Where was Google?

Sorry to say, but google maps is no where close to local.live.com. I say my customers local.live, and their mouth drops. The same does not happen with google’s maps. As for google’s search, I find they don’t give alot of relevant information compaired to search.live.com.

Thanks Robert for the update.

I’m not sure why Google wasn’t involved as a sponsor, but I work for Google and I was there. I probably should have said hi at some point, but I’m really a programmer and a sysadmin, and I’m not exactly aiming to be the public face of Google . I was at Gnomedex for myself, not for my employer.

Of course, the fact that there was one solitary Google employee lurking in the back doesn’t really change your point–we need to do a much better job at talking to people and being more open.

Unfortunately, the only part of the company that I’ve seen that is really involved in conferences on a regular basis is the recruiting department, and they would have sent *entirely* the wrong message at Gnomedex.

“Google gets the hype, but isn’t getting adoption”.
Well, I have a (very) personal opinion about this, and I disagree.

Hmmm… I was there when HP decided to enter the digital camera business. The goal was not to lead the segment… not even to make a great deal of money. The goal was to drive HP ink sales used in photo printing, because, that’s where the money comes from.

Now Google’s goal is to feed AdSense, because that’s where the money is. Checkout is not really designed to compete with PayPal, it’s design to gather data about buying habits in order to further customize the ads you get. Google Notebook is created so the user can provide the contextual information for the data. The same is true for other google products, they are informaton gathering tools.

So, even if a small fraction uses them, it’s good, because the goal is not to lead in each segment.

I could be wrong. But it kinda makes sense to me.
=)

I made note of this even before the conference. And it’s definitely not the first place I’ve noticed their absence…

http://brandonlive.com/2006/05/05/is-google-introverted/

Scott: good point. Well, we’ll be watching your market share numbers and seeing who has the best ones over time. Tech connectors have certainly given Google a big run up. It’ll be interesting to see if we continue to do so when they don’t come out and hang out and show us the latest, coolest, stuff.

I guess Google’s PR and marketing departments assume that everyone will just try stuff because it’s on TechMeme or TechCrunch or Digg. I find that’s absolutely not the case, particularly when I have a folder of about 5,500 things to try out (literally, soon I’ll show you that folder and talk about it).

Google is going to have trouble in the future with all of these marginal ideas. The BusinessWeek article said the same thing — the problem is not that these ideas are failing, but that they just aren’t gaining very much traction at all. I wrote a blog about this about a month ago called The technology graveyard is littered with Google ideas. Google will struggle with when to cut off ideas that are mildly successful — and will have to re-route developers to work on more profitable ideas. My hypothesis is that this cutting off and rerouting of developers at Google will eventually create a startup culture of ex-Googlers who realize that their ideas at Google can be profitable — just not on the scale that Google needs them to be. These developers will then leave Google and create startups that do similar things and are profitable. Should be interesting to watch!

SlashChick: it’s hard to get traction when you don’t come out and SHOW us your ideas. Totally agree, with your thesis, though.

Fair question. Chris never mentioned getting anyone from Google to Gnomedex to me; maybe I’ll drop him an email–I needed to talk to him about something else anyway. I know Nelson Minar always enjoyed talking to folks at Gnomedex, even back when it was in Des Moines:
http://gnomedex3.blogspot.com/2003_07_01_gnomedex3_archive.html#105915285542240413

The down side of sending software engineers to conferences (which I think is a great idea, because the discussions can be much more detailed) is that those engineers also have a lot of work/coding to do, so sometimes it’s harder for an active engineer to carve out time for conferences.

’cause a-list bloggers are so full of air. dont pay attention to them google, please.

The down side of sending software engineers to conferences … is that those engineers also have a lot of work/coding to do

You have to be kidding Matt–how can Google engineers be busier than those at Microsoft or Yahoo, or especially those of us at tiny startups? For us Gnomedex was easily worth 5-10x the cost to meet the other attendees, to show our stuff of course, but more importantly to see what they’re working on and being part of the conversation.

This whole piece sounds like Scoble doing damage control after yet another Microsoft-to-Google hire.

Boo-hoo, Google isn’t kissing up to your self-declared group of “connectors”.

There are plenty of companies that have been succesful working outside your self-important bunch — case in point, Apple.

Since when did kissing your ass take priority over fostering a culture of innovation? I’d take Google’s problems anyday over the problems facing Microsoft and Yahoo!

Hi BillSaysThis, I’m glad that RawSugar got good exposure at Gnomedex this year; it sounds like it was also valuable for the face-to-face time with other smart folks.

I’m just speaking from my experience at Google, which may not be as typical. I’ve got a regular full-time job, and going to conferences puts me behind on projects and email. So I (reluctantly) have to limit myself to 5-6 conferences a year.

I could imagine the mock love/hate relationship that Chris has with Google might make them a bit wary.

The comes across when reading his blogs and listening to his podcasts, where Chris rants about how bad Blogspot is, how Google sabotaged Gada.be by banning them after 9000 unique visitors, how he went cold turkey on all Google services for a while, how AdSense isn’t transparent, how they are “becoming far more evil than Microsoft ever was,” etc, etc, etc.

Now as anyone who knows Chris will say, half the time he isn’t serious and will likely change his mind later anyway, but I can imagine these attitudes make a now established and respectable Google, who have a lot to lose by association with negative commentary (in the old days they didn’t have much to lose by associating with all and sundry), a bit wary.

Plus, Microsoft is a very prominent sponsor of everything Chris does, and there is a distinct sense that his opinions and allegiances are for sale.

Gnomedex is an excellent vehicle for the industry’s bit players to come together, but it does echo very strongly the Chris Pirillo view of things.

By the way, Robert, you probably should disclose that Chris is a close personal friend of yours, and that you’re not exactly unbiased in your commentary here!

Recruiting opportunity? Yes. Would I have liked to hear the Google perspective to the issues discussed? Sure.

But Gnomedex seems to be less representative of Google’s target market that was the case a few years ago. Similar to the issue discussed during the MVP and bitch sessions, where geeks need to spend more time listening to normal humans and less time basing our ideas on conversations with other geeks (unless geeks are the target market, or we’re talking about the technology or implementation behind what we’re building).

Could the shift you’re seeing be more about their target changing to a broader, less technical audience? I think so.

Actually, Google is good at showing up and having a presence at conferences when they are recruiting:
http://weblogs.java.net/blog/dmax69/archive/2006/05/javaone_xi_a_se.html

Bottom line is that Google is showing themselves to be yet another follow on act of Valley arrogance that we have seen before. The only question is how long will it take them to run down that war chest so they can feel the consequences.

Robert- Please file Foundd.com next to TagJag in your folder of 5,500 things. Here’s the pitch:

Foundd is a search engine front end that gives you fast access to a number of sites: Google, MSN, Technorati, Amazon, del.icio.us, Rollyo, etc. You tell it what you use, and it wires them in.

It also has a place where you can drag-and-drop interesting pages and links. These become part of your search results.

I wish I had time to conference. I /do/ have a killer Westfalia camper that I want to geek-out for code-on-the-road trips. Maybe I’ll see you soon. Cheers- Sid

Could it be that Google no longer wants an association with Chris Pirillo? That “Gnomedex” gets the attention it does is absurd. It is all about Chris Pirillo and Pirillo’s various products. And seriously, is there a more ego-filled pompous man in the entire industry? Maybe Google recognizes that Pirillo is not a serious player, he’s on the fringe. When he left Des Moines (his hometown) Chris wrote horribly about Iowa and how he had “outgrown the backwater”…..etc. Simply put, the whole “Gnome” biz of Pirillo’s is a joke, and maybe Google has finally caught on.

Gerard: you’d have a point there if Google only didn’t show up at Gnomedex. But they also weren’t at VloggerCon (they do Google Video, right?). They weren’t at Reboot (European developers). They weren’t at IT@Cork (Irish developers and IT guys). They weren’t at many other conferences I’ve been at in the past year. They used to be far more visible.

I also totally don’t agree with you about Chris. But, that’s what makes the world go around.

Last I checked Google’s financial numbers, I don’t think they have to worry too much about not showing up at fringe events that really don’t make the tech industry world go round.

Dmad: yeah, they are doing great today. But, then, didn’t DEC used to be the biggest computer manufacturer around? Yeah! Didn’t Novell be really important? Yeah!

See, here’s the deal: if you aren’t talking with audiences about what you’re doing then how are they supposed to find out about what you’re doing? (Google’s market share numbers for non search and non email services aren’t exactly barnstormers).

Matt: true enough! Attending conferences also got to me. But, there aren’t any other “Matt Cutts” at Google? Come on, you are pulling my leg, right?

And, what software is good if it isn’t used by anyone? How do you get it used by people? Show it off! And, how do you hear about new ideas, or get feedback on your old ones if you aren’t going to attend influential conferences?

Mujibur, your taunts would hurt if they had real numbers behind them. Unfortunately Google doesn’t have the market share numbers to make your case for you. And, forget about blogging conferences. Google’s lack of participation in conferences gets worse once you get outside the tech and blogger worlds.

Robert,

Didn’t you once make an argument that numbers don’t matter, to an Amazon executive no less?

I agree with an earlier poster — the bigger challenge for Google (and most consumer technology companies) is to understand regular users, not the hardcore geeks.

You also dodged Apple — they certainly don’t attend msot of these events but they seem to be doing alright.

Don’t get me started on the market share numbers for tablets, origami, and xbox 360 (all launched during your time at Microsoft).

Blogging is important, no doubt. But your self-importance is too much to bear…

Mujibur: no, I didn’t make that point with him. You weren’t there, the numbers I was trying to present to him didn’t satisfy him. In other events we had much more persuasive numbers and were better prepared for an executive review.

Apple’s market share is way lower than Google’s search or email share and its stock price has stalled. The only reason it went way up is cause it hit a grand slam home run with the iPod. Maybe Apple should think about what its next home run will be?

Touche about Microsoft’s numbers, but I do note that the stock price is pretty low there and Xbox market share is going way up lately. You’ll see that in the next financial statements.