All your Webs are belong to Google

The Google logoIf there was ever any doubt as to Google’s impact on peoples’ way of life, I could offer myself up as an example:

  • Today, I turned the RSS feed of this blog over to Feedburner, which Google acquired in 2007. The move was entirely narcissistic – after all, what possible need do I have for knowing the number of people that subscribe to my blog?
  • To the feed, I attached Google AdSense, to display an ad every now and then, in the vain hope that my constantly updated, and hugely successful blog will generate some income. If you’re reading this on the Web, you’ll see that my blog already shows ads in the right column, but it hasn’t generated so much as a single cent for me since I first signed on :-)
  • Metrics reporting is provided by Google Analytics from which I can observe the actions of my visitors, like a kid with an ant farm. Again, just navel gazing, but it is interesting learning that my blog was a GoogleWhack (a search that only returns a single result) for somebody’s search on a certain Eamon song lyric…
  • This blog itself is created in Blogger which was bought out by Google in 2003.
  • I use my own domain name for e-mail, which is hosted by Gmail (now part of Google Apps). I purchased the domain name through GoDaddy, which isn’t a Google company (yet?) by is still in keeping with the “G” theme.
  • Jenny and I use Google Calendar to keep track of our appointments (also part of Google Apps).
  • We navigated our way around Canberra last weekend using Google Maps.
  • Recently, I’ve helped my father-in-law to promote his Guitar Shop using Google AdWords.
  • And of course, who doesn’t use Google Search?

I’m sure there are others. The list above is larger than I had originally anticipated – as I was writing I kept thinking of more and more services. It’s sad, but there’s really no denying that Google plays a significant role in my life!