Protocol Buffers Open-Sourced

One of the very few drawbacks of working at Google is that I can't really talk about any of the frighteningly cool pieces of technology that make us hum.

Well, now I can mention one more :)

We use these everywhere.

xkcd @ Google

Randall Munroe (only the creator of one of the best comic strips in the world) gave a talk at Google today. Among the highlights:

• Guido van Rossum asking him "Do you expect me to fly?" (you'll need to have seen this.)
• Randall only discovering that the guy who asked that question was Guido after the talk was done.
  
• Donald Knuth (yes, that Donald Knuth) asking him "What's the name of my O(log log n) search algorithm?"
• Randall sketching (on a sheet covering a projector) an impromptu Google logo created out of his xkcd stick-figures.

I work at a surreal company.

Methinks...

...we should rechristen it SueTube. Don't you?

Sydney

Since Adam got the chance to go earlier this month, it's only fair that I save him the pain and effort of another trip down under. So reluctantly, I decided to fling myself over the equator, and spent the last week in Sydney.

When speaking at conferences, I favor the get-it-over-with-ASAP theme. Search Engine Room was ideally constructed in this respect. Quick one-hour talk over breakfast on the first day of the event, and I was done. Free to mingle and enjoy the rest of the conference (and Sydney) without a care.

Google has an awesome Sydney office which sits smack on the edge of Darling Harbour, with some fantastic views thereof. It's also within spitting distance of the standard touristy attractions which one just has to take pictures of. First, let's get the obligatory shot of the Opera House with the bridge in the background out of the way:

Now that that's settled, here are some other snippets:

Foot in blog syndrome

I think it's funny as hell that the post on how much we value security, is followed by the one explaining that our blog was hacked into.

I love my company :)

Google Calendar

I had to keep my trap shut about this for far too long, but now that it's been released, Google Calendar rocks! :))

Tags: google

Why Google won't give you driving directions in Mumbai

Because nobody knows what the street names are. Or which direction (E-W/N-S) they run. Everybody goes by these really absurd landmark-based instructions like "Turn left at the second signal after the big lotus shaped petrol^* station". Sometimes the directions require prior knowledge: "Do you know where Lilavati Hospital is? Right. There's a church adjacent to it, across from which is a lane, with a bank on the left. Across the street from the bank is the building you want".

We're doomed. No matter how much research you put into it, I just don't think directions like "Make a u-turn after you pass the wall with the paan^* stain that looks like the Virgin Mary" is something an algorithm can spit out.

^*For my American readers^H: petrol=gasoline; paan=chewing tobacco;

Tags: rant, google, maps

SES @ NYC

All of last week, I was at the Big Apple for the Search Engine Strategies conference.

• Black-hats' tongues get a little looser after they've slathered some alcohol over it. Doubly so if they have to impress a female colleague.
• Talk about a small world. As soon as I landed, I called Dhiren (friend from high-school, now in NY/NJ) and told him I'd be there for SES. His answer: "Really?! We have a booth there!". Sweet. Managed to hook up with him, catch up with his dad and brother, and meet the lovely Esther. Btw, his brother was one of the guys heading up Morgan Stanley's handling of Google's IPO.
• Vanessa and I went to this Egyptian restaurant on Wednesday. She laughed at me slipping money into the moving targets which were the belly-dancer's hips, and I had my turn when she was picked to dance with her.
• Central Park is pretty in the morning. Especially when it snows.
  

Unfortunately, I was too busy to catch any jazz. Next time.

Tags: travel, google, friends

Huh.

Where I work is a pretty strange place... I just took a pee next to Al Gore.

Tags: google

WebmasterWorld PubCon @ Vegas

So it's been a busy couple of weeks since the last post. This week I spent 2.5 days in Vegas attending the WebmasterWorld PubCon. This is primarily a gathering of webmasters and SEO (search engine optimization) practitioners that get together a couple of times a year to swap tips and war stories. Matt and I were there to find out anything we should've known that we didn't.

The conference sessions themselves are fairly uninteresting. The fun is in chatting with everyone over drinks till 2am. That's when the juicy information gets spilled. There's a fly in the ointment though. Ever since Jayita's been taking CalTrain up into San Francisco every morning, I've gotten into this really nice schedule of waking up at 6:30am. On the dot. No matter what time I've gone to sleep. You get the picture. By the time I was back (Friday afternoon), I was a sleep-deprived zombie.

By the way, I have to plug the hotel that we were at; the Renaissance. What I loved about this place was that it felt like we weren't in Vegas anymore. It didn't have those damned slot machines beeping and booping all over the place, and to cap it off, it has an awesome steak house, and was across the street from both the convention center and the monorail (if you're really desperate to hit the strip). If I'm ever unfortunate enough to go to Vegas again, I'm staying there.

Tags: travel, google