The Fantastic Four

Over lunch, a friend and I were discussing life before Facebook and some other tools we take for granted these days. The world as we know it today is fast-paced, technology-driven, and digitized. A few years ago, there was no Facebook, Google, Wikipedia, or YouTube; all these new additions to our lives have made us more aware of not only those around us but have also provided a means by which anyone can find what they want, when they want it.


Before the advent of online social networks, there was no real "meeting place" in the virtual world for students. There was hardly any instantaneous, easy way (except AIM and MSN Messenger) to even keep in touch with your classmates once you left college. Online chatrooms were the next best thing, but Facebook and other social networking sites allowed users to communicate when they wanted, even if the person they were trying to reach wasn't there. To see a message in an online chatroom, for instance, required physical presence; compare that to the email and phone alert options that Facebook and other social networking sites provide to their members.


Google and Wikipedia have revolutionized the way in which current information is available to Internet users. In the days when Encarta sent out that CD filled with already outdated information, reliability was uncertain. Today, users can rest assured that the information on Wikipedia is up-to-date and (mostly) accurate. Searching has never been easier too, thanks to Google. Type in a word or phrase and fractions of a second later, thousands of hits are returned.



YouTube gave the people of the world a voice...and a face! Throughout my four years at college, YouTube has provided supporting evidence, visual aid, and entertainment for many presentations. As YouTube's positioning indicates, it truly is where you can "Broadcast Yourself" for the world to see. In this regard, marketing of self has never been easier but never so difficult in that there are so many messages cluttering the webwaves on the daily.


So, as you navigate through the pages of the Internet, just think of how mediocre your experience would have been had these innovations--the Fantastic Four--remained thoughts, and not products of a great idea!

Kudos to the World!

My daily trek to Google was marked by surprise today, for lo and behold, there was darkness! At first, I thought I had misspelled it, but no, the page had the familiar logo, the empty search bar, and of course, I saw that magical button that answered my queries on the daily.

Turn your lights down low, Google

So, what happened then? Well, for starters, Google just went up a notch in my Corporate Social Responsibility book, but that's not the point. Secondly, for those of you that don't know, March 29, 2008 is truly special because for an hour today, people from all over the world have been encouraged to flip the switch, conserve energy, keep it off...do the right thing if you may. Ah yes, it's Earth Hour!

A little history:

• The first Earth Hour was held in Sydney, Australia on March 31, 2007 between 7:30 pm and 8:30 pm
• Estimated to have cut Sydney's electricity consumption by up to 10%
  
• As many as 2.2 million people participated
  

And here's the deal for 2008:

• Same idea, but with international flair
• 8pm-9pm in local time zones
  
• Some partner cities include New Delhi, Singapore, Christchurch, Trondheim, and Miami
  

So, to wrap up, the idea here is for everyone--households, businesses, and the like--to turn off non-essential electrical appliances between 8pm and 9pm today to promote electricity conservation and help our planet out by lowering our carbon emissions. In the words of the late, great Reggae icon Bob Marley,"Turn your lights down low!" I think he was on to something....