Online infrastructure for your small business doesn’t have to be
complicated or expensive. By leveraging many of the free and inexpensive
products offered by Google, you can create a website, a domain-branded
e-mail system, and a document collaboration platform, all unified under
one master login and password.
Once all of the virtual wires are connected, these services are
extremely user-friendly, allowing anyone with a bit of web savvy to
become the “system administrator” for their office.
| Google PowerMeter
| Google PowerMeter is a free electricity usage monitoring tool that
provides you with information on how much energy your home is
consuming. Google PowerMeter receives information from utility smart
meters and in-home energy management devices and visualizes this
information for you on iGoogle (your personalized Google homepage).
And, Google PowerMeter is free.
Studies show that being able to see your electricity usage in near real
time, throughout the day, makes it easier to reduce it and save money.
This sort of feedback requires either an advanced electricity meter, a
"smart meter," or a consumer-owned electricity management device, and
many of today's smart meters don't display information to the
consumer. Consumers should have access to data on their personal
electricity use, control who gets to see this data and choose from a
range of services to help them understand and benefit from this data.
We're working with federal and state governments to ensure our energy
policies encourage consumer information; read our comments to the
Department of Energy on smart grid investment in the stimulus, Edward
Lu's testimony to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources,
and our comments to the California Public Utilities Commission and our
joint statement with leading companies and NGOs. We hope that consumers
will soon be empowered with an entire ecosystem of energy information
products and services.