Life before Google

The other day, when I was wondering what to do about the raccoons that are all of a sudden getting into our trash can and scattering the contents across the front yard, I didn’t even talk about my dilemma to anyone. Instead, I came to my laptop and googled “how to keep raccoons out of the trash can.”

Photo “raccoon_2″ – courtesy of Donald Farmer

I’m not going to brag about how many useful advices my search on Google brought up – it’s what the majority of Internet users would expect anyway: to find a reliable answer to almost any kind of question, quickly and easily.

There’s something else that this search brought up in my mind. I’ve been using the Internet for at least a good dozen of years and after that time I can’t remember any more what the life before Google looked like.

Where did we get all the information?

I know, I know, there’s been a continuously growing plethora of resources available to humankind for a long time. And I also realize that there are other search engines – besides Google – out there and many people are using them. However, Google is so popular and powerful that it’s name became a synonym for an online search. “Google it!” is a correct answer to pretty much anything people are dealing with nowadays.

Photo “Google 的貼牌冰箱（Google refrigerator）” – courtesy of Aray Chen

And still, I can’t remember the life before Google…