Me, a Google fan

OK I have to admit it. I'm a real fan of the Google company. It feels odd to say it though. I'm not the kind of guy who admires companies, products or trends. The people I look up to are researchers, composers, book writers and such. But still, I have to admit I am a Google fan.

First and foremost, Google search just rocks. There is no alternative. I use it so much every day. Anything that I want to find out, just Google for it and there it is. But it is more than the functionality. I think what plays an even bigger role is their slick design. Or rather the lack thereof. Their main page is so minimalistic it's almost embarrasing. And when you get to the seach results there is no clutter. Everything is very tidy and no graphical noise. The ads aren't annoying either which is a major accomplishment in itself.

Secondly, the thing that I actually use more than the search engine nowadays is Gmail. I rely on Gmail for all my mailing. OK, Gmail does not revolutionize emailing, as Google did web search. But it serves all my needs, it has a decent spamfilter, it saves all my old mails so that I can easily find them and I can reach it from pretty much anywhere. It also allows me to focus my activities using fewer programs. I can do mailing in my webbrowser using the same interface as for surfing. I like that.

Then there is google labs. It seems they have a lot of fun. They dare to test things. They want to go public and make everyone test their things. I like this kind of spirit. It makes me think of Star Trek.

And, ofcourse, here I am publishing using Blogger. It is a nice blogging facility. So, in short, I am a Google fan. Rumours says that Google is going to develop their own browser based on Firefox. Will I switch to using that instead of using Firefox? It is likely. (Depends on how Opera 8 turns out. I might switch back to Opera if I can use it for blogging and email...)