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My friends often joke that I've "drunk the Coolaid." In my reviews at work, one of the positive qualities that's often mentioned by my peers and managers is my enthusiasm for Google as a company. I actually think of myself as a Google fanatic.
Why? Because when I was growing up I watched Star Trek and read tons of scifi. In the world of the future, the flow of information is paramount in any successful society. I see Google as the kind of place that's going to shape that future.
But the world has real problems right now. Hurricane sized problems. Google has done two incredible things to address the devastation left in the wake of Katrina:
GOOGLE MAPS & EARTH: Our mapping products, found at http://maps.google.com and http://earth.google.com, present highly detailed imagery of the affected areas. The Earth team worked around the clock as soon as aerial and satellite imagery became available. This data is being actively used by workers on the ground to coordinate rescues and plan repair efforts.
GOOGLE WEB SEARCH: The product I work the most on, our web search results, has just launched a special Katrina page at http://www.google.com/katrina.html. This page offers you the ability to search for specific information about Katrina from across a lot of important Katrina-related websites. We've also aggregated data from many major Katrina-related missing persons databases, so you can search our people finder and hopefully learn something about someone you're having trouble locating.
These are some of the fastest services that Google has ever rushed into production. I only wish it was possible for us to be faster. I'll be standing by tomorrow to provide our users assistance. I'm proud to be a Googler.
Why? Because when I was growing up I watched Star Trek and read tons of scifi. In the world of the future, the flow of information is paramount in any successful society. I see Google as the kind of place that's going to shape that future.
But the world has real problems right now. Hurricane sized problems. Google has done two incredible things to address the devastation left in the wake of Katrina:
GOOGLE MAPS & EARTH: Our mapping products, found at http://maps.google.com and http://earth.google.com, present highly detailed imagery of the affected areas. The Earth team worked around the clock as soon as aerial and satellite imagery became available. This data is being actively used by workers on the ground to coordinate rescues and plan repair efforts.
GOOGLE WEB SEARCH: The product I work the most on, our web search results, has just launched a special Katrina page at http://www.google.com/katrina.html. This page offers you the ability to search for specific information about Katrina from across a lot of important Katrina-related websites. We've also aggregated data from many major Katrina-related missing persons databases, so you can search our people finder and hopefully learn something about someone you're having trouble locating.
These are some of the fastest services that Google has ever rushed into production. I only wish it was possible for us to be faster. I'll be standing by tomorrow to provide our users assistance. I'm proud to be a Googler.
