Did I tell you that I love Google?

Gmail, Google Docs, Google Talk, Google Reader, Google search …

I go to these applications every time I get connected and am online. I am online almost or more than 15 hours daily… so imagine all the time I spend on them. If someone analyzes my “history” are going to see that half of the time I am in google and his applications … and the other half on Facebook. (Let’s not speak about Facebook, please … because it is difficult for me to accept that I am slightly addicted)

70 % of my time I spend it in one of the google applications… how bad this sounds? If google it turns us useless, how useless will I be?:)

Google Doc is my crowdsourcing of graduated school. Imagine that the teacher is the company and the paper is the task to realize and we, the group assigned to do the work, we are the “crowd”. I can’t believe, how I did not discovered it earlier! For advantage or disadvantage, I don’t know, the Internet in certain way is making us less personal. Increasingly we need less the physical contact with other persons, with Google Doc I can be assembled by my other partners of the group without having to go out of my house. We can be editing simultaneously and collaborating in the same document. It looks like a live chat, I write and the others can see it at the moment also. How brilliant and useful is this?

Google Maps! At first I thought, I just get here (DC) so probably that’s why I use it with so many frequency, but 3 months later … I keep on using it as the first day. It is it so easy and useful to be able to put where you go and even to see the street view. I am usually the most awful with maps and directions but Google Map improved my sense of orientation. Although not everything is “peaches and cream”, I think that we are slowly losing privacy. I can’t stop thinking when we sends resume to an employer, there is your house address… any person with your resume on hand can enter to google and have a street view and see exactly where you live, your local community and your surroundings. It is a little scary!

Google Talk … it is inevitable. Google talk opens whenever I turn on the computer and there is always someone on the other side. Once again the Internet is gaining the battle towards our “typical” forms of communication. Why use the phone and speak with someone, if I can write to him and obtain immediate response also? We are losing the ” human touch ” of listening to the voice. But, still useful!

Gmail, what I can say to you with only 9,336,542 unique visits in October. The e-mail is my way of keeping up to date and in contact with the whole world, in a personal and professional way.

We are loosing: personal interaction, privacy and human touch…. But you know what? I still LOVE Google! That’s the worse part, we all know that these Social Webs applications are in someway interfering with our lives, but we still using it. I love google and I’m sure that almost everyone does it too!

At least, I’m not an addict… I would become one probably, but I’m not there yet!

Response #8: Crowdsourcing

In the technological and modern age that we are right now, Crowdsourcing is going to take the lead every time more and more… leverage mass collaboration.

In addition to the sites discussed in class: 99design, Mechanical Turk, My Starbucks Idea apparently there are many more that we use every day but we don’t realized that these sites are a success thanks to the extensive collaboration of the people.

Looking and looking I found several places. The first one is Fat Muffin, quite similarly to 99design, here the companies can put his information and different persons design the advertising. His slogan is: Bake up the biggest designs AND WIN… pretty creative and fun! Right now the membership for this place is restricted, is not accepting new members. The only way of being part is if some member sends to you an invitation or if you write to them (Fat Muffin) and demonstrates them that you have creativity. I think can be handy, but is also silly how they made it exclusive! Isn’t better, more people more collaborate = better?

In the culinary side, I found two: Allrecipes and Innovate with Kraft. Of Allrecipes, I am not sure completely but I think that it is Crowdsourcing because the users there are those who add the recipes, they exchange recipes, they suggest and give ideas, they qualify places where to eat, they upload photos, between others. It is useful, at least for me. I love this place.

The other one is Innovate with Kraft there you can suggest new products, modifications, packaging and can share also recipes. You submit your designs (agree with the terms and filling the forms) and approximately in 8 weeks Kraft answers you. The interesting thing of this is that if your idea is good and they want to use it, it is possible to negotiate compensation or they buy the license from you, so here you do not lose. Not only you do it for the love that you have Kraft, but also if usually you have good ideas take advantage of that!

In addition to these two I found in the way: Digg and OpenStreetMap (where you can see, contribute and edit streets about the world)

Does SecondLife is consider a Crowdsourcing?