I was looking for a rare DVD the other day, and found one at a site. Price seemed reasonable. And before I clicked on the "purchase now", I googled the name of the store and the word "complaint". I have started doing this as a precaution. Sort of another way to use Google. Well, I got lots of hits, and decided against purchasing the DVD set. That sort of got me thinking: Google has really changed how we view the information on the Web.
Rip-Offs
As stated above, I search for companies with the word "complaint", "rip-off" or similar names. And you know, a percentage of the time, I find hits on Google. And I avoid the companies like the plague. You know, I sometimes also look on the Better Business Bureau website (well, websites), and often, there is no mention of the company there.
Movie Information
Have you ever forgotten the exact quote of a movie? I have. And it drives me crazy. I get on Google, and I look for the quote. I normally know several of the words in the quote – and you know the quotes I am looking for are normally online somewhere. Same thing for who starred in what movie. All at your fingertips – and normally on IMDB has the answer, but it is easier to find it on Google.
Me Information
Every once in a while, I google my own name, my husband's name too, to see if my name is "out there" on the Internet. And like most people, I get a few hits. No, no porn queen web pages – silly stuff, surprising stuff. Sites that specialize in high school hookups, I mean high school memories, protests, whatever. And knowing what is out there about you is important. Just ask someone interviewing that has a MySpace account – and a picture of her, legs wrapped around the toilet. Flattering.
News
I sometimes read snippets, or hear about snippets in the news. Then I want to know more about the situation. And Google tells me – I type in a few key words in the news tab and bingo, I get the most current information about the news. Well, some of the news stories are from really weak news organizations, but you can weed those out.
Pictures
Every once in a while, I want to have a picture to illustrate my blog. Google to the rescue. I can type in a few words in the image feature, and boom, I get a bunch of photos. Get the URL and I am off to the races.
Google Maps
I don't use this often at all, but Google Maps is pretty cool. I can see a satellite map of my house, and it is my house. Part of this scares me – just glad there was not any activity surrounding the image on file.
Needless to say, I love Google. It saved me $70 today.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
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3. My Stories. Yeah, I have a few erotic stories here. I know, they are not all that good, but they were fun to write. Don't read them if this offends you (and they represent less than 1% of the content here). These stories have elements of truth and fantasy, some more true than others. Complain about something that is a bit more substantive if you must complain. I have lots of faults.
5 comments:
I live and die with Google maps on my desktop and on my phone as I travel for work.
And when I google my own name, I get a gospel singer, a football player, a convict, and a poorly dressed business man, but not me.
Perfect.
advizor: from your perspective, Google seems perfect. When I Google myself, I get some hippie chick from Arizona who makes pottery. I like that, too.
I've been using Yahoo more and more in a manner similar to you. I used to use MSN, but didn't find nearly as many matches.
grant: I used to use a bunch of different search engines - remember when there were sites that would search many and give you the results in one page? Now some are good enough so you don't gain much by looking at several sites.
Enjoyable to tour Google with you, Leesa. And yes, I Google my own name once in a while, mainly to see if other services have picked up newspaper articles I written. Exposure doesn't hurt in many areas of our lives.
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