Rambling in the mountains as the aspens leaves change is what I'm doing but I couldn't let September end without acknowledging Google's 10th birthday. Will Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web, or Google Founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page be the Gutenberg of this information revolution.
Google wants to change the world, that's for sure, and it doesn't think itself "very Googley to stand on the sidelines – whether the challenge involves search, apps, or clean energy. So we're working to be part of the solution." Part of Google's 10th Birthday
is Project 10^100 (that's ten to the hundredth"): Google's Project to Help the Most with a submission deadline of October 20. Do you or someone you know have an idea that you believe would help somebody, Google wants to hear about it. "We're looking for ideas that help as many people as possible, in any way, and we're committing the funding to launch them." Google Timeline tells the history of Google with little facts (when Larry met Sergey as his tour guide at Stanford or the first baby named Google, born in Sweden).
I like Google's Doodles -- this one was for Beatrix Potter's birthday on July 28. Although it is whimsical and fun, it is stunning to think how in ten years, Google really has changed the world. In the next ten, it might wipe out the next smallpox (in my media grad studies we looked at how the SARS was solved with global internet connections). Google's products are available in the 40 languages read by more than 98% of Internet users.
On Blogs, this from Technorati's founder Sifry:
# Technorati is currently tracking 133 million blogs (we've done a LOT of culling spam blogs, and the number of bloggers keeps growing!)
# 7.4 Million blogs have posted in the last 120 days - that's 5.5% of all blogs we track.
# 1.5 Million blogs have posted at least once in the last 7 days.
That puts MotherPie in the top 1.5 million of active blogs, one little spec in the blogosphere.
Sergey Brin, one of the two Google founders, has just started a personal blog he named Too ("Google is a play on googol, too is a play on the much smaller number - two. It also means "in addition", as this blog reflects my life outside of work"). He writes about his mother's Parkinson's, his susceptibility to it, and how he found out about his susceptibility (through his wife's genetic company). Some are speculating why he would put his personal medical information "out there" but if anyone knows how we are all becoming an open book.
Steve Rubel writes on how children are encouraged by Google to "steal photos" and I think with Google we'll be able to know anything and the world will be flattened. I actually think that our culture of individuality may be on the wane.
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