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 #7: Social Media Class so far…

So far in this class I had several discoveries that have been of great help not only with this class but with others too. I divided it in 5 discoveries:

1. Long Tail- this is only, because I like it. I didn’t know this term before, just to realize that in the Internet there’s a lot of stuff available. Doesn’t matter how impossible looks, old or rare, there’s always a market/group in the Internet. This tail covers the diversity of the people.

2. Google Reader- I did not know existed, what better way to keep you updated on everything going on around you without having to actually go page by page. There you can see the headlines and updates and decide if it’s important or not.

3. Blog- Never blogging; for me is a nice experience because I can practice my English and improve it. Blogging helps with my writing, fluency and common sense when using words.

In addition is new social media tool for expression and share ideas…

4. Linky, linky-never did it before, I did not even know how to! But is great tool and very useful, because you do not have that much space to storage sites that can be helpful … so just make a link … to you would always have it on hand.

5. Wikis-no idea of them! No idea either that was a collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia.

I don’t have work right now, but definitely in a certain way this class changed my habits of investigation in social media. I have more tools to navigate through them.

Response #5: Should we be afraid of Google?

Afraid of Google? Hmm, Probably! I wasn’t but now I am…

Because I google everything, google is my default. I google for food, e-mail, for homework, for fun, maps, news, pictures, music… Is like John Battelle says: ” Google had more than its finger on the pulse of our culture, it was directly jacked into the culture’s nervous system”

I didn’t realize that now is almost automatic that we use google. There’s certainly more search engines but where they are? Why we didn’t use it? Why doesn’t came into my mind as my first choice? What happen with Yahoo, AOL, and MSN?

Google has this empire and after reading Battler’s book I was amazed how all this was being put together. But makes you to question, what is behind that? Are we missing something? Something we have to give in return for so much comfort … because the reality is that, google is comfort.

Google is so lucky and has lasted for many years and now I do not think they are going anywhere. Now they are more solid than ever, even has youtube in their side… and youtube is one of the most visits sites!

But in few years this is what is going to happen … a new better search engine would appear … more efficient, more intelligent, and google are going to be with AOL and AltaVista!