Happy Birthday Google!

painted by Wayne Wayne Thiebaud. article link

Today is Google's Birthday.

I think for all the reasons that people are afraid of Google... I'm in love with Google. I love having all of my information in one place. I just checked and I have nearly every email I've sent since 4/23/05. Yep, thats right. If you sent it to me, I probably have it.

... and in honor of that special day.... I'm going to list 5 of my favorite Google Products ... and why. I'm not going to list Google Mail because that's just obvious - but if I was to say why it would be for some of the super awesome gadgets that are available like the "forgotten attachment detector".

Google Health. Have you ever really looked at what the Doctor diagnosed you with? Its pretty phenomenal. Plus, since there is no real centralized electronic medical record solution I have my own thanks to Google Health. Now, I don't think that this is the best of the Google products - but I do get a lot of use out of it.

Google Docs. If we are working on something together and I haven't sent you a google doc invite, then I'm probably not working on it. I'm kidddddding- kind of. I use Google Docs for everything from writing group papers in grad school to tracking my ebay sales. It was phenomenal knowing that I could always access the docs - and the improvements they've made in the last six months alone are incredible. The gap between using Microsoft products and online solutions like Google Docs is getting smaller and smaller.

Google Talk. Now, I know we all used to chat on AIM and some of us used Microsoft Messenger ... but Google Chat allowed us to shed the youth inspired names with 7 numbers and odd capitals in them and still talk to our friends. Plus, we can group chat ... or video chat ... and it will save all of the conversations ... and we know how I love to save history. (True confessions: sometimes I can get lost for 20 minutes - conservative estimate - in reading old emails and chats) New addition? You can now make actual phone calls from Google Chat. True Story, its how I ordered dinner in the Washington Dulles Hilton.


Google Voice. Besides email, this might be my favorite and most useful Google product. I transferred my voicemail from Verizon to Google - and now I never have to worry about have a full inbox. Also, all of my voicemails are transcribed so if I can't listen to the message, I can at least read it on my email. This is crucial in areas of bad cell reception since if you don't get the call, you probably aren't getting the message from your provider that you have a voicemail ... unless you have Google Voice then you can get the email. Plus, you can get a phone number for FREE. I give my Google voice number out to anyone that I don't want to have my actual cell number.... its perfect.

Google Calendar. The Family Calendar. Enough said. I love putting events in my calendar about as much as I love eating cheese. The same goes for linking to other calendars. My last MBA year was made a bit easier knowing that we had a team calendar and it was easily uploaded into each of our own personal calendars. With regards to the "family calendar" situation, my parents essentially refuse to learn how to link or add events to the Google calendar - yet my 11 year old brother has mastered the art of adding his Boy Scout camping trips.

A friend of mine actually coined/invented a term to describe people who love Google ... in a moderately unhealthy manner. The word is.... gsnob. Its so official that its on Urban Dictionary. But in the event you are lazy, here is a screenshot of the definition:

I admit I'm jealous that I haven't coined / invented a word and had it published myself.

So Happy Birthday Google. At 12 years old, you've really accomplished a whole lot ... and I can't wait to see what else you get accomplished as a pre-teen.

1 comment

  1. "But is it dangerous to give all our information and to rely so completely on one corporation?" Leo Babuta

    JEF - I'm curious about your reaction to this.

    ReplyDelete

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