on not taking Google for granted

Google certainly has become an integral part of today’s culture. All three of my go-to online dictionaries (American Heritage, Oxford Dictionaries Online, and Merriam-Webster) have an entry for “google” as a verb.

I was thinking the other day, though, about how valuable Google (or whichever search engine you choose to use) really is.

I was trying to figure out how big a turkey we should get for Thanksgiving, since hosting Thanksgiving is not something that we have done before. I quickly got my answer: a pound a person. Before online search you had to hope that the Joy of Cooking or a similar book on your shelf included advice of the subject. That or call a relative who had experience hosting Thanksgiving.

Similarly, I was trying to find out how to perform a specific function in Photoshop. Photoshop, as you know, can be maddingly arcane, and I’ve often been frustrated by the lack of help from the manual, and even from expensive third-party how-to books. But a Google search immediately gave me what I was looking for.

Here’s to not taking online search for granted.