Anyone here work for google? (1 Viewer)

[MilanPan!c]

The arse won't fall out of google for a long long time.

As for them being, "scary". All businesses try the same invasive shit. Google pays lip service to being different, but companies can't afford to have to many ethics, so...

I prefer to google to, say, HP, as at least they feel that pushing new shit out constantly is part of their ethos and are smart enough to realise tha taking some chances (eg wave) is actually sound business.

 

[rettucs]

The arse won't fall out of google for a long long time.

As for them being, "scary". All businesses try the same invasive shit. Google pays lip service to being different, but companies can't afford to have to many ethics, so...

I prefer to google to, say, HP, as at least they feel that pushing new shit out constantly is part of their ethos and are smart enough to realise tha taking some chances (eg wave) is actually sound business.

ok I'm wrong and I apologise

sorry google. you're great

 

[egg_]

Whoa! Have you guys got some negative history?

scutter - android by is the most common smartphone OS, afaik, so they actually have a big hold of the device market even if they're not actually selling hardware. The big difference between them and dot-com era bubble companies is that they're making money, and fucking tons of it - 2.5 billion profit last year.

 

[rettucs]

Whoa! Have you guys got some negative history?

@scutter - android by is the most common smartphone OS, afaik, so they actually have a big hold of the device market even if they're not actually selling hardware. The big difference between them and dot-com era bubble companies is that they're making money, and fucking tons of it - 2.5 billion profit last year.

people buy phones for the phone though, moreso necessarily than whats running on it. Most people wouldn't be aware theres a choice of OSes per se and would rather think that the features on each are actually features of the phone rather than the OS itself.

Android is starting to bring in good money for them alright, but thats one of the first revenue source coming from something they developed themselves. They did once make money off their search engines (by customising them for 3rd parties), but the majority of their revenue is still internet sales and advertising. They're yet to really pioneer anything. Moreso, they're taking whats already there any are trying to make it better.

 

[egg_]

Anyway, that's all irrelevant from an employee perspective really - I would like to know more about the experience of the player on the pitch, not what the dressing rooms are like or whether the spectators like the team

Do you get respected/rewarded for doing a good job? Do you get to work on interesting problems? When you're feeling satisfied with something you've done do management come to you and say "actually, that wasn't what we wanted after all, even though it's what we asked for - put it back the way it was"? Is there a career path for techies that doesn't involve becoming a manager, where you maybe move beyond day-to-day engineering and get to ponder stuff that hasn't been done before?

 

[rettucs]

they grill you in the interview anyway. You'd better be au fait with complex algorithms and know how to implement linked lists, etc on the spot.

they do have this initial pre-interview thing which I quite like. They ask you to rate yourself in certain areas. Based on that they follow a path (eg: sys admin, dev type stuff, systems type stuff). They'll ask 3 questions and if you get those right they'll describe some job openings they'll think you suited for. At that point they'll arrange to bring you in. I didn't fancy any of the stuff they described so never got to go into their fancy office. I had expected a grilling and an inevitable capitulation on my part if I had have though.

 

[egg_]

You'd better be au fait with complex algorithms and know how to implement linked lists, etc on the spot

Ah yeah, that's the thing - I don't know shit about computer science. Just wondering if google is a good enough place to work to make learning that shit worth my while

... or whether I'd be better off writing a million-selling android app. Or working on a Stoat song, or my new hip-hop act, which is what I actually feel like doing

 

[rettucs]

http://www.google.ie/intl/en/jobs/dublin/

there you go. Have a gander.

 

[Anthem]

Google it and you'll find out. Hey I'll save you the bother..here's the link : http://thumped.com/bbs/showthread.php?84430-Anyone-here-work-for-google

 

[billygannon]

 

[Diumraid]

@ Egg
My tuppence-worth on Google ethics
What Google is doing relates to the idea I was trying to sell to you some time ago about how 'they' continually seek to isolate people more and more in order to sell to us more effectively. Google uses personal information it has about its users, not only to market directly to the person, but it also tailoring search results according to the type of person it determines the user to be; if you're clearly libertarian then a lot of left-wing flavoured search results will not appear as highly in your search result as it would with a more obviously socially-minded user. This means that while we continue to tap into the idea of the web as the great frontier land where all the pineers have the same opportunities, it's becoming less and less so. The so-called 'filter bubble' means that you can no longer trust the search engine as a neutral factor, but rather as an editor that has been assigned to you to bring you what you supposedly want ('they' don't want consumers who are confused by actual choice), and instead of uniting people the web is moving toward isolating them even more. [User] + Google + Facebook + credit card = score!
Love over gold.

 

[old]

Isn't that what everyone's after these days? Loads of SFI funding go to places like http://kdeg.cs.tcd.ie/ for research on personalisation.

 

[egg_]

tailoring search results according to the type of person it determines the user to be

Haha

It doesn't determine what type of person you are dude. It just records what sites in the search results a user of that particular browser on that particular machine clicks on, and as patterns are established pushes those up the list

The net effect might be kinda the same, but they're not "bring[ing] you what you supposedly want", they're giving you what you have shown that you actually want. It's purely data driven, and I suspect they're doing it to try and improve their product and not in an effort to isolate us more

 

[billygannon]

In many ways, we are all working for Google.

 

[rettucs]

Haha

It doesn't determine what type of person you are dude. It just records what sites in the search results a user of that particular browser on that particular machine clicks on, and as patterns are established pushes those up the list

The net effect might be kinda the same, but they're not "bring[ing] you what you supposedly want", they're giving you what you have shown that you actually want. It's purely data driven, and I suspect they're doing it to try and improve their product and not in an effort to isolate us more

that'd be all well and good if that was the extent of the information they were gathering. I mean, use their site, they'll collate your usage patterns and try and be more intelligent about your future usage based on your past usage. Thats fair enough, and quite clever really. But they go beyond that. With google desktop they're indexing everything on your hard drive. They're gathering info about every web click, not just to their websites, and worst of all, they're snooping peoples wi-fi to gather even more info that; a) you don't know about, and b) you wouldn't want them to if you did know about.

Its all a little unethical for my liking. Theres no transparency. They're out to completely take over the internet because by doing so they know they'll be a position of great power (which no doubt they'll continue to abuse).

 

[egg_]

I'd say google's master plan is to get enough dirt on everyone so it can blackmail the whole world

 

[Theseus Mock]

I saw a Facebook update from a google mate about the presence of google hairdresser. I must ask if they get their laundry done like yer Ma would do during the college years.

 

[pete]

Google uses 57 criteria specific to you to filter your results in an effort to make them better and more applicable to you. When you're searching for entertainment this is probably a good thing, but when you're searching for news or any kind of information you might be missing out on results filtered out by things like your location, the browser you're using, and the links you click on. Google isn't alone, as Facebook and Yahoo (among others) pay attention to this kind of information as well.

http://lifehacker.com/5814100/the-p...e-search-results-and-what-you-can-do-about-it

 

[Anarcho Munk]

http://lifehacker.com/5814100/the-p...e-search-results-and-what-you-can-do-about-it

I find Scroogle to be quite effective.

http://www.scroogle.org/

 

[Pedronimus]

ponder stuff that hasn't been done before?

So you wanna be the guy who decides what the logo should be on special occasions?


Also, is Google more evil than Microsoft now?