Confessions of Google Employee No. 59

“The most important thing to consider,” I began, “is that our own internal research shows our competitors are beginning to approach Google’s level of quality. In a world where all search engines are equal, we’ll need to rely on branding to differentiate us from everyone else.” The room grew quiet. I looked around nervously. Had I said something wrong? Yes. Not just wrong but heretical to engineers who believed anything could be improved through the iterative application of intelligence. Co-founder Larry Page made my apostasy clear. “If we can’t win on quality,” he said quietly, “we shouldn’t win at all.”

Published: Jul 16, 2011
Length: 11 minutes (2,965 words)