Facebook has helpful pages you may not know about!

Have you spent time exploring Facebook? I love keeping in touch with my children, grandchildren, cousins, nieces, friends, colleagues, and others via this social media tool. High school graduating classes have pages as do families, historical societies, family organizations, surname groups, newspapers, school reunion groups, libraries, genealogical organizations and businesses, restaurants, plus even dogs and cats.

Some pages require that you ask to join and be accepted into the group. Others simply hope that you "like" the page. Whether you are on Facebook now or will be joining, be sure to click on that cog wheel in the upper right hand corner and then on settings where you will be able to set various privacy and notifications parameters.

I am learning and also having fun with some of these pages. I love the pages about St. Paul history. Most of my life was spent in St. Paul. A few of my favorite Facebook pages:

• Old St. Paul Minn : www.facebook.com/groups/190978714441142/

• St. Paul Revisited:  www.facebook.com/SaintPaulRevisited

• You know you're from Roseville MN when. . . .www.facebook.com/groups/187655801277036/ [All the cousins on my Stuart side grew up in Roseville, my family has shopped in Roseville forever, and I now live in Roseville.]

• Mountain View Historical Association:  www.facebook.com/MVHistory [My oldest son was born in Mountain View, California when we lived there for a year.]

• Rawdon Historical Society:  www.facebook.com/groups/162120912771/ [My Copping ancestors settled in Rawdon, Quebec, Canada in the early 1800s.] 

Interesting show about Google on CNBC

I watched a fascinating hour long show on CNBC tonight about Google. The show was titled "Inside the Mind of Google." Google wasn't created until 1998. In some ways it seems like Google has been around forever.

The next times the show will run are on December 24th at 4 and 8 p.m. ET and December 25th at midnight ET. I wish it would run on a better date and time so that you had a decent opportunity to view it. As the CNBC website says, "See how Google came to dominate the search industry and turn it into a profit machine... and see where it's taking its next step... and how the company plans to address arguably the biggest controversy in today's digital age: privacy."

Last year I drove past their huge campus in Mountain View, California. This show gave me a little peek into the buildings. I wish I worked at some place where I received a free cell phone, free meals, free transportation to and from work and where they would do my laundry for me. The reason for all this and more is to ensure that the employees keep working and thinking. All in all, it seemed to be a decent working atmosphere.