…and I’ll tell you why. Not only is it the obvious choice for best search engine (and feel free to expose me to something better if you like) but what really “turns me on,” as Vincent would say, are the Calendar, Gmail, and Doc/spreadsheet features.

I have yearned for the apple-like feature where it lumps one string of emails in a subject together so I don’t have to search and sift. Oh god that’s good. I also have never witnessed a better spam filter (although lately it’s let some slip through). Not to mention it automatically adds people to my address book when I reply to them and then recognizes them as outlook would when I start to type their names. I’m giggly with pleasure.

The calendar is amazing because of the functionality and practicality. Not only can it be pretty and help you sort your life between social and work and misc. with different colors, but you can share any calendar out to another person. Do you know how much easier it was planning my vacation to see Max and Jay when they shared their work calendars out to me? You can also set text message alerts for appointments as well as setting up any increment of time for recurring events. Did I mention I can import my outlook work calendar? Love it.

Lastly, I’m doing a Biggest Loser contest at work with about 15 people or so and there is a big cash money prize for who loses the biggest percentage of weight by December 1. The way I’ve been attacking this challenge is through an excel spreadsheet where I plan and track my weight watchers points (although I didn’t actually sign up for WW and instead am figuring it out on my own) and I journal each day about how I feel (physically/emotionally) mostly to see the withdrawal and then comeback benefits as I go along, as well as what exercises I’ve done so I can see where my patterns or lack thereof fall and make adjustments.

But Katie, what the fuck does this have to do with Google? Good question. You see I have this spreadsheet on my home laptop, but sometimes at work I have a surprise lunch or dinner thrown at me and I need to calculate my points and plan ahead to see where I am and what I can order. But the spreadsheet is at home on my computer and I don’t want to have to continue to email it back and forth. Sure I could store it at work and Citrix in from home, but I hate getting on Citrix.

Low and behold, Google has Documents and Spreadsheets. You can import any office file and it will store it in your google account AND, get this, you can work on it from there. Like open source! So now I track it all on Google and can have it at my fingertips at all times. I am so giddy…I want to climb under the Google table and surprise them with a thank you hummer.

That’s all. Carry on.

Google Spreadsheet