3 ms·

How many employees does Google have? What precisely are a few emails from employees supposed to show about the company? I mean, seriously WSJ. What if some em

How many employees does Google have? What precisely are a few emails from employees supposed to show about the company? I mean, seriously WSJ. What if some employees sent around emails saying they approved of cannibalism, would people be like "Google is about to start eating humans!"

koolba 8y ago
Depends on which ones. There was that video of the all hands with some of their senior leadership literally crying when Trump got elected. If it includes one of them, either directly or looking the other way, it could be a big deal.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
mc32 8y ago
Imagine there was an email thread on how to dampen search results for Chinese ops in Tibet or Xinjiang because to many staff from China this was offensive, would that just be swept aside? Oh, just a few employees and it never went into production...
- komali2 8y ago
  Wait, I thought Google will comply with Chinese censorship rules? Isn't that what "Phoenix" was all about?
  - mc32 8y ago
    That’s different. That’s about tailoring results to conform with Chinese authorities in order to operate in China. My hypothetical example was random employees at the MTV campus emailing ideas to influence US SERPs to propagate their PoV on a political issue they have an interest in.
- qubax 8y ago
  It's ridiculous how the exact same people going crazy over china's "digital dictatorship" will defend "digital dictatorship" here as long as it aligns with their own biases and agenda. I guess ideals and principles are not important anymore. What's even more absurd is that people have the gall to defend this behavior on HN.
theDoug 8y ago
Number of employees was 89,058 as of June 30, 2018. This does not include temps, vendors, or contractors. And in my experience as a current employee, it sure seems so. Just as someone who left years ago can juice attention and their job prospects by writing a Medium.com post or making a YouTube video referencing once working at Google, it's increasingly tedious to see anything done internally, most of which is kind of boring, reported with excitement. But again, congratulations to whatever dumb leaker wanted to make a point out of some random email this week. Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1652044/000165204418000027/goog10-qq22018.htm https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1652044/000165204418...
127 8y ago
It's not a secret, after the leaks, that the highest levels of Google are very anti-Trump.
habosa 8y ago
This. I work at Google, although I have no idea about this particular situation. Pick any major event, internal or external. If you look around company forums (mailing lists, Google+, memes, etc) you will invariably see 10+ people voicing opinions that are dumb if not outright illegal. It doesn't mean that Google is ever going to _do_ any of those things. It's the result of having 100,000 people who all think they're smart and are never told they can't speak out. So I would not be at all surprised if a few of the 100,000 employees suggested tweaking search to do X or Y. But I can tell you without even looking that there was not a plan for doing so by anyone with the power to change anything. By the time you get to a design doc, reason tends to prevail.

koolba 8y ago

Depends on which ones. There was that video of the all hands with some of their senior leadership literally crying when Trump got elected. If it includes one of them, either directly or looking the other way, it could be a big deal.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

mc32 8y ago

Imagine there was an email thread on how to dampen search results for Chinese ops in Tibet or Xinjiang because to many staff from China this was offensive, would that just be swept aside? Oh, just a few employees and it never went into production...

komali2 8y ago
Wait, I thought Google will comply with Chinese censorship rules? Isn't that what "Phoenix" was all about?
- mc32 8y ago
  That’s different. That’s about tailoring results to conform with Chinese authorities in order to operate in China. My hypothetical example was random employees at the MTV campus emailing ideas to influence US SERPs to propagate their PoV on a political issue they have an interest in.
qubax 8y ago
It's ridiculous how the exact same people going crazy over china's "digital dictatorship" will defend "digital dictatorship" here as long as it aligns with their own biases and agenda. I guess ideals and principles are not important anymore. What's even more absurd is that people have the gall to defend this behavior on HN.

theDoug 8y ago

Number of employees was 89,058 as of June 30, 2018. This does not include temps, vendors, or contractors. And in my experience as a current employee, it sure seems so. Just as someone who left years ago can juice attention and their job prospects by writing a Medium.com post or making a YouTube video referencing once working at Google, it's increasingly tedious to see anything done internally, most of which is kind of boring, reported with excitement. But again, congratulations to whatever dumb leaker wanted to make a point out of some random email this week. Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1652044/000165204418000027/goog10-qq22018.htm https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1652044/000165204418...

127 8y ago

It's not a secret, after the leaks, that the highest levels of Google are very anti-Trump.

habosa 8y ago

This. I work at Google, although I have no idea about this particular situation. Pick any major event, internal or external. If you look around company forums (mailing lists, Google+, memes, etc) you will invariably see 10+ people voicing opinions that are dumb if not outright illegal. It doesn't mean that Google is ever going to _do_ any of those things. It's the result of having 100,000 people who all think they're smart and are never told they can't speak out. So I would not be at all surprised if a few of the 100,000 employees suggested tweaking search to do X or Y. But I can tell you without even looking that there was not a plan for doing so by anyone with the power to change anything. By the time you get to a design doc, reason tends to prevail.