How Google has invaded my life in just 11 years
Yesterday’s Gmail outage inspired a stunning tidal wave of Twitter activity, demonstrating how thoroughly Google’s e-mail service has wedged its way into people’s lives. It reminded me of a post I’ve pondered for awhile: How many times does Google touch my life in a day?
Ultimately, I decided not to write it that way. Google touches my life too many times in a day. It would be a pretty boring narrative to describe a day in the life of Google and me. But I am still compelled by the idea of how many ways Google has become entwined with my life. Just 11 years ago (to the month), Google was incorporated. We’d never heard of it. It was just another search engine. And now, I can’t imagine getting along without it.
Chrome: It’s now my default browser at home and work. I love how lightweight, yet powerful it is. Its easy-to-use, streamlined navigation is a snap. It’s figured out how to make tabbed-browsing even more useful. More than anything else, Google’s presence is felt here, because I’m using a web browser almost constantly.
Search: Oh, yeah. The search engine. Made even better because I can throw search terms into the URL bar in Chrome. I couldn’t count how many Google searches I do in a day.
Apps: I have a host for my website, but my hosting service has a deal with Apps — and I use that to run my e-mail instead of using Outlook with pop access, or my host’s own (lame) webmail application. When Gmail is down, so is my personal e-mail. I also used Apps to help my wife with a project. She’s a board member for a local student dance company and, somehow, became responsible for redoing the company’s website. My wife knows nothing about online publishing; neither do her colleagues. So I built the site for them using Google Apps. Piece of cake. It’s still being fine-tuned, but it’s perfectly usable now. Google hosts the site for free; they all have e-mail addresses.
Gmail and Chat: A day rarely passes when my wife and I don’t have a brief exchange via Google chat, checking in on each other’s days or getting a quick answer to a question. Meanwhile, I have two Gmail accounts, in addition to my Apps-hosted e-mail, and at work, Gmail provides the backbone to a few social media accounts. That includes the Weatherbird, the Post-Dispatch’s mascot, whose Twitter account has a Gmail address behind it.
Mobile: I’ve downloaded Google’s mobile apps to my Sprint Mogul running Windows Mobile. Access in the palm of my hand to YouTube, Maps and much more. I get my personal e-mail on my mobile phone, too, so there’s another bazillion times per day that Google touches my life.
Voice: Totally digging this relatively new service. It’s the only phone number my kids have for me now. I send a lot of texts this way — because it’s often easier than using the phone keypad. I’m certain I’m not getting everything out of this service yet, but I’m working on it.
Maps: Does a week go by when I don’t have to map a location? I don’t think so. Plus, I’ve used My Maps for fun little projects and the Google Maps API for projects at work, like this map of performing arts locations and this one (still in development) locating the extended auto service contract companies in the St. Louis area (my thanks to Erica Smith for her help with those).
YouTube: I’m hardly a power-user of YouTube, but rare is the week I don’t consult it for something.
Reader: What would a day be like if I weren’t faced with 400 of your unread blog posts?
Picasa: My daughter is the power-user of the family, but it got so bad that we had to off-load scores of her photos onto an external hard-drive. I keep most of mine on Google’s Picasa web albums page, so they don’t take up my hard-drive space; they take up Google’s.
Analytics: Like many, I track my website, my church’s website and the dance company’s website using Google Analytics.
Feedburner: Yeah, I know. You use it, too.
Docs: I’ve got a ton of stuff up there now, I run some of the maps off Google Spreadsheets and I love being able to convert documents into PDF files. I spent most of my day yesterday playing in there. My daughter’s college essay is up there, as is the task list for her college planning.
Books: Yeah, this isn’t exactly separate from Google search, but I point it out because I’ve used it a few times, most recently on a Conversation about Race blog post, where I was helping to support the authority of some of the sources I was quoting by linking to their published works.
Google XML Sitemaps: A WordPress plugin that helps with the SEO of my site, and my church’s site.
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Marijean Jaggers
Kurt's Tweets- @yelvington Hope you enjoy it. I thought the FX were great, the movie was beautiful. The story? Meh.
- @OHnewsroom: From a mother on the phone to her son: "Maybe you'll think twice next time before you eat 16 White Castles."
- RT @jeffjarvis: Paying Twitter sets a terrible precedent for Google. http://bit.ly/5kww03
- Daughter's UMKC audition is behind us. Prayers would be welcome. #fb
- @bfelice Thanks much for the welcome! Cheers.