Happy Google Birthday

So google turns 10 today. It's hard to remember what life was like before google. The internet was young and yes, there were search engines, but nothing so fast and so "on-the-money" with what I was looking for like google. It took me all of a day to switch my altavista allegiance to google as I was amazed and the speed and accuracy of the new site. Not to mention the "feeling lucky" button that was like some sort of mysterious role of the dice.

I have often wondered what affect google has had on our culture and subcultures. Take the church culture. You can google the meaning of life, any sermon from just about anywhere, blogs, wikipedia, youtube videos, all giving you spiritual information that 10 years ago would mean a trip to the library and a LOT of work. Now, it is all "just a click away". How does that change the way sermons are communicated? Or teaching about God? Spiritual formation? Does it confuse people to search and find so much information? Or does it help them on their spiritual journey?

And the same type of questions can be applied across the spectrum from politics to sports to education to finance to family, friend and dating connections etc. The only thing we know for sure is that life was a LOT different before Larry Page and Sergey Brin started their search page with a funny name 3650 days ago. Happy birthday google.