Friday, November 19, 2010

Matt Cutts: What Would You Do if You Were Google CEO?


Matt Cutts, made a very interesting blog post that got a little over a hundred comments.

What would you do if you became Google CEO for a day?

It's a double edged sword of a question that's both dangerous and exciting at the same time. Needless to say, the amount of comments reflect the huge dearth of interest for many people. To be sure, the comments that were in the blog post were mostly about innovative and humorous ideas:

Here are some of them:

1. A lie detector. -Flavin
2. Car inventory database. -Deidre Drewes
3. Self driving flying cars -Adam Willis
4. Involvement with One laptop per child -Josh Gachnang
5. A Google banking service -Roch
6. Analytics into the products we use everyday that impact our wellbeing -Scott Cowley
7. Google Ombudsman for Google products -Lauren Weinstein
8. Increased sponsorship of Open Source Projects -Rob Heittman

and many more...

There are many "change the world ideas" that most people can only dream about.

Matt, had to jump in and say,

"I don’t want stuff so blue sky (e.g. solving all energy problems) that we’re not even sure whether it’s possible."


A recurring suggestion is the provision of tech support for Google products which Google doesn't seem to be paying much attention to. Two words, "Customer Service". Usually, if you have a Google related problem, go read a wiki or something and fix it on your own in Google Groups.

Some suggestions are downright funny

1. Upgrade the Google Campus with racquetball courts.
2. Found its own country
3. Create a new alphabet
4. Remove facebook from SERPs
5. Retire and start a crack addiction
6. Start Google Streetview for subways
7. Like #2, Found the Google State
8. Google currency

Still, there are some that are technical like:

1. Add Server Name Indication for every browser
2. Quantum computing

Business minded...

1. Purchase Adobe Business Catalyst
2. Buy facebook
3. Pay myself a massive dividend
4. Reduce the importance of backlinks

Useful...

1. Fund Wikipedia
2. Cross Client - Cross Platform Video Chat
3. Open Source textbooks
4. Google docs improvement
5. Searchable wayback machine

Hopeful

1. Cure Cancer

Insightful...

1. Sean Lind November 18, 2010 at 12:52 pm


I’m sorry Matt, but I think this question is kind of greasy (although I highly doubt that was the intention).
My issue is this:
If someone suggests a truly remarkable idea, something which Google takes and adapts into a full-scale offering, Google (one of the largest companies in the world) is simply poaching this idea from the thread.



Jill Whalen November 18, 2010 at 2:30 pm
I would sell off every business unit that didn’t have to do with search, and put all that extra man/womanpower into figuring out how to really and truly show the best search results, rather than the most spammed results.

and many more...

Personally, I find the bulk of the comments entertaining. Yet I offered something which might give him pause, I asked him,


"Why?"

Every Google user has his or her own idea and fantasy about how they would run Google should they become the CEO. The technical types gave innovations, the business minded gave business oriented suggestions, the slackers gave their slacker answer, the dreamers gave their dreamy answers and so on and so forth.

So that's why I decided to be unique and ask a question. Why? Are these ideas going to come to fruition, or is Sean Lind right in asking if Google is just out there poaching for ideas?

Well, having read Matt Cutts blog for a long time, I would surmise that he meant it for fun - as a game, so I didn't really feel the need to give my world changing idea in the hopes that Matt Cutts or Google would listen.

In the real world, having an outsider be a CEO of a large corporation for a day, even for just a token measure, is dangerous. Every company has its own rules and it would take more than a day to get to know them all, both written and unwritten.

It's a proposition that could either sink a ship or bring it to uncharted waters where no Googler has gone before.

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