CPL 2.0: Google Universe

Oh, and what a universe it is.

I still remember when I began to use the Google search engine soon after its launch. Even in its infancy, it was clear (especially to researchers and library types) that Google was something special. Oh sure, I knew my way around Altavista (and Altavista Canada) and when and why someone might choose the HotBot search engine over Lycos or Dogpile. We, the reference staff on the 3rd Floor, Central (then, the "Internet experts" of the library system), would regularly encourage other staff and customers to always use more than one search engine because of the varied results. Fairly soon after Google search was launched, it became our first choice of search engine. Soon after, we found we rarely ever found we had to use other search engines.

And so began Google's domination of the web.

I use, regularly, many Google products:

• Gmail: I've had Hotmail, Yahoo and Google mail accounts; they all have their own pros and cons. Gmail is one of the best webmail programs in my mind. (caveat: I had a gmail account a few years ago and ended up deleting it. I didn't realize that I'd NEVER be able to get back that username, nor that I'd lose my Google Docs as well---adding up months of my personal writing.)
• Google News: I was so happy when this came out. Weed though Google hits to just get current news? Excellent.
• Google Docs: Documents safe, accessible from any computer and easy to share with others? Brilliant.
• Google Maps: love it. It's my preference for driving directions
• Google Blog Search: Sometimes I only want search results on blogs. I use it often for both personal reasons and to help customers.
• Google Finance: a colleague (thanks Mark Smith) pointed out to us how useful this is for those of us looking for investment information for personal use or to assist customers
• Google Scholar: I use this constantly when trying to track down papers for ResearchPlus customers.
• Google Images: really, isn't this the first source for image searching?
• Google Books: I can't tell you how often we've been able to answer a customer's question from an authoritative source by accessing pages through Google Books.
• Blogger: I have started a blog or two. Perhaps some day I'll keep writing in a blog for more than a few months at at time...

I will say this: Google has no help email or "real person" assistance and I've been frequently ticked off at this. But the Google products are so good, I keep using them.