The Mysterious Ways of Software Selection

Christmas we either spent with our relatives in Finland or together at home. This year we opted for the last option and we prepared well. We like to watch movies and have build up a fine collection, however it's always nice to have some 'new' ones to watch so in the days before Christmas we picked up a couple of additional movies. Unfortunately it has happened already a few times that we can't remember very well what we already own and end up with doubles. We spoke about this already a few times and fantasized that it would be create to have easily online accessible list of the movies we own. However we never really did something about it.

This morning I got up late and saw my girlfriend with her laptop next to the cabinet that holds our DVDs. I'm making a list of our DVDs she told me. This all doesn't sounds very strange, but let met explain that my girlfriend is not at all familiar with the availability of software applications and services. At work she uses the normal corporate office stuff and at home just a browser to get onto the web and for her web based email. Since there is no additional software installed on her MacBook I was curious how she was actually creating the list. I was impressed when I saw her working in Google Docs editing a spreadsheet and really curious how she got to this point.

I asked her and the answer was really simple. I just went to Google and clicked 'more' and then 'even more' and there I found a spreadsheet, because I was sure Google would have something. There was no doubt in her mind that Google could deliver the software she needed (while nobody ever told her anything like this) and there was no reason to search further. Without any further research she also assumed that the information would be accessible on a mobile device for easy access in the store. For a little longer she continued to work on the document before she shared it with me, again assuming this would be possible.

I was amazed to learn that she didn't go to Microsoft, while she does work extensively with Excel in the office, and she didn't search for a solution either, but went straight to Google assuming they would have something that would facilitate online sharing and mobile access.