Ambiguity in a Google Job Write Up
December 19, 2009
Here’s the title: “Former Microsoft evangelist Don Dodge on Google vs. Microsoft (Q&A).” There are some interesting nuances of the word evangelist. My very first consulting job was for the company that owned “Intellectual Digest.” The editor signed his monthly letter with the Greek word ????????????. That was 40 years ago, and you can see the influence of this person in some of my blog posts. I use Greek, Latin, and Hebrew to separate the humans from the addled geese.
The meaning of “evangelist” can vary. Some examples identified with the Google define command:
- A preacher of the Christian gospel (when capitalized) any of the spiritual leaders who are assumed to be authors of the Gospels in the New Testament.
- The Evangelist is the fifth album by Robert Forster. It was released by YepRoc in 2008.
- A controversial play by Romanian academic and writer Alina Mungiu-Pippidi.
- A member of the band from Donegal (Ireland) and Derry.
- One who shares news of something in order to convince someone to join or otherwise accept it.
- A person who spreads the good news of Jesus. The practice of ecumenism as a vital part of any effort in evangelization.
My next thought was the “former”. The headline suggests that a Microsoft person has now hooked up with Google to perform one or more of the functions embraced by these Google definitions.
The final thought I had was the “vs” which I assume means versus. The definition of “versus” denotes a dust up, brawl, to do, tussle, battle, squabble, Pier Sixer, melee, cage fight, death match, slobber knocker, or shoot out.
Seems that the Google is firming up its resolve to tackle the Redmond fortress.
In the write up, I found this exchange quite interesting:
Venture Beat: When you announced the move, you said you were switching from Microsoft products like Outlook to Google products like Gmail. How’s that going? Do you have a favorite?
Don Dodge: Oh, it’s Gmail. The thing that surprised me is the Gmail that consumers use is the same email that every Google employee uses. I’ve found Gmail to be just terrific, particularly the threaded discussions — it’s just so much easier to keep track of discussions and email threads. That’s the first thing. The second thing is, links not attachments. With an email that’s just a link to a Google Doc, you always have the latest version. The third thing was offline Gmail. Now you can go on an airplane, go anywhere offline, and you’ve still got your email and attachments. The final observation I would make is, over my career, my first email thing was Vax Mail, which was awesome at the time, it was revolutionary. I went from Vax Mail, to Outlook, to Lotus Notes when I was working for Ray Ozzie, then back to Outlook again, and now Gmail. Email is a pretty straightforward application. They have basically the same features, it’s all a question of user interface. I’ve found the transition to Gmail simple, easy, and in many ways better, particularly due to the threaded discussions. So with a lot of the religion people have [about different products], I’d make the same point about spreadsheets. A lot of people that are my age started with VisiCalc or Lotus 123 and moved to Excel, now we’re moving to Google Spreadsheets. It’s just the next era, the next transition.
What makes this interesting is that a former employee of another Google competitor jumped ship to Google. I have email insisting that such hires are not related to competition. Got it.
Oyez, oyez, I wish to disclose to the Defense Commissary Agency. This blog post’s food for thought is offered without compensation to me. Don’t get indigestion.
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