oogle @ google...

It is amazing how many of us out there are still not catching up with the world of internet. Do you know just how amazing this world wide web thingy is?? My only wish is that this internet thing would have surfaced much earlier than the late nineties. It would have saved me so much time from traveling to the library to do research for my projects and assignments during my school days. It would have saved me money from photocopying pages from books, which I need to supplement what I already have in my text books. It would have saved me a lot of money from buying fashion, football & teen magazines in order to satisfy my hunger for information of what’s going in the fashion (not that I was such a fashionista back then or am now anyway but still), football and my teen heartthrobs. It would save me a lot of time from having to speak with the travel agent on the phone to find information on my flight and hotel options or going to the travel agent to collect my air-ticket. Everything now can be done electronically.

Do you know just how much wealth of information you can get from the Internet??? There are so many resources available out there like videos, recipes, company information, porn… hey, you name it, you got it. And all you need to get this information is the help of search engines like Yahoo, Alta Vista and off course, the one that is taking the world by storm, Google. All you need to do is type in the information you want like say, “how to get big breasts” and within milliseconds, this search engines would generate pages of search results, with the most relevant on the top. If the information you find on the first link is not what you want, you can always go the next one. Or, you can always modify your search criteria. There are just so many ways to go at it.

However, there are still people out there who just don’t make full use of it. Are they afraid that the internet would come back to bite them in the arse if they went in search of information that they want? It bothers the hell out of me all the time.

I was out at lunch recently and my colleague received a text from one of the guys in her team, asking her if she knows the number of this headhunter firm and he was in the office in front of the computer. I took a deep breath in disbelief and started rolling my eyes.

A friend once told me that her boss was impressed at how she managed to solve a problem on a Microsoft platform product when she is not even familiar with it. She said that she just Googled it and everything she needs to do was laid out in steps in front of her on the screen. Her boss could not believe that she could such information on the internet.

I had someone at work who kept bugging with his questions on time difference between Singapore and the US, which irritated the hell out of me when people kept asking me the same old question more than 2 times and two days in a row. I gave him the link to timeanddate.com, where you can convert the time difference between Singapore to Timbuk Two. That saved me 2 minutes a day now from the ‘do you know the time difference between here and there’ question.

And I don't believe the crap when people say that they have lost touch with the latest music, fashion, sporting news, etc. Unless you choose to be ignorant like me with the current affairs of the world today, you have no excuse. You can always search for the lastest chart topping hits in America, the UK, Europe and Asia. You can always search for the sports club or sport personality you support. It only takes but a few minutes to have you up to date with any information.

Come on people! Live a little! This is the new millennium, so please keep up with the times! Go to Google and search for whatever information that you want. Don’t be afraid of the Internet. It is there to make you life so much easier. Go and booked your holiday online. Chat with your friends online. Go do your research online. Go read the news online. Go shopping online. Go have that French sentence translated to English online. Go be a blogger. The Internet has made our lives so much easier and it is there for you to utilise it. Be independent! Why rely on other people to search for information when you can do it yourself and have that tool right there in your face?? Almost everyone and anyone working in an office has a computer now, so don’t be giving any more excuses that you don’t know where to get information from. Go on! You have nothing to loose but the image as being uncool and being behind the times.