There are probably no more than 500 words on the entire site, but the first sentence of ooyala’s “About Us” section sure gets one point across: “The company was started by former Google engineers and product managers.” That was originally written in bold, by the way.
Would Googlers Do Themselves in?
Robert Cringley writes a provocative post about Google’s 20% time and that it’ll cause problems in the future as employees get frustrated that their ideas aren’t getting implemented.
I think he underestimates what’s going on inside Google.
Googlers Take A Crack At John McCain
Never mind the PBS crew – at a recent debate starring John McCain, neither Jim Lehrer nor Gwen Ifill served as the moderator. Instead, Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt, filled that role. And this seems fitting, considering that the event took place at the Googleplex, in front of a crowd of around 700 Googlers.
Far-Off Googlers Spin Wheels, Americans Sit Idle
Google wants to protect the environment; it also wants its employees to stay happy and healthy. So, to address both issues at once, the search engine company is giving away around 2,000 free bicycles. Ironically, the bikes will not be offered to Google’s American employees, who (statistically speaking) are probably most in need of some exercise.
Ex-Googlers Launch Q&A Site
This just in: Uclue.com is a new website by a number of researchers who used to work for the (now cancelled) Google Answers program.
This is cool, and I wish my former colleagues all the best! (Disclosure: I watched the site come to life from afar, though I wasn’t actively involved in it.) I’m also happy to have another way now to pose urgent questions, and I’m curious how well the system will work out in the future. Certainly the biggest obstacle will be marketing the service right to find lots of people asking questions (especially people with little time… because with competing services like Yahoo Answers, while you don’t invest money, you usually have to invest more time).
Googlers In Short Supply In India
Google is reputedly a great employer: at the Googleplex in Mountain View, workers are treated to recreation facilities, “snack rooms,” and bring-your-dog-to-work privileges, among other nice bonuses. Nonetheless, Google is having a hard time “recruiting talented locals in its South Asian operations.”
Googlers Rally Around Testosterone
Google’s weekly look into the “moral and intellectual trends” of the searching populace, Google Zeitgeist, revealed that Google users have “an insatiable appetite for all things flashy and sordid.”
Some Googlers More Equal Than Others
An early morning article over at the Wall Street Journal claims the search engine played favorites during its IPO.
See, Some Googlers Are Part Of The Conversation
While the complaints about Google not having a major blogosphere presence will probably never go away, its good to know that at least some Googlers can be counted on to respond to blog posts in their own blogs.