11 ms·
Google sends reporter a GIF instead of a 'no comment'
- nsxwolf 12y agoGoogle. Such an adorably hip, cool underdog.
- Borogravia 12y agoGoogle PR are such a bunch of fucking clowns.
- halflings 12y agoReminds me of the GIF Detectify got from Google after getting into their production servers because of a vulnerability in the "Google Toolbar" portal [1] : https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/blog.images/google/nicememe.gif https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/blog.images/google/niceme... [1] http://blog.detectify.com/post/82370846588/how-we-got-read-access-on-googles-production http://blog.detectify.com/post/82370846588/how-we-got-read-a...
- downandout 12y agoSo the security team thought it was worth such a crazy amount that they made a gif to describe it...and then they sent him $10K? That isn't very much for a major bug like that.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- nostrademons 12y agoDoesn't surprise me. I released a couple easter eggs when I was at Google (notably [festivus] and [let it snow]), and the official response PR prepared for one of them was a poem. It's part of Google's quirky culture.
- dingaling 12y agoThat's cute, but this instance is unlicensed commercial use of Disney's copyright material. Where I worked nothing went to the press before legal review. It seemed burdensome but I'm sure it saved the company's hide on numerous occasions.
- icebraining 12y agoHow do you know it's unlicensed?
- unreal37 12y agoDisney is not going to sue Google over this...
- cheatsheet 12y agoThis is internet and hacker culture; Google just happens to have a disproportionate amount of people who fit into those categories there.
- z1mm32m4n 12y agoMy favorite Google "No comment" response is still their response to Randall Munroe about his analysis of how big their data centers are: https://youtu.be/I64CQp6z0Pk?t=2m59s https://youtu.be/I64CQp6z0Pk?t=2m59s
- pravj 12y agoYeah!! that was hilarious, "No comment" on the punch cards.
- _stephan 12y agoDon't spoil the fun.
- probably_wrong 12y agoThose that already read the "What If?" section might want to jump to 7:10, which is when he explains what happens after he publishes the article about punchcards[1]. I mean, it's a nice talk, and if you haven't read the article then totally watch it, but as I already read it... [1] http://what-if.xkcd.com/63/ http://what-if.xkcd.com/63/
- throwawayaway 12y agowhy are google the largest user of tape drives?
- joshuapants 12y agoThey have a lot of data, which means they have a lot of data to back up. Tape drives are still the go-to method for backing up huge amounts of data.
- throwawayaway 12y agofor paranoia reasons i thought they were using it for permanent storage. maybe they are using it for some sort of rolling backup.
- downandout 12y agoI'm sort of confused by this gif. I wouldn't look at it and say "that girl turning her head in one direction repeatedly means no comment". If it were funny, and actually had some sort of "denied" slant to it, then fine, but this particular gif makes no sense to me as a response to a request for comment. I guess when you have as much money as Google does you can be as disrespectful to reporters as you like, but at least try to be entertaining.
- Drakim 12y agoI guess the gif could be read as "nuh uh! No telling!"
- CatsoCatsoCatso 12y agoI read it as "I dunno", I can't see it meaning "no comment" at all. It's more a shrug if anything.
- jawr 12y agoI think this meme usually comes with the phrase 'dafuq?'.
- gadders 12y agoIf you really want to decode the comment, it looks like it's from the Disney Show "Good Luck Charlie" [1] and the actress in the clip is Mia Talerico. You could watch every episode to try and find out what she was saying. I know this because I have a nine year old daughter (but to be fair, it's not the worst show Disney make).
- userbinator 12y agoIt looks more like a mix of disbelief, surprise, and astonishment to me.
- jfoutz 12y ago"Google's spokesperson just shook their head"
- bshimmin 12y agoAm I alone in thinking this is utterly infantile behaviour? It makes me rather sad that the art of correspondence (the beautiful letters of bygone times) is now gradually being replaced with Facebook Messenger and animated GIFs.
- forgottenpass 12y agoI wouldn't call it infantile, just playful in a way that Google no longer has the personability to pull off.
- paganel 12y agoNo, you're not. Plus I thought we left animated gifs back in 2013 where they belong (or was it 2012?). On a more interesting note, someone should revisit Giambattista Vico's theory about language. The closest that I could find on the English internet after a 30-second search was this (http://www.philosophypathways.com/fellows/fahey.pdf http://www.philosophypathways.com/fellows/fahey.pdf - PDF link): > Vico borrows the three ages of human history from the Egyptians. As shown above, the languages which corresponds to each are, first, the mute language of signs and physical objects; second, the language of symbols, comparisons, images and metaphors. The third is vernacular or epistolary language. It seems like we're about to fall from the third stage ("epistolary language", which you mention) to the second stage, that of "symbols, images and metaphors". Now, what that means exactly I don't know.
- dctoedt 12y agoThis particular one is a funny-once, as Manny the narrator character said to Mike the newly-conscious computer in Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. (Manny also said something like, the second time it's half-funny, with a geometric progression downward.) It's possible to look at the glass as half-full: People can still write nice letters, and sometimes do (often by email), but they also have other avenues of creative expression.
- smanuel 12y agoIf it's an exception - no. It's fun and it gives a new fresh look to big, evil corporations (but Google is not evil anyway [1]). If it were a rule - yes, definitely infantile and weird. [1] http://www.cnbc.com/id/101923422 http://www.cnbc.com/id/101923422
- amelius 12y agoWith all those broken email readers, how can one even assume that a gif will animate when the recipient opens the email?
- scrollaway 12y agoI'm sure Google would have been devastated to find out their joke answer wasn't properly animated in their recipient's inbox.
- blawa 12y agoHero worship, truly the habit of enlightened.
- rmc 12y agoGifs and memes are how we will get to "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra" and "Shokath, his eyes uncovered"
- ambler0 12y agoFor anyone who, like me, was unfamiliar with this reference: http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Darmok_%28episode%29 http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Darmok_%28episode%29
- 72deluxe 12y agoExcellent excellent post, that episode was brilliant Thanks!
- ohitsdom 12y agoShaka, when the walls fell...
- autechr3 12y ago"His arms wide.."
- attilak 12y agoI think this response is connected maybe to yesterday's facebook (f8) event...
- fcatalan 12y agoWell, whats good for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary should be ok for Google. http://judiciary.house.gov/index.cfm/2015/3/at-the-flick-of-a-switch http://judiciary.house.gov/index.cfm/2015/3/at-the-flick-of-...
- arcatek 12y agoHow can an officiel website say "even when a president tries to unlawfully refuse to enforce our laws" ? It doesn't seem very neutral, I wouldn't except such an article to challenge the decision taken by the president of a country.
- tedunangst 12y agoThe president of the US is not the president of congress. Checks and balances and all that.
- sethetter 12y agoThe whole article is criticizing a decision he made, which caught me off guard as well.
- briandh 12y agoIt's the website of the House Judiciary Committee, which is controlled by Republicans, and hence can and does challenge the President. In turn, the White House website, which is controlled by Democrats, can and does challenge Congress. Both sites could, of course, adopt a stance of editorial neutrality. I would prefer they not, though -- both are fundamentally political organizations, so to do so would be eliding their true nature.
- pandler 12y agoNot to mention that the whole purpose for the three branches of government is so that each branch will "check and balance" the other branches. The fundamental structure of the system is based on the premise that each branch should not be neutral with regards to the other branches.
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- jug 12y agoGoogle also did this when they had the Google Toolbar remote exploit vulnerability reported and the guy asked about the reward, a good read on its own: http://blog.detectify.com/post/82370846588/how-we-got-read-access-on-googles-production http://blog.detectify.com/post/82370846588/how-we-got-read-a...
- arjn 12y agoI dont understand how that GIF represents "no comment". To me it looks more like an "I don't know" or "I've no idea" statement. Also, I don't see why this is news. GIFs have been used like this for several years now. Reddit is replete with such usage.
- Vaskivo 12y agoIt's just that the official answer from a giant multinational to a journalist is a funny gif. The typical answer is a LOT more formal. It's like the President inviting me to dinner and I answer him with a "thumb's up" gif.
- ikeboy 12y agoNo, it's like you inviting the President to dinner and he sends you a gif. Or do you consider yourself more important than the president?
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- grimmdude 12y agoDidn't wired.com just overhaul their site? Very slow and clunky on my end...
- dmachop 12y agoI usually get memes from Google official responses.
- deeviant 12y agoAs somebody who has a SO who works at Google, thus giving me a bit of insight into the culture, I can factually say that gifs and lolcat-like memes have already started replacing the English language there.
- psuax 12y agoDon't worry. Now that Rod Chavez has been fired and we have all been asked to respect each other, the memegen cesspool will be the next thing to go.
- pgib 12y agoI, for one, fully support our gif-replying internet overlords. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/31250/gifs/thumbs_up.gif https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/31250/gifs/thumbs_up.gif