Current Options for Utilizing Google Gemini

If you’ve read my previous posts about Artificial Intelligence (AI), you know that I attempt to strike a balance between letting AI in as little as possible because of privacy and security concerns versus utilizing AI to save time. I am definitely not an early adopter, so when I test-drive AI tools, I’m doing this as a non-techie person who doesn’t want to read a manual on how to use a tool that’s supposed to make my life easier.

I’ve played with ChatGPT, Co-Pilot and an earlier version of Gemini. At the time, the latter was the least robust and, therefore, the least impressive. But it’s been a few months since that trial, so I thought I’d share with you a roundup of what Google’s Gemini is currently offering to do.

Lens – You can laser in on an object in a photo or video and complete a search based on that. Google’s current tagline for this is “search what you see.”

Google Search – Your Google search gets kicked up to a higher, more specific gear by asking Gemini for help in the address bar. Note that this web app is currently only available for Chrome.

Email – When you activate Gemini in your Gmail inbox, you can get help composing an email. This is the function I played with in the last go-round. It worked well enough, but I found myself using ChatGPT or Co-Pilot for better answers and copying/pasting back into Gmail. At the time, its limited functionality was definitely not worth a monthly fee. The good news is that Gemini now has more robust functionality. I can get an email thread summarized or even request all the action items listed in a thread. It will be interesting to see Gemini expand its capabilities as it evolves.

There are free trial and paid levels of Gemini, as well as enterprise options. Keep in mind that Gemini is a Google product, so if you’re looking for integrations, it’s going to be easier to integrate with other Google products compared to offerings from their competitors.

For more details about Gemini and Google’s policies related to it, here’s their FAQ page. You can also read about the latest Gemini product updates here.

For tips on how to utilize (or not utilize) technology, check out The Inefficiency Assassin: Time Management Tactics for Working Smarter, Not Longer.