Warmest Greetings,

Sunday Morning With Google  

:: Monday, March 29, 2004 ::

Sunday Morning With Google

In the USA, there is a neat little TV show called "CBS News Sunday Morning" which features short newsy, interesting stories targeted to people who want to watch insightful, intelligent TV. Yesterday they did a feature story on Google.

Having just read the latest Newsweek coverage, as well as keeping up with the news online, I had a chuckle that even on Sunday morning, Google was still in my face. What stuck out from Sunday's show was footage of the Google complex and the reason behind free healthcare and food for employees. The thinking is that this company is not planning on sitting on any of its successes and taking a breather. Rather, they work day and night on innovative new ideas and enhancements to keep charging forward. Tending to the private and personal needs of employees means not only having a devoted, loyal staff, but they don't have to drive to lunch (saves time and gas) or suffer major personal frustations because of inflexible work demands.

     "Googlers also get free gourmet breakfast, lunch and dinner -- all prepared by the former chef of the Grateful Dead. They get free medical care. Everywhere you look, there's another free and all-you-can-eat snack bar stocked with healthy snacks, and not-so-healthy snacks. There's even a massage chair in the lobby.

     But according to co-founder Sergey Brin, there's a good reason why Google isn't frugal when it comes to pampering its staff.

     'Volleyball courts, masseuses, all these things -- these are all actually pretty well thought-out," says Brin. "For example, our lunch and dinners that we provide for employees -- it really saves a lot of time. People don't have to drive off campus, park, go somewhere, wait for a long time for food. You can sit and chat with your colleagues and talk about all kinds of work projects. Learn about new things. And head back to the office.'"


By contrast, my fiance works for a large company that develops software and database applications. They expect their employees to work overtime and weekends, but there are no efforts by the company to make this extra time pleasant. This is a special hardship for him because he is only allowed to see his son two weekends a month and a few hours a week. As he explained to his manager, who made him come into work yesterday, he has 48 hours to spend with his son, roughly 16 hours of that is spent sleeping. Now he must come in to work and lose more precious time. So, he brought his son (age 5, and not about to sit still for long), into work with him. He was allowed to leave after 4 hours and telecommute the rest of the work from home, where the rest of us here at the house can keep the young boy busy. But of course, the father still loses time with his son.

I'm sure Google has positive ways of dealing with this same situation. Not only is Google a class act search engine, but as for how to run a growing corporation without disrupting employee lives in the process, I think businesses need to study Google's ways.

Search Engines:

This is the year for search engines, as most SEO/SEM's know. They've been waiting and watching the changes, trying to keep up with the latest developments so their skills are up to date. One newcomer search engine, Mooter, is discussed in Upstart Competitors Try to Outdo Google. The article describes how several startups are tackling dynamic sites, the invisible web and more. (Thanks to Kalena for the lead.)

     "In particular, crawlers are stymied by dynamic Web pages, which are customized as users choose various options, such as car color at Cars.com. To counter that, Chicago-based Dipsie Inc. is developing software that promises to fill out Cars.com's simple online forms, which are based on multiple choice, though not the complex ones for the government's patent and trademark databases, which require typing in keywords. A public test version is expected by summer."

New Google User Interface Dumps ODP Directory. Google Directory demoted: effect on ODP

     As of today Google.com has rolled out the new look that it has been testing for some time on random users. The 'Directory' tab has been replaced by one for Froogle. Also the links to its directory no longer appear in the SERPs. Nor do the listing descriptions from its directory.


Website Development:

Researching content management issues? You may find this interesting reading. Don't make these mistakes when buying content management software by Gerry McGovern, web content management author and consultant for gerrymcgovern.com


     "Most organizations don?t need content management software. Unless you have a very busy website with lots and lots of content being published, the return on investment is not there. The majority of those who do require such software need a very simple, streamlined solution."


Usability:

Though not easy to read (small font face), it's a decent article with usability basics for webmasters to pick up quickly. Using the 5Es to Understand Users

     "These gaps are signs that you need to start your program with some user analysis. You need to do some site visits, user interviews, and observations of people as they work to gather this knowledge. And that's your first action - learning about who your users are, their tasks and their goals in using your product."

Only in the USA:

No thank you, Mr. President. I'd rather have health insurance. Bush promises universal broadband access

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 3/29/2004 10:53:07 AM

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