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| 2008/1/22-31 [Computer/Companies/Google] UID:48982 Activity:kinda low |
1/22 Google Exodus Beginning?
http://google.blognewschannel.com/archives/2008/01/08/google-exodus-beginning
Google is getting too big: Time to do something about it
http://www.geekzone.co.nz/foobar/4341
Is There Life after Google?
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Is-There-Life-after-Google-75274.shtml
Kevin Fox Leaves Google
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-01-04-n30.html
\_ Beginning? It started six months ago. -dans
\_ urlP?
\_ Anecdotal. Many rank-and-file googlers I know left in the
last six months. May be subject to sampling errors. YMMV -dans
\_ Can you give me names? I'd like to contact them.
\_ http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/01/07/MNGA7NEDQ01.DTL
\- FYI: David desJardins, mentioned in teh article, is/was a well
\- FYI: David desJardins, mentioned in the article, is/was a well
known berkeley/harvard/usenet personality. he touched me. --lewis
\_ Show us on the doll where he touched you. |
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| google.blognewschannel.com/archives/2008/01/08/google-exodus-beginning Google has clearly lost an important, if not the most important, employee involved with the look and feel of Google products. Losing a guy like Kevin is by far the opposite of a good thing. In announcing his departure, Kevin points to the good things about Google, that it was the first place he felt like he was part of the company, not just working for it. FriendFeed's founder and the writer of that blog post I linked to is Paul Buchheit. That name may sound familiar, because Paul was the creator and lead developer on Gmail, and he credits Kevin with putting the pieces together, without which, Gmail would never have shipped. Often, startups will be staffed or even founded by multiple employees who have left a big company. We see it from Microsoft all the time, and Twitter is practically a Google/Blogger step-child as well. Paul, Google's 23rd employee, left "Big G" (as Kevin calls it) to do something apparently more fullfilling than even Gmail, and he must be happy with it, because he convinced Kevin to follow him. If another Googler leaves for FriendFeed, it won't shock anyone. he is joining LiveJournal as their new VP of Product Development. Google isn't going to all of a sudden lose all its employees, but it just isn't the utopia the founders would like you to believe it is, and probably never was. As stock option vest and employees hit the Google Ceiling (Google doesn't have a lot of management layers, which means employees don't have a lot of room to get promoted), you'll see some of the best and brightest Googlers leave to join a startup where they can leave their mark, not satisfied with the opportunities offered by Google. Ainsworth Boyle | January 8, 2008 2 Your reasoning doesn't make sense to me. Certainly, some employees-valued employees, at that-are bound to leave a company for many reasons. However, new talent is hired constantly (especially at Google), and at most companies, promotion does not equal "moving to management" necessarily, unless that is something that one wants to do. Promotion often means more responsibility but still in a contributing role. Pointing to a few employee leaving as evidence that Google is not a "utopia," and similarly as evidence that some of the "best and brightest" are "not satisfied" with opportunities at Google seems potentially specious. There are exceptions but if you look at the history of most sizable and successful technology companies you'll see the same, as you allude to in your post. Why the departure of a few folks from Google would be anything out of the ordinary, I'm not sure. Comment by will | January 13, 2008 3 "Plus Jason Shellen, who left Google in July, announced that he is joining LiveJournal as their new VP of Product Development" Right, but that fact gets a little less relevant when the Founder of LiveJournal Brad Fitzpatrick turned down an offer from Facebook to join Google...... |
| www.geekzone.co.nz/foobar/4341 Utter dominance of search Considering the importance of Internet search in our lives, this is a worrysome development. Google starts to wield exceptional power about what is shown and known to the public. If you (or your company, your organization, your political party, your opinion) cannot be found on Google, you just as well may not exist. Web sites depending on good placement in Google's search results know the story: Once you drop even out of the first page, your business can literally collapse to nothing. In some geographical markets, Google's share is not quite as big, but in others it has reached quasi monopoly proportions. Overall, Yahoo sits at just 1/3rd of Google's search reach, Microsoft at just 1/9th, with their shares (percentage wise) actually declining compared to Google's. This is a lot of power for Google, and with a lot of power there comes a lot of responsibility. Will Google always be neutral in what they allow into their index? about you In addition, Google is also a data gathering behemoth. It is present on so much web real-estate that any possible browsing session is very likely to leave a trace in Google's databases. A cookie set by an AdSense banner in one site will be picked up by Google's servers again when an AdSense banner is show on another site. Thus, Google already has tracked you as you moved between sites. With the planned acquisition of DoubleClick, the reach will be greatly expanded yet again. Your chances to hide from Google what you do, where you are and what you are looking at will be further diminished. Sure, you could set up blocks to prevent access to Google's servers (various Firefox extensions come to mind), but most people will not know about this. Google also presses into the market of software as a service (SaaS), where entire office suites, e-mail (of course) and other things are offered online. But again, Google doesn't offer this out of the goodness of their hearts: The key goal for them is to gather even more information about you, to learn more about you, and therefore be able to target ads even more specifically to you. In addition, these platforms are also used to expand the real-estate on which ads can be shown. Furthermore, once Google has your data and learns how you use the web and what your interest are, they will continue to use this for new services, which currently we don't even know about. More stuff that will make live temptingly convenient for you, and which will continue to deliver more money and more information about you to Google. Using alternatives A while back, I wrote already that I am using Yahoo as my preferred search provider these days. Frankly, I don't believe for a second that Yahoo would be much better if it would be in the same position of power as Google. I'm convinced that they wouldn't hesitate to milk it for every drop and dollar they can get, just like Google does today. However, currently, Yahoo is much smaller than Google as far as search dominance and reach is concerned. Using it reduces the amount of data that Google can gather about me. The Yahoo search results are pretty much equivalent in quality to Google's. Their search home page loads quickly, and they are also accessible via a search-bar plugin for Firefox. For day to day Internet search, there is no technical reason not to use Yahoo (or similar alternatives). And if that monopoly also holds massive amounts of personal information about us then it becomes even more uncomfortable for you and me. So, why don't you give some of Google's alternatives a try for a change? They are all there, easy to use, and provide good search results as well. In addition, they allow you to slip through the ever tightening surveillance net that Google is busily wrapping all over the Internet. Keith, on 3-JAN-2008 22:39 However, it's interesting to note that you have Google ads at the top of your blog, here. But right now I trust Google more than any other company. But if you don't like what they do, you are free to ignore them. You don't have to divulge any information to them, and they don't ask you for it. Believe it or not, I actually am interested in products that are targeted at exactly what I like or need. Speaking of spam, I stopped using yahoo mail years ago due to the excessive spam. Also, the yahoo home page is horribly garish and annoying. Comment by callyway, on 4-JAN-2008 02:18 funny that you have a google ad-box at the top of your post. i do agree with you though: spread the data if you can - kill your cookies often - and expect to be on the big screen anyway (re: barf's orwellian comment). foobar, on 4-JAN-2008 04:47 @Keith: You trust Google more than any other company? But (for example) they are notorious for NOT telling anyone how they rank sites (nothing open or transparent here) and for NOT contributing back to the open source projects that they are using. They take a lot from the open source community without giving back. It is interesting how many people think that Google can't do any evil ... So, some web pages you still see text ads, which are not Google's but Yahoo's. What's so paranoid about not wanting a single entity know all about me? But that's how it happens: People who warn against dangers that are not widely recognised often sound paranoid to everyone else. Yes, well, I actually didn't put those Google ads there at the top of my blog. I have the option to let some percentage of those ads be displayed on my behalf, and maybe one day I will even do that. It would be Google simply because this is what would be the only available option on the site. for NOT contributing back to the open source projects that they are using. They take a lot from the open source community without giving back." com/opensource/ if you have any questions about Google's relationship to the open source community. Disclaimer: I do work for Google but I am not responding in any official capacity. foobar, on 4-JAN-2008 06:11 @Lincoln: Yes, that's all well and good. But what I'm talking about are the changes that Google has done to Linux, for example, or other open source packages that it uses in its day to day operation. It's nice to host open source projects, and have competitions to get young people into open source (which of course is just a recruitment and PR tool for them). But what would be really interesting would to see the modifications Google has made. Comment by doug luce, on 4-JAN-2008 10:21 hey, their corporate slogan is "don't be evil." I use Google masses, I mean for just about everything they offer, I didn't realise the extent to which they take data. I wonder if it\'s time that the rest of the world banded together and took a bit of action? If repeatedly your top 10 results are bogus, and you scroll down to number 9 then you want the search engine to learn your preference and put it at the top for you. Neither advertisers nor you want Ads to be irrelevant to you. com incentives for employees to buy cars which go >45 mpg (typically Hybrid) with inentives up to $5000. For people who work there: Free gourmet food (breakfast, lunch and dinner) on top of the usual Gym on campus etc. Remember even if Google didnt give free food people would still work there, because no other competitor I know gives free food . Now you tell me - do you know of a Company that has been more ethical at every level? so I am happy to trust my data with Google and work at Google. Disclaimer: I do work for Google but I am not responding in any official capacity. com/342001/bill-gates-on-playing-both-underdog-and-corp orate-villain Google is in its "Honeymoon period" like 87-95 for Microsoft. Comment by kdl, on 9-JAN-2008 17:22 People use services and products because they work. I don't use products because of some psychological perceived notion, but I use them if they accomplish what I need done. There are times when I philosophically am opposed to the ethics of some companies, but do you have any substantial proof of the things you are worried about. To date, Google is one of the most ethically sound companies I've known about. Add a comment Please note: comments that are inappropriate or promotional in nature will be dele... |
| news.softpedia.com/news/Is-There-Life-after-Google-75274.shtml Enlarge picture Has Google gotten so big that when it enters a metaphorical room with you in it, it covers at least three light sources? What further heights could you dream to reach with Google after taking over the market in a blitzkrieg kind of way? Many more questions on the topic to follow after this short commercial: "Have you ever felt the need to feel comfort in other people noticing you? Do you need to think or look at what youve accomplished over the years just to have something to think about or look at? I've asked those questions because it looks to me that more and more people are leaving the Mountain View based company just because they feel that they are going nowhere, despite the fact that Google is expanding. Money isnt an issue for these people, a serious challenge is. Kevin Fox, Googles user experience designer who has helped with Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Reader 20, has announced in a blog that today has been his last day at Google. Four years of working there were enough for him alone, he felt the need to step it down a notch and join some illustrious anonym startup. He insisted on the anonymity, but said that "Google is the first place I've ever worked where I feel that I'm part of the company as opposed to working for the company." However, he did leave some hints as to which company he will be joining: "Time will tell, and I'm looking forward to sharing new and making shiny. This is the first of many big changes in 2008 (there's that whole getting married thing as well) and I hope to share them with you. I've neglected the personal side of myself on the Internet for too long, and at least to start off, I'm going to start blogging every day. Shared items and Tweets are great and all, but I do miss the blogging." |
| blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-01-04-n30.html Today is Kevin's last day as a user experience designer at Google, where he says he designed Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Reader 20 (considering I'm using Gmail as my main email program and Google Calendar as my main calendar - and I'm not using any RSS reader in the traditional sense - I have to conclude I really liked what he did). review committees and a steward of Google's design philosophies, I'm privileged to have an impact on the majority of Google's user-facing services and features." and yet feel a need for greater fulfillment sufficient to pull you away from what's generally recognized as the best workplace in America. It's even stranger that Google is the first place I've ever worked where I feel that I'm part of the company as opposed to working for the company. This makes leaving even stranger because it's not just moving, it's excising a part of yourself, a strange cleaving of personal relationships that used to be about friendship and products, but is now just about friendship. Will it be awkward when I talk with friends about the web and they have to censor themselves to prevent discussing confidential products? Even more novel, how easily will I adapt to working in an environment where we're far more open about the projects we're working on, to the point of evangelizing them?" Kevin, who also worked at Yahoo before, does not make it explicit exactly why he's leaving Google. But it's not unlikely that he wants to experience a fresher company, with higher risks, quicker decisions, more adventure, more learning & self-development due to new lessons & challenges, more openness in outside communication, less overhead and so on. I wonder if excellent people leaving Google will cause a noticeable brain drain in the company and its web apps. At this time, Google products by and large have very good usability, but will that still be the case in a couple of years? I guess for Google it depends on three factors: being able to hire great new people for everyone great that leaves, being able to put those people in an environment where they can apply their skills without a lot of barriers, and in general, keeping the company spirit (mission, values, approaches) alive. |
| www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/01/07/MNGA7NEDQ01.DTL And many of them are some of the Web giant's earliest employees. Extremely wealthy from stock options that soared in value, 100 of Google's first 300 workers have quietly resigned to go to law school, help poor shopkeepers get loans or simply to live the good life. Although hardly a mass exodus, the numbers are adding up, scattering what some employees considered their second families. Enticing as many old-timers to stay as possible is a priority because, with each farewell party, a piece of the company's institutional knowledge and culture is lost. "We take a lot of time and care, in particular with our old-timers," said Stacy Sullivan, Google's human resources director. "It's so important that we are paying attention to whether they're being challenged." But because of Google's celebrity and generous perks, the question remained whether the pattern would play out again. Google's initial public offering immediately minted more than 900 millionaires at the company, by one estimate. Even many rank-and-file employees became instantly wealthy. The total has grown over time as its shares have catapulted in value. Financial freedom gave the former Googlers in this article wide latitude in deciding what to do with their lives. The reasons for leaving are many: Alack of new challenges, ambivalence about the company's growth and a desire for a career change are just a few. But virtually all of the former Googlers fondly recall helping build what is now the most popular search engine, particular during the early years when they felt like they had a big impact and employees knew all their colleagues' names. Those cheery memories, however, are mixed with flashbacks of late nights at the office, spending Valentine's dinner in the company cafeteria and strife. The chef Google's employees didn't know it, but they were Charlie Ayers' guinea pigs. As Google's chef, he used the company cafeteria to experiment with flavors and ingredients -- a little royal jelly here and a little wheatgrass there -- to feed the search engine's army. This year, he hopes to capitalize on his geek-tested recipes by opening Calafia Caf, a Palo Alto restaurant specializing in organic, local foods. In the kitchen, Ayers said, he was accorded the same free rein as an engineer working on software as he developed signature dishes like mahogany salmon and Elvis fried chicken to spice up the menu in the now-famous free cafeteria for employees. But as Google grew, the spontaneity evolved into a bureaucracy of budgets and organizational charts that highlighted the chasm between executives and foot soldiers, he said. Before leaving Google in 2005, Ayers said, he spent a lot of sleepless nights pondering his future. But he figured that the time was right, so in between vacationing and buying a house in San Carlos equipped with a professional kitchen, he raised $2 million for his restaurant from mostly former Google colleagues. When not working on his restaurant, Ayers consults with companies about operating corporate cafeterias and writes a cookbook due out this year. Not that that's the case with all former Googlers, some of whom are living lifestyles of the rich and famous funded by stock windfalls. He jokingly called some of them his "deadbeat millionaire friends." "They say, 'Oh, come fishing with us in Cancun or skydiving in South Africa,' " Ayers recalled. "They take races around the world like the Cannonball rally where the finish line is the Playboy mansion." The humanitarian At Google, Olana Khan rubbed shoulders with billionaires. In her new job, she helps people for whom a few hundred dollars is a fortune. org, a San Francisco nonprofit that funnels small loans to budding entrepreneurs in developing nations such as Uganda and Ecuador. Unlike Google, where the sky's the limit, the entrepreneurs Kiva helps simply want enough money to put a roof over their taco cart or stock their beauty salon. While in college, Khan dreamed of a noble career in nonprofit work, but after graduation gravitated to tech jobs to pay off student loans. During her six years at Google, Khan had four jobs, and at one point, had 55 people working under her in what she described as an intense, exhausting environment. For one Valentine's dinner, she and her soon-to-be husband, Zain, another early Googler, rendezvoused in the cafeteria after lingering too late at their desks. For a year prior to leaving, Khan anguished about making the leap, worried that she would never be able to top her accomplishments. That she had earned a windfall at Google -- and therefore didn't have to make a financial sacrifice to join the nonprofit for $250 in monthly salary -- made the decision easier. "For me, it's like finishing what I wanted to start, and Google let it happen," Khan said. Following her departure in August, Khan found herself out of the loop for juicy Google secrets such as new products in the works and dates others would be released. Initially, to ease the transition, Khan avoided the Google campus and its gossip. Kiva is devoid of the creature comforts Khan enjoyed at Google. "It's more of a challenge than Google ever was," Khan said. I have more stress on a nightly basis going to bed with Kiva than it ever was with Google." The homebody Every day is like Saturday for Will Whitted. Since retiring from Google in 2005, he's been a man of leisure, starting his mornings with a spin on his exercise bike, then answering e-mail followed by a trip to his cluttered garage to hammer out his latest inspiration in home decor. "For the first time in my life, I don't have to get approval for anything I do," Whitted said. Whitted, 59, is unabashedly living the good life in his posh, secluded Woodside home with views of a neighbor's vineyard and a plowed-under lawn he hopes to restore to native grassland. Google, where he worked for five years in electrical engineering, is a distant memory. His decision to leave came soon after his diagnosis with lymphoma, although he added that "people had stopped listening to me" anyway. "I loved it and hated it," Whitted said of his time there. Whitted, who helped design several generations of Google's servers, said the company was increasingly bogged down by its size. One of the ideas he championed was to build portable data centers in cargo containers, a project Google tested in its headquarters parking lot. But managers were too timid to pack in enough servers, so the experiment was not cost-effective and was ultimately canceled, he said. "Instead of inspiration-based design, it became fear-based design," Whitted said. In the early days, Google was a magnet for brainiacs, Whitted recalled. He loved the company's quirky style and corporate philosophy -- "Don't be evil" -- which was invoked occasionally, he said. "I sat at many meetings where someone said, 'This is evil' for this reason and that," Whitted said. These days, Whitted spends time outfitting his home to his iconoclastic tastes, designing everything from light fixtures made from tubing to a giant shag rug for his spacious living room. The dining room table he created has metal legs filled with 500 pounds of water. It helps moderate the room's temperature and save on energy, he explained while sitting under a chandelier he also crafted. When not in his workshop, Whitted advises students at Stanford University, donates equipment to a local city college and mulls over his ideas for alternative energy. On retirement, Whitted said: "It's what I should have been doing all along." The angel Taking a job at Google six years ago, when the company was just another money-losing startup, paid off handsomely for Aydin Senkut. But does he have the nose to sniff out success once again, this time as an angel investor? Senkut, 37, is hoping so, as are many former Googlers who similarly dole out seed money to foster entrepreneurs and their ideas. Senkut's new career came after deciding that new challenges were too few and far between at Google, where he last worked as a senior manager for Asia Pacific. He had helped introduce Google's first 10 international Web sites and forged partnerships with companies across the globe, but he wanted som... |