This is going to sound like an advertisement for Google, but it really isn't. Disclaimer: I own 5 shares of Google stock. But I don't pay enough attention to that either.
I used to be an "early adopter." I was always one of the first to try new stuff. Then I had a spell when the new stuff breaking down was getting in the way of getting my work done. I was spending too much time on the phone with support...in the days when support was right up the road in RTP.
Lately, I've let other people figure it out, get through the first round of bugs, and then convince me.
1. I was late adopting Google as my favorite search engine...I was suspicious of the context relevant advertising. Now I hardly notice the ads.
2. When somebody suggested googletalk for an organization chat, I groaned...not another chat thingy. And I had to sign up for gmail to get it. Groan...another email. Now I hardly ever chat on any chat, but gmail has become one of my first-line emails. (Don't ask how many I have)
3. When my new PC came with Google desktop, I groaned again. I was skeptical about anything indexing my whole hard drive. It took me a year of ignoring it until I tried it. Man!! That thing is fast as...(grasping for appropriate bigdaddycc simile)...a jackalope with the runs. I've had to reinstall the thing a few times after some weird error, but when it works, there is nothing faster.
4. Dear hubby volunteered me to put up a website for the church. They had already decided that I should use Google-apps, because it's free. Groan again, I told them "No such thing as a free lunch, just wait til you see the Google advertising." They still wanted it. It turned out rather well, no ads have shown up yet in 7 months. I even use Google-apps for my own website.
5. Donny has been pushing Picasa (now owned by Google) for years. I was probably the last to come along....kicking and screaming.
6. The latest from Google, they announced a few weeks ago, Google Reader. I looked at it and said, "Why do I want to read a bunch of different stuff all in one place." Then one of my Twitter links showed how he reads all the blogs he follows all at once every day. hmmmm. I decided to try it. Man!! It is so cool. I read a lot of different blogs, Yahoo 360, Blogger, Wordpress, Boing Boing, etc. Any blog that is public and had some kind of Feed or subscription, I can add to my Google Reader. Anytime I go to my reader, I see the latest updates from all of them. I can browse quickly...no waiting for a slow connection, and go to the source if I want to comment.
Google has changed my life. I can organize my procrastination!!
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