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Google's Internal Company Goals

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the inside-the-mind-of-a-goog dept.

Rockgod writes to mention a Google Blogoscoped article about an internal company paper. The paper details Google's big goals and directions for 2006. From the article: "The list included several items, for example: Google wants to have an improved infrastructure to make their engineers more productive. This includes allowing employees to have a universal search tool "containing all public Google information searched on all Google searches." Google also wants to build 10MW of green power to be on track to be carbon neutral. (They also want to reduce "Borg disk waste" by 50%... hmmm, Borg?)

25 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. The Googlesphere by Brothernone · · Score: 4, Funny

    Welcome to the Googlepshere... resistance is futile... but at least we dont have chairs.

    --
    He whom you called four-eyes yesterday, you call Sir tomorrow.
  2. Don't you read Slashdot? by Randolpho · · Score: 5, Funny
    (They also want to reduce "Borg disk waste" by 50%... hmmm, Borg?)
    Clearly "Borg disk waste" means "Microsoft disk waste". Google is moving to a less Microsoft-centric system. They clearly rely far too much on ASP.NET and SQL Server, and would like to become a LAMP shop. They may even be planning their own operating system to compete with Windows Vista.
    --
    "Times have not become more violent. They have just become more televised."
    -Marilyn Manson
    1. Re:Don't you read Slashdot? by DAldredge · · Score: 4, Funny

      This isn't digg please don't make stuff up.

    2. Re:Don't you read Slashdot? by didde · · Score: 3, Informative


      Hmm, I really don't have a clue as to what platform Orkut is running on. Of course, the URL's on the site uses the ".aspx"-suffix but the returned server header says GFE:

      # curl -I "https://www.orkut.com/"
      HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily
      Location: https://www.orkut.com/GLogin.aspx?done=https%3A%2F %2Fwww.orkut.com%2F
      Content-Length: 0
      Cache-control: private
      Date: Fri, 27 Oct 2006 14:58:40 GMT
      Content-Type: text/html
      Server: GFE/1.3

      ...perhaps this means they're load balancing or similar, but still.

  3. green power by qw0ntum · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think it's really an important step for Google to aim for carbon neutrality, starting with green power. Nowadays green power, green building, and other sustainability practices have substantial financial benefits in addition to their environmental ones. Companies are starting to recognize this too, thankfully--Bank of America has a LEED certified building going up in Manhattan that will save massive amounts of emissions of carbon and other pollutants and save massive amounts of money.

    What makes me happiest about seeing Google do this is that they are such a role-model for next-generation businesses. If Google achieves carbon neutrality, even partially, the message it will send to corporations, start-ups, and individuals will be, "You can be environmentally conscious and financially successful; the two are not mutually exclusive." That's an important message that is only beginning to spread.

    --
    'Every story, if continued long enough, ends in death.' --Ernest Hemingway
    1. Re:green power by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Partial neutrality. Right. I think Fox may be hiring. You could go far.

    2. Re:green power by Fozzyuw · · Score: 4, Insightful
      If Google achieves carbon neutrality, even partially, the message it will send to corporations, start-ups, and individuals will be, "You can be environmentally conscious and financially successful; the two are not mutually exclusive."

      I saw a promotional advertisement video on 'green' manufacturing, and while I do not buy into a lot of the whole 'save the world before it is too late' fear, I do believe that the concepts of green manufacturing just plain make sense to some degree.

      Maybe being a programmer and being stuck in too many 'dungeons' makes me feel this way, but adding large windows, more greenery(plants) inside offices and plants (where they do not risk safety obviously) just makes employees feel such much better, that they're happier and more productive, aside from reduced heating bills due to solar heat (though, some factories don't have to worry about producing heat, hehe).

      On the other hand, I doubt there is a lot of start-ups who could afford to invest their startup money on an expensive building, when that capital needs to be spent on... well, getting their company started. The problem always comes down to money, sure long term, it can save you money, after like 20+ years, but the premium on these places are high and most start-ups will move into pre-existing space. And when you want to start a business, you look at a $1 million building or a $10 million building, you're probably going to go for the $1 million building. Of course, if you become Google and light cigars with $100 bills, then you could probably afford a green building.

      Cheers,
      Fozzy

      --
      "The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth." ~1984 George Orwell
    3. Re:green power by Wellington+Grey · · Score: 3, Funny
      and plants (where they do not risk safety obviously)


      Yes safety first! I do so hate it when the office hydrangea goes on a rampage and kills the interns.

      -Grey
      --
      Silver Clipboard: Time Management Tips
    4. Re:green power by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      As technology makes it cheaper you will probably start seeing just about everything generating power. I mean floors have to have a certain amount of give, and carpet flexes when you walk on it - if they were both piezoelectric then just walking around would generate some power. It's not economically feasible to do this right now but it's coming. Structures are flexible, too; if you could generate power from the slight movement due to the wind, thermal differentials, and the slamming of doors (not to mention generating power when a door is opened!) then it would all add up. It doesn't add up to very much, which is why we're not doing it now.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  4. Carbon Nuetral?...Google really is a good company by JBHarris · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You really don't see this very often. What short-term or even mid-term payoff could there possibly be to being carbon nuetral? I don't think anyone can stand back and say that Google fits into the mold of what most Companies in this world have become. I applaude Google. I think they are a role-model that other companies (Including the existing big boys) should strive to be more like.

    This isn't that much of a suprise though. When you have such a great product & a motivated team, you tend to attract the best & brightest. The best & brightest usually have the best ideas....

    Brad

  5. Heard this one before by Silver+Sloth · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Google tries to make sure their tools are running everywhere. In around mid-2006, according to their internal numbers 60 Million Google Packs had been installed, but they still want to increase the deployment... especially for "novice users."
    Doesn't that sound awfully like
    A PC on every desk, and that PC running Microsoft software
    --
    init 11 - for when you need that edge.
  6. "Borg disk waste" by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 4, Funny

    Borg waste is disks! Keep that in mind the next time one asks to use your bathroom. Those bastards'll clog up your plumbing with 9000 free hours of AOL.

    --
    Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
  7. Products being reduced by 20% by brian.glanz · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The one bit that concerns me as a user was
    the document contains the simple directive "Count total number of Google products and reduce by 20%"
    There have been many Google betas with low user populations, but here in the land of every-Google-launch-is-an-article, there might be a lot of /.ers who put time and effort and personal data into a Google beta only to see it disappear in the next year. Which Google apps are on the chopping block? Will they give users a nice way to export data?
    1. Re:Products being reduced by 20% by ben+there... · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That may mean to consolidate existing services as well, to avoid confusing and diluting the market. For example, Writely and Google Spreadsheets combined to become Google Docs & Spreadsheets. That makes 50% less Google office products. Similarly, things like Froogle and Google Base could combine to become one shopping service.

  8. They meant something else by lpangelrob · · Score: 4, Funny

    No no no, they meant "bork waste". The Swedish chef translation of their search engine is just taking up too much space. Bork bork bork!

    --
    -Rob

    Biblical fiscal responsibility

  9. Re:Carbon Nuetral?...Google really is a good compa by nuggz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    PR is an immediate short term payoff.
    Environmentally friendly practices are cheaper mid/long term. They're also more reliable if you consider the rate of electricity generating capacity being added in North America.

  10. Re:This is nice but... by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 4, Funny
    The key difference is that Google, like Paris, hasn't really earned most of the money they're sitting on
    So... many... possible.. comebacks... *BOOM*

    > Brain exploded, WISEASS.SYS corrupted.
    > (A)bort/(R)etry/(F)ail?
    --
    Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
  11. Borg by Creepy · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm sure that it's a reference to the Billgatus of Borg or maybe the old joke

  12. Related and interesting fact by ostehaps · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This morning 50% of Denmark's power supply was covered by wind power, due to a storm. During the peak (at 4 in the morning) it reached 80%. Generally about 20-25% of power is supplied by wind here.

  13. Re:Carbon Nuetral?...Google really is a good compa by sadr · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you'd bothered to read their IPO or other documents, you'd know that common shareholders have nearly no control over the company due to the voting structure the owners set up.

    They note that their policies may not maximize profit. Their policies are set based on doing what's right, as deemed by the founders.

    Maybe you should sell your shares.

  14. borg.google.com by Blighten · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Reading the comments of the article, "Jake" suggests that borg refers to borg.google.com, a very important internal subdomain. (James Bradbury)

    A quick search revealed:

    Google Finance Leaks Version Two Information (Search Engine Watch Blog, 2006-07-21)
    Garett Rogers stumbled upon a link in Google Finance at the top right corner that said "v2 (test)" in red font. The link points to http://0.frontend-live.sfe.scrooge.hs.borg.google. com/finance, which seems to not be accessible from my location, or outside of Google's network. Notice the sign of the borg again? borg.google.com from before. So, now we have rumors that Google is going to be launching a version two of Google Finance soon. Maybe it includes stock indices from other worlds? :)...     (http://www.webrankinfo.com/english/seo-news/topic -16812.htm)

    I found this to be a little funny as well.

  15. No chairs by joshsnow · · Score: 4, Funny

    Welcome to the Googlepshere... resistance is futile... but at least we dont have chairs.
    And neither do we have Steve Ballmer to throw them...

  16. I work at google by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Borg disk waste refers to the unfortunate results of an experiment creating autonomous software-based administrators. They had code to spread to different machines around the world (much like a trojan, but with good intentions). Unfortunately, they ended up doing this a little too well, and ended up archiving much more content than was originally intended... on servers across the world.

    They use pagerank to determine what needs to be archived more/less, but the algo is too agressive... and the only way to communicate with them is on a one-by-one basis. Once you get one archiver killed on the machine, another is likely to be placed there by a different archiver.

    Last march everything went wild and almost brought us down. They're nicknamed borg since they take over just about everything they touch. Since then we've created new bots to fight the archivers... the fight is predicted to continue well into next year.

    (posting anon for obvious reasons)

  17. You are full of shit by Wee · · Score: 5, Insightful
    That's all 100% BS, man. It's complete nonsense. Sorry. Nice try, though.

    -B

    --

    Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.

  18. Re:Carbon Nuetral?...Google really is a good compa by LauraW · · Score: 3, Informative
    Here's the document I think he was referring to Original IPO Letter. Also, investor.google.com has various other stock- and IPO-related documents, I think.

    Disclaimer: I work at Google.