Our Future of Digital Marketing conference, part of Philly Tech Week 2017 presented by Comcast, not only yielded some killer quotes on subjects like marketing and design but lots of practical tips for digital storytellers.

For us reporters, perhaps the meatiest lightning talk was that of Nicholas Whitaker, training and development manager at Google News Lab. Whitaker spoke about how 14 of Google’s free digital tools are helping reporters in four main areas:

• Trust and verification
• Data journalism
• Immersive storytelling
• Inclusive storytelling

Some of the tools (like Google StreetView, which has been used to verify geographical data in overseas reporting) are fairly well-known. Others, like Google’s Public Data Explorer are a bit more obscure. Whitaker even referred to the latter platform as a “hidden gem” in Google’s toolkit.

Here are several that got this reporter excited about the possibilities of deeper journalism and, why not, some pretty badass content.

My Maps

Sure, the ever-present Google Maps is what gets you from point A to point B when you’re out of town, but My Maps is an alternative for building a map-based infographic. See one example here, in which the New York Times mapped out the country’s uninsured in 2013.

Here's a lesson on MyMaps which, according to @googlenewslab, takes just 10 minutes: https://t.co/2VAz0Y8ht2

— Technical.ly Philly (@TechnicallyPHL) May 2, 2017

StreetView

Download the StreetView app on your phone and use it to create immersive images. We’re giving it a whirl next time we visit one of those spiffy new offices companies are always announcing. Might not be exotic destinations like Taiwan’s Yushan North Peak or Chile’s Los Alerces Trail, but the whole point is making stories more ~immersive~.

Public Data Explorer

Code for Philly folks likely know all about this one. It’s an online dashboard for exploring multiple sources of publicly available data “without opening a spreadsheet,” Whitaker adds with delight. Think unemployment data, broadband penetration or minimum wage through history.

Google Images

We know, we know. You’ve likely been using Google Images since the sixth grade, but one use of it in particular is very timely: to verify an image’s true origin, perform a reverse image search. The technique is part of a broader push at Google to help stave off “fake news.”

So what’s stopping reporters from deploying these fancy tools into action? Reportedly, users cite time constrains as the No. 1 cause for not using them in projects. But Whitaker ain’t having none of that.

“To all of that I say ‘hooey,'” Whitaker said. “Not one of these tools require a master’s degree to use. It’s about figuring out what is valuable to you.”