Do you use any of Google’s products?

Search? Gmail? Reader? Docs?

Then you’re probably one of the laziest people on the internet. Look at you, pathetic!

Now, before you scroll down to the comments section to complain–which I know you will do anyway–let me add this: I’m lazier than all of you!

I started thinking about my cyber-lethargy after reading Tom Krazil’s account of how he gave up Google for a week. I know, that inner mocking voice of yours is thinking: ooh, a whole week? But have you tried it recently?

Krazil admits that it really wasn’t that scary to switch from Google–the world didn’t collapse around him–but it did take a lot of planning and the energy to break from his normal routine.

…it’s not impossible, and it’s not even remotely comparable to giving up one of the most addictive drugs on the planet. During a week in which I pledged to avoid using anything made, owned, or otherwise produced by Google, it was surprisingly easy to cut ties.

Google is a habit; smoking is an addiction. And for the most part, Google lives up to its pledge to avoid locking users into its system. I only missed a few Google products during a week in mid-February and mostly because I was unfamiliar with their substitutes.

While it may be encouraging for Microsoft, Apple, et al to hear that Google is not actually an addiction–despite what you may have read–it’s a habit that we’re just too lazy to break. A habit so strong, so darn convenient, why would any of us want to use another search engine or email solution? Heck, I’ve just switched over to Google’s Chrome browser, because, well, it just makes being lazy even easier!

So the next time you see Google atop of a list of biggest internet brands–while not able to make a list of brands we actually trust–you can stop scratching your head. It’s not necessarily that we love everything Google builds, we just love that we don’t have to use up any precious energy in deciding which search engine or RSS reader to use.

We simply default to the….well…default, and go on with our lives in blissful apathy!

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