Google Scholar can be used as both a research tool and for research evaluation. As a research tool, it allows users to set up article alerts, see paper updates, and access a library and citation manager. For evaluation, it provides profiles that show publication and citation metrics for individual researchers. It also offers journal-level metrics through Google Scholar Metrics. While useful for areas not well-covered by other databases, it lacks bibliographic control and data can be manipulated, so results must be interpreted cautiously.