b l o g .   u p d a t e s .   I N F O .
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And so it begins.
 
The year was 1999, shortly before the dot-com bubble burst and ended the dreams of countless millionaire-hopefuls worldwide.
 
I had a rather "interesting" (read: unorthodox) professor that semester, for one of the Psychology modules I was taking. Aside from the standard texts and journals for research, he strongly encouraged the class to look at sources outside of academia as well.
 
"Just go onto Google and do a search," was his favourite line.
 
And each time I would think, What Google??? Don't you mean Yahoo!?! For indeed, that was the only search engine I used at the time. For me to consider anything else would have been blasphemy, 'cos as they say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it - I saw no reason to switch as Yahoo! was serving me fine.
 
But in the end I suppose, curiosity gets the better of you, especially when it's endorsed by someone with the credentials...
 
 
The first time.
 
I remember vividly my virgin experience on Google.
 
Let's just see why [insert professor's name here] trusts this clownish-sounding sorry excuse for a search engine. I mean, come on! Gooooogle???!! What kind of a name is that? You expect me to take it seriously?!
 
As the page loaded - incredibly fast - I realised that it didn't have all those extra things Yahoo! had on its main search page. No personals, shopping, travel, real estate, sports, blah blah, and all those other basically redundant items. No ads too, amusingly. In fact, all that was there... was... a plain ol' search box! And a queer button labelled "I'm Feeling Lucky". I didn't know what to think. For a moment I wondered if I'd stumbled onto some kind of April Fool's joke. Only it wasn't April.
 
Skeptically, I entered a couple of search terms into the box. Well, I had to, hadn't I - there wasn't anything else to do! Anything else to distract me from the sole purpose of searching...
 
As soon as I pressed the "Google Search" button, the results popped up. Almost instantaneously.
 
The results page was stupefyingly "clean" and easy to process. Immediately, I could see among the first few snippets exactly what I'd wanted to find... Not bad for a "Google", not bad at all!
 
 
The struggle.
 
Hating to think that it had taken me only till now to discover this potential gem of a search engine, I tried to give Yahoo! several more chances before deciding whether to change camps for good.
 
In the beginning, I would search using both Yahoo! and Google simultaneously, hoping that the latter would somehow come out tops and I could therefore say, "See? I was still using the better search engine all along!" However, with significantly longer loading times, ads strewn all over the page, a messy and complicated layout, and poorer, less relevant results, I soon realised that there was in effect no real competition at all.
 
Google was just simply unbeatable.
 
 
The start of a most beautiful love affair.
 
Since defecting almost a decade ago, I've not looked back.
 
Over time, as I learnt to search more effectively and better harness Google's amazing power, I have realised that the giant only gets better.
 
From just searching alone, Google has expanded to offer such a wide variety of useful services that one would be hard-pressed to not require and/or utilise them at some point or other.
 
And others concur -:
 
10 reasons why I love Google by Jimson Lee
Another reason why I love Google by Laura Erickson
More online than local: Why I love Google Docs by Beth Kanter
Why I love Google & Gmail by Tony Ohh
Why I love Google (Part 219) by Anders Jacobsen
 
In fact, so does Yahoo it would seem.
 
And "rupak" from Webmaster Corner:
 

 
 
Thus the birth of this website.
 
Founded for the primary means of conveying my gratitude and appreciation for a quirky "little" (very much a figure of speech here) company without which my life would not be the same.
 
I am in no way affiliated to Google or its partners and [insert etc legal disclaimer drivel here], therefore please do not sue. Being a small fry from a really tiny island, I wouldn't have the money to pay anyway.
 
That having been said, you may contact me at any time . Read the blog for Google-related stuff, and check the updates section for the latest developments to iluvgoogle.org. I have big plans in store... once I get the time.
 
Spread the love. <3
 
 
 
 
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