Chitika

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Google Me This, Batman!

Where would I be today without Google?

If you know me you know that I am a Google fan. I was hooked immediately to the great search results and functionality of Google.com. After that I was invited by a co-worker to the beta of Gmail and stopped using all other personal email clients. I use Calendar and Tasks to keep track of my personal routine and to track the time I have worked on client projects. I develop web sites and found Analytics an invaluable tool. The Google Voice beta came along and I got my number. It has been such a powerful and useful tool for filtering calls as well as notifying me on my work and personal phones by using the one phone number. I use Picasa for my personal photos to share with my friends and family and I use the PC app to edit, organize and upload. I use BlogSpot (obviously) to post in two different blogs - one for family and this one. I use Reader to gather all my feeds for viewing online and on my phone. I use Chrome for my browser for its compliance, innovation and speed. I have setup Google Apps for Business to connect to my personal domain. I have dabbled with iGoogle although really have no use for the portal but I have recommended it to others who find use for customized start pages. I have used Google Docs when I needed a document editor in a pinch. I even got in on the CR-48 and Google TV testing.

The main thing I really like about all of the apps I have used by Google is that they are all connected by my Google Gmail account. Many are integrated or allow sending and sharing data with each other. This suite has been so helpful to me that I do not know what I would do without it. I know there are similar applications available. I know that some are better and some are worse and some are just different. I also know that for me the speed of Google development just blows my mind. Coming from the world of Microsoft and how slow they are to update, change or innovate the speed of Internet application development by Google is infinitely better.

Google Android OS is amazing in the same vein as all other things Google are to me. It does everything I could want. The speed of development and innovation is perfect for my never ending thirst for the better, new and different. I cannot believe sometimes where I am today with all the things I wished my feature phone could do and now I am doing that and more. Individuals and companies are developing incredibly useful apps for the phones and tablets. The usefulness factor has grown so quickly that I am so excited about what is around the corner.

For all the things that Google has developed and discontinued they have always done two things well:
  1. Learn from the project and the journey
  2. Look into the future to find the next thing
Did I mention that this is all FREE. Yep, I have not paid a cent to Google. There are items that you can pay Google for such as Google Apps for Business if you have enough users or want to use advanced features. There are also various Google appliances and products you can choose to buy but generally these are for advanced features or to have an in-house Google Search engine, etc.

Yay, Google! Keep it coming. Keep your users involved and wowed. May the force be with you.

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