Why I Love Google

Source

So, it was pointed out recently that I have an apparent "fan boy" lean towards Google.  I'll admit, I bring up Google a lot when talking about tech, and the latest trends.  Over the long haul since the day I first opened my Gmail (and before that when they were my exclusive go to for searches) I've found their products easily integrated into my day-to-day life. 

What's great is that from one email address I have so many services and options to choose, or not to choose, from.  This means that I'm not constantly creating logins for everything, which cuts down on time logging into to services that I use regularly.  This of course means that while I'm checking my email, calendar, and even blogging (yes, Blogger is part of Google!) all that time I save by logging in once is time that can now be given to productivity - getting things done!

But is that all there is for my existence on Google's servers?  There's actually quite a long list of available services to Google users.

Gmail, Contacts, Blogger, Calendar, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Drive, Hangouts, Keep, Voice, YouTube, Sites, Groups, Maps, Photos, Play Music, Messages for Web, and Arts & Culture

The above list - I'm sure - is just a sliver of what's available from Google if you have a gmail.  Much more if you're a business or educational facility that uses GSuite.

Best of all the services I use on a daily basis is the Google Assistant.  Saying the hot phrase "Hey Google," followed by a command such as, "what's on my agenda today?" or "what time does Starbucks close?" yields results that make it easy to find the information you need.  Apple's Siri (yes I have an iPod and tested Siri for myself) just doesn't compare.

The focus of every product from Google is productivity.  This proved especially helpful during my time in academia.  Saving something to my Google Drive proved useful for backup if I needed to pull something up on campus and didn't have time to open my laptop and plug in my USB drive.  Best of all, since my professors required projects/assignments to be submitted in *.docx, *.xlsx, or *.pptx (MS Office formats), I could use Google Docs to

• Collaborate on a group project without needing to fish through emails looking for the current version of whatever you're working on
• Comment and suggest edits to existing projects
• Use the Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides apps on my phone and tablet to edit assignments and projects when away from my laptop
• Save projects as MS Office, *pdf, *.epub, or any other format you need!

That last bit really came handy as professors required MS Office formats.  I mean, really came in handy.

Google Keep has always been handy as a way to have a shopping list.  Best part is that as you're shopping you can check off what you put in your cart and it'll cross it out and move it down so you know what's left to get.  This is especially handy with to-do lists and other times you need to keep track of things and mark off when done.  My wife and I keep a shared grocery list that we add to as things get low and when it comes time to shop we both have the same list so either of us can shop and keep updated on what we need.

I could go on with every service I've used, how I've used it, and how it actually helps me, but we would be here all day.  I guess looking back over what I've written here it seems that I may be slightly fanatic about Google.  You know what?  I'm completely cool with that!  Some people may not even like Google, and may even have an absurd idea that Google is some sort of Skynet or the Matrix or the one of the omens of the apocalypse, but that's just infantile paranoia and a conspiracy fantasy.