Google account - how to create it, protect your login and find out 10 secrets you didn’t know about

Updated January 1, 2022 634 Author: Dmitry Petrov
Hello, dear readers of the KtoNaNovenkogo.ru blog. Today I want to talk about something that has already become commonplace, like Google Account , which the vast majority of Internet users currently have (I think there is no need to explain what an account is).

This has become especially relevant after the phenomenal growth in popularity of the Chrome browser and Android-based mobile devices.

In the first case, the account allows you to synchronize bookmarks, passwords and other individual Chrome settings with the same browser on another computer or mobile device (smartphone or tablet). Well, in the case of Android, it allows you to access the holy of holies - Google Play.

And as a very useful bonus, in addition to creating an account, you receive a G-Mail email inbox, which can now be considered one of the most convenient and reliable in the world.

Why do you need it, how convenient and secure is a Google account?

At the moment, an account is not required to work with all Google services, but, most likely, you will still have to create one, because this corporation has prepared too many pleasant goodies for us and it serves them too tasty.

For example, simultaneously with registering a new account, you will also receive a free mailbox, which will end with @gmail.com, although in some special cases you can do without this add-on. But I would like to emphasize once again that the security of working with e-mail now increasingly prevails over its other characteristics.

As I already wrote in reviews of Yandex Mail and mail on Mail.ru, there is no longer a particularly strong gap between their functionality and the functionality of Gmail, but in terms of security, the Google account (which determines the degree of security of the mailbox) is still seriously superior to all existing ones currently analogues.

Some of you may object that security is not so important to him, because he never keeps anything valuable in the box. Well, here I have something to object to, because hacking of mail only in a small number of cases occurs purposefully.

Typically, account hacking is carried out using software that, by brute force and using special dictionaries, tries to open as many mailboxes as possible for the following purposes:

Their subsequent resale to spammers for use for clear purposes.
Searching in mailboxes for accounts from social networks and other interesting (possibly monetary) services, which, having access to the mailbox, can be easily hacked (if the password is not found among your correspondence) and resold in bulk to those who vitally need all this wealth.
Banal blackmail has also not been canceled, and in order to return the box with your personal data (and, possibly, secrets), you will be asked to pay.
Well, the rarest case is when you will be broken purposefully and professionally, on someone’s tip or thanks to your thoughtless actions and statements on the Internet. In this case, perhaps, only double verification will be able to provide adequate resistance to hackers.

How to link all your Android devices and Chrome browsers together

Great. We've talked about security, now let's talk about the convenience that an account on Google will give you if you take the trouble to create it and, importantly, configure it. It is worth recalling that our beloved Android platform will have the opportunity to synchronize data between the different devices at your disposal on which you work under the same account.

Let's say that this is a tablet and a phone where you installed a lot of interesting and necessary things using Google Play. After activating such synchronization, you can start the game on your tablet, and continue it on the road on your mobile phone (naturally, on Android and under the same account).

The same goes for movies - we finished watching it on the phone, and tomorrow we continued from the same place, but on the tablet. And changing your phone without losing everything on it will be a breeze. This is the very near future.

You can also work with the Google Chrome browser on any computer or mobile device in the world, having all your bookmarks, passwords, saved form data, open tabs, and even Chrome extensions and themes that have been installed and synchronized.

For such synchronization, it will be enough to connect to the desired Google account at the very top of the Chrome settings page), and you can see exactly what and how much you are currently synchronizing using this link:

True, the mobile versions of this browser are not yet so perfect (extensions are not supported, for example), but this is just a matter of time.

Which Google services require login through an account?

Your personal Google account will collect information about all services (that you use) and your actions in these services (unless you prohibit this in your settings):

So, registering with Google makes sense for working with services such as (some of them, however, can be worked without authorization, but the functionality and capabilities will be limited):

Video hosting YouTube
Gmail
Social network Google+
AdSense is one of the main ways to make money for website owners around the world.
Google AdWords is the other side of the service mentioned above, which provides tools for advertisers.
Google Play is a mobile application store for Android devices.
Google Drive is cloud storage, which you can read more about at the link provided.
Search history - in the article about how to Google correctly, I mentioned the ability to view and manage the information that the search has learned about you. Access to it is, of course, only possible after logging into your account.
Synchronization of data stored by the Google Chrome browser (already mentioned just above).
Google Docs is an online analogue of the simplest office suite from Melkomyagki (text, spreadsheet and presentation engines).
Calendar is an online organizer.
Blogger is a fairly popular blogging platform for quickly and easily creating and maintaining your own blog with the opportunity to earn money by displaying ads from Adsense.
Feedburner is a popular service for broadcasting RSS feeds of sites, recording their statistics and customizing their appearance.
Search Console (Webmaster) is a set of tools for analyzing the indexing of a site by search and making certain adjustments to this process (usually a site is added to it immediately after its creation).
Google Analytics is probably the most powerful of all free website traffic analysis tools. It is so powerful and complex that it even scares many people away, and they prefer the simpler and more intuitive Metrica from Yandex or a very popular tool - the LI counter.
DFP Small Business is a free (up to certain limits) online banner spinning engine that allows you to optimize your earnings from banner advertising (I’ve been trying to beat it for a year and a half now, but I either don’t have enough time or persistence).
There are also a number of services that are less in demand by me, such as Notepad, Chat, Page Creator (website creation) and the Picasa online album.

It’s possible that I forgot to mention someone, but that’s not the point. The main thing is to see that once you create your account in Google , you immediately get access to a whole range of various free services and tools. The main thing is not to be lazy and set up safe work with this account, so that later it will not be excruciatingly painful...

What is an account for?

Most Google services are available without registration, but only a profile gives full access. You need to create a Google account to fully use:

Documents is an online service for creating, editing and storing texts, as well as tables and presentations;
YouTube is a global video hosting service that allows everyone to upload a video for other users;
Play - store for applications, films, music, books;
Mail is a client for receiving and sending correspondence;
Disk - cloud file storage;
Photo - for working with media files;
My business is a service for posting information about a company on the Internet.

The system saves your browsing history and synchronizes your browser. By logging into Google Chrome from another computer, you can transfer bookmarks and history to the browser, continuing to surf the Web as usual.

How to create and configure your account

Registration on Google is quite simple and prosaic, in fact, that’s how it should be. So, on the Accounts.Google.com/SignUp you will be asked to fill out a rather simple form, although it is voluminous. In its first part, you are asked to indicate your first and last name (you can also use a nickname, like mine), and also come up with a beginning for your future mailbox in Gmail:

By default, your login will be created based on the last name you specified. If he is already busy, then you will be offered various options, or you can come up with something yourself that is not yet occupied by anyone. This login will simultaneously serve as your mailbox in this service (you just need to add '@gmail.com' to it).

However, if for some reason you do not want to create a mailbox in Gmail (you already have one or you do not want to register one in principle), then you will need to click on the “Use current email address” link. In this case, you will be able to link the newly created account to any previously created email address in any mail service (for example, mail.ru).

Then you will need to confirm this Email by entering the code received on it. Otherwise, registration will proceed exactly the same as if you received a new mailbox along with your account. But we digress - let's move on.

I’ll also make a reservation that you shouldn’t greatly simplify the password that you need to come up with during registration (if you put it further away, you’ll take it closer). It is best to rely in this difficult task on a complex password generator and keeper program, which will ensure not only the creation and storage of strong passwords, but will also allow them to be inserted with a simple key combination and will make it difficult to intercept them (get used to it a little, and then you won’t understand how without it lived before).

Now the account is necessarily linked to a mobile phone number. Without specifying it and confirming it with the code received in SMS, you will not be able to complete the registration. No phone means no access to Google services. Previously, this was not a mandatory condition, but only simplified the process of restoring access in the event of hacking or simply losing the password (this is done on a special page Google.com/Accounts/Recovery).

Well, if we, like most users, agreed at the very beginning to create a new mailbox in Gmail, then along with the cell number we would need to indicate a spare Email, which could also be useful in the difficult task of restoring access to Google account.

Next, fill out all the fields about yourself, scroll through the agreement with Google to the “I Accept” button and click on it.

If you also registered a new mailbox along with your account, then you will be asked to scroll through a small slider through the delights of Jimail. And finally, you will see a button to log in to your mail. You can go there and look around, but working with this email service is not included in this publication (at the very beginning I provided a link to a separate article).

Actually, this is where registration on Google ends, for which I congratulate you.

Payments and subscriptions

In this last tab, you can install and configure payment methods for goods and services on the Internet, monitor your purchases and paid subscriptions. And also manage reservations - I already wrote about them.

Payment Methods

Add your plastic card to the Google Pay payment system and make payments on the Internet and in stores convenient and secure. To pay in a store, your phone must have an NFC chip - just bring the phone to the payment terminal at a distance of 1-2 cm, and the payment is made. This payment method can be used in all public places where there are payment terminals - in shopping centers, subways, public transport, cinemas.

Purchases

The history of all your purchases is saved here, including transfers and payments in the online store. The data comes from Google Assistant, Gmail or Google Pay.

Subscriptions

Information about subscriptions to various services: music news, youtube premium and others. In the settings you can renew your subscription or cancel it.

Well, I already wrote about bookings earlier in this article. This section contains all the information about air tickets, hotel reservations, restaurants, theaters, if you made all these reservations through the Google service or received a reservation confirmation by gmail.

That's all. Any questions or comments? Write in the comments.

Logging into your Google account and setting it up

After this, log into your account as standard . After having a phone became a prerequisite for registration, its number began to serve as a login, although you can also use a regular login to log in (Email address received when creating an account):

If you register without creating a mailbox in Gmail, you can use the same Email that you specified during registration (or phone number) as your login.

The password is entered at the second step of the login wizard:

Also, from almost any page of any Google service you can one way or another get into the settings of your account . In the simplest case, to do this you will need to click on your avatar (what is this?) in the upper right corner and click on the “My Account” button:

How to recover Google Account via google.com/accounts/recovery

I’ll tell you right away how you can restore access to your data if you suddenly lose your password or forget your login.

At any step, you can activate the access recovery process by clicking on the “Forgot your password” or “Forgot your login” link when logging in (you can go directly to the Google.com/Accounts/Recovery ).

In any case, confirmation via mobile phone , which greatly simplifies and increases login security. But even without a phone number you can get by, however, you will have to answer a huge number of questions and it is not a fact that the system will consider your answers a strong argument for restoring the login:

If you forgot the username you registered under, try to restore it on this page (using again your mobile phone number or the backup Email that you may have specified during registration):

If you are confused, you can use the steps of this recovery wizard :

Access can be restored even if you deleted your account . True, the time factor is important here. If the deletion occurred recently (for example, you did it by accident), then it can be restored without any problems.

The procedure is the same. You start from the page accounts.google.com/signin/recovery using instructions for its use.

Well, and a video on how to go through the recovery process from a mobile phone (obviously working on Android, because there is nothing to do without a Google account - neither go to the Play Market, nor synchronize Chrome, nor look at your email):

Looking for problems with your account login security?

The new Accounts.google.com home page design is a little confusing without a left-hand menu, but it will appear once you select one of the three main sections: Secure Login, Privacy, or Settings:

Let's start with login security . On the page that opens, by the way, the left menu appears and the navigation will become more transparent:

On the main page of this section, you will be offered to use the services of a wizard to check the security of logging into your account specifically by simply clicking on the “Start” button. A very useful thing that allows you to identify all the weak points in the security of the entrance to your holy of holies:

But we, as you already understand, are not looking for easy ways, and therefore we will go through the main “vitally important” settings in “manual mode”.

Let's start with the left menu tab "Account Login" .

4 Best Ways to Protect Your Google Account Login

If you have been registering for a very long time and password there is extremely simple , then do not change by clicking on the corresponding arrow at the top of the page with login security settings (opposite the word “password”). Please note that there is some paranoia associated with constantly entering your password when trying to change your account security settings, but this measure is forced, although very annoying.
Any password can either be hacked or obtained by cunning, so lay out straws ahead of time in case you have to restore access to your account. You can simplify this action by clicking in the “Account Recovery Options” on the arrows in the right places to indicate on the page that opens your mobile phone number or a backup Email, where they can send you a recovery code. It would be better, of course, to use both options.
But these are just half measures that will help you after the scoundrel rummages through your clean laundry (mail) with his dirty hands. However, there is a method that with a very high degree of probability allows you to avoid this shame and protect your account from dirty attacks. This terrible weapon is called "Two-factor authentication" and by default it is not active.
Actually, you can find out from Google itself what kind of animal it is and what it is eaten with, but in a nutshell, it’s something with something. Firstly, in many email clients and mobile devices you will no longer have access to your account after activating this wonderful thing. I hasten to reassure you right away that the problem can be solved.
So, what is a secure account? This is when, when logging into your Google account, you enter not only the password for it, but also a code that will be sent to you in the form of an SMS to the specified mobile phone. In addition to SMS authentication, you can also select the option of a special application or token in the settings.
Moreover, when you log in from your computer for the first time, you will have to go through such a hassle, but in order not to pester you later with these codes from SMS, it will be enough to check the box indicating that you trust this computer (remember on this computer).
After this, one password will be enough to log in.
But for email clients and mobile devices you will have to create special ones in your account application passwords. This password will be unique for each application, but you will have to tinker with creating and changing them in the program settings. Although it is, of course, worth it, because in return you get an incomparably higher level of security against hacking. That was the theory, now let's move on to practice.
Whether you want it or not, you will most likely still have to open this tab, because without this, many mobile devices and desktop applications will not be able to access your account after activating two-step authentication, because the main password will no longer be enough for this, or rather, it simply will not work.
First, from the drop-down list, select the Google application into which you want to log in (mail, calendar, YouTube or another), then from the second list, select the device from which you want to log in, and click on the “ Create ” button. As a result, you will receive a password for this application and instructions for using it:
There is no point in writing it down, or even more so remembering it, because it will be easier to set a new one. The only inconvenient thing is that this procedure will have to be repeated for each application.

On a new phone when turned on

If you have just started launching a new Android smartphone, then register using the initial settings. After selecting the interface language and general parameters provided by the manufacturer, the system will ask you to log in. Instead of entering your username and password, you can proceed to registration from this screen. Just click on the link marked in the screenshot:

Then follows the same registration procedure as on the full version of the site or in the phone settings when adding a new account. Use one of the instructions above.

Two-step authentication when logging into your account

By default this very important setting will be disabled. To activate it, you need to go to the “Login to Google Account” from the left menu (or a similar item from the main settings page - see the screenshot above):

After clicking the arrow in the “Two-Step Verification” area, you will be shown the arguments in favor, and to continue you will need to click on the “ Get Started ” button.

In the first step, you will need to indicate the cell phone number to which SMS or voice messages (of your choice) will be sent with confirmation codes to log into your Google account.

Enter the code received on your phone:

After entering it, you will be congratulated and offered to finally enable this very two-step authentication to log into your Google account:

After this, a page will open in front of you with endless possibilities for expanding and deepening the security of working with your Google account.

I strongly advise you to add another phone in this window, so that if the first one is lost or stolen, the security codes can be sent to the backup one.
Instead of receiving voice or SMS messages, you can install a special application for these needs on your smartphone running Android, iOS or Blackbury. Or use a token. But this is more convenient for everyone. These settings are hidden under a spoiler “Set up the second stage”:
Be sure to use the link “Show backup codes” , of which there will be ten (it would be nice to print them out on a printer so you can always keep them at hand). If you forget your phone or it won’t pick up the network, you can enter these codes instead of those that come in SMS messages.

In general, there are some difficulties with activating two-step authentication, but overall it is certainly worth it.

Access Settings

The fourth tab in your Google Account displays settings for contacts, transfer of geodata, access to personal data, and your recommendations in ads (I already wrote about them above in the article).

Contacts

Set up your contact list to make it easier to communicate with others on Google services, such as gmail.

You can manually add contacts, and also enable automatic saving of contact information of users with whom you communicate through Google services (gmail). This will make it easier to find the right recipient.

Or you can block users with whom you no longer want to communicate. You will no longer see any letters or notifications from them.

Transfer of geodata

This feature allows you to share your location with selected people (Location History must be enabled on your phone). Often parents activate this option to know where the child is and where he goes after school.

Access to data about you

Set up access so that other users of Google services can see your data: name, date of birth, place of residence, etc.

Additionally, set Google+ settings: receiving notifications, accessing your publications. the ability to write messages to you, etc.

Without phone number

The standard procedure for creating a profile involves optionally linking a mobile number or email. But many users are faced with mandatory confirmation using their phone. This is due to the fact that the system automatically detects suspicious activity from your IP address. And confirmation may also be required in case of violations, creating several profiles in a row, or using suspicious logins and passwords.

The site does not indicate the exact reason, but you can register on Google without a phone number even in this situation. If you are faced with verification, then first you need to do the following:

change the IP address by rebooting the router;
clear cookies, cache and browser history for all time;
use another browser updated to the latest version;
try to go through the procedure through the Android emulator (BlueStacks https://www.bluestacks.com/ru/index.html is perfect);
register through any application or site associated with Google;
use an old smartphone with Android 4.0 or 4.4 for registration (for example, Sony Xperia 2011 and analogues of that time);
ask your friend or relative to register an account.

If none of the methods help you bypass the request, you will have to turn to services with virtual phones. For example, in OnlineSIM https://onlinesim.ru/ you can purchase cheap disposable numbers or rent them for a long time. And on the website https://www.qealty.ru/ free phones appear periodically. Test them to confirm their identity.

After purchasing or renting a “fake” phone, return to the registration page and follow all the steps according to the instructions. When Google asks you to provide your phone number, enter the virtual number and receive an SMS with a 6-digit code in your personal account of the service whose services you used. If the number is not linked to another account, you will be able to bypass the request.