Google – When did you first use Google?

Google – When did you first use Google?

In today’s world, Google is synonymous with Internet and instant knowledge. Google search on your computer, Google search on your phone, in your TV and everywhere. Have you ever thought about the day when you were first introduced to this simple website called Google.com?

I keep going back to the day when I first heard the name Google, in 2002. Until that day, I was searching in Internet like everybody else. Open the browser, whatever default search engine shows up in that session, enter your keywords and hit ‘Search’. However, one fateful day in 2002, during my 3rd year in college, I was introduced to this magic world of Google. How I wish I knew then that this one word will change my life forever.

Thanks to my friend in CSE branch in college, I first heard this name. However, like people at that time, I couldn’t pronounce the name correctly or remember the URL. I ended up noting the website on a piece of paper and put in my pocket. When I reached the local net cafe, I opened the browser and enter the magic letter – www.google.com and viola, a simple page with a box shows up.

I was totally confused on what to do next. I entered the keywords next. I wanted to research on my 3rd year project, so entered the relevant keywords there. I will never forget what happened next – Whatever information I was looking for, showed up in the first 4 listings. this had never happened before. I was out of the net cafe within 15 minutes. Usually these visits used to take more than 2 hours everytime. But this time it hardly last quarter of an hour.

That was the day I fell in love with Google. Who would have thought that Google would move from being a simple search engine to a Global Digital behemoth that handles almost my entire digital life? Who would have thought I would end up working in Google for ~4 years and thereby transforming my entire career?

Do you remember the day you first used Google?

Star Movies – Monthly schedule in your Google Calendar

I am one of those people who loves to add any possible schedules to my Google Calendar and set up SMS alerts so that I do not miss them. Case in point, Cricket matches, football matches. One thing I was missing a lot was the daily schedule for English movie channels like Star Movies and HBO, where I had to check newspapers in the morning to see what the night movie is.

From now on I don’t need to do this. Read more

Google Analytics – How Dumb can I be ?

I have been checking the statistics in Google Analytics  for one of my domain names for the past 6 months and noticed that almost 95% of traffic are direct traffic. But I had never bothered to find out why there is no other traffic. Today also, as usual I visited the Analytics reports for this domain and was staring at the ‘Traffic Sources’ report when something hit me in the head – The Eureka Moment (thankfully I was wearing my shorts else, my a couple of my neighbors might have fainted).

dashboard

I went to my Google Webmaster tools and checked for this domain and then I see this warning.

How stupid of me. I had never checked webmaster tools for this particular site (for whatever reasons). It had never crossed my mind.

All I had to do now is to submit a reconsideration request which I did dutifully.

Google Analytics + Webmaster Tools = Identify problems with your traffic.

After a long time,  I am happy that I wrote a good post (hopefully)

Inaugural Website Testing Thursday with Avinash Kaushik!

Inaugural Website Testing Thursday with Avinash Kaushik @ Palo Alto, CA.

An event similar to Web Analytics Wednesdays, Testing Thursdays will be about website testing and optimizations…

Google is excited to announce its inaugural web optimization event! It’s called Website Testing Thursday & it’s a great opportunity to meet others at the forefront of testing and optimization. Read more