Google recently announced the launch of Google Dashboard, a central location where users of Google services can see which Google services they use, change how they use them, and find out what information Google collects about their usage habits.

Google said that the benefit of having a central dashboard is not only that it gives you insight into the amount of data Google collects about you, but that it also gives you a central access point to all of the Google services that you use, whether you know they're Google services or not.

To get to the Google Dashboard, simply visit Google.com and click the down-arrow next to the "settings" link. Select "Google account settings" and you'll be instantly taken to the Google Dashboard.

Once you're logged in, each Google service you use is listed, along with information about your last login, recent items, and links to read the service's privacy policy. From there, you can change your settings or customize your account, or go to your account so you can see what information you have stored in that service.

In its current state, Dashboard is not terribly fancy; it's simply a scrolling list of all the Google services that you use and that the Dashboard currently supports. At the bottom of the list you'll see that there are some Google services, such as AdSense, Analytics, Notebook, App Engine, and more; you may be an avid user of those, but the Dashboard doesn't them support yet.

Google's most popular services - search history, Gmail, YouTube, GTalk, Google Reader, and Google Docs - are all supported, and as you scroll through the list of services, Dashboard shows you what your account settings look like and your recent activity on all of those services. The Google Dashboard shows you your most recent messages in your Gmail account, upcoming appointments on Google Calendar, recently viewed and shared documents in Google Docs, your GTalk chat status, and more.

Admittedly, there's something a little creepy about a service that knows more about your activity on these services than you do.

For example, I don't use Google Reader as often as I probably should, but even I was surprised when I saw that a number of people have subscribed to my feeds and wanted to share their feeds with me. I was equally surprised when I discovered a long-neglected Orkut account that the Google Dashboard reminded me was very much active. Also, since the Google Dashboard pulls in data about your recent Web searches, you can see what you've been searching for and even go to your search history straight from the Dashboard.

Some items in your profile information for each Google service have icons of people next to them. This indicates that the profile information is public, or the data behind that link is shared with other users of that service in some way. This way you can see quickly what information is stored about you, but also what information is public and available for the world to see. For more detail or to customize your profile information for each of the services, you can just click on any of the items to go directly to the respective Google service and update your account information.

Next to each of the services and your profile information, you'll see links to manage your account for each service. For example, with YouTube, there are direct links to your account management page, and direct links to manage your privacy settings and sharing options on the video site. For your search history, you can click to remove specific items or clear your history entirely straight from the Google Dashboard.

Each service also includes a link to their respective privacy policies, so you can read about what information is kept about you and why, and modify your settings right from Dashboard. If you're still concerned, you can always head to the Data Liberation Front to find out how to liberate your data from Google entirely.

Google touted the launch of the Dashboard as a way to provide transparency to users about how it collects your information and to modify anything you find objectionable. The service is a success on both of those fronts, and even I was surprised how much data Google kept about me.

This post originally appeared on AppScout.