The other day I was helping a patron who was looking for yellow pages for New York City. While our library had access to most major cities directories in the past, due to rising costs,  the advent of the internet, the wear and tear that the paper directories sustained, and the enormous amount of space that the collection needed we stopped receiving the paper directories.

The patron was a bit upset that we did not carry the print copies anymore but I told him about the wonders of Google Street View. At first the man was rather skeptical saying that computers were worthless and could not be used for this type of search.  After I convinced him that I would be able to find the information he gave me the query he was looking for. After a tough search, honestly the gentleman wouldn’t have found what he was looking for in a traditional directory because he had the wrong address wasn’t 100% sure what the business actually did, we found the exact building he was looking for and the man left a happy customer. The man luckily knew the area and was able to virtually “walk around” to find the area. Needless to say the man doesn’t think search engines are “worthless” anymore and was enthralled by the power of the almighty Google.

The moral of the story here is that while a lot of the products that Google roll out have a definite “fun factor” they also have some academic uses that you may not think of when asked for a question.

As I sit here half frozen, I thought I’d share with you just a few reasons why I am a huge advocate of Google. So here they are, in no particular order:

1. Simplicity. Google clearly understands that less is sometimes more. I don’t want to be distracted with flashing pictures, intrusive noise, and those oh-so-annoying pop-over ads. Give me white space and text ads any day of the week.

2. Relevant results. When I type in a search query, I find what I’m looking for fast. What I don’t find is a porn site cloaking itself as something legit in search results. yay! They make my job easier.

3. Accountability. Google’s company motto is “Don’t be evil”, and they take it very seriously. It’s nice to see a company striving for something more than just the almightly dollar.

4. Humor. The Google people know how to have fun and give us (and themselves) a good laugh. For example, just take a look at Google Gulp, Google Mentalplex, PigeonRank, Google Lunar Jobs, Google Moon (zoom in all the way & check out the FAQs). And check out these special “languages”: Klingon, Pig Latin, Leet, Bork Bork Bork, and Elmer Fudd. If you know of more Google Pranks, let me know.

5. Gmail. Google brought us the best e-mail service EVER. Following the philosophy of their website, Gmail is clean and easy on the eyes. You never, ever get those evil pop-overs sneaking up on you when you’re trying to read your email (*cough* like yahoo *cough*). Plus, with all the storage space they give you, you never have to delete an email. You can rest assured that with Google search power you can find whatever email you need in a flash.

6. Google SMS. I lost my directions on the way to a meeting at another library just a few weeks ago. But I didn’t have to worry. With my cell phone handy I just sent Google a text message asking for directions, and a few seconds later I was on my way in the right direction. Try it out
on the Google SMS page.

7. Google’s founders are liberal, as are many of their employees. They believe in things like open source software and fair treatment of their employees. They have awesome benefits packages, free lunch and snacks, play time, and more. And overall, they believe in making the world a better place.

8. Constant innovation. They are always thinking of new ways to do things, and come up with some pretty cool stuff. Check out Google Labs to play with all the newest Google toys.

9. They are always striving for improvement, and understand that “great just isn’t good enough”.