Is Google the Betty White of the Internet?

Google turns 12 years old today, which in dog years is pretty old...and in technology years is just about ancient.

The search engine giant is celebrating its birthday with a birthday cake logo on its home page, but that should come as no surprise seeing as how Google is just as well-known for its special logos as its search capabilities.

But what's most surprising isn't just that Google has survived, but that it has reemerged over the past year or two as an online titan. This brings me to why I titled this post the way I did.

Here's the comparison: Betty White was a star years ago, then sort of faded in the minds of the general public (basically fell off the face of the earth) but over the last few months has been everywhere with her surge of renewed popularity.

Likewise, Google enjoyed great success early but declined slightly with the social media boom of Facebook and Twitter, only to rise back through the online ranks with innovations to its search and mail services and the success of the Android OS.

So although 12 years old seems pretty young, surviving and thriving in the fast-paced and highly-competitive Internet technology field is definitely worth celebrating.

What the Buzz is All About

By: Steve Retka

Facebook had barely blown out the candles from its 6th birthday before it received an unwanted gift: a new social networking competitor from an Internet giant.

On February 9th, Google threw its hat into the social media ring with the launch of Google Buzz. It’s designed to work with Google’s e-mail service Gmail, and allows Gmail users the ability to share thoughts and multimedia, update their status, follow others, even link in feeds from other social media sites.

But the biggest news isn’t that Google is trying to contend with current social media titans like Facebook and Twitter...but that it’s succeeding.

That’s because in its first 56 hours alone, Google Buzz had amassed over 9 million posts and comments. That works out to about 160,000 posts and comments per hour.

With Facebook and Twitter in obvious panic mode over these staggering numbers, let’s take a quick look at why Google may have a huge hit on its hands.

First and foremost, Google Buzz is linked directly to Google’s existing Gmail service. The genius of this move is that not only does this make it easier for new users to join, but taps into enormous audience that already uses Gmail, which currently exceeds 38 million unique users. Combine that with the resolved privacy issues, and it’s not all that surprising that Google Buzz has enjoyed the early success that it’s had.

So will Google Buzz extend Google’s online empire into the ever-changing landscape of social media? It may be too early to tell yet, but most signs point towards Google continuing to create quite a buzz with its latest Internet innovation.

6 Years Old and On Top of the World

By: Steve Retka

Facebook, which has become the gold standard for social networking sites, turned six years old yesterday. And while its creators and other business minds alike will continue to ponder where the online juggernaut will go in the future, I think we should take this opportunity to look back and admire how far it has already come.

It only took the networking website a couple of years to dominate the social lives of many around the world. It’s become the primary way of keeping in touch with friends far away, updating the masses with what we’re up to at any given moment, and defining whether or not our relationships are “facebook official”.

Yes, Facebook has redefined issues of privacy and what’s socially acceptable. And while there have been some morally ambiguous actions made possible by the social network, like the Missouri woman who had her family picture stolen from Facebook and used as advertising in the Czech Republic, it has done a lot of good as well.

I was lucky enough to witness the positive power of Facebook firsthand. I was attending school in Fargo during the massive flooding that hit much of North Dakota and Northwestern Minnesota in the spring of 2009. There was a huge turnout of volunteers to help sandbag, but many were unable to be put to use since no one knew where to send them all. It was becoming an organizational and logistical nightmare. However, a local radio host I knew wrote in his Facebook status that he was going to a friend’s house the next morning to sandbag and included the specific address. The next day, nearly 200 people showed up to this one person’s house to help out.

For me, this became my defining moment when I knew that this Internet titan had the potential for even greater things. There’s no telling what other feats this social network will achieve, but for now we can all agree that Facebook has done pretty well for itself these past six years.