I'm a Google guy. Let me make that clear right off the bat. I have an Android phone, I was desperate to get on Google+ as soon as I heard about it. I love how Google has so many things to get yourself organized, and synchronized, and integration, and all that good stuff. Google promises to make things easier and help you organize your life. That's the problem though. They want to help you organize your life.
I was psyched when this semester started because I wanted to become a full-fledged Google user to help me organize my life. I had my brand spanking new Android phone. I had my brand spanking Google+ profile page. I was excited by the prospect of keeping a Calendar on the web, having it sync to my phone, taking a picture on my phone, having it sync to the web, keeping everything neat and tidy and fucking organized, man.
But I can't do it. It's just too much. Either that, or I'm a moron. Maybe I just expect things to be too perfect.
I blame Mexico, in a sense. And here's why. Google and their universe of applications and tools haven't been as successful here as they are in other parts of the world. I'm jealous when I read about people using Gmail for everything, about people video chatting using Google Talk, about people creating their Hangouts on Google+ and lamenting how so-and-so couldn't get in because the room was full. People here are still hung up on Hotmail and Facebook. I'm disappointed that my friends, my students, and my colleagues don't see just how awesome Google is. When I ask people for their e-mail addresses, all I get is fucking Hotmail. I'm shocked when somebody uses Gmail, which isn't right, man.
On my phone, which runs Android, one of the most awesomest things is that your phone contacts are synced to Gmail. Forget your phone memory or your SIM card. If you fuck up and lose your phone, your contacts will all be intact in your Gmail account. Isn't that cool? I use Gmail as my primary e-mail account, so I was excited about this. Something else it does, is to use your Gmail contact pictures to your phone contact list TO YOUR FUCKING FACEBOOK CONTACTS. Holy shit. So in theory, whenever I look at my contact list on my phone, I could see a nice picture instead of whatever shit stock cartoony image Samsung put in there. I could see that contact's Facebook page, and see their Gmail address as well. From that screen, I can either call them, e-mail them, or post on their Facebook page. Then on the web, when I go to my Gmail contact list, I would see the same thing.
I read a lot of the tech websites. Mashable, Engadget, Techcrunch, the Verge, Gizmodo, etc. That list grows every day. It appears that most of the people who write for those websites are power Google users. They're always mentioning Gmail this, and Google Calendar that, and Google Docs the other. Google Reader, Google+, Google Maps, Google Chrome, Picasa... you name a Google product, these guys are into it, and they're hardcore. They're so non-chalant too. It fucking gets on my nerves. Because I want that, goddammit.
Sigh.
Don't even get me started on the Google Calendar/Tasks bullshit. I've spent hours trying to get that shit to work the way I want it to. Same with Google Docs. Hours.
Hmm...
Reading back, I guess Google isn't really my problem at all, don't you think?
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