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!

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Google Goes Sesame Street

Like many of you, I grew up with Sesame Street on the television. Kids these days likely get Sesame Street everywhere BUT the television. We didn’t have many media options in the early ’70s.

There was only one Sesame Street segment that scared the bejesus out of me every time – like, I couldn’t stand to be in the same room when it came on. I had nightmares about it, in fact. There was this kid who talked to a broken mirror until it cracked (or something). It was a regular Sesame Street cartoon, but I couldn’t tell you much more than that (likely because it’s a repressed memory at this point).

Who could forget:

• The Ladybug 12 at the Ladybug Picnic
• Yep-yep-yep, uh-huh uh-huh – brrrrrrrrr-ring
• Bert’s amazing collection of bottle caps
• Mr. Looper… I mean: Hooper
• C is for Cookie

Did you know that the Muppets also dabbled in the latest (and seemingly greatest) technology back in the day? They did, and thanks to the magic of YouTube, we have clips recorded for posterity. That is, until the Copyright Monster comes along with DMCA the Frog (Kermit’s long lost cousin who didn’t show up until after Cousin Oliver in the later seasons).

Cookie Monster had his Cookie Computer song:

Telly went on to be not long after his start with PCs:

Super Grover used to work in tech support, you know:

Let us not forget the great Martian Muppet computer phreak fest:

Sesame Street Muppets and Their Computers