W3V2

and I think I’m okay with that.

Can you think of any other company who’s name is a verb? Noun? Sure, that one is easy: Kleenex, Coke, XEROX, Saran Wrap, etc. But no other company (that I can think of) has ever been used as a general verb. In library world, Google and it’s uses is a hotly debated topic. Is its federated search engine as accurate as a catalog search of Library of Congress subject headings? For the scholar doing research, maybe not, but for the average gal looking for a cheesecake recipe or anything else in the world, its fast, accurate and does anyone really use anything else?

Google also happens to be an amazing place to work if you’re one of the brilliant and lucky who were chosen from the 3000 applications they get A DAY! They were also named Fortune magazines #1 “best place to work” in 2007. You get all the free food you want, free massages, haircuts and doctor checkups on site, you can bring your pet to work with you, and they bring in authors, musicians and electoral candidates to speak just for the staff. I just the other day ran across the authors@google page on YouTube (over 300 full length author speeches) and, while these videos wouldn’t work on our flatscreens, they are an amazing resource. To view the NBC Today Show’s tour of Google and catch a serious case of workplace envy, watch this video: Google-The Best Place to Work

Google has a channel on YouTube and periodically they post videos highlighting products such as iGoogle, Google Earth, Gmail. I have chosen several of these videos to show our patrons the many ways that they can use Google. The three videos (of the six Google videos playing) in this post feature Google’s mapping abilities: Google Maps, Google Earth and Sky.

Aliens find businesses with Google Maps

New Features in Google Earth 4.3

Google Sky, Mars and Moon