Googlers: The Biography
The following is a Bloggle exclusive. Be prepared for extreme information.
What is it like to be a Googler? What does a Googler do in *real* life? How do they think? What do they think about? What's their favourite flavour of politics?
In this article (which I hope to be a series of articles) I can promise to answer none of those questions. But do Googlers prefer Lost or Prison Break? That I can answer.
In the course of writing for this blog I've been reading a number of Googler's blogs. Some contain interesting insights into what they are working on within Google at present and some contain detailed assessments of the latest American Idol contestants. I contacted the writers of these blogs and asked them a few simple questions...questions that I'm sure we'd love to know the answer to, but never thought we'd have the chance.
Here then are two Googlers, their blogs and their answers. (Oh and in case you were wondering, the views of the Googlers here are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of Google).
1. Michelle (aka Catspaw)
Favourite phrase "ZOMG PONIES!"
Blog name: Catspaw's Guide to the Inevitably Insane
The blog in one word: Amusing
Posts per week: 1.4
Job at Google: "Over the last
22 months...we developed an internal tool for analysts
here to use to decide which changes to our Google products should go live and which shouldn't"
Lost or Prison Break? Neither.
I've casually watched a few episodes of Lost -- it was mildly
entertaining but never really hooked me -- but I've never even seen an
episode of Prison Break. I think the only show that I'll go watch as
soon as it comes out these days is House M.D. But I prefer to wait
until a series is over and then get the entire series on DVD all at
once; I'm currently watching The West Wing and just finished Arrested
Development.
Pizza or Curry? Why only choose one? http://www.zantespizza.com/ in San Francisco serves Indian Pizza.
@googlemail or @gmail? Do
we even own "@googlemail"? Huh, we do. Learn a new thing every day.
Totally "@gmail" all the way. @gmail is superior because it saves you 5
letters when you type it, and one syllable when you say it.
Windows, Mac or Linux? I have a Mac laptop which is never more than an inch away from me, but do all of my development on a Linux box.
PS3 or Xbox 360? PS3.
I've got a PS2 and PS1 sitting at home and I'm waiting for a few killer
games to come out to make it worth my while to get a PS3. There'd have
to be some sort of miraculously fabulous videogame before I'd get an
Xbox 360.
Blog summary: Catspaw
tends to write about things other than Google although does sometimes
write about things work (but not Google) related. For instance, in
December 2007 Catspaw organised the First Annual
Google Strange Beverage Tasteoff featuring 17 contestants who ended
suffering from nausea and mental trauma. The blog tends to be more
amusing than serious and often features interesting and humorous
articles, blogs and other sites such as passiveagressivenotes.com and The Blog of Uneccessary Quotation Marks. All in all, the blog title is a good summary.
2. Ryan Barrett
Favourite Phrase: Unknown
Blog name: Snarfed.org (draw group stream of consciousness)
The blog in one word: Informative
Posts per week:
Job at Google: Software Engineer, Mountain View CA. Currently working on an unannounced platform project
Lost or Prison Break? Lost! it's almost as good as the wire. (http://snarfed.org/space/2006-09-19)
Pizza or Indian? eh. curry, i guess.
@googlemail or @gmail? weird, i suddenly feel a lawyer breathing down my neck... (http://mail.google.com/mail/help/intl/en-GB/googlemail.html)
Windows, Mac or Linux? Linux! (http://snarfed.org/space/fedora+core+3+on+vmware)
PS3 or Xbox 360? PC and 360. (http://snarfed.org/space/games, http://snarfed.org/space/GDC+2008) You're going to get a lot of irate googlers answering wii, though! :P
Blog summary: Snarfed.org is a blog about what Ryan Barrett is interested in - Game Developers conference, where he went for a meal last night, windsurfing in some hot country, kayaking somewhere else. He sometimes writes about Google and the 20% project he's working on which in December was bringing OpenID to blogger.
That's all until more Googlers reply to my pestering emails. In the meantime, if someone wants to design some Googler top trumps from this information then be my guest!
Comments