What have I done with the last 10 years?
So this month marks Google’s 10th birthday. Love them for providing you superb information or hate them for plunging your web site off the first page, they have become a key part of our daily lives. If I had to give up my cell phone or Google, right now I’m feeling pretty tempted to ditch the phone.
They have created a website to walk us through the last ten years that I found pretty interesting. Or sad. I remember back when PC Magazine named Google the search provider of choice in 1998. I remember using Orkut – was that really four years ago? I remember my early invite to GMail and getting to Inbox Zero was recently reminded that I’ve been using it for four years now. There’s no way iGoogle launched in ’05, that could have only been last year that it came out, right?
More than just fun tools
Not only have these tools moved beyond basic search and changed the way we interact with the internet, they have become the neighbor we don’t mind having. They have provided scholarships for women engineers, shuttles for employees to get to and from work, helped us remember 9/11 victims, raised money for Hurricane Katrina survivors and worked to defend net neutrality. They have become part of our lives on such a level as another tech company people love to hate, yet they stay our friend and neighbor because they are active, always trying to be better, to bring us new ways to be more productive and strangely, to make the world a better place.
Many REALTORS have a bad reputation
60 Minutes “6 Percent”. Harris Poll saying a real estate professional is the second least trusted professional to give advice. I know in my area, I have heard several consumers claiming the current economic conditions were started by REALTORS. The people I meet who are still successful and have a sphere that wants to hear from them are the people who are out and about, active in their community, helping others and providing new tools and resources to people they meet. By writing the honest truth on your blogs and community group blogs you may be able to join, people get to know you and that you are having a hard time too and you are really just trying to help. Sure, you get paid to help, but the checker at the grocery store gets paid to help pack your groceries even though you could do it yourself.
Now get out there
Now go out, do something good for your community, provide a new tool or information to a neighbor or just keep helping people. It will all come back around in due time.
