OK, it’s not like pizza takeout or an order from your favorite Chinese restaurant. Sorry if we got your hopes up or made you hungry. But don’t click away just yet! Google Takeout is something you need to be aware of as a business professional.

What exactly is Google Takeout?

Google Takeout is a service that lets you know how much information Google knows about you or your business. It is a very fast way to see your entire “Google Footprint” across many of their services. We believe there are currently 17 services with more being added each day.

What is included in your Google Footprint?

• Browsing history
• Emails in Gmail
• Contact details
• Google Plus information
• Google Drive account
• YouTube account information

Basically, any service that you have on Google can be accessed through the Google Takeout service.

So how do you use it?

Google Takeout allows you to access your Google accounts in one place and then download a backup copy. So this service addressed the age-old question we get from Google users: How do I backup my Google drive account or export my email from Gmail? Simple: use Google Takeout.

1. Login to your Google account (if it doesn’t happen automatically).
2. Navigate to https://www.google.com/settings/takeout/
3. Select the Google products you want to archive
4. Click on create archive
5. Sit back and relax. Google will email you when it’s complete

This process can take hours depending on the size of your archive and the amount of information you have stored across all the Google services. You should only do this on a secure computer, and you might as well start getting something else done while it works away in the background. Once you’re done, though, you’ll have that complete backup of all your Google services that you’ve been looking for.

Want to close out some of your Google accounts or any other online account? Here is a great app that does it for you. Check out AccountKiller at http://www.accountkiller.com/en/

Do you have questions about your online accounts? Concerned about security on Google or any other online service? We invite you to give your team at SMB CloudTech a call right away. We are here to help your Southern California business with anything IT related. Call our office at (844) 900-6025 or drop us an email at [email protected]. We are here to help you.