Google on my mind...

I finally took the bus to work! Yes, it took me having to get my car serviced before I'd get off my lazy butt and try it out -- but still, I did it! Where I'm from (Los Angeles), public transportation sucks. It's impossible and takes forever to get anywhere without a car. But out here, it's a breeze, and you beat all the traffic by traveling in the handy dandy carpool lanes.

On the ride home, I happened to sit next to a Microsoftie I met last week at the location aware software discussion. It was pretty cool chatting with him a bit more about this that and the other. It looks like he has a blog too where he's written some cool stuff about his mobile projects at MSN and some funny bus stories. I'd have to say that before today, I've never been on a jam-packed public bus where every other person has open a laptop or tablet. Probably would've been worth a picture.

In other news... Google launched Google Talk. I installed it to check it out. True to Google's form, it's very clean and simple. You can chat, and you can talk. With other Gmail users. Period. I'll be watching with interest to see whether or not this succeeds in its current form. It's definitely lacking features I would've expected, but perhaps the simplicity of it all (+ the Google brand) will be enough to make it a hit. Should be interesting.

If there's one thing I love about Google, it's that they're incredibly disruptive. What's the number one topic of conversation at Microsoft? Unequivically without a doubt: Google. And I'm not just talking about their products. We talk about their food, how much better their T-shirts fit, how they commute to and from work, and just about every other facet of work and life at Google vs. Microsoft. I have received about 200 emails related to Google in the last 3 days. At lunch, we talked about Google. In my office, Google comes up at least once an hour (thats ~10 times per day) -- not including # of times it comes up in my web browser. ;-)

So, in honor of Google's disruptiveness, I wore my Google shirt to work today. My manager came into my office and confessed that she too had a Google shirt, but was too afraid to be seen in it. I don't blame her, it definitely drew more than a few comments and stares.

Okay, my buddy Ayush just IM'd me on Google Talk, and I clicked "Call" to check it out. Oh my god. Soooo cool. I wasn't even sure whether it would work, but apparently my Thinkpad has a microphone built in and Ayush says it is crystal clear (I'm at home on wifi+comcast). I think it's pretty damn cool that you can install an app in <5 seconds, without any setup, and be seamlessly talking to people so easily online. I think the reviews are gonna lay the smack down on Google for lack of features, but this might be one case where they did 1-2 things really really well and made them incredibly easy and accessible to the world. We'll see. Whatever happens, we need more companies like Google challenging assumptions and causing disruptions. Word.