One thing a new home business owner should do is get a Gmail or Googlemail account. They are essentially the same except it seems to be referred to as Gmail in North America and Googlemail in other parts of the world.

Gmail (I'll use the term to cover both) has considerable advantages over a traditional ISP email account. Most ISP's will let you access your account via the web now so you may think, what is the difference between Gmail and that? The difference is enormous.

Gmail is an account with Google of which Gmail is really just a small part. The full list of features you get with Gmail are:

AdSense - a way of allowing Google to place adverts on your site and if enough people click the advert you earn revenue

Alerts - These are a way in which you can use Google to either email you once a day or provide an RSS feed of all the stories in its database containing a search term you define

Analytics - By entering a piece of code provided on to your website you can discover a wealth of information about visitors to your website

Blogger - A very popular and flexible free Blogging platform which enables you to easily run multiple Blogs with a highly professional appearance

Bookmarks - I consider this a 'must have' feature. Once you install it on whatever browser you are using on any computer (not just one's you own) then your Bookmarks are available after you log into your Gmail account. So your Bookmarks are both Browser and PC independent. They can also be managed into groups in a very intuitive manner.

Calendar - Another 'must have' keep all your appointments accessible to you from any PC in the world provided you can log in to Google.

Docs - Again a very useful feature but I would not class it as a 'must have'. You get access to a fully functional Word processor, Spreadsheet and Presentation Application. Plus you can upload files from say Office or PDF's then download them when you get to your destination. I personally have privacy and security concerns so I am selective what I store on Docs but that's just a personal preference.

Feedburner - Create an RSS feed for your Blog using this plus you get analytical information on usage of the feed

Gmail - An email system accessible from anywhere in the world with an internet connection that also links with Blackberries, iPhones and other hand-held devices. Customization of Gmail is an article in itself.

iGoogle - Create your own customized Home Page with the information you want on your home page and nothing else.

Local Business Center - Get your business listed you can create Coupons for your business and they appear with your business on Google Maps

Notebooks - create as many Notebooks are you want and you can cut and paste information from the web into the Notebook. You could have a Notebook for storing good headlines you have seen and then use them as a starter for your own. You could have a Notebook for Articles or Blogs where you cut and paste stories and then use them later if you get 'writers block'.

Orkut - Google's social network - I'll leave you to make up your own mind on that one.

Picasa - Store and share photographs on line

Reader - I consider it a 'must have'. It's where I send all the RSS subscriptions I have from many different Blogs and other sites going to. It's basically a huge repository of information in my areas of interest I can catch up on and re-use in video marketing, articles, Blogs, Podcasts and Press Releases.

Talk - Google's Instant Messenger (IM) not much else to say about that.

Video - You can store videos largely redundant now Google has acquired YouTube

Web History - You can view and manage you web activity, find search results relevant to you and see if there are any trends in your web activity (not sure how useful this last one is)

Webmaster Tools - A whole bunch of tools you can use to analyze how well your website is doing the Google Rankings

YouTube - A video based social network owned by Google with over 100,000,000 videos and the second biggest search engine in the world. Essential for your video marketing efforts as long as you read, follow and understand the rules. Remember you are fine as long as you are adding value and video marketing is a great attractor.

Google Ads - Googles Pay Per Click (PPC) system whereby you place ads based in keywords people enter into Google's search engine. Then when people use a keyword phrase you have picked it appears on the right hand side of the Google search page. Books are available on this it would be doing the feature an injustice to say more.

So as you see Gmail is a lot more than an email account. It's nearly a full operating system for free make sure you explore the parts that appear useful to you and take the time to become familiar with them.