Last night my wife was flying back to Boston from Florida on Delta Flight 1994. I was watching the Super Bowl (Go Patriots, naturally), and could only spare a little time away from the game to see if her flight was on time. As I dashed upstairs I wondered to myself, “Do you suppose Google would understand what I meant if I just typed delta 1994?” With winklike quickness, I typed it into Dave’s Quick Search Deskbar, and sure enough, right there at the top of the page was a link to track the status of Delta Air Lines flight 1994. With 11 keystrokes and two mouse clicks I saw a diagram of exactly where her plane was (near Savannah, Georgia) along with the arrival information (13 minutes late). I was impressed. When you get a demo of this sort of thing, it’s interesting. When it magically removes a hassle from your life, it’s something altogether more thrilling.
As a postscript, the number one Google item for “delta 1994” was page from a Russian car dealer for a 1994 Daihatsu Delta. Have they done a sneaky Google boost on their ratings somehow? And if they have, do they really expect people from all over the world to buy used cars from Vladivostok? Nothing wrong with that, but the wired world is a curious place.
Rambles Blog at Star Chamber 