Google Dashboard : How to use and manage Google Dashboard

Prior to launching Buzz, Google had unfurled their Dashboard service that was equally inflicted with privacy issues. Google Dashboard provides an informative way to track what kind of data you have spread across Google’s Web services. The Dashboard accompanied privacy concern, as it became the one-stop-shop place where Google could track your online habits. However, the utopian side to the Dashboard was that you could see all your tasks covering 20 products and services including Gmail Calender Docs, Web History Orkut (Orkut), YouTube (YouTube), Picasa (Picasa), Talk, Reader, Alerts, Latitude and others. According to Google, the Dashboard offers full access and control to the data. Given that the Google Dashboard offers an easy to use interface you might still need to intricacies of how to use Google Dashboard.

Using Google Dashboard you see all the data stored in Google in a single page.  We had already provided you the Google Dashboard: FAQ for your convenience and now we decided to offer your instructions on how to customize Google Dashboard easily.

Google products in the Dashboard include:

Account & Profile, Web history, Gmail, Docs, Calendar, YouTube, Blogger, iGoogle, Latitude, Reader, Talk, Health, Orkut, Picasa, Shopping List, Voice, Contacts, Alerts, Finance, Friend Connect, Tasks, Custom search engines, Mobile Sync.

Now let’s see how do you use Google Dashboard

• Sign in into your Google Account and click on the Settings link at Google.com
• Select Google Account Settings
• Click on My Accounts to enter the Google Account page
• In the Account page select View data stored with this account under Personal Settings
• Now you will be prompted to enter your Google Account password. This is an added security measure. Finally you will be redirected to the Dashboard.

In the Google Account page you can see the list of Google services that you can use. Dashboard allows you to view more information about the kind of data that has to be stored on each Google service.

On entering the Dashboard you will see the list of your Google services on the left-hand side. The list provides information about the Google services that you use. It will include the recent activity and basic statistics. For instance under Gmail you will be able to see the number of messages you have sent, the number of conversation in your inbox and the number of Gmail chats that were saved and the items in your Trash.

In order to use the Dashboard you need to know which section contains what. Let’s take an example of the Gmail to see how each section is laid out

Gmail section

Service name - The name of the Google product or service.
Data -  Summary of the data stored by the product, including the amount of data, an indication of whether you’re sharing the data with anyone else, and recent examples. Clicking a link will take you directly to a product page where you can view more details and manage this data.
Control - Direct links to pages where you can control the data for this product. For instance, you can pause or delete your Web History, or choose not to store your chat history in Gmail.
More info - Links to relevant help articles and information pages.

How to manage your Google Dashboard

This is an easy-to-use, single interface that allows you to organize the user’s ability to see and control the data that gets shared with Google. The real advantage with Dashboard is that you can manage the data right from a single console.

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The list of the Google services is available on the left-hand side of the Dashboard. This list provides information and stats about the Google services that you use. It includes your recent activity and basic statistics. For instance under Gmail, you can see the messages you’ve sent, how many conversations are there in your inbox, the number of Gmail chats that you have saved and even how many items are there in your trash.

The stats provided in Dashboard are quite handy, as it allows you to manage the various services that you might not have used for long. Suppose you have joined some social features of a website via Google Friend Connect, you can easily navigate to the settings of this service and detach from the unwanted Friend Connect Websites.

Next to all the services you can find links to Manage chat history and Manage HTTPS settings. In the Google Docs you will be able to see a Manage documents link. Gmail in Dashboard, for instance allows you to navigate directly to the controls for your chat, security and general settings.