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How I got to Google, ch. 1

Posted by Michael Krantz, Google Blog Team -- via craigslist, and thanks for asking. Our engineers, though, tend to come by more varied, and occasionally odder, routes. Some get recruited out of grad school, or by friends or former colleagues. Others just send their resumes to jobs@google.com. For a few engineers, though, the path has been more interesting. <a href="http://www.flatfeetpete.com/musicbox/index.html">Peter Bradshaw</a>, for instance, built “a music playing system based on printed cards with barcodes and webcams. Includes lego!” (No, I don’t know what that means, either.) Over the next few weeks, we’re going to post some of their stories. Like this one, from Systems Administrator Aaron Joyner: <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/AaronJoyner-790730.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/AaronJoyner-789182.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" /></a> My story started when I came into work one morning and was unable to look up something on Google. Being the sysadmin for my company at the time, it was my responsibility to resolve the problem, so I started poking around. It turned out that our DNS server [ed: all the jargony stuff you'll hear in this anecdote refers to the software that websites use to connect and talk to each other] was returning an error when trying to look up google.com, specifically a server failure error. Just as I’d convinced myself that it wasn't our problem but Google’s, the problem suddenly resolved itself. I promptly forgot about it and went back to my regular work. But then I came in the next morning and had exactly the same problem, so I started looking at Google's DNS responses very closely. It became clear that the specific combination of delegations and glue records they were returning [ed: see note above] would result in an eventual error approximately once per day, and this would then take it about five minutes to give up and try again. Not entirely convinced that I should point the finger at Google yet, I posted <a href="http://www.trilug.org/pipermail/trilug/Week-of-Mon-20050328/033828.html">a message</a> to my local Linux Users Group asking if anyone had had problems with resolving google.com addresses and got a couple "Yeah, I did have a problem like that once recently" responses. Thus reinforced, I headed over to Google.com, found the "Contact Us" page and the "Report a problem" link, chunked in a brief problem description and a link to the <a href="http://www.trilug.org/pipermail/trilug/Week-of-Mon-20050328/033838.html">archived copy</a> of the long technical description from that same mailing list thread, and thought to myself, "Gee, I'll never hear about that again." But then one afternoon a week later I get an email that said, basically, "We've received your problem report, and forwarded it on to the appropriate department, if they need any further information they’ll contact you. Thanks." Again, I thought, "Gee, how nice. I'll never hear about that again." But that evening I got an email from Dave Presotto (the guy who wrote the DNS server for Plan9) saying that he was looking into it and would get back to me. Forty-five minutes later I got another email, this one describing how he believed they had accidentally fixed the problem earlier in the week due to general code cleanup, and asking what I thought of the solution. After I recovered my senses and stopped bouncing around the room, I had a few email exchanges with Dave, in the course of which I asked casually if they needed any good sysadmins out in Mountain View. He referred me, and the rest is history.

How I got to Google, ch. 1

Posted by Michael Krantz, Google Blog Team -- via craigslist, and thanks for asking. Our engineers, though, tend to come by more varied, and...

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A Friday visit to the database of intentions

Guest post by John Battelle Over the past few years I’ve made at least a dozen 90-minute treks from my <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=230+Hillside+Ave,+Greenbrae,+CA+94904&spn=0.004066,0.007175&t=k&hl=en">forested perch</a> at the north end of San Francisco Bay down to the <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=google+mountain+view&ll=37.423406,-122.082659&spn=0.003893,0.007023&t=k&num=10&start=0&hl=en">Googleplex</a>, which sits at the heart of Silicon Valley. The reason? I was writing a book, and Google was a major part of the story. I always enjoyed the drive, I’d go down to interview the founders, early product managers, recent hires and advisors, and I’d drive up with a full tape recorder and plenty to think about. But last Friday I drove down for another reason. My book <a href="http://www.battellemedia.com/thesearch/">The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture</a>, has just come out, and much to my astonishment, Google invited me down to give a talk. While Google staffers were extremely generous with their time, the fact remained that the book told the story as I heard it from many different sources, inside and outside the company. And on my own <a href="http://www.battellemedia.com/">Searchblog</a>, where I cover search and its implications, I've been known to call Google out as often as I offer praise. As I drove down, I fretted over any number of things. Who might show up for the talk (what if no one did?!). What mistakes might be pointed out - flaws in my reporting, my writing, or my conclusions? What if the famously combative Google culture turned on me? I needn’t have worried. My host Karen Wickre, whom I’ve known since my days as a cub reporter at MacWeek, met me at the door, and before I could make my way to the lecture hall, a clutch of friendly folks had surrounded me. Once there I saw <a href="http://battellemedia.com/archives/001653.php">Louis Monier</a>, founder of Alta Vista and the star of Chapter Three, who had recently left eBay to join Google. And <a href="http://www.norvig.com/">Peter Norvig</a>, Google’s director of search quality, who helped me understand Google’s core search service and even presented at my <a href="http://battellemedia.com/archives/000960.php">Web 2.0 conference</a> last year. And many more, many of whom I had spoken to, but most of whom I had never met. I began by explaining how I came to write the book, a three-year odyssey which started with a link, back in late 2001, to Google’s <a href="http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist2001.html">first Zeitgeist</a>. I read how I came to the idea of the <a href="http://battellemedia.com/archives/000063.php">Database of Intentions</a>, and I read some funny emails from webmasters who had encountered the early <a href="http://www.google.com/corporate/history.html">BackRub crawler</a>. And because it was clear the audience wanted to ponder the future of the company they had joined, I read from the chapter entitled “Google Today, Google Tomorrow.” The best part, by far, was the Q&A that followed. Googlers are some of the most sincere questioners I've ever encountered. The exchange felt very much like conversations I've had with graduate students when I was teaching at Berkeley - no agendas, just a desire to challenge and to learn. Afterward folks lined up to have me sign their books. As the line dwindled, I looked behind me and there was Eric Schmidt, who more than any other source went out of his way to lend me his time and insights. He shook my hand and thanked me for coming, and I have to say, I was honored by the gesture. I did my best to be fair in the book, but it's never easy to read about yourself, to be the subject of someone else's conclusions. The same could be said of the entire Google team who came to listen and to converse, and I'm truly grateful for the experience.

A Friday visit to the database of intentions

Guest post by John Battelle Over the past few years I’ve made at least a dozen 90-minute treks from my forested perch at the north end of ...

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Ants unearthed with Google Earth

Posted by Brian L. Fisher, Associate Curator of Entomology, California Academy of Sciences At a time when the power of information technology doubles every 12 to 15 months and extends to capture every scrap we have, digitizing biodiversity information is a final frontier for IT. It's an essential step to ensure society maintains and hopefully increases bio-literacy. Toward this end, there's <a href="http://www.antweb.org/">Antweb</a>. It's a project from the California Academy of Sciences that has <a href="http://www.calacademy.org/geninfo/newsroom/releases/2005/Fisher%20Google.html">incorporated the Google Earth interface</a> to provide location-based access to the diversity and wonder of ants: from your backyard to the Congo Basin. As society advances, literacy increases and bio-literacy decreases. If you're illiterate, you may view a library as thinly sliced stacks of firewood; a Google search engine is meaningless. If you are bio-illiterate, a forest is at best a green blob to be consumed. If you are bio-literate, you see the diversity of the forest and understand that each animal, each plant, tells a story and has a place. Google has helped us achieve free and democratic access to information, but now, with <a href="http://earth.google.com/">Google Earth</a>, it's taken an important step to promote bio-literacy. Together with other institutions in the Bay Area, Google is uniquely poised to take on this enormous task. There are two ways people need to access information on biodiversity: either have a name for which they want more information, or they are at a location and want to know what they will find there. On Antweb, <a href="http://www.antweb.org/google_earth.jsp">you can access information about ants via location</a> – and Google Earth allows for any scale of access via location. So you can be in Santa Clara County and see what ants you are likely to find. Soon you will be able to create a field guide for ants in any location defined in Google Earth. We tried to get NASA’s help to develop such a system for years with their mapping expertise and data, but Google Earth answered the call first. I am so impressed with Google that I have named an ant I recently discovered in Madagascar <a href="http://www.antweb.org/description.do?rank=species&genus=proceratium&name=google&project=" title="http://www.calacademy.org/geninfo/newsroom/releases/2005/Fisher%20Google.html">Proceratium google</a>. Its bizarrely-shaped abdomen is an adaptation for hunting down obscure prey: spider eggs. Here's what it looks like. <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/Google_ant-769990.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/uploaded_images/Google_ant-768667.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" /></a>I hope that Google will continue applying its skills to serve biodiversity data to conservation planners and the general public. Google has given us a tool to connect the 6 billion people on earth with our remaining biodiversity. Antweb welcomes any form of collaboration to help achieve this goal – and may the ants be with you.

Ants unearthed with Google Earth

Posted by Brian L. Fisher, Associate Curator of Entomology, California Academy of Sciences At a time when the power of information technolog...

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This is "beach-front"?

Posted by Bill Kilday, Google Earth team Have you ever wondered if that "beach-front" condo really is beach-front? Recently I planned a trip to Hawaii and saw one particularly breathless condo listing that described the property as being just 400 "steps" from the beach. Now having seen the location, I think the owner was obviously very tall... Using the measure feature in Google Earth, you can take a little bit of the guesswork out of finding the perfect accommodations. Just follow these three simple steps: 1) Fly to your area of interest in Google Earth (if you don't have it, <a href="http://earth.google.com/">get it here</a>). 2) Click the Email button on the nav panel in the lower right, and send the property owner a JPG screenshot of the area. Ask him or her to identify which place is theirs. 3) Select Measure from the Tools menu and choose to see the distance in feet, yards, miles (or even <a href="http://www-tech.mit.edu/V119/N49/this_week-_49_c.49f.html"> smoots</a>, if you insist).

This is "beach-front"?

Posted by Bill Kilday, Google Earth team Have you ever wondered if that "beach-front" condo really is beach-front? Recently I plan...

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This volt's for you

Posted by Hunter Walk, Product Manager How many Googlers does it take to screw in a lightbulb? None, if you use <a href="http://www.gridalternatives.org/about.htm">solar power</a>. We just had our first Google Environmental Fair to help introduce employees to various sustainable practices, low impact living and natural products. This event kicks off an ongoing worldwide effort by Google to bring environmental best practices to our offices and employees. Companies are finding that "going green" isn't just good for the earth but can lead to, say, <a href="http://www.canopyhome.com/">superior design</a> or <a href="http://www.sparetheair.org/">healthier lifestyles</a>. Earlier this year Google further encouraged responsible energy technologies by<a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fsupport%2Fjobs%2Fbin%2Fstatic.py%3Fpage%3Dbenefits.html" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" target="_blank" title="http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fsupport%2Fjobs%2Fbin%2Fstatic.py%3Fpage%3Dbenefits.html"> offering a cash incentive</a> to employees who decide to purchase a fuel-efficient vehicle. The net result? I'm guessing that the Mountain View Googleplex has the highest concentration of Toyota Priuses in the Northern Hemisphere. As an added bonus to the environmental benefits, California hybrid owners can now drive in the <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mercurynews.com%2Fmld%2Fmercurynews%2Fnews%2Ftransportation%2F12355793.htm" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" target="_blank" title="http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mercurynews.com%2Fmld%2Fmercurynews%2Fnews%2Ftransportation%2F12355793.htm">carpool lane</a> without needing additional passengers. Score! Of course with a parking lot full of similar-looking cars one must take steps to <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mtv.com%2Fonair%2Fdyn%2Fpimp_my_ride%2Fseries.jhtml" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" target="_blank" title="http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mtv.com%2Fonair%2Fdyn%2Fpimp_my_ride%2Fseries.jhtml">stand out</a>. I'm thinking <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fsearch%3Fsourceid%3Dnavclient-ff%26ie%3DUTF-8%26q%3Ddub%2520rims" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" target="_blank" title="http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fsearch%3Fsourceid%3Dnavclient-ff%26ie%3DUTF-8%26q%3Ddub%2520rims">Twenty-Twos</a> and <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.magneticflames.com%2Fgallery.Doug.htm" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" target="_blank" title="http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.magneticflames.com%2Fgallery.Doug.htm">flames</a>. Actually, the most appropriate car accessory might be one offered by another Environmental Fair participant, a <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.terrapass.com%2F" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" target="_blank" title="http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.terrapass.com%2F">Terrapass</a>. Donations to this progressive organization are used to "eliminate the equivalent of your car's carbon dioxide pollutions" through financing projects which reduce industrial emissions. So whether you're driving a new fuel-efficient vehicle or a more traditional car, you can leave a smaller environmental footprint.

This volt's for you

Posted by Hunter Walk, Product Manager How many Googlers does it take to screw in a lightbulb? None, if you use solar power . We just had o...

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Attention, frequent flyers

Posted by Dr. Taraneh Razavi, Staff Doctor Googlers aren't the only ones to spend time on planes – many people suffer the effects of "Economy Class Syndrome." Here are some tips even for flying veterans – or for that matter, those taking long road, train or bus trips, as similar advice applies. Much of this information can be found at the helpful site <a href="http://www.airhealth.org/">AirHealth</a>. Economy Class syndrome causes blood clots that develop in the legs (deep venous thrombosis, DVT) as a result of prolonged air travel. "Prolonged" can mean a 2-hour flight – and after 2 hours, the risk increases hourly, even if you change flights. If the clot breaks off and goes to the lungs (pulmonary embolus, PE) it can cause death. Of course, this syndrome can easily occur in business or first class seats too – but it happens more in economy simply because there are more seats and therefore more people sitting. Sounds obscure, you say? It's not. Some 3 to 5 percent of air travelers develop blood clots, most of which dissolve naturally. The few that don't have significant morbidity and mortality, but most of these can be prevented. However, the more frequently you fly, your chance of developing them goes up: frequent business travelers are about 50 times more likely to develop clots. Often there are no symptoms until several days after the flight, and the DVT may be mistaken for a cramp. Symptoms may include: <ul> <li>Sudden swelling in one leg (a little swelling in both legs is usually normal)</li> <li>Cramp or tenderness in one lower leg</li> <li>Bruise or swelling behind a knee</li> </ul> Chest symptoms (PE) usually appear 2-4 days or more after the initial blood clot, and may include: <ul> <li> Shortness of breath, rapid breathing, panting</li> <li> Cramp in your side, painful breathing</li> <li> Chest pain, sometimes shoulder pain</li> <li> Fever</li> <li> Coughing up blood</li> <li> Fainting</li> </ul> If you're thinking this doesn't happen to healthy road warriors, you'd be wrong. Being athletic is a major risk factor, because the slower pulse and resting blood flow rate may lead to increased stasis. Others who need to be on guard for DVT are: <ul> <li>Those who've had recent surgery or an injury. Avoid surgery 30 days before and after travel.</li> <li>Personal or family history of DVT</li> <li>Cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity</li> <li>Women who are pregnant, or are taking birth control pills or other hormone therapy</li> </ul> I think I have your attention now - so how do you prevent DVT when traveling? <ul> <li>Walk when possible on the plane (or bus or train). </li> <li>Do leg flexing exercises at 30-60 minute intervals. Extend your legs and flex your ankles, pulling up and spreading your toes, then pushing down and curling the toes. Or rotate the ankles by making circles in the air.</li> <li>If there isn't room to extend your legs, start with your feet flat on the floor and push down and curl your toes while lifting your heels. Then, with your heels back on the floor, lift and spread your toes. Repeat this heel-toe cycle five times or more.</li> <li>Exercise your thigh muscles by sitting with your feet flat on the floor and slide your feet forward a few inches, then slide back and repeat. Or extend the legs if possible and isometrically flex thigh muscles.</li> <li>Avoid crossing your legs, or wearing constrictive clothing (knee braces or tight garments, elastic support hose. (Compression hose have been proven effective, however).</li> <li>Stay hydrated - but only with non-alcoholic, non-caffeinated beverages like a Virgin Mary (no vodka), and preferably electrolytic drinks (Gatorade type) – 1 cup every 1-2 hours. Drinking lots of plain water is not recommended (on long flights it can contribute to thicker blood viscosity, which may lead to clots).</li> <li>If you have risk factors (such as history of DVT) talk to your doctor, since these require prescriptions. (Note that contrary to popular belief aspirin does not help prevent these clots because aspirin mainly affects the arterial and not the venous circulation.)</li> <li>Though another standard recommendation is to avoid sleep, I think that would be cruel and unusual punishment given the severe deficiency of entertainment on these long hauls.</li> </ul> Finally, if you think have DVT, do not massage the leg - it can break off the clot and lead to PE. Call your doctor and let him or her know that you have traveled recently, and are having pain or swelling in one leg. The proper test then would be an ultrasound of the leg (not invasive or painful). Want to read more? There's an extensive list of references of studies at the <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed">National Library of Medicine's PubMed service</a>. Wishing you safe and healthy trips!

Attention, frequent flyers

Posted by Dr. Taraneh Razavi, Staff Doctor Googlers aren't the only ones to spend time on planes – many people suffer the effects of ...

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We wanted something special for our birthday…

Posted by Anna Patterson, Software Engineer Google opened its doors in <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/history.html#1998">September 1998</a>, and we’ve been pursuing one mission ever since: to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. For our <a href="http://www.google.com/logos/7th_birthday.gif">seventh birthday</a>, we are giving you a newly expanded web search index that is 1,000 times the size of our original index. I’m proud of everything we’ve accomplished in the years since Larry Page and Sergey Brin set up the first Google data center in Larry’s dorm room at Stanford. Today, along with web search based on Larry and Sergey’s original <a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/history.html#1995">BackRub search engine</a>, we offer specialized search for everything from satellite images to academic papers, local business info to your own computer. We’ve also built software for email and mobile services, photo management and computer-to-computer voice calling, to name just a few things. But search remains our heart and soul, so I’m especially pleased by this latest expansion of our index, which makes Google more than 3 times larger than any other search engine. <a href="http://www.google.com/help/indexsize.html">See for yourself</a> how effective the new Google search index can be. Come up with a search query that's special to you (your name, your elementary school, and your favorite animal, for example) - a combination of words that is likely to exist on just a few web pages out of the billions we've indexed, a few needles scattered in the Internet’s endless haystack. Ready? <a href="http://www.google.com/">Let’s go</a>.

We wanted something special for our birthday…

Posted by Anna Patterson, Software Engineer Google opened its doors in September 1998 , and we’ve been pursuing one mission ever since: to o...

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