What more do I have to say. This one uncanny word has today become synonymous with goodness, nobleness, ‘do no evil’, usefulness, innovation, user centric principles, almost miraculous products… the list could go on. Google has touched our lives in some way or the other and for good. What started with a simple page with a colorful name which fetched precisely the results that you wanted in .232 odd secs has today become the biggest brand in the world. Though search is still its core, it today provides an amazing mix of services to all the netizens, and for free. Today you can mail, chat, find directions to that new restaurant that your friend told you about, publish your thoughts, ideas, get in touch with your school friends, manage your calendar, share it with family and friends, buy gifts, watch steaming videos, share pictures, well you get the point right.. Google helps us to make the things that are important to us simple. And isn’t that what we all want!

I was introduced to Google in 1999. A friend of mine advised me to give this search engine a try. And after it fetched me my first set of results, search on the net was never the same. It delivered results that really mattered. And over the time it just got better and better. One major thing that I think added to the popularity was the absolute basic interface. No fancy categories, no heavy graphics. And in the era of dial up internet connections that made all the difference.

Over the years, it has grown. Today it’s one of the biggest companies around. It has kept adding services to its arsenal. Gmail, Froogle, Adsense, Youtube. But the principle of KISS still remains at its core which probably is the biggest reason for its unprecedented success.

I still remember the day Gmail was announced with a storage space of 1gb. People, including me thought it was another of Google’s brilliant April Fool’s joke. But when it became official, it changed the whole web email domain.

Google too has managed to rally huge public goodwill. It has become a standard by which people judge any service provider today. Google has managed to convey very successfully that it genuinely is concerned and committed to provide its user the best net experience. It has used its many official blogs to keep people updated on all that is happening with the company. I personally think that this is a master stroke in marketing and connecting to its customer base.

I expect Google to grow even further but not unchallenged. Until the next epic idea… here’s three cheers to Google!