Slashdot Mirror
Has Google Lost Its Mojo?
CWmike writes "Google looks as if it's on top of the world right now, holding an ever-increasing lion's share of the search market. So why do I think it's lost its mojo? Let's start with the way it treats its employees, writes Preston Gralla. Another example: Google employees, such as Sergey Solyanik, have started deserting the company. And its share price is down double that of the Dow or Nasdaq since November 2007. Even if Google has lost its mojo, why should you care? It won't make your searches any less effective, will it? Nope. But Google has its eyes on bigger things than search, notably your IT department. It's looking to displace Microsoft with hosted services like Google Apps, Gmail and Google Docs. Solyanik warns that Google's engineers care more about the 'coolness' of a service than about the service's effectiveness." Of course Google employees version of being mistreated is often laughable, and quite a shock when they look for their massage therapist at wherever they end up next.
Google has lost some of it's Mojo. But the good news is that they still have plenty of Mo-Nay. They are also high on the "X does not suck as bad as Y" matrix.
[signature]
One of the "benefits" for working at google is they'll give you up to $5000 to adopt a kid.
Clearly google is paving their own way to cheap underage chinese laborers in a few years.
Sergey Solyanik just left because the colleagues never referred to him as the cool Sergey.
All they have to do is find Dr. Evil's secret volcano layer and get it back. They're frickin' Google. If they can't do it no one can.
This actually reminds me of a story of the wandering engineer. They'd work for google, then move to MS because they lack quality control.
And because MS offered a 10% higher salary than they were making at Google.
The engineer would then transfer to Yahoo because MS isn't doing anything interesting.
And because Yahoo offered a 10% higher salary than they were making at MS.
They'd then move to Google and start the cycle anew because Yahoo wasn't on the cutting edge.
And because Google offered a 10% higher salary than they were making at Yahoo.
Actually, since the machines are incapable of generating their own mojo, we'll all be enslaved in a virtual reality as our mojo is harvested from us.
Your courageous and selfless spelling corrections have made me a better person.
Yeah! And while we're at it, why should I have to pay taxes that go to old, sick and young people I don't even know! It's unjust!
May the Maths Be with you!
> At a T.G.I.F. in June, the Google co-founder Sergey Brin
> said he had no sympathy for the parents, and that he was
> tired of "Googlers" who felt entitled to perks like
> "bottled water and M&Ms,"
> a number of Googlers have left recently to join start-ups,
> hotter companies like Facebook -- and even Microsoft.
GET THIS MAN A CHAIR TO THROW, STAT!!!
Because you live in an evil socialistic communist state of course!
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
The proper response is "Do you want to put ads on everything for the rest of your life, or do you want to change the world?"
how to invest, a novice's guide
I had heard that Google had some pretty comprehensive benefits, designed to ease the transition from Mom's basement to corporate life, but this is just silly.
According to their benefits page, Google offers not only free lunches, massages and car washes, but also "AD&D insurance".
Because when your eleventh level cleric gets killed by a lich, you really need that coverage to help you deal with the loss.
What has been found is that having childcare greatly reduces the stress of workers: they don't have to worry about working late, they can visit their kid on lunch breaks if the daycare is on site, company care is just one trip, it's usually cheaper, etc...
Having an in-house hooker would greatly reduce my stress level. I wouldn't have to worry about getting laid, I could get a quickie on lunch breaks if it's onsite, it would be cheaper, etc. So does that mean my company should pay for on-site hookers, and either lower the salaries of non-hooker-partaking employees, or lower their profits?
From the Google employee benefits page:
- Life and AD&D Insurance
Hey, does this mean, if I croak from playing too much AD&D and the resulting malnutrition and poor hygiene, that they'll pay my family a big fat payout to enshrine me and my platinum-plated D-10 dice?
I'll work for them. Tomorrow. Contact me Google.
All cleverly designed to make leaving Google and working at any other company the single most painful experience ever, especially for someone who was hired straight out of University.
The whole thing is the perfect cover for a James Bond style villain and his army of disposable henchmen. When the Googleplex moves to the inside of a dormant volcano with Sergei's face carved on the side and the Orbital Mind Control Rays are deployed, you'll know that I was right.
Did Netcraft confirm this?
When the Googleplex moves to the inside of a dormant volcano with Sergei's face carved on the side and the Orbital Mind Control Rays are deployed, you'll know that I was right.
No we won't. That's what the mind control rays are for!
Ok, there has got to be a Yakov Smirnoff joke in there somewhere.