{"id":5390,"date":"2006-09-27T17:12:24","date_gmt":"2006-09-27T21:12:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=5390"},"modified":"2022-10-11T21:46:10","modified_gmt":"2022-10-12T01:46:10","slug":"happy-birthday-google","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=5390","title":{"rendered":"Happy Birthday Google!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I would like to list a couple of reasons why I am thankful for Google (thanks for the reminder, Annika<\/a>!), and it gets quite specific, and I have found that most of it is quite personal. There may be more to add to this list. I am thinking more upon it.<\/p>\n

I am thankful for Google because:<\/p>\n

— it brought Andrew back into my life through his sister Googling his name … and coming across this post<\/a> I wrote about him, about a Valentine he gave me when we were in the 6th grade. And suddenly … suddenly … after writing that post … I get an email from Andrew<\/i> … and I have literally not spoken to him or seen him for … 20 years? Amazing.<\/p>\n

— Very significantly, it brought Keith M. back into my life. He Googled himself (I’m amazed by people who DON’T Google themselves. I am also baffled at those who judge the self-Googlers. “Wow. What does THAT say about her … she was Googling HERSELF.” Uhm yeah? And the problem with that would be? I Google myself every other minute, practically) … So anyway, Keith M. Googled his own name and eventually somehow came across this post<\/a>. He knew immediately it was his old friend (my URL gives me away). He emailed me, saying, “I remember that kiss.” Causing my heart to do freakin’ backflips. I’m not kidding. It took me a good 24 hours to come down from that one. Keith!!! The high school quarterback! Star of our high school! I then saw him at my high school reunion and got to hang out with him – (“Sheila and I had some serious heat<\/i> when we were 9″ said Keith to Beth) – and then wrote this huge post of acknowledgement <\/a>about him, one of my most favorite things I’ve ever written. And now that Keith is back in my life – he read it. I mean … can you imagine? Reading something like that written about you by someone who was in love with you when you were 9? I don’t know. I was so emotional and so ALL ABOUT KEITH for a good 2 weeks … and it’s all because of Google. I was able to reconnect with and acknowledge an old and dear friend. Sniff.<\/p>\n

— I was able to track down, through Googling a key search term, one of my most favorite childhood books ever<\/a>.<\/p>\n

— Along that same line … someone Googled “bimulous night” herself, months later – … and came across my post. Which then led her to be able to find the actual title of the book. The goofily ecstatic and bubbly excited email <\/a>she sent me – a total stranger – brought tears to my eyes on a blue blue day.<\/p>\n

— There’s so much more. Seriously. But so far – what comes up for me – is the human element. I know a lot of that is because the URL of my site is my name … I am not anonymous … and that has been a blessing and a curse. But when people like Keith M. emerge from the mists of time, through Google … and I am then able to tell him, as an adult, who he was to me, and the impression he made, and how special<\/i> he truly was<\/i> … and that Keith M. is able to take that with him … and know<\/i> that … know that someone out there, his 9 year old friend, somehow saw<\/i> him, saw the best in him … and carried that with her all these years …<\/p>\n

Life-changing. When I look at it like that, Google has changed my life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I would like to list a couple of reasons why I am thankful for Google (thanks for the reminder, Annika!), and it gets quite specific, and I have found that most of it is quite personal. There may be more … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5390"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5390"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":179667,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5390\/revisions\/179667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}