It’s true…they got me. I’m downright impressed.
Google continues to wow me with their cornucopia of free services that both individuals and small business owners can use. When gmail was first introduced years ago, I thought to myself I’ll keep my yahoo account for personal stuff– why do I need gmail? And I do keep my yahoo account. But, when I was first introduced to RSS feeds and using Google reader, I was impressed. And then came the development of my website where I started using Google Analytics. And then came the development of a client’s website when I used Google Webmaster Tools. And then came my invitation from a friend to use Google Voice (love it!).
So when I bought my Motorola Backflip two months ago, a droid phone, the Droid marketplace was like a haven of apps that I could use for fun or to increase my work efforts. Who needs to spend $299 on a GPS when I’ve got the Google Maps app in my phone? I can search where I’m going and map it out from my location, update it if I get lost, find the phone number to the business, get reviews, and I can do all that without even having to go into my internet browser.
So I started finding more and more utility with the tools that Google offers. Before long I found myself using other tools like Google Earth, Chrome, and Adsense, and my Outlook calendar began to mesh with Google calendar requests from clients and business partners. I also started using more advanced tools I thought I might never understand like Google Base and Google Merchant Center.
But what finally did it…what put the cherry on top of the icing on top of the cake, was when I found Google Apps. This was something more important to the growth of my company. The ability to manage multiple email accounts, share documents, calendars, and instant messaging all personalized and within my company made me wanna ditch my Go Daddy email hosting and convert to Google for FREE.
So, they got me. And I am officially a Google loyalista. Now I get why the stock is going for about $500 a share and I am quite curious to know what’s to come. Oh, and by the way, if you’ve never heard of some of the apps and tools that are mentioned above– just Google it.