We, the citizens of Decatur, have spent (tens of? hundreds of?) millions of dollars creating the kind of community in which Google would be privileged to do business. They will make money here because we have invested money to make it thus. If they want in, they will be welcomed and they will be successful. We’re past the point of having to make the case for “Why Decatur?”. The word is out. We did it. We won.

So I don’t want to make them a video. However, I also realize that it’s a cute marketing gimmick and ultimately no harm, so it’s not that big of a deal to me. It just reminds me a bit of the Lego Movie. If you’ve seen it, you’ll get what I mean.

The market for high-speed Internet really sucks here, so any new player jumping into the mix is a welcome development. But Google seems to be getting more and more Microsoft-y and Facebook-y, in terms of trying to force you to use ALL of its features and functionality, affording less and less ability to pick and choose. For instance, I find myself reluctantly taking an active role on my HOA board this year. (Deferred maintenance issues in the building, Little Red Hen syndrome, yada yada.) The established channels for communicating within this condo community are a Google Group, a Gmail account for the HOA board, and Google Drive. I have been shifting to Gmail as my primary personal email (too painful to verbally give someone a Mindspring address), so it should all be copacetic, right? Except it’s not. Google makes it fairly cumbersome to use these features if you don’t want to mingle your various accounts, which I don’t for obvious reasons.

What I resent is not having choice — about who to pay for the services I need and use, about who tracks me when and where and for what purpose. I am not averse to paying for key capabilities, but the “free” platforms are so ubiquitous that it’s difficult to find pay options that integrate reasonably well with the rest of the world.

Naturally, I think my perspective–kind of “meh” about Google, among other giants– is shared by many others and is being reflected in some of the comments here.

Bo sees this campaign as begging, I see it as expressing enthusiasm for the availability of new services I’d enjoy. Besides, I had fun taking the picture my GFs and I sent in. I’d like to see more Decaturites get behind it.