So I’ve had this nagging feeling in the back of my head, like a snake licking the base of my skull. From the inside.
I haven’t been able to put my finger on it, but then I read Mark Cuban’s column from December that asks “Am I Living the Google Lifestyle?”
Cuban tells this brief anecdotal process:
“As I installed my Logitech Google TV box I checked my email, I mean GMail, on my G2 Slide. Someone needed some info, so I pulled up the information from a file stored on Google Docs using my browser of choice, Chrome.“
He also uses Google Voice, and he prefers his Samsung Galaxy Tab to his Apple iPads.
You get Cuban’s gist. He uses a lot of Google Web services in his digital travels. Collectively, those apps he listed above cover his mobile, TV, Web browsing, communication and collaboration needs. Oh, and he’s fine with that.
So is he living the Google lifestyle or not? The answer is yes, Mark. And so am I. I use more Google Web services than Cuban does.
Google provides my search engine, my personal Gmail account, my RSS reader and Google Docs for professional work, my digital maps and recommendations via Google Maps and Google Places, my news via Google News, and other Google Web services on occasion.
There’s more. Since November 2009 I’ve tested almost a dozen Android phones.
I ended up purchasing Motorola Droid X for a penny last month and am quite happy with it so far.
I am currently testing Google TV via Logitech Revue. Last week I tested the Android-based Samsung Galaxy Tab, on which, I must add, I downloaded the Logitech Harmony app to control the Google TV from the Tab.
Currently, I have the Samsung Nexus S from Google (powered by T-Mobile) and the Cr-48 Chrome notebook to test this week before the holiday break.
So I’m a Google gobbler personally and professionally. Yes, I am living the Google lifestyle. They should create a support group, Google Anonymous. I could chair it and Cuban and others like him are welcome.
Excuse me, while I go write my 12 steps book for recovery from Google.
No, seriously, so long as Google doesn’t flip the “evil switch” and abuse the gigabytes of data I’ve generated or trafficked across its services, I’m comfortable with leveraging Google for my digital information needs.
I use Facebook for social networking. I use Twitter to blast out brief messages. I use Foursquare to check in to places. I look at Groupon daily for deals here in Fairfield County. I play Angry Birds when I’m bored … anywhere.
But these services are fairly unidimensional; there is only so much I can do with these services, which exist independent of my little Google world.
These Web apps, while solid, are not as comforting to me as having my Google apps accessible from on console, on the laptop or the Droid X.
That’s my digital lifestyle and I like it. Until Google gives me reason to feel otherwise.