Forget Google Earth, that’s soooo last week. A quick search for Sky, the home entertainment provider, and i got a ppc ad from Google promoting, their new Google Sky service. All the data is taken from the Hubble telescope and it works in the same fashion as Google Earth but also guides to you points of interest if you haven’t got a clue where to start. But why stop there?
Checkout Google Moon and Google Mars with data taken from NASA, you can now explore where the Apollo missions landed amongst other things. The really cool thing is the built in search function in each of these services.
I recommend you try it out but be prepared to be sucked in to spending loads of time looking at stuff a’la Google Earth. The only question is which planet is next?
June 1st, 2008
I’ve been watching this major disaster unfold with huge areas of San Diego being engulfed by flames. The latest reports say the area destroyed is as big as Greater London - man thats nasty. However, there is one good thing to come out of this, i’m now realising the true possibilities of Google Maps and mashups. The picture here shows a great overlay to Google maps which for once is genuinely useful. The mashup shows evacuation areas, safe houses and latest alerts which are also constantly updated via a Twitter feed.
This is a great service which i think is very helpful to those to be caught in this unfortunate situation. The only thing it left me wondering though, is that if everything is on fire, how would they access the internet?
October 25th, 2007
The simplest ideas are always the best. Ever since the demise of the good old arbitrage site (which could rake you in a small fortune) Google custom search has been growing in popularity with everyone trying to find the right way to monetize. Good examples of this crossover have come from the likes of Sputtr and now Groovle.
The Groovle concept is easy! Instead of that wasted white space on the Google homepage, why not adorn it with your favourite celebrity (here’s Paris Hilton obviously!) or football club. Or go one further and add your own pictures.
It’s all free to use, but Groovle get a revenue kickback from users clicking on the paid ads when they search. Simple, easy to use and i think it will be a hit! Give it a try, i would love to see the most creative use of this….
September 6th, 2007
All good things must come to an end! I’ve enjoyed the fast streaming of video content on YouTube for the past couple of years and it’s ad-free nature, but that all ends today.
Instead of a pre-roll (which everyone hates) Google have decided on an overlay that appears 15 seconds into the video and animates for up to 10 seconds then disappears. The overlay is clickable to display the ad.
These are being rolled out selectively across the network but it won’t be long before there’s a full take up. Ad’s will cost $20 CPM. Great? Not really…
The biggest problem I have with this is that they are profiting directly from user’s content, surely a portion of the ad revenue should go back to the user whose video it is overlayed on? Additionally the user should be able to have some say over the ad content that is allowed to appear on their material.
August 22nd, 2007
So London is under terrorist attack again. Two failed bomb plots around Piccadilly, aimed it seems at early morning revellers. I didn’t get the motive. Is it me or is everyone missing the connection here? Seeing as none of the news channels are picking up on this, i’ll join the dots.
1. Gordon Brown becomes Prime Minister
2. We’ve had 2 bomb attempts in London and now one on Glasgow airport
3. Gordon Brown was born in Glasgow and now obviously lives in London
You get it yet? I’m thinking its a warning sign to our Gordon to back off from where Tony stepped in. So what’s he gonna do. Nowt yet.
He’s our new Prime Minister but i blinked and missed that changeover and now he’s said he will make a statement on the terror alerts to the House of Commons on Monday (don’t want to ruin the weekend eh Gordy) but in his infinite wisdom of leader of the country he did state: “We will have to be constantly vigilant. We will have to be alert at all times.” No sh*t Sherlock!
So what happened when everyone was searching for info on the bombings? Straight into Google for London bombings, relevant result = nowt.
Searching for more info i found out that Danny Sullivan and Dave Naylor were out on that night bang in the wrong place where it was happening. So Danny checked out for more info naturally and has put up a great post on what he didn’t find over at search engine land.
So people, take advice from our Prime Minister and be vigilant and alert at all times. Of what? Cars in London?
July 1st, 2007
Sometimes i like the way google can help with the little questions i have in life, just by searching a bit smarter it will give me weights and measures so i can see how heavy i am in lbs and kgs ( not pretty whichever way you cut it) or help me solve mathematical equations just like my teachers used to do at school. Sweet.
But then sometimes i think too much of a good thing can be bad. I want choice. No-one likes a know-it-all or as i’ve now christened it googy-two-shoes. This is the case when i discovered what appears to be Google Travel. Jeez. Back off. Is there anything they won’t do?
If you enter a similar search query string as you would for the weights and measures and equations etc such as “London to New York” as you can see in the pic, you get a flight dates search box in the main results being fed by the likes of Travelocity and Expedia.
Now here’s the rub. Clicking on the main link defaults to Expedia everytime. BAM! Tag team takedown by Laz, Serge and Baz!
Are Google trying to stick the knife in to Bill now Expedia is run by Baz Diller? I think so.
At the moment i can only see this happening with Google.com and it won’t replicate on .co.uk
So how long before we see this go full circle? Google Airways? Google Hotels? Why not? Its a lifestyle brand already why not branch out a’la Virgin, they’re not short of a bob or too.
I can just see the plane now ” you’re in aisle 54 Mr. Hayward, Beanbag number 3″
June 30th, 2007
oooooh it depends, shall i consider the salary levels, employee benefits, location to my home, career progression…..
Nah. Which one gives me free food? Google! right i’m off for an interview.
This is the insight of an internal Microsoft email thats doing the rounds and has now been posted on a new blog by a Microsoft employee (for how much longer i don’t know). It describes the comments of an ex-Microsoft employee who went to Google and came back to Microsoft (shades of industrial espionage i feel here). His biggest finding was that the best thing about Google was the free food. What not the development, career potential and working for one of the most recognised brands in the world?
The Tasty Research blogger has undertaken internships at all 3 companies and produced a handy table to show the benefits between each company:
This should help you choose when you’re hungry for success….
Here’s the full lowdown of that internal Microsoft email:
1. What is the culture really like? How many hours are people actually working? What are the least amount of hours you can work before you are looked down upon?
The culture at Google is very much like the old culture at Microsoft – back when the company felt like most employees were in their mid 20’s. These kids don’t have a life yet so they spend all of their time at work. Google provides nearly everything these people need from clothes (new T-shirts are placed in bins for people to grab *twice* a week!) to food – three, free, all-you-can-eat meals a day. Plus on-site health care, dental care, laundry service, gym, etc. Imagine going from college to this environment and you can see how much everyone works. People are generally in the building between 10am and about 6pm every day, but nearly everyone is on e-mail 24/7 and most people spend most of their evenings working from home. This culture changes a bit with more experienced folks. They generally work 10a – 6pm like the new hires, and most of them are on email until around midnight. It’s pretty common for them to be working most of the evening, too.
20% of your time on personal project. How many people actually get to use it? If so, how do they use it? Does Google own your personal project?
“20% is your benefit and your responsibility.” In other words, it’s your job to carve out 20% of your work week for a project. If you don’t carve out the time, you don’t get it. Your project needs to be tacitly approved by your manager. Whatever it is, is owned by Google. If you’re organized, you can “save up” your 20% and use it all at once. It’s not unheard of for people to have months and months of “20% time” saved up. Most people don’t actually have a 20% project. Most managers won’t remind you to start one.
What are the office arrangements like? Do you have an office or cube space?
Google believes that developers are, with few exceptions, interchangeable parts. This philosophy shows through in their office arrangements which in Mountain View are all over the map. There are glass-walled offices, there are open-space areas, there are cubicles, there are people who’s desks are literally in hallways because there’s no room anywhere else. There are even buildings that experiment with no pre-defined workspaces or workstations – cogs (err, people?) just take one of the available machines and desks when they get to work. In terms of employees per square-foot, every Microsoft Building 9-sized office is a triple at Google. Google doesn’t seem to think that private offices are valuable for technical staff. They’re wrong.
What is the management structure like (hierarchy)?
There are front-line developers, and then their manager. My manager had over 100 direct reports and is the common case for managers at Google. Managers quasi-own products and their employees tend to work on their projects, but not always. It’s possible for a developer on your product to actually work for a manager in research (a completely different division). This makes it really interesting at review time. Oh and conflict resolution between team members is very complex – the product’s manager isn’t involved day-to-day, probably doesn’t actually manage all of the peers who are trying to resolve a conflict, and likely hasn’t spent any time with their employees anyway. The overall structure is:
tons (a hundred or more) of individual contributors report to a middle manager who reports to a division v.p. who reports to the management team (Larry, Sergie, etc.)
Do they actually have plans for career development?
Not really. There is no career development plan from individual contributor to manager. Basically if you get good reviews, you get more money and a fancier title (“Senior Software Engineer II”) but that’s about it.
Who would you recommend Google to? Is it for the college kid or family type, worker bee or innovator?
College kids tend to like it because it’s just like college – all of their basic needs are taken care of. In fact, even most of your personal-life can get tied up in Google benefits. Google provides free or subsidized broadband to every employee. Google runs its own, private, bus lines in the Bay Area for employees. Google provides free or subsidized mobile phones. A college kid can literally join Google and, like they did as freshman at university, let Google take care of everything. Of course, if Google handles everything for you, it’s hard to think about leaving because of all the “stuff” you’ll need to transition and then manage for yourself. Mid-timers, people who’ve worked at other places for a few years tend to be a mixed bag. For some, this is the first stability they’ve seen after a few failed startups. For others, this is the company that represents a “better” way to run a company than the company they worked at before. Either way, for these folks to succeed at Google they have to drink the cool-aid and duke it out with the college kids because Google doesn’t place any value on previous industry experience. (It puts tremendous value on degrees, especially Stanford ones). “Old-timers” tend to like Google because they’re the ones who know to take the most advantage of the perks. These are the people who religiously take their 20% time, use as many of the services as possible, and focus on having a “peaceful” experience. They’re here to do a job, enjoy the perks, and that’s about it. They still put in a lot of hours, but the passion of the college kids isn’t there.
Please provide any additional information that you believe will help in our battle for talent against Google?
Make the food in the café free. If an employee eats an average of $15 of food per day (the actual average at Google which is closer to $10) it would cost Microsoft $3,750 per year per employee to offer 3 meals a day. Instead of increasing starting salaries, switch to free food. Give everyone else half the merit increases we would have gotten AND ANNOUNCE THE FREE FOOD AT THE SAME TIME. For that quoted $10 average Google provides free soda, free organic drinks (odwalla, naked juice), breakfast, lunch, and dinner (most people only eat lunch), free sport drinks (vitamin water, etc.), and free snacks (trail mixes, nuts, chips, candy, gum, cereal, granola bars).
That single benefit gets people to work earlier because hot breakfast is served only until 8:30. And since dinner isn’t served until 6:00 or 6:30 the people with a home-life tend to skip it.
Google actually pays less salary than Microsoft. Google’s health insurance is actually not nearly as good as Microsoft’s. Google has no facility for career growth. Microsoft has more, but could do better. Continuing Microsoft-specific education for things like project management, managing people, communication skills, etc. should be promoted. A structured career plan for each discipline would be great – e.g. training, experiences, milestones, etc. Paths like “Developer to Development Manager” “Developer to Technical Architect” which show what courses and experiences (e.g. being a mentor) are encouraged for the different paths. Private offices for employees is a big benefit. See http://joelonsoftware.com/oldnews/pages/March2007.html. Play this up.
Take a cue from Google and loosen up a little about offices. Let people call facilities and have their office painted any color they want. Have the standard office come with a guest chair and a brightly colored Microsoft branded bean-bag chair.
June 28th, 2007
