Confessions of a Google Employee

            When we look at Google today, it is difficult to believe that it all began in a garage in California.  That is one of the first things we learn from the podcast titled, “Confessions of a Google Employee”, we hear from Doug Edwards who worked for Google as the director of consumer marking and brand management from 1999-2005.  Throughout this podcast, Edwards explains how he basically watched Google grow into what it is today.

            I found it amusing the way that Edwards described that he joined Google at the “terrible 2’s”.  Starting Google was like starting any other search engine.  They looked for ways to make them stand out, and this is where we see different changes to the average search engine.  Google added on very useful tools such as automatic spellcheck on searches.  They also created what is known as the Google Doodle today.

One of the reasons they had these fun and useful additions was due to the environment that employees worked in.  Edwards explained how Google was very open and they learned to listen to different and progressive ideas.  At Google, it was common practice to just fix something if it went wrong, no questions asked.  In turn, Google created the slogan, “Don’t be evil”, for their staffers.  These employees were getting more and more power in their work, and the intentions of Google were to be a search engine, not necessarily the huge corporation that they are today.

As a result of Google expanding their array of services, the company began running into issues regarding privacy.  The example that Edwards explains to us how spell check on searches uses a database from what other Googlers are searching.  It’s the idea of giving up privacy for product.

Although Google is huge, this powerhouse may not be done growing.  But for now, Google is facing new, more difficult situations.  I’m sure Larry Page and Surgey Brin we’re not anticipating having to work through these kinds of issues.  Google seems to stay on top, so they must be doing something right!