Changing The Google

Who doesn't love Google? Ask yourself what has enriched your electronic life greater than Google in the past couple of years? Whether you realize it or not, you probably interact with Google at least 10 times a day. Google is so awesome it became a verb. Ever Googled yourself? Try it. It's fun and totally not shameful. You can even tell your significant other you did it. Don't be afraid, you can't hide the Google under your mattress. You may be amazed with what you come up with. Thought you put that sophomore year homecoming photo with the semi weave/perm/jheri curl* away for good? Guess again, slick. 

Google Maps is potentially the only way I've found anything I was unclear of the location of over the past couple of years. It even works on Blackberry. Turn by turn navigation without the annoying British woman's nagging voice. I like to think of my Google Maps voice as a more pleasing bass like Barry White. You get there but you feel a little more sexy. If you get turned around just plug in your location and it'll give you new directions. I can credit Trek's entire Tour of California success to the fact that Google could find me no matter where I was.

One thing that Google Maps does not have is a feature on how to get from point A to B by bicycle. This addition would be HUGE for getting more people on their bikes if they knew how to get places safely. I'm guessing features would include avoiding major highways and intersections, finding close bike paths to use, and maybe a coffee shop or two on the way. There is a group attempting to get Google to add this as a Google Maps feature. GoogleMapsBikeThere.org has made it their mission to get the folks at Google to add the mapping feature. Check them out to get involved. You can sign an online petition that has more than 25,000 signatures. Think about it, bike directions anywhere in the world. That would be sweet.

*BLOG NOTE: I Googled the word "Jheri Curl" because I was unclear on how to spell it. I thought it would have started with a "G". Google knew how to spell it. What do you want, I'm a white kid from Wisconsin who was born after 1980.

**BLOG NOTE: The picture is an illustration of the Googlebot by Stuart Brown. It is not a depiction of how I feel about Google. It's just an awesome picture.