About two weeks back, I wrote a post about the search engine battles between Yahoo! and Google. I acknowledged that Google was and is one of the most impressive companies in business history. But I titled the post: Arrogance: Google’s Achilles’ Heel?. I expressed concern (as have others) that excessive pride and the feeling that somehow people in the firm were smarter than other human beings could be the firm’s undoing; and I contrasted the Google spirit with the Jerry Yang’s renowned modesty (Yang is Yahoo!’s co-founder and now new CEO).
That post generated some interesting comments, notably from a couple current Google job candidates. And it prompted Dave, one of the folks who makes comments on this blog and sends me some very interesting emails, to point me to a fascinating blog posting that is — apparently — making the rounds at Microsoft. This post is called Life at Google – The Microsoftie Perspective. It is intriguing because it seems to be written by someone who worked at Google, but now works at Microsoft, and it presents one of the rare balanced inside glimpses into Google. And it contains thoughtful suggestions about practices that Microsoft should steal from Google (including free food and Google’s amazing tech support).
My view is that the competition among Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft is a great thing for consumers. I am rooting for it to go on for years. In particular, I think a little more competition in the search engine business would be especially beneficial to everyone (well, except perhaps to Google shareholders).
P.S. I thought one of the most interesting comments that I got was from a current Google job candidate who asked about Google’s "Don’t be Evil" policy. As I discuss in the The No Asshole Rule, my discussions with people at Google (including senior executives and recent hires) suggest that this motto is, or at least was, a force against hiring and encouraging nasty people. Here is what the candidate (who posted under "anonymous") reported:
‘I have had two phone interviews with Google in the past week. I have
asked each interviewer about the “don’t be evil” policy at Google. In
both cases, the first words out of the interviewer’s mouth were “We are
environmentally friendly….” I was working under the prevailing
assumption that the first cannon of the “don’t be evil” policy would be
“Don’t treat your fellow employee like an asshole.” I guess my
assumption was incorrect.’
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