Now that we have that out of the way, let’s dispense with the pleasantries and move on to the second point of business — where the hell did October go? My last post was on September 27th! Have I been so caught up with Team Fortress 2 that I’ve neglected my lonely little blog in cyberspace? I’m sure that has had a lot to do with it, but to tell you the truth I’ve been fairly unplugged for the last month. At least relative to my normal life-style. A few other projects have been sucking up my time too. Hopefully they will reach fruition soon so I can get back to my life on the interwebz. (The sole purpose of that last sentence was so I could use the word “fruition”. I feel so satisfied now.)

Now on to the main topic, Google. These guys are on a roll. I know, I know, they’ve been on a roll since 1999, but the stuff that they’re gearing up for now is bordering on epic. That’s right, I said epic.

First, let me go through the Google services I use by choice, the Google services I use by acquisition, and the Google services I currently do not use.

Google Search - Okay, who doesn’t use Google as their primary search engine. Seriously, I’d like to meet you. I remember stumbling across Google way back when it was just an itsy-bitsy little search site. They grow up so fast.

Gmail - Phenomenal. That’s all I have to say about that.

Gtalk - This is my primary IM client right now. I still use all the others out of necessity, but if I had my choice, I would make everyone switch to Gtalk. I’m selfish like that.

Google Calendar – I would be lost without it. On the rare occasions when Google Calendar goes down, I can be found wandering the streets aimlessly. I even sync my calendar to MS Outlook so I can sync it to my Blackberry. It’s an ugly hack, but it works.

Google Reader – I used to read all my feeds in Netvibes. Now I’m 100% GR. It’s so smooooth.

Google Maps – This service is getting more incredible by the day. I use it religiously.

Google Images – I use it by default. It does what I need it to do.

Google Groups – Deja was one of Google’s first acquisitions back in 2001. Actually, I think they just acquired Deja’s Usenet archive, but I guess it’s all the same. I started using Deja back in 1999.

Google Docs – Formerly known as Writely. This service was fantastic as Writely and is even more fantastic as Google Docs.

Youtube – Okay, so the whole world was using this before it became part of the Google conglomerate. That’s why they bought it.

Jaiku – Google’s most recent acquisition. I tend to lean more towards Pownce and Twitter, but I have been known to Jaiku from time to time.

Orkut – I’m not a big fan of social networks (though I love the concept) and Orkut is no exception. With that said, I have an account with almost every social network on the face of the Earth, and Orkut was one of the first. This is back when you had to get an invite from someone who already had an Orkut account in order to sign up. **They’ll let anyone in nowadays! ** Google has recently redesigned the entire site and it will most likely play a key roll in upcoming future developments. But more on that later.

Feedburner – If you’re a blogger or some other kind of content creator, then chances are you use feedburner. This is a fantastic service if you’re trying to syndicate your crap….I mean stuff.

Here is a great list of Google acquisitions in chronological order. It’s fascinating to see how the company has changed throughout the years and the obvious direction they are heading just by analyzing the pattern of acquisitions on this list.

Google Photos (aka: Picassa) – I don’t foresee myself leaving Flickr anytime in the near future. It’s just too much of a great service and it’s really integrated into everything I do online. I do, however, use Picassa’s stand-alone software to organize my pictures on my PC.

Google Bookmarks – Sorry, this service doesn’t even compare to del.icio.us. Then again, it’s not really suppose to. Like Flickr, del.icio.us has really worked its way into everything I do online in some fashion or another. I love it too much to part ways with it. FYI, Flickr and del.icio.us are Yahoo owned companies. Acquisition is the name of the game.

Blogger – Nothing against Blogger, it’s a really nice platform, but I started with WordPress and I’ll most likely end with WordPress. –Wow, that sounded morbid.

iGoogle – This is a really nice service and I would recommend it to anyone, however, I have found that one personal start page just doesn’t cut it for me. They just take so long to load. Instead, I launch Firefox with multiple tabs. My first tab is plain old Google, followed by Gmail, followed by my calendar, followed by a blank tab. I find that this loads a lot faster and I can get all the same data as I could from a bloated start page. But hey, that’s just me. If a start page is your thing, then have it…..dork.

So that about wraps up what I use and don’t use out of all the Google services. Everything else is either still a novelty in my eyes, or hasn’t yet graduated from Google Labs. Speaking of which, if you’ve never been there, make it a point to stop by.

What I’m excited for, and this is kind of the point of this long and overly bloated blog post, is how Google plans on pulling it all together. I read a great article on Techcrunch called Google’s response to Facebook: “Maka-Maka”

“Maka-Maka encompasses Google’s grand plan to build a social layer across all of its applications. Some details about Maka-Maka have already leaked out, particularly how Google plans to use the feed engine that powers Google Reader (known internally as Reactor) to create “activity streams” for other applications akin to Facebook’s news and mini feeds. But Maka-Maka goes well beyond that.”

It’s a really good article outlining Google’s master plan to bring all their services together into one social-networky-type thing.

“Huber is on record as saying that the way Google plans to compete is by using the Web as the platform instead of trying to lock developers into Google’s own platform.”

“Web as a platform.” Sound familiar? It’s a term that is often associated with Google and one that I am a huge proponent of. AND, as if Maka-Maka wasn’t exciting enough, now throw into the mix the highly anticipated Gphone and the 700mhz spectrum auction which is slated to begin in January. I can barely contain myself! These are exciting times for Google and Internet enthusiasts.

Exciting times indeed!

From Google:

Welcome to Google Voice Local Search

Google Voice Local Search is Google’s experimental service to make local-business search accessible over the phone.

To try this service, just dial 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411) from any phone.

Using this service, you can:

* search for a local business by name or category.
You can say “Giovanni’s Pizzeria” or just “pizza”.

* get connected to the business, free of charge.

* get the details by SMS if you’re using a mobile phone.
Just say “text message”.

And it’s free. Google doesn’t charge you a thing for the call or for connecting you to the business. Regular phone charges may apply, based on your telephone service provider.

Note: Google Voice Local Search is still in its experimental stage. It may not be available at all times and may not work for all users. We’re fine-tuning the service to get better at recognizing your requests. It’s currently only available in English, in the US, for US business listings.

If Google can iron out all the kinks in this technology, the possibilities will be endless. Why limit themselves to a mere phone directory. You’re already connecting to (and searching through) Google’s massive databases via a phone connection, why not pass them other search terms? For example, need to know John Adams birth date in a pinch? – Just bare with me.- With this technology, Google could simply forward the user’s query to a site like Wikipedia, or even use their own built in define operator, i.e., define: John Adams. Now all Google would have to do is read you the results, which is what they are already doing in Goog 411.

It will be interesting to see where they take this.