Credit: Google search central
Main Points:
🎙️ Podcast Focus:
- Google’s Gary and Martin discuss the “human side” of working on the Search team
- Informal conversation about frustrations and challenges in their roles
🗣️ Public Speaking Evolution:
- Martin’s Background: Transitioned from speaking to developer audiences to SEO/marketing communities
- Key Challenge: Now speaks to “adversarial” audiences who may view Google with suspicion
- Before Google: Spoke about web development to fellow developers who shared his perspective
- Current Role: Bridges gap between developers and SEOs, often facing skepticism
💼 Communication Difficulties:
- Context Problem: Answers given for specific situations get misapplied by others in different contexts
- Cherry-Picking Issues: People take quotes out of context to support their own agendas
- “It Depends” Problem: Need to provide full context instead of simple answers
🧑💻 SEO vs Developer Knowledge:
- SEO Technical Knowledge: Should understand basics like HTTP headers, HTTPS, HTML, and JavaScript interactions
- Risk Factor: SEOs with partial knowledge (Dunning-Kruger effect) can cause more problems than those who admit they don’t know
⚠️ Real-World Problems:
- Example: Large agency installed calendar plugin creating 100 million new URLs, blamed Google for crawling them
- Technical decisions without understanding consequences impact both sites and Google’s systems
🎯 Google’s Agenda:
- Openly admits to having an agenda: building the best search engine
- Goals include making web accessible, fast, and joyful to use
- Acknowledges not everyone agrees with their vision
💡 Solutions Suggested:
- Provide more context when giving advice
- Avoid broad statements without detailed explanations
- Encourage critical thinking rather than blind following of guidance
- Example: Martin’s “Don’t use JavaScript” slide that required 5 minutes of context
🎬 Podcast Style:
- Preference for unstructured, conversational episodes
- More authentic “coffee chat” format during pandemic
- Asking for audience feedback on preferred episode styles
This reveals Google’s internal perspective on the challenges of public communication and the complexities of serving diverse audiences with conflicting needs and knowledge levels.
Source: Google Search Off the Record Podcast – Episode SOTR093
Original Transcript: GDEVS Production
Participants: Gary Illyes & Martin Splitt (Google Search Team)
Episode Format: Unstructured conversation about human challenges in tech communication
Watch more Google Search insights: https://www.youtube.com/@GoogleSearchCentral
Click to rate this post!
[Total: 0 Average: 0]