7 ms·

What I find interesting here is that Benson is essentially using his employer as a reputation guarantor. I guess depending on the company's HR that could fall

What I find interesting here is that Benson is essentially using his employer as a reputation guarantor. I guess depending on the company's HR that could fall either way of a) This is great, we're getting nice PR b) Mr Benson, we need to have a quiet word about what it is you do here and what Google is not in the business of. Really interesting. edit: I assumed this is part of his job. I just find the publishing of the result along with Google's name interesting. If/when I evaluate software for a solution as part of my job, I wouldnt dream of publishing my findings and referencing my employer - but I like what Benson has done.

zymhan 11y ago
I'm willing to bet he was assigned to test a variety of cables on the market, and probably to leave the reviews as well.
merb 11y ago
I think he needs to do this as his work. I mean seriously who would buy usb adapter cables worth more than 1000 USD just to write reviews?
- bdcravens 11y ago
  Depends on whose card he is using.
ryan-c 11y ago
My assumption is that he's working on some sort of project where he's buying many cables on Google's dime to test them, then reporting his results on Amazon. My worry would be the cables that get good reviews being switched out for crappy cables down the line. I've had problems with this for cables and adapters before - I'll re-order from Amazon and get a slightly different product that is not 100% compatible with the old one.
- gaius 11y ago
  It's tech support for Nexus customers.
- oneeyedpigeon 11y ago
  Isn't there some kind of SKU/ISBN-like identifier that you could use to prevent that? Enforcing consistency would be tricky, but there should be certain quantifiable properties, especially when proper specifications are involved, to rate against.
  - duskwuff 11y ago
    Unfortunately, there is not. Amazon will often group similar unbranded products together under the same ASIN. (This was a particularly serious issue for Arduino a few years ago, when Amazon started listing genuine Arduino products under the same ASIN as third-party clones: https://blog.arduino.cc/2013/07/10/send-in-the-clones/ https://blog.arduino.cc/2013/07/10/send-in-the-clones/)
  - ryan-c 11y ago
    Even large, US-based companies sometimes change stuff without updating the SKU. This was a huge problem back in the day with getting WiFi adapters that worked in Linux - I've seen chipsets changed out without updating the SKU, even as far as chipset brand. If you were lucky, there'd be a hardware revision listed on the product near the serial number, but sometimes not even that. I think this has happened with a lot of the RTL-SDR adapters as well.
  - czinck 11y ago
    As a more dramatic example of companies changing the product without changing the SKU/whatever, the faulty GM ignition switches were changed mid-production (from the bad design) without an update to the product serial number. Confused some of the engineers investigating it at first.
- esaym 11y ago
  Or pretty much anything on amazon has that happen. Most recently a "good ol' American made" can opener turned out to be a cheap China counterfeit: https://www.amazon.com/review/R3MJPDPNRM9HXR https://www.amazon.com/review/R3MJPDPNRM9HXR
  - Obi_Juan_Kenobi 11y ago
    I'd be pretty surprised if you couldn't return it.
nerfhammer 11y ago
Might be doing this officially for Google, given the official-sounding tone and the amount of time and money it must take to buy and analyze every adapter/cable on the market.
JustSomeNobody 11y ago
Yet, if we go to a conference and Benson The Google Engineer is there and we happen to find out he's been testing cables and we ask which cables he finds to be the best, it's OK.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
_wmd 11y ago
This is very common among Googlers, and it bugs me because so many buy into it without further question, but in every case here, the reviewer also includes a detailed analysis describing how he came to his conclusion, rather than merely implying authority, and his reference to Google seems only to be in his capacity as working on a product team that might explicitly care about quality of accessories in a first generation technology (if USB PD can still be considered in its first-gen phase). Would not be surprised at all if he expensed every single one of these purchases. He's doing God's work, we shouldn't be complaining here. :)
- radiorental 11y ago
  I'm not complaining at all. I just find it interesting that at one organisation this 'reporting-out' is accepted if not proactively encouraged. A more old school organisation might come down hard on an employee. Depends on how busy the HR dept is I guess.
  - briandear 11y ago
    This might actually be part of his job. Why would HR have anything to say about it? Engineers do tech conferences as 'employee of XYZ,' how are product reviews any different, assuming they're in context?
- voltagex_ 11y ago
  Once devices start pulling 100w, doesn't it also become a safety issue?
mesozoic 11y ago
I would think it's probably sponsored in that they want their customers who buy cables for their pixel and Google stuff from Amazon to have a good experience and actually get working stuff.
Splines 11y ago
> If/when I evaluate software for a solution as part of my job, I wouldnt dream of publishing my findings and referencing my employer - but I like what Benson has done. I think that's the whole point - for Google to chime in on cable quality so that customers know what to buy for their Google devices. I'm guessing that Google saw that a large percentage of their customer support issues were caused by poor cable quality, and that most of their customers bought their cable from Amazon. This seems like a way for Google to pre-empt that customer support cost by making sure their customers are buying cables that they know are good. Most of the time other companies hand-wave their way around this problem by offering 1st-party cables (usually at a fairly high price).
jshen 11y ago
Yes, this is a giant NO NO at most big companies.
eloisant 11y ago
Actually this post explains why he's doing that: https://plus.google.com/+BensonLeung/posts/LH4PPgVrKVN https://plus.google.com/+BensonLeung/posts/LH4PPgVrKVN It kind of makes sense: he worked on products that use USB-C (Pixel laptops), but if the market is littered with bad cables USB-C will have a bad image which will be bad for the products he worked on. So what he's doing is in the interest in his employer, and for the benefit of the products he worked on. He's not doing completely unrelated stuff, like reviewing routers while claiming "I work for Google so I know how shit works!" Additionally he's preventing Pixel owners (Google customers) from buying bad cables on Amazon then blaming Google because the laptop doesn't charge. So it really looks like he's doing his job.
- radiorental 11y ago
  I understand the rationale, but isn't the current s.o.p. to ship a good cable with the product? "if the market is littered with bad cables USB-C will have a bad image which will be bad for the products he worked on." I don't buy this tail wagging the dog argument. Sorry.
  - vacri 11y ago
    People frequently buy multiple cables for various reasons. For example, I have three microUSB cables for my phone, which only came with one - for charging at my home computer, work computer, and in my laptop bag.
    - Turing_Machine 11y ago
      I do the exact same thing. Keeping one at home, one at work, and one in the bag means one less thing to worry about leaving behind/not having when you need it.
  - vidarh 11y ago
    I don't see why shipping a good cable with the product makes a difference. My house is full of USB chargers, because I want to be able to charge multiple devices several places in the living room as well as our bedrooms. Then there's the portable battery packs etc. One cable per device is insufficient for a lot of us.
cbsmith 11y ago
At least for me, the Google name adds zero credibility (nobody can tell if you are a dog, or unemployed, on the Internet). The detail of his reviews, and their high rating, is what sells it for me. That there is a plausible explanation for why he's doing it is just icing on the cake.
at-fates-hands 11y ago
I actually had the same reaction. He has a vested interest in pushing specific vendors that work well with his employers products. This means because of his reputation (Google engineer) it's easy for him to dismiss one cable manufacturer and support another while getting some form of a kickback either directly or indirectly from said manufacturers. Sure, he's doing his job, but he's also in the position to pick and choose winners. As such, I would discount his advice based on the possible bias towards products that could possibly line his own pockets.
- fnordfnordfnord 11y ago
  >This means because of his reputation (Google engineer) it's easy for him to dismiss one cable manufacturer and support another while getting some form of a kickback either directly or indirectly from said manufacturers. That's always a risk, but I think it is more of a risk having used his real profile and Google affiliation. On the face of it, I want to think that Google pays Benson well enough that he needn't go tell lies on Amazon as a side job. >As such, I would discount his advice based on the possible bias towards products that could possibly line his own pockets. This isn't like for example "audiophile" cable reviews where people just make crap up in ambiguous terms hoping to sell a thousand-plus dollar pair of speaker cables knowing full well that no one can argue sensibly about the warmness/depth/color/scent of the sound. He pretty clearly explains his major complaint being the lack of a proper 56k pullup so that the cable identifies itself correctly. This is testable by almost anyone. It makes very little sense to publicly tell a lie that can be verified so trivially.
georgemcbay 11y ago
bradfitz has this pretty famous video "review" (of sorts) of Nest fire alarms: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpsMkLaEiOY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpsMkLaEiOY The review is extremely negative, explicitly telling people not to buy Nest products. Those are (and were at the time of that video) a Google product, as Google acquired Nest in 2014. Brad still works at Google. I'm sure Benson will be fine.
blakeyrat 11y ago
I used to test Xbox 360 network connectivity, during which we'd regularly buy consumer routers, hubs, and switches and ensure compatibility with Xbox 360's network stack. (There were different types of NAT which could cause problems, and some had problems with low MTUs.) It never occurred to me, or anybody else working in the lab as far as I know, to post the results of our testing on Amazon reviews. We just did the testing. Huh.
- tracker1 11y ago
  Seems to me having stuff like this is a good thing... I think a lot of headaches could have been averted had you been able to, or advised to do likewise in posting reviews in common sales channels (Amazon, Newegg, etc).
chengiz 11y ago
I find the willingness of Google to put their name of this very interesting. This does not seem to be a "my views are mine alone and not my employer's" thing. I wonder about the ethical and legal aspects of this. What stops Google from bashing Microsoft products this way? What happens if he makes a mistake in testing, and the loss in reputation causes a small company to go out of business?
- ForHackernews 11y ago
  > What happens if he makes a mistake in testing, and the loss in reputation causes a small company to go out of business? What about it? I'm sure Google makes minor changes to their search algorithm that drive small companies into bankruptcy all the time.
tracker1 11y ago
I would think this is appropriate disclosure, and probably part of the job... to say "this is great" or "this sucks" without disclosing that you were paid to review the product and/or the context it's unethical. This is entirely ethical, and the context is stated clearly... I think it's great.

zymhan 11y ago

I'm willing to bet he was assigned to test a variety of cables on the market, and probably to leave the reviews as well.

merb 11y ago

I think he needs to do this as his work. I mean seriously who would buy usb adapter cables worth more than 1000 USD just to write reviews?

bdcravens 11y ago
Depends on whose card he is using.

ryan-c 11y ago

My assumption is that he's working on some sort of project where he's buying many cables on Google's dime to test them, then reporting his results on Amazon. My worry would be the cables that get good reviews being switched out for crappy cables down the line. I've had problems with this for cables and adapters before - I'll re-order from Amazon and get a slightly different product that is not 100% compatible with the old one.

gaius 11y ago
It's tech support for Nexus customers.
oneeyedpigeon 11y ago
Isn't there some kind of SKU/ISBN-like identifier that you could use to prevent that? Enforcing consistency would be tricky, but there should be certain quantifiable properties, especially when proper specifications are involved, to rate against.
- duskwuff 11y ago
  Unfortunately, there is not. Amazon will often group similar unbranded products together under the same ASIN. (This was a particularly serious issue for Arduino a few years ago, when Amazon started listing genuine Arduino products under the same ASIN as third-party clones: https://blog.arduino.cc/2013/07/10/send-in-the-clones/ https://blog.arduino.cc/2013/07/10/send-in-the-clones/)
- ryan-c 11y ago
  Even large, US-based companies sometimes change stuff without updating the SKU. This was a huge problem back in the day with getting WiFi adapters that worked in Linux - I've seen chipsets changed out without updating the SKU, even as far as chipset brand. If you were lucky, there'd be a hardware revision listed on the product near the serial number, but sometimes not even that. I think this has happened with a lot of the RTL-SDR adapters as well.
- czinck 11y ago
  As a more dramatic example of companies changing the product without changing the SKU/whatever, the faulty GM ignition switches were changed mid-production (from the bad design) without an update to the product serial number. Confused some of the engineers investigating it at first.
esaym 11y ago
Or pretty much anything on amazon has that happen. Most recently a "good ol' American made" can opener turned out to be a cheap China counterfeit: https://www.amazon.com/review/R3MJPDPNRM9HXR https://www.amazon.com/review/R3MJPDPNRM9HXR
- Obi_Juan_Kenobi 11y ago
  I'd be pretty surprised if you couldn't return it.

nerfhammer 11y ago

Might be doing this officially for Google, given the official-sounding tone and the amount of time and money it must take to buy and analyze every adapter/cable on the market.

JustSomeNobody 11y ago

Yet, if we go to a conference and Benson The Google Engineer is there and we happen to find out he's been testing cables and we ask which cables he finds to be the best, it's OK.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

_wmd 11y ago

This is very common among Googlers, and it bugs me because so many buy into it without further question, but in every case here, the reviewer also includes a detailed analysis describing how he came to his conclusion, rather than merely implying authority, and his reference to Google seems only to be in his capacity as working on a product team that might explicitly care about quality of accessories in a first generation technology (if USB PD can still be considered in its first-gen phase). Would not be surprised at all if he expensed every single one of these purchases. He's doing God's work, we shouldn't be complaining here. :)

radiorental 11y ago
I'm not complaining at all. I just find it interesting that at one organisation this 'reporting-out' is accepted if not proactively encouraged. A more old school organisation might come down hard on an employee. Depends on how busy the HR dept is I guess.
- briandear 11y ago
  This might actually be part of his job. Why would HR have anything to say about it? Engineers do tech conferences as 'employee of XYZ,' how are product reviews any different, assuming they're in context?
voltagex_ 11y ago
Once devices start pulling 100w, doesn't it also become a safety issue?

mesozoic 11y ago

I would think it's probably sponsored in that they want their customers who buy cables for their pixel and Google stuff from Amazon to have a good experience and actually get working stuff.

Splines 11y ago

> If/when I evaluate software for a solution as part of my job, I wouldnt dream of publishing my findings and referencing my employer - but I like what Benson has done. I think that's the whole point - for Google to chime in on cable quality so that customers know what to buy for their Google devices. I'm guessing that Google saw that a large percentage of their customer support issues were caused by poor cable quality, and that most of their customers bought their cable from Amazon. This seems like a way for Google to pre-empt that customer support cost by making sure their customers are buying cables that they know are good. Most of the time other companies hand-wave their way around this problem by offering 1st-party cables (usually at a fairly high price).

jshen 11y ago

Yes, this is a giant NO NO at most big companies.

eloisant 11y ago

Actually this post explains why he's doing that: https://plus.google.com/+BensonLeung/posts/LH4PPgVrKVN https://plus.google.com/+BensonLeung/posts/LH4PPgVrKVN It kind of makes sense: he worked on products that use USB-C (Pixel laptops), but if the market is littered with bad cables USB-C will have a bad image which will be bad for the products he worked on. So what he's doing is in the interest in his employer, and for the benefit of the products he worked on. He's not doing completely unrelated stuff, like reviewing routers while claiming "I work for Google so I know how shit works!" Additionally he's preventing Pixel owners (Google customers) from buying bad cables on Amazon then blaming Google because the laptop doesn't charge. So it really looks like he's doing his job.

radiorental 11y ago
I understand the rationale, but isn't the current s.o.p. to ship a good cable with the product? "if the market is littered with bad cables USB-C will have a bad image which will be bad for the products he worked on." I don't buy this tail wagging the dog argument. Sorry.
- vacri 11y ago
  People frequently buy multiple cables for various reasons. For example, I have three microUSB cables for my phone, which only came with one - for charging at my home computer, work computer, and in my laptop bag.
  - Turing_Machine 11y ago
    I do the exact same thing. Keeping one at home, one at work, and one in the bag means one less thing to worry about leaving behind/not having when you need it.
- vidarh 11y ago
  I don't see why shipping a good cable with the product makes a difference. My house is full of USB chargers, because I want to be able to charge multiple devices several places in the living room as well as our bedrooms. Then there's the portable battery packs etc. One cable per device is insufficient for a lot of us.

cbsmith 11y ago

At least for me, the Google name adds zero credibility (nobody can tell if you are a dog, or unemployed, on the Internet). The detail of his reviews, and their high rating, is what sells it for me. That there is a plausible explanation for why he's doing it is just icing on the cake.

at-fates-hands 11y ago

I actually had the same reaction. He has a vested interest in pushing specific vendors that work well with his employers products. This means because of his reputation (Google engineer) it's easy for him to dismiss one cable manufacturer and support another while getting some form of a kickback either directly or indirectly from said manufacturers. Sure, he's doing his job, but he's also in the position to pick and choose winners. As such, I would discount his advice based on the possible bias towards products that could possibly line his own pockets.

fnordfnordfnord 11y ago
>This means because of his reputation (Google engineer) it's easy for him to dismiss one cable manufacturer and support another while getting some form of a kickback either directly or indirectly from said manufacturers. That's always a risk, but I think it is more of a risk having used his real profile and Google affiliation. On the face of it, I want to think that Google pays Benson well enough that he needn't go tell lies on Amazon as a side job. >As such, I would discount his advice based on the possible bias towards products that could possibly line his own pockets. This isn't like for example "audiophile" cable reviews where people just make crap up in ambiguous terms hoping to sell a thousand-plus dollar pair of speaker cables knowing full well that no one can argue sensibly about the warmness/depth/color/scent of the sound. He pretty clearly explains his major complaint being the lack of a proper 56k pullup so that the cable identifies itself correctly. This is testable by almost anyone. It makes very little sense to publicly tell a lie that can be verified so trivially.

georgemcbay 11y ago

bradfitz has this pretty famous video "review" (of sorts) of Nest fire alarms: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpsMkLaEiOY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpsMkLaEiOY The review is extremely negative, explicitly telling people not to buy Nest products. Those are (and were at the time of that video) a Google product, as Google acquired Nest in 2014. Brad still works at Google. I'm sure Benson will be fine.

blakeyrat 11y ago

I used to test Xbox 360 network connectivity, during which we'd regularly buy consumer routers, hubs, and switches and ensure compatibility with Xbox 360's network stack. (There were different types of NAT which could cause problems, and some had problems with low MTUs.) It never occurred to me, or anybody else working in the lab as far as I know, to post the results of our testing on Amazon reviews. We just did the testing. Huh.

tracker1 11y ago
Seems to me having stuff like this is a good thing... I think a lot of headaches could have been averted had you been able to, or advised to do likewise in posting reviews in common sales channels (Amazon, Newegg, etc).

chengiz 11y ago

I find the willingness of Google to put their name of this very interesting. This does not seem to be a "my views are mine alone and not my employer's" thing. I wonder about the ethical and legal aspects of this. What stops Google from bashing Microsoft products this way? What happens if he makes a mistake in testing, and the loss in reputation causes a small company to go out of business?

ForHackernews 11y ago
> What happens if he makes a mistake in testing, and the loss in reputation causes a small company to go out of business? What about it? I'm sure Google makes minor changes to their search algorithm that drive small companies into bankruptcy all the time.

tracker1 11y ago

I would think this is appropriate disclosure, and probably part of the job... to say "this is great" or "this sucks" without disclosing that you were paid to review the product and/or the context it's unethical. This is entirely ethical, and the context is stated clearly... I think it's great.