Google must be the ultimate time waster or educator, depending on what one is using it for. It is both the best and the worst of worlds, but for all that it is an extraordinary open sesame to the world at large and even at small!
Blinx appears to be a slightly more upmarket version of YouTube but both provide a smorgasboard of entertainment and information to suit every taste. In order to watch movies I would have to upgrade my Broadband. As much as I am enjoying these exercises and the time spent on the Web, I am not going to make it my life's work.
I didn't spend much time on the Magazine section because the benefit of being able to read the magazines online is obvious, both for pleasure and for research.
One can find virtually any book on Google Books with varying amounts of information about the book, reviews, where to buy, where to find in a library, to add to one's own Google libary etc. I searched for a highly entertaining book that I read many years ago but couldn't remember either the title or the author, except that it was about a cat being deified and going to heaven creating problems between heaven and hell by causing havoc with both establishments' computers. Typed in the key word and there it was, published in 1975 - Magnifi-cat by Carolyn Sheehan with information on where it may be purchased.
I did find this once before, but my suggestion for purchase was turned down because it was published in the dim and distant past, 34 years ago! It is a pity because it is a most entertaining read - very topical both with regard to animal rights and the use of computers in the eternal scheme of things. I was amused to see that it is classified as a children's book and that the sole reviewer has no sense of humour! There is just so much incidental fun to be had on Google!
One must pause here for thought. Will we eventually stop buying Shakespeare's plays and sonnets because they were published hundreds of years ago. Silly me, of course they will continue to buy them - but as graphic novels, because Shakespeare's language is too difficult to understand - all those soliloques too - more than 140 characters! Maybe some enterprising writer will rewrite all the classics as tweets! Maybe before long we might all be grunting at each other again as we hit each other over the head with clubs!
Will Google save us from ourselves? I sincerely hope so.
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