Google Makes You Feel Alive
If you’re a programmer, a real programmer that is, (and no, not a Real Basic programmer, that’s different), then I doubt that you feel anything but glee when something new is released by Google. At least that’s how I feel when I see something like Google’s latest creation, a personalized homepage.
It’s always been the case that web development gets a bad rap. Either you are lumped in with the HTML monkeys and people think you make simple web pages or no one really understands that behind the pretty web pages is some code written by a programmer of sorts, just like you. In any case, I’ve been moving away from web-based development, not because I don’t like it but to do something different again; I’ve done web-based application development (as I like to call it) since 1995. Seriously. That was one of the attractions to my move to Zymeta; a chance to get back into non-web development.
But every time I take a step away from web development, Google brings me two steps back. With their personalized homepage, they have introduced drag and drop. Yep, drag and drop within a web browser. How cool is that? Perhaps it’s been done somewhere else, but not that I’ve seen. And whenever Google introduces something new, suddenly there are other sites piggy-backing off Google. Look at all the cool things you can do with Google Maps now. Seeing things like that is the programmer equivalent of that long hike followed by a scramble to the top of some peak, taking a deep breath and looking around. It’s moments like that where you feel alive.
Fri, 20 May 2005 04:17 Posted in Technology
