If you’re not familiar with Google Labs, you need to go to http://www.googlelabs.com and bookmark the site so that you can check back and get in on whatever Beta functions they’re allowing you to play with in 2010.

Google has this experimental section open to the public so that they can have their users test out applications, allowing them to weed out problems and get feedback on how to make it better before it officially launches.

Now we don’t know what’s on the horizon, but it’s important to check in frequently so that you can test features that may be limited to a certain number of people or may be pulled without warning before you got to try it out.

Here are some past examples of what’s come out of the box for you to have fun with and utilize in ways that help you reach your target audience:

Social Search – This cool new feature lets you see results pages that are in line with what your social circle has created. That circle is made up of people in your Gmail account – chat buddies, friends, family, groups and even Twitter and FriendFeed.

Related Links – This is a neat gadget that lets you present a bunch of relevant pages within your own domain that your visitor might prefer to go to. Instead of clicking out if they don’t see what they need immediately, Google helps them find what they do need without them having to conduct another search.

Google Audio Indexing – Did you know that Googlebots can crawl your YouTube video and index it based on what it hears you say? Not only can people find your video through this tool, but they can jump right to the point in the video where you speak a certain keyword phrase. Many say this will eliminate text tags in some instances and will force marketers to be honest about the content of their video.

Google Checkout Store Gadget – This lets you have an online store without having to know complex code. Use a simple Google Docs spreadsheet and in under 5 minutes, you’ll have code you can cut and paste into Blogger, Google Sites, and your own domain with ease.

This helps many marketers who are on a shoestring budget get started. For example, using Google Analytics lets you analyze the traffic of your website for free while others are paying an arm and a leg for similar tools.

There’s not a marketer on the planet who prefer to pay for something when they can get it free. Free marketing tools are getting better and better – with developers often making money on the ad slots they provide in and around the site or on the tools themselves.

If you’re watching pennies, or just like to get a good bargain from time to time, consider these five free tools for marketers that you may need for 2010:

1.) CamStudio for Video Screen Capture Marketing – http://camstudio.org/

Camtasia can be pricey ($299) when you’re just starting out. But luckily for you, there’s an open source project called CamStudio that allows you to make an endless number of screen capture videos for free!

Pair your version of CamStudio with some free audio recording software at http://www.audioflash.org/ and you can create very professional videos to help you generate interest in your products and services.

2.) GIMP for Graphic Creations – www.gimp.org

Photoshop is often very hard for some non-tech savvy individuals to learn. And when you spend money on a tool like PhotoShop, you want to have the shortest learning curve possible.

Now you can take your time and use GIMP instead. GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program and you can use it for free, along with their thorough documentation, to make call to action buttons, minisite graphics, ads and more.

3.) WIX – Free Flash Website Design Tool – http://www.wix.com/

Flash sites are so expensive when you’re searching for a company or professional freelance individual to create one for you from scratch. With WIX, you can customize a template or make your own.

With a WIX site, you’ll have drawbacks, such as WIX ads being placed on your domain – and the domain won’t be your own dot com moniker, but you can upgrade when you have the money to invest in it and remove ads and use your own domain.

4.) WordPress – Free Blog Software http://wordpress.org/

Chances are you’ve heard of this one before, but some people still think they have to pay for a WordPress blog. Not true. You can either host a WordPress blog on their dot org site, or install it free on a domain that you own. As most marketers already know, WordPress is loved by Google if you utilize it right by posting relevant content on a regular basis.

5.) MailChimp – Free Autoresponder Tool – http://www.mailchimp.com/

This tool is great for those with no list or a very small list to begin with. You can use MailChimp for free to store up to 500 contacts and send out up to 3,000 emails per month.