Google Pulse on Humor and Sentiment

I read an article a couple of years ago that distinguished Google from Apple.  Wearing every bit the personality of Steve Jobs, Apple was the quintessential design master and the convergence of technology and liberal arts.  On the other hand, Google was every bit the Stanford geeks that Larry Page and Sergey Brin were, more concerned with data and algorithms than aesthetics or humanity.

The Search Stories have been around just a handful of years, but they speak to Google's sense of humor and pulse on emotion and sentiment.  To me, they strike a deft balance between telling a story simply for its human value and promoting a vanguard product that Search is.

Consider the following:  I grew up in the Philippines, and toothpaste was Colgate.  Transparent tape was Scotch Tape.  Our car was Pontiac.  This carried on to the US, where hand tissue was Kleenex.  To copy something was to Xerox it.  Now, of course, we don't say search for it, rather we say Google it.

So Google may not win any design awards anytime soon.  But if a successful brand means something that is a part of our tongue and our lexicon, then the boys from Stanford are already in the echelons of storied decades-old companies.

Enjoy these stories.  Millions of people already have.

An American finds love in Paris.

Andy's going to college. The toys are nervous. In the meantime, they discover Google.

The history of storytelling gets a new chapter. Use Google searches to tell your story. 

The world prepares for the big games that lie ahead. Are you ready for it?

A brother and sister grow up together.

A mother from Vietnam moves to America to provide the best for her son.

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD