I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that Google is celebrating the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street this week. A few days ago, Big Bird graced the famous search engine’s page. Next up was the Cookie Monster!! (Who doesn’t love cookies?). Today, I see Bert and Ernie smiling out at me. What’s up next? Will we see Elmo tomorrow? Personally, I vote for Grover. Grover was always my favorite.

While it’s whimsical and fun to remember our childhoods every time we load Google, some people are quite upset over this celebration. One of our community members “left” Google this week in disgust. He changed over to Bing as his search engine of choice, and vows to never return to Google. Why is he so upset? He feels it is a slap in the face to Americans that Google refuses to acknowledge the events of 9-11 with a remembrance on the site, while they embrace children’s television as though it were far more important than a day that shaped our history – and our country.

He makes a good point, you know. Of course 9-11 isn’t a day to “celebrate”. But who says that everything has to be a celebration? A simple but elegant tribute on September 11th on Google’s page would show that we haven’t forgotten. It would show that Google truly cares about the people they serve, and not just the numbers they rack up on a daily basis. It would show – much more so than Sesame Street does – that Google has humans running around in their offices somewhere.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you feel that Google is “right” in not commemorating the attack on America, instead favoring things like the anniversary of the Muppets? What else have you read or talked about today that might provoke a good debate or discussion? I know that there has been a lot going on in our community.

• Google is opening up your information – to you.
• Do you need a social network comment generator for your desktop?
• Some Windows Vista to Windows 7 upgrades are having issues.
• Is Twitter’s “Follow Friday” on the way out?
• Verizon has begun a “pay as you go” wireless Internet access program.
• Has Congress been breached via P2P filesharing – again?
• Is Windows 7 really easier to install?
• What “Geeky” magazines do you subscribe to?
• Is gaming better in Windows 7… or in XP?
• What graphic design software would you recommend to a beginner?
• Windows 7 sales reportedly now exceed Vista’s total sales by over 200%.
• Confessions of a public speaker.

Don’t forget to take a few moments to check out all of the latest new software and app updates that we have found for you. You can get a lot of excellent titles at little to no cost!

[awsbullet:sesame street cookie monster]

Google Goes Sesame Street

I called upon Gnomedex.com’s original graphic artist to give ‘er another go. Eddie Hollenbeck is back and better than ever, as evidenced by these mock-ups. I definitely have my top choice, but would like to know your preference as well.

I’m starting to get caught up, and I have a handful of other conference participants to announce. Hang in there, my friends – we’re just getting warmed up. If you haven’t purchased your ticket yet, please do. If I haven’t personally invited you to be a discussion leader, don’t count yourself out yet.

Gnomedex Site Redesign