Honestly, it’s amazing how much I use Google on a daily basis without thinking.
“Where is that nearest bank?”
Google it.
“Where can I buy _____?”
Google it.
“What is the population of China?”
Google it.
(P.S. it’s ~1.3 billion)
Whatever would we do without Google? 🙂
If we needed to know where the nearest bank branch was, we’d have to actually have to find the number and call our bank and ask.
The horror!
If we wanted to know where to buy a certain product, we’d have to ask our friends, family, clerks at a store, or call the company themselves.
We’d have to use an actual phone book to look up numbers.
If we needed information on the population of China, or a quick fact, we would have to get up off our butts, go to a library and look for a book on China or with population statistics around the world.
I would have never be able to:
- find my way around a city using Google Maps (public transportation or otherwise)
- figured out what a place looked like using Street View to help
- log all my emails and label them neatly (I’d still be on Hotmail) with Gmail
- set up a “Google Alert” for keywords
- watch endless videos on YouTube and share the love with others
- use Google Reader to see what other people like & favourited
What about you?
How has and does Google improve or changed your life?
(For better or for worse!)
Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver.
I cleared $60,000 in 18 months earning $65,000 gross/year.
Now I am self-employed, and you can read more about 
Google is my right hand man! A sure improvement to my life
Ahh… yes what did we do before google? I google business's phone numbers. Stuff that mega brick of a phonebook!
I look to google for everything. I even have my completely computer illiterate 82 year old MIL saying to me can you google that ???
My grandparents still live life without the internet. We went to the beach this weekend, and they actually CALLED THE HOTEL to see if they had any rooms. I was just like, why didn't we use Expedia, or better yet, find someone's unoccupied townhouse and rent it from them?
OMG. 🙂
My parents still do that. They CALL ahead… lol
It blows my mind, some of the questions my husband will ask me sometimes… I tell him, 'JUST GOOGLE IT," but it doesn't seem to resonate. Why doesn't everyone know that any question can be answered by Google????
@Vee,
Perhaps he just wants to hear it from you? As much as I love google, I think the "just google it" attitude can be bad because it cuts down on communication. Sometimes it's not the answer that's so important so much as the social interaction.
I am known as the Queen of Google among my family and many of my friends. If someone asks me something, my response is usually “I don’t know, let me Google it and get back to you”- like carol, I think sometimes I go to Google before I actually use my brain to think about something.
I’m a grad student working on qualifying exams right now, and I use Google (and other internet resources) so much. I think this is both a blessing and a curse, because while I am able to look up the size of a protein or some other little fact that I need more easily than digging it out of a text book or a journal article in print, our professors also know that we have this resource, and expect us to know everything, because we can look it up so easily (or at least that’s what it seems like). I think I prefer this, though, because I can sit on my couch, eat snacks, and make as much noise as I want while reading articles, rather than spend countless quiet hours in a library.
Let me just tell you that one day I was at my dad’s house (visiting from out of town) and the internet wasn’t working. I got really frustrated because my cell phone had died and I needed to go to T-Mobile & buy a new charger, so I got all flustered and was yelling “HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO LOOK UP A T-MOBILE STORE WITHOUT THE FREAKIN INTERNET?!” and my dad just said “why don’t you look it up in the phone book?”
Oh.. yea….. 😛
THIS is the number one reason why I have a smart phone.
I love Google, for all the reasons you described, plus Google calendar (especially reminders and shareable calendars — something a paper calendar doesn't do).
As much as I am a bit cautious when it comes to online privacy issues, Google is so far worth the risks and I'd hate to have to live without their services.
Google helps me win bets with my husband. He'll regularly state something I know is not right (e.g., he'll claim that some actress was in a movie that I know she wasn't in, I'll say, "she wasn't in that movie", he'll say, 'you wanna bet?", so I'll whip out my iPhone and google it.) I'm right about 98% of the time 🙂 Saves me from taking my turn at hated chores (e.g., dishes, dog doo duty). Yeah Google!
I remember having a set of encyclopedias as a child and I used to use phone books for addresses and phone numbers and local maps. All fairly obsolete due to Google. Can't imagine life without.
Google is an extension of my brain. I don't know how I would function without Google. Just like you said, when I need some information, it's automatically to Google. Now that I think about it, my brain might be an extension of Google. I think I immediately go to Google before I go to my brain.