Why Does Google’s Official Blog Suck?

November 27, 2006 by 11 Comments

Why does Google’s official blog suck? Seriously… it’s a case of reading press releases a day too late. They don’t post about Google-related news or product announcements until everyone else in the blogosphere has been discussing them for a day or two. And as their latest post demonstrates, what does make it onto their blog usually reads like a feel-good marketing press release.

For a company that has a dominance in search, and is a respected provider of some other innovative services such as Gmail and Google Reader, how is it that they don’t get blogging? The company is full of geeks from the top down, so I’m hesitant to believe that it’s because the marketing department is stifling folks from blogging. Does someone have a notion that as an “official” blog it can only contain things approved and sanitized by the marketing and legal departments?

For as much as geeks love to hate Microsoft, the company “gets” blogging. Look at the hundreds of successful developer blogs hosted on MSDN. Look at what Scoble did as a blogger at Microsoft. Look at the JobsBlog.

There’s a lot of really smart people at Google. Matt Cutts is one of the few we get to read frequently. But there are more… it would be great to be able to see some of their smarts put into a blog… and this sure as hell isn’t it.

Filed Under: Blogging, Technology ·
  • http://gugli.wordpress.com/ Anna

    Hello Aaaron, I must tell you that I was thinking exactly the same and was about to put up a post about it, when I bumped into yours: where else? on the Official Google Blog. :)
    It is really annoying to dash to the ‘Now Google Will Say Please Something Really Interesting’ Blog, and leaving it in a few seconds disappointedly. Really: clean and shaven, lifeless blog posts. Maybe Googlers are punished to write some blog posts? Certainly they do not seem to reflect what indires actually think. However, the other day I have read Chris Sacca’s blog on his fears on Google’s growth (http://www.whatisleft.org) and it was a lot better. And Mat is the real blogger, admittedly. Thanks. Clean air, deep breath, relief.

  • http://gugli.wordpress.com/ Anna

    indires=insiders

  • Aaron

    http://www.googlersblogs.com/

    I’m not sure if it is done by Google or a third party and it still doesn’t give you much in the way of “inside information” and such, but it’s a start.

  • Joe

    FYI, Google has a blog for nearly every product. The main blog is just for general press announcements and non-technical things. See the main google blog page on the right, titled “More Google Blogs”

  • http://gugli.wordpress.com/ Anna

    Thanks for the link. Still, now I tried to make a sort of constructive critical blog post on it, making suggestions what Googlers could do a bit better at least. BTW the South Park bit is great about Scoble’s visit (better than the visit itself): http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=104073.
    Cheers, Anna

  • http://kaktex.blogspot.com KeithAlanK

    Blogger, as in all those sites with .blogspot.com at the end, is part of Google. So they ‘get’ blogging but only if it’s done by a few million other people. Weird.

  • http://www.googlecommunity.com/ Google Community

    You make an interesting point. They do have to be careful with what they put on an official blog. The really interesting stuff, I think, will have to come from the individual employees themselves.

  • http://www.googlersblogs.com Artem

    > Aaron wrote:
    >
    > http://www.googlersblogs.com/
    >
    > I’m not sure if it is done by Google or a third
    > party and it still doesn’t give you much in the
    > way of “inside information” and such, but it’s a
    > start.

    Aaron, it’s a private site (done by me). I also like reading about Google. When I was faced the same problem of getting all the Google news together I created the aggregator for myself and shared it with everybody interested.

  • gail

    Perched in that little bit of land to the north of England, I wish that Goggle blogs eg Cyber Day would remember that some of us web-shop in the UK, as for Laphroaig and other delicacies. Peering at the Cyber Day piece, I can see its primarily for that large piece of land across the Atlantic. Alas!

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  • http://gugli.wordpress.com/ Anna Sebestyen

    Happy New Year, and a good news greeting from Techcrunch:
    http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/12/31/what-is-the-definition-of-a-blog/