“What’s Gmail?”

That was the question that someone at the gym asked me last week. Being around so much technology and gadgets, I found the question extremely odd. Who didn’t know about Gmail? I explained what Gmail was to the person, a lady in her 30’s. Afterward, it got me thinking, if something as popular as Gmail is not known to people who are still relatively young, then what other advancement in tech don’t people know about. And we’re not talking about really old people, we’re talking about educated, folks in their twenties and 30’s. So, to make this a little more interesting, I went around and asked a few people at a bar I went with a few friends this past week. I asked 20 people about Gmail, Twitter, Facebook, Digg, iPhone and Android. Here are the results.

Gmail: Everyone I asked knew Gmail and 19 out of the 20 had it. So, Gmail is a 100% (20/20)

Twitter: 15 out of the 20 people knew what it was but only 10 of those 15 used it. (15/20)

Facebook: Not a surprise here. Everyone knew Facebook, and everyone had at least one Facebook account. (20/20)

Digg: Only 1 person knew what it was. No one else had a clue what the site was about and what it did. (1/20)

iPhone: This one is just too easy. Everyone I asked knew what the iPhone was and that Apple was the company behind it but only 5 people in the group had an iPhone. Most of the people had Blackberries. (20/20)

Android OS: Wasn’t surprised with the results of this question either. Only one person had some clue about Android and almost everyone thought Android was the longer name of the new Motorola Droid Phone. (1/20)