I’m Thankful for Google

This is coming a couple days late, but a book review in the NY Times today inspired me to express my thanks for Google during this Thanksgiving weekend. The review is for Googled: The End of the World as We Know It, by Ken Auletta. A little sensationalistic wouldn’t you say?!


Creative Commons License photo credit: Marcin Wichary

While every media exec in North America thinks Google is “voracious…has gargantuan ambitions, it’s too rich, it’s too smug, it makes money off of OPC – other people’s content,” there’s no denying that it’s made the world a better place from a consumer’s standpoint.

So, in the spirit of Michael Arrington’s recent #iamthankfulfor-esque ode to Apple, here’s why I’m thankful for (and how I use) Google:

  • For search that works
  • For a clean search page, with an occasional dose of personality
  • For web-based email with threaded conversations, labels, and tons of fun stuff in labs
  • For integrating chat right into email
  • For an affordable (even free) small business office suite in the cloud (Calendar, Docs)
  • For maps that look good
  • For alerts delivered to my inbox every evening
  • For news and blog search
  • For image search
  • For Blogger (which I happily used before WordPress and Posterous)
  • For the range of time-wasting cute pet videos to productivity-enhancing self-help videos on YouTube
  • For Picasa which is the easiest and best integrated photo management app imho (if only for Facebook integration though)
  • For lengthy previews of books
  • For mobile maps on my iPhone
  • For a comprehensive suite of analytics and webmaster tools
  • For innovating geolocation with Latitude, which I’m slow to adopt but like the idea of
  • For a phone number and voicemail service which transcribes my messages
  • For Chrome, which isn’t available on Mac yet, but for which I’m eagerly awaiting
  • For turn by turn maps on Android, which I won’t be using anytime soon, but which is cool nonetheless
  • For trying to maintain its “Don’t be evil” ethos, despite being the biggest brand in the world and all indications that this is becoming less and less possible

Update: I forgot one! For helping me save on my monthly phone bills with SMS through Google Talk.