Googlefasting
I love a lot of things about Google (especially how they fund many of my advertising-based ventures). I use Google search every minute of every day - or that's what it feels like. I don't like much of their software because of a poor design ethic, but I like what it does for users.
I've been growing increasingly concerned over how Google is starting to do more… and the world is just letting it do more without asking questions (because most users trust the brand blindly). Google is everywhere. I want it to be everywhere, but I also don't want it to be everywhere - because that's very scary. I trust that they will continue to “do no evil” (as opposed to “do know evil?”) - but perhaps there's such a thing as “too big?” I have to prepare for the worst.
In a recent show, I challenged myself to live without Google for a week. Now, this doesn't include tearing down my AdSense blocks (that would be totally insane). So, I'm gonna have to take myself up on this self-inflicted dare. You might think I'd use Gada.be (which is a great metasearch tool), but I'm actually going to use the engines that Gada.be runs upon - like Technorati, MSN, Yahoo!, IceRocket, etc. I'm not doing this to make a political statement - I'm doing it just to see if I can do it.
I'm going to live without searching for anything on Google (or using Google software) for a week… ohmygod.
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Good luck, and godspeed, Chris. We shall pray for thee.