While I'm typically a slow adapter, I'm very proud to say that I've used Google as my search engine of choice for longer than anyone I know. It was still in beta when I stumbled upon it and I just jumped on it right away.
The thing I loved about it back then was that it had this little thing called a "cache", and I was sick of Alta Vista returning search results that—when clicked on—tried in vain to take me to pages that no longer existed.
(I am, of course, being cute; as a programmer, I knew what a cache was.)
It got to the point that no matter how perfect a returned result seemed, I usually didn't bother clicking on it if the URL contained ".edu" and a tilde ("Y'know tilde, don't you? Reader, meet ~, ~ meet reader.")
It screamed STUDENT, and the thing about students is: they move on. They drop out, they graduate, whatever; they go . . . their pages go. It's that simple.
Google's cache changed that.
That was then (what, ten years ago, perhaps? Certainly eight, at least) and this is now.
Now, I use Google Desktop on my PC with its widgets (or gadgets or whatever). (And on my new Dell laptop, which has a wider screen, I use the sidebar as well.)
Very cool.
(Especially the onscreen battery indicator in the sidebar on the definitely NOT a Compaq laptop.)
Now, my personalized Google page is my home page on IE and FireFox on both machines.
My personalized Google page has 6 tabs (evidently the max, dang it!): Home, Sports/Entertainment, Ajax, Tech, Science, and Bookmarks.
(Since I have my bookmarks on the home tab, I think I'm going to re-purpose that one the next time I decide I need a new tab. And I suppose I could throw the Ajax into Tech and perhaps merge Science in with it if it becomes necessary, but more than "more tabs" what I'd really like is the ability to better organize the page . . . like the ability to create subsections that could be collapsed/expanded, or some such).
Now, I blog (on Blogger). Oh, yeah, and Google owns Blogger (You didn't know that? It's true.) And now, yes, those ads on my blogs are (ahem) "Ads by Google". (Which isn't to say—Terms of Service permitting—I won't put other ads on as well later, but right now, that's what I've got.)
So, yes, I'd say the love affair is complete. I didn't see this coming when I became, possibly for the only time in my life, an early adaptor eight to ten years ago.
Long live Google!
Hopefully original thoughts on twenty-first century life, particularly (but not limited to) technology, with a strong slant toward that ones and zeroes stuff.
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