Have you ever met one of those people that are very adamant about not beginning the Christmas celebration until AFTER Thanksgiving is over? Annoying right? Well, I’m one of those people. That’s right, no eggnog, colorful lights, reindeer or Christmas music until the last Friday of November.

I have several reasons for this, but mostly I just think it’s a bad idea to glance over the part of the year where we focus on our capacity for gratitude. We all could stand to say “thanks” more often. Yes, I know that Thanksgiving has come and gone and it is now December 1st, but I’m still achin’ for some thankin’.

To put a “GannettLocal” spin on my gratitude, allow me to introduce to you to 10 Technology People and Things for Which I’m Grateful. This list does is not meant to be completely comprehensive, but … almost.

1. Bill Gates

Much of my gratitude for this tech giant can be attributed to his being in the right place at the right time. With that said, handing all the credit over to luck stretches the imagination beyond reason. Bill Gates obviously is a very talented and brilliant businessman who ultimately won my family’s business by making his product accessible, scalable and intuitive.

While we all can and should recognize the inherent flaws of the P.C., I can’t deny the impact that programs such as Excel, PowerPoint and even Internet Explorer have had on my life.

Thanks Bill!

2. Steve Jobs

Image via Wikipedia

Yes, we mentioned the word “intuitive” when speaking of Bill Gates and Microsoft, but Steve Jobs has most definitely earned his spot at the top of the totem pole of innovation. Even people like me, who haven’t thrown themselves into the Apple world, must realize the effect Jobs’ products have had on our lives.

iTunes made music much less complicated when combined with an laptop or iPod. Though I now mostly use Google Music or some form of internet radio now, I am very grateful for Apple products that made enjoying music easier just a few years back.

Also, even though my current phone is Android powered, I have to thank the iPhone for pushing the touch-screen, smart phone into the mainstream.

Thanks Steve!

3. Google

Let’s face it; many of the jobs that exist in today’s tech industry are rooted in Google’s existence. While search engines like Bing and Yahoo are still in the picture, Google has inadvertently created the Search Engine Optimization industry. We literally have people whose sole purpose in the market is to make attempts at reverse-engineering Google’s ranking algorithm.

How have they done it? This is actually the part I love. Google has created a product that gives consumers exactly what they want while making advertisers foot the bill. When a consumer performs a Google search for “pictures of cats,” guess what they get … pictures of cats! Sounds simple, but mathematically, that is a remarkable accomplishment. The fact that it is free to the user is just the icing on the cake.

Then we start talking about Gmail, Google Docs, Google Analytics, Google Calendar, etc … The list goes on and on.  Google specializes in providing free services to consumers that can be life changing. They are very pragmatic and slow at times, but the end product is almost always amazing.

Thanks Google!

4. Talk Radio

Does anybody know what the first form of Social Media was? You guessed it! Talk radio. This was the first medium to allow recipients of a mass-media message to interact with the messenger real-time. Before talk radio, mass-media messages (television, mail advertisements, billboards, etc) were one-way communications. Talk radio introduced us to the wonder of two-way communication with the world!

Since I was originally hired by GannettLocal as a Social Media Specialist, I must thank Talk Radio for inventing the industry.

Thanks Talk Radio!

5. Blogs

I can’t tell you how many journals I’ve started and failed to consistently update. Once blogs were created, I learned that I just hate writing with pen and paper. I have no problem with typing, so blogging has become a form of journal-writing for me.

Blogging was a sort of predecessor to mini-blogging. In other words, Facebook and Twitter and many of the social media giants have roots in blogging.

Lastly, if you want to get your site ranked and don’t have access to a whole lot of back-links, blogging is (in my opinion) one of the best ways to consistently generate unique content for the search engines to crawl and index.

Thanks … Blogging!

6. Mark Zuckerberg

Counting the predecessors to social media could take us all day, so why don’t we just talk about the guy who perfected it. There’s really not much that can to be said about the guy other than he created a platform which has allowed me to stay in close contact with geographically distant relatives and friends. Beyond that, it’s probably true that I know my geographically close friends a little better as a result of Facebook, too. In short, Zuckerberg flattened the world.

Thanks Mark!

7. YouTube

Image via CrunchBase

The power of visual display is indisputable. The rise of the television and film industries attest to the fact that visual stimulus can affect everything from buying habits, to public sentiment to any other segment of decision-making we humans undertake.

Who can say that they haven’t spent hours just browsing YouTube these days? Heck, YouTube was a part of how I courted my wife! When we were tired and didn’t have anything to do, we watched YouTube videos. (So, that’s what they’re calling it these days, eh?)

Along the same lines of content creation and blogging, YouTube videos can be very important sources of content. (Just make sure that the script is transcribed for the search engines and hearing impaired.)

Thanks YouTube!

8. Notepad

Notepad may seem like an odd one as it is a fairly insignificant program within Windows, but I used it to build my first website. With PowerPoint as my design software I coded www.vaultedlife.com line by line, tag by tag. For sentimental reasons I haven’t changed it very much, so there are a few things missing, but I’m pretty proud of my Notepad creation.

Thanks Notepad!

9. Smart Phones

Because they now come with calendars, social media apps, games, and the capability of performing random Google Searches, smart phones have made me a more organized, efficient person. The great part is that as they get better and faster, so do I!

Thanks Smart Phones!

10. GPS

Without some sort of navigation app on my smart phone, I don’t know how I would find things. With all of the moving around I’ve done within the past few years, it’s hard to imagine navigating new cities with a folded map. GPS is truly something that we now take for granted, but can literally be a lifesaver.

So that’s it! I can now officially move on to Christmas. What are you thankful for?

(By the way, did anybody notice that all of the people included in my list have very common first names? Bill, Steve and Mark … creepy.