Google Ice Cream Options

[lee.n3o]

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/i-s...-ice-cream.html

hehehehehe....

[eKstreme]

It's still in beta, and available by invitation only, but it stores over 2 gigacalories. Anyone got an invite?

[bragadocchio]

I think I was a week late on this one, with a visit to the googleplex last week.

They did feed us all the snacks we wanted, but the cafeteria was off limits, so I was guessing that some deep thinking goes on in the Google Kitchen. Looks like I was right.

Those sous chefs are tough. Anyone see the video from the company that bought (and delivered) 1000 pizzas for the people who work at Google, to give them a free lunch?

http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060814-133338

[JohnMu]

I wonder if they have Goooo-oooo-ogle Cheese-Fondue here in Google Switzerland . I think I'll have to find out

John

PS Bill, what kinds of things did you get to see at Google?

[lee.n3o]

PS Bill, what kinds of things did you get to see at Google?

I second that .... Were you allowed to take any pictures??

[bragadocchio]

I only took a couple of pictures, which I posted here:

http://www.seobythesea.com/?p=265

The backstory - A few days before I left for the west coast, I received an invitation from Adam Lasnik of Google to come to the Googleplex last Monday afternoon. Surprised at being invited, I happily accepted.

He and Matt Cutts, who were both very nice and very personable, hosted this session for a small number of webmasters and gathered us in a room in Google with a bunch of Googlers where we talked about many of the different issues and developments about offerings from the company.

Sadly, we weren't allowed to take any pictures once inside the buildings, and we all had to sign a nondisclosure agreement, which only really allows us to talk about the visit in general terms.

They did take us on a tour of some of the buildings, and the many amenities that they offer people who work for Google. I had a chance to talk with some folks whose names I recognized from some of the patent applications that I have written about in my blog.

I imagine that Google would be a pretty nice place to work at from my visit.

[lee.n3o]

Damn those nondisclosure agreement's!! I am quite envious to be honest.... Some good pics on your blog too Bill :-)

Can you answer the one Google question I wanted to know... Do they really have huge multi-corporate-coloured balls in the reception instead of chairs to sit on??

[JohnMu]

I imagine that Google would be a pretty nice place to work at from my visit.

Would you work at Google if you had the chance?

[bragadocchio]

I remember chairs like that. Don't recall if they were in the reception area, but they just may have been. I think that's one of the things I can get away with disclosing.

There were a lot of unique and creative things going on both inside and outside of the buildings.

For instance, at the front entrance to the building were some rubber traffic cones lined up to separate where drivers should enter from where they should exit. The standard color for those is normally a bright orange. At Google, they were each a different color, matching the colors in the Google logo (and they had little google logos on them, too.)

Damn those nondisclosure agreement's!! I am quite envious to be honest.... Some good pics on your blog too Bill :-)

I suspect that they will invite more people in the future. It turned out to be a pretty good session.

I have a few more pictures, that I may post up on Flickr, later. By the way, Donna's house is really lovely. I imagine that people who stayed at the cottage and loft that she ran as a B&B were probably ecstatic at their surroundings.

Would you work at Google if you had the chance?

Sort of calls for a list:

1. Decent pay, most likely
2. Surrounded by creative and intelligent people who do what they love to do for work
3. Employed by people who want you to work hard and productively, but also encourage you to explore creative ideas of your own.
4. Great facilities to work at
5. Can't talk much with others about what you do
6. No one is exceptional because everyone is exceptional
7. The "don't do evil" motto appears to be a core part of the ethics of the organization, which I like.

It would probably be a great place to work, and an enjoyable experience. I could see living in some place like San Francisco or San Jose, both of which I enjoyed very much. If I had the chance, I would probably take it.

[bragadocchio]

Also, John

I did run into Vanessa from the Google Sitemaps (webmaster central) team, and told her that you said hello as you asked me too if I ran into her.

She was happy to hear your name. I'm guessing that you've left a pretty good impression with her, and the sitemaps team through the Google sitemap group.