Google 101

In the beginning there was Google, the search engine. (Well, not the VERY beginning.) Google was a search engine that wanted to do a more precise job of searching the internet. Google started out as a PhD. research project for two students at Stanford University.

It is hard to believe that Google is only 15 years old. Happy Belated Birthday Google!! View the timeline here http://www.google.com/about/company/timeline/ .

Doodles are the fun surprises that one will find when arriving at the Google page. Doodles represent moments in history, celebrations of birthdays, anniversaries. They even serve as announcements of global activities. See all of the Google Doodles here http://www.google.com/doodles/finder/2013/All%20doodles

Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. They focus on giving the Google user the best experience possible. Google may have gotten its start as a school project and moved on to a garage start-up company in the dotcom boom, but it is now a worldwide corporation with numerous products, brands and devices. Somewhere between 2002 and 2006, Google actually became a verb. People started referring to locating information as “googling”. In fact I too am guilty of saying “I don’t know what that is. Let me Google it.” In fact, I have a reoccurring conversation with a friend every time “Brown Eyed Girl” plays. The conversation always ends with me pulling out my phone, opening Google and searching “Brown Eyed Girl” and then showing him that the artist is not Don McLean as he emphatically claims but rather Van Morrison.

As a teacher I feel that it is important to introduce a topic…thus this post. For the next 30 days we will focus on Google for Educators, not that’s not another page on the Google list, but rather how you as an educator can use the numerous Google Applications in your classroom with your students. (You may even figure out how you can use these applications to build your Personal Learning Network.)

--- IT Girl