 280Slides

In my view 280Slides is the first browser app to get so close to the supremely elegant handling of text boxes characterized by PowerPoint and Pages that you don’t miss the desktop apps. Creating a good presentation is hard and you don’t want to feel like you’re fighting the software just to jot down a few bullet points. 280Slides make it a dream.

I haven’t been this excited about a web app since Google Docs hit the scene. I can’t wait for 280Slides to finish the few features it hasn’t baked in yet, so I can try creating PDF and PowerPoint presentations. Highly recommended.