act3 is a communication strategy and design firm that specializes in telling stories.

This blog is our story laboratory, a way to poke, prod, and take a closer look at the stories we see, the stories we tell, and our own assumptions and knowledge about why stories work (or don't). The goal is to better understand what makes a story connect with people, and how to tell better stories.

Like any blog, it's an evolving concept. We hope you'll follow along.

December 12

Do you appreciate Google (as much as you should)?

Is there anyone who doesn’t appreciate having Google in their lives?

Maybe it’s because I remember writing documents on a green-screen word processor, but I often pause to wonder how we ever did anything before Google. I’m equally amazed that the gifts Google gives — search, Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube, and beyond — all come to me free.

So I figured I fully appreciated Google. Until I came across Google Search Stories on YouTube.

The Search Stories are short vignettes that, using only screen grabs from within the Googleverse and a clever soundtrack, follow one person through a series of Google searches and the results on which they click.

Which sounds dry, until you start watching. My favorite is “Parisian Love,” which begins with a search for “study abroad paris france” and ends with a search for “how to assemble a crib.” For a 53-second web video whose most animated character is a mouse cursor, it’s surprisingly touching:


This one, entitled, “Batman,” is also definitely worth the 31 seconds:


The stories reminded me that while my Google searches are sometimes (okay, often) random and inane (like my search yesterday for “chicago bears depth chart,” which I used to ensure that my mockery of my friend Mark, a Bears fan, was accurate), sometimes I too am on a larger quest.

Because Google has become such an integral part of daily life online, it’s easy to take its role in those searches for granted. In making you take a step back and see the broader picture, these videos remind you not to.

That Google — ubiquitous, world-owning, possibly-omniscient Google — invested the resources and the creative thought necessary to produce these videos says to me that they’re not taking their position at the top of the search perch for granted.

That they’ve chosen to tell stories to remind people of the value and impact of Google says something about the value and impact of stories.

:: Posted by Eric Ratinoff ::