New Google service: Streetview!

Well its not so much a new service altogether, but a huge addition to the existing Google Map service. On selected Cities throughout the US you can now navigate through cities and get a photographic view of what the area looks like, and you can even turn a full 360 degrees! You simply navigate around the maps with the little guy i have circled in red, and up pops a photo of the area.

I really think this is an amazing new feature that brings the maps to life and gives real entertainment, another notch on the belt for the the serial innovators up in Mountain View CA.

Hats off to you fine sirs!

The pic I have there is of the Apple shop I visited while in New York not too long ago, on the left of the photo is the entrance to Central Park.... oh the memories.

Google madness

I get a fair few hits from google.com everyday through various searches that end up being somewhat related to my articles. However when looking though the links to my blog, I noticed that I feature…extremely high for some pretty general searches. Below are some examples of where Cube rates.

1. Bebo addiction problem - 4th out of 110,000
2. Randy couture ufc - 9th out of 334,000
3. Guinness Ad Africa - 4th out of 611,000
4. (my personal fave) Wrong place wrong time - 7th out of 116,000,000

The importance of a 2nd opinion

Google like to play around with their logo and often make pretty cool topical versions, like snow covered for xmas etc. However yesterday the logo was different, so much so that in fact the logo did not even say google anymore, however it did say "GOOGE"... As Seth Godin put it "Id like to buy a consonant please".

I think this can teach us mere mortals a few lessons

1. even if you think what you have created/designed/written is perfect, and that you dont need someone to recheck it for you. YOU DO. The goog incident really would have been quite easy to avoid.


2. Also not to get over elaborate with decoration to the point of losing focus of what the actual matter at hand is. This can be seen by people who over format essays/presentations to the point where the core message is blurred.


3. Some people are silly

Faces of Success

McDonalds, Apple, YouTube, Goooooogle

Life at the Googleplex

Browsing through the pages of Fortune online magazine, I see that google has been awarded the best place to work in the US, it is general consensus that Google are pioneers in re-engineering the work environment taking the maxim "happy workers are hard workers" to the extreme.

The head offices in America are in California in a place called the "googleplex" and boast a host of features to keep those engineers happy and creative, a few of my personal favorites are...

1. Everyone without exception gets a valet car service when they arrive at work, pretty nifty huh?


2. Once you get out of your car, and watch it driven away you then enter the building under heated tents, wouldn't want to catch a chill.


3. For your lunch, free lunch, you can choose from a selection of gourmet food made by the resident chef.


4. After lunch why not avail of a free body massage, you might need it after your midday volleyball game.


5. Scooters to get around, curling irons for your hair, toothbrushes, umbrellas and a bidet in the bathroom.... i could go on.

Don't know about you but i think that's a fairly cool place to work, and from their performance i think that it has shown that as loony as they seem, Google seem to have hit the spot with these workplace niceties