Another $60 million to be exact from a Hong Kong Billionaire called Li Ka-shing. With a name like that it sounds likes it’s April Fools…. apparently not.
He is the 9th richest man in the world and has an estimated wealth of $23 billion, so this is like loose change. Here’s the fella on the right, although i cant’ work out what his expression is; strained or happy? and check out those gigs, thats real old school.
My question is why has he done this? I’m still struggling to see how he and Microsoft can make their money back before the cycle of people jumping networks every 18 months kicks in.
Initial testing of the new facebook SocialAds system has showed great targeting potential but low interaction from users, add to that the amount of porn spam that i’ve been seeing lately and it’s a shaky start.
Perhaps i’m completely missing the point and he just wants to make more friends, can’t wait to see his status update “Li Ka-shing is hoping facebook makes some money after dropping $60m on it”. Searches for his facebook profile are through the roof right now, so he’ll be getting spammed to high heaven with friend requests (if it really is him) and i vote he uses this as his profile picture.
November 30th, 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
Seems to be a growing trend with artists giving away free music, i’ve just stumbled across 
