靖小布Chery's Space

微軟負責中國業務的大將--李開復從微軟高階主管職務跳槽至 Google，多位知名微軟員工也紛紛跳槽 Google，這使得 Google逐漸成了微軟的頭號心腹大患。微軟甚至具狀控告 Google 與被挖角的高階主管李開復，企圖殺雞儆猴，阻止其他員工跳槽。

Google 之所以能坐大，必有其成功之特質與幸運之創造時機。為了研究它，開始讀了些東西，也對兩位年輕老闆經營的理念及吸收人材的手法，想深入的去瞭解。在 Google 網站的 Our Philosophy 中，看到了 Google 自己陳述的經營理念，特別摘錄下來，就當做是自己研究 Google 的出發點吧！

摘自「自投羅網」網站（http://www.andrewlo.idv.tw）

Google 相信十件事（10 things Google has found to be true）
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一、關注使用者，其他一切自然隨之而來（Focus on the user and all else will follow）。

Google從創立之初，就一心一意盡其所能提供最好的使用者體驗。它的介面清爽簡單；網頁下載快速；搜尋結果位置絕不出售；網站上的廣告必須提供相關的內容，不能讓人分心。由於永遠把使用者的利益擺在第一，Google營造出網路上最忠誠的一群閱聽人。它的成長不是得助於電視廣告宣傳，而是來自使用者感到滿意之後一而十，十而百口耳相傳。

二、最好把一件事做得非常之好（It's best to do one thing really, really well）。

Google做的事是搜尋，不做星座命理、理財建議或聊天。公司有五十位博士和世界最大的研究單位，他們只專心解決搜尋上的問題。Google知道什麼事情是自己最拿手的，以及如何可以做得更好。全體員工全力投入創造完美的搜尋引擎，不眠不休地為實現這個目標而奮鬥。

三、寧快不慢（Fast is better than slow）。

Google相信立即滿足的重要。使用者要答案，而且馬上就要。世界上可能只有Google，明述它的目標是要使用者儘快離開它的網站。由於沉迷於消除網頁上每一個多餘的位元組，而且努力提高服務環境的效率，Google一再打破本身的速度紀錄。其他公司認為，大型伺服器是處理龐大資料量的最快方式， Google卻發現數千台連成網路的個人電腦，速度更快。其他公司認命地接受搜尋演算式明顯的速度限制，Google所寫的新演算式，卻證明沒有所謂的限制存在。

四、網路民主萬歲（Democracy on the web works）。

Google能夠運作，是靠張貼網站的千百萬人之力，藉以決定其他哪些網站提供的內容具有價值。Google利用稱做「裴吉位階」（PageRank™）的突破性技術，為每一頁網頁排序，而不是依賴一群編輯，或者單靠某些辭彙出現的頻率做這件事。

五、找答案不必回到桌前（You don't need to be at your desk to need an answer）。

這個世界日益行動化，不願被綁死在一個固定的地方。不管在哪裡，人們想要資訊的時候，都希望資訊立即來到眼前。這方面的創新，包括行動電話的「Google數字搜尋」（Google Number Search），以及將網頁轉換成電話瀏覽器可以閱讀的格式。Google也把搜尋引擎納入寶馬（BMW）新系列的可上網轎車中，向行動運算跨出一步。不管使用者身在何處，只要搜尋能夠幫助他們取得所要的資訊，Google便致力於開創新的技術，提供新的解決方案。

六、不使壞也能賺錢（You can make money without doing evil）。

Google是一家企業，也是賺錢的企業。但是你可能不曾在Google看過一幅廣告。這是因為Google不允許廣告不分青紅皁白，出現在每一頁的搜尋結果上。搜尋結果網頁出現的每一幅廣告，都必須和那一頁有關。因此，只有某些搜尋結果，才會在上方或右方跳出友站連結廣告。Google堅信，只有和你想找的資訊有關，廣告才能提供實用的資訊。

Google上面的廣告，一定清楚地標示「友站連結」。它的核心價值觀是，搜尋結果的公正性絕不妥協。Google絕不操縱排序，將合作夥伴放在搜尋結果比較高的位置。沒人能夠買比較好的「裴吉位階」。使用者信任Google的客觀性。絕不容許為了短期的利益，背信棄義。

七、搜尋更多的資訊（There's always more information out there）。

Google編成索引的超文字標示語言（HTML）網頁已經多於其他任何搜尋引擎，工程師接著把注意力轉向那些不易取用的資訊，例如把新的資料庫整合進來，以及搜尋四億二千五百萬幅圖片、瀏覽PDF、微軟Word、Excel、PowerPoint等各種文件檔案格式。Google的目標，是把世界上所有的資訊，呈現在尋找答案的使用者面前。

八、資訊無國界（The need for information crosses all borders）。

Google的搜尋結果，可以根據使用者的偏好，限定在以三十六種語言編寫的網頁。它也有翻譯的功能，不管使用者的母語為何，都能提供內容給他們使用。至於不用英文搜尋的人，Google的介面可以依八十六種以上的語言自行設定。為了加快加進新語言的步調，自願者可以透過Google網站提供的自動化工具，協助翻譯。

九、不穿西裝也能正經八百（You can be serious without a suit）。

Google的創辦人常說，這家公司除了以嚴肅認真的態度對待搜尋，其他任何事情都不必那麼死板。他們創立的公司，認為工作應該具有挑戰性，挑戰則必須有趣好玩。為了達成這個目標，Google的文化不同於其他美國企業。提供線上服務時，Google把使用者擺在第一位。同樣的，談到Google園區總部的日常生活時，Google將員工擺在第一位。公司強調團隊的成就，個人的成就對公司的整體成功有貢獻時，它也引以為豪。

各種構想相互交流、加以測試、付諸應用，速度之快，令人目眩神迷。其他公司要開幾個小時的會議，在這裡，往往只是排隊吃午餐時簡短地聊上幾句。編寫程式碼的人，和開立支票的人之間，沒有牆壁隔開他們。這種容易溝通的環境，提升了生產力；千百萬人依賴Google的搜尋結果，更激起他們同舟共濟的同事情誼。把適當的工具交到想要有所成就的一群人手中，他們一定不負所望。

十、出色的表現還不夠好（Great just isn't good enough）。

交付的成果永遠多於別人的期望。Google不接受以最好為終點的看法，認為那不過是起點。Google日新月異的創新，以出乎意料的方式，改良已經運作得很好的東西。舉例來說，拼字正確，當然很快就能找到所要的資料，但如果拼錯呢？Google的一位工程師覺得有這方面的需要，於是編寫一套拼字檢查程式。它有如使用者肚裡的迴蟲，曉得他們真正要拼的是什麼字。

（摘自Google英文網站，原文刊登於http://www.google.com/corporate/today.html。）


Ten things Google has found to be true
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1. Focus on the user and all else will follow.

From its inception, Google has focused on providing the best user experience possible. While many companies claim to put their customers first, few are able to resist the temptation to make small sacrifices to increase shareholder value. Google has steadfastly refused to make any change that does not offer a benefit to the users who come to the site:

The interface is clear and simple.
Pages load instantly.
Placement in search results is never sold to anyone.
Advertising on the site must offer relevant content and not be a distraction.
By always placing the interests of the user first, Google has built the most loyal audience on the web. And that growth has come not through TV ad campaigns, but through word of mouth from one satisfied user to another.

2. It's best to do one thing really, really well.

Google does search. With one of the world's largest research groups focused exclusively on solving search problems, we know what we do well, and how we could do it better. Through continued iteration on difficult problems, we've been able to solve complex issues and provide continuous improvements to a service already considered the best on the web at making finding information a fast and seamless experience for millions of users. Our dedication to improving search has also allowed us to apply what we've learned to new products, including Gmail, Google Desktop, and Google Maps. As we continue to build new products* while making search better, our hope is to bring the power of search to previously unexplored areas, and to help users access and use even more of the ever-expanding information in their lives.

3. Fast is better than slow.

Google believes in instant gratification. You want answers and you want them right now. Who are we to argue? Google may be the only company in the world whose stated goal is to have users leave its website as quickly as possible. By fanatically obsessing on shaving every excess bit and byte from our pages and increasing the efficiency of our serving environment, Google has broken its own speed records time and again. Others assumed large servers were the fastest way to handle massive amounts of data. Google found networked PCs to be faster. Where others accepted apparent speed limits imposed by search algorithms, Google wrote new algorithms that proved there were no limits. And Google continues to work on making it all go even faster.

4. Democracy on the web works.

Google works because it relies on the millions of individuals posting websites to determine which other sites offer content of value. Instead of relying on a group of editors or solely on the frequency with which certain terms appear, Google ranks every web page using a breakthrough technique called PageRank™. PageRank evaluates all of the sites linking to a web page and assigns them a value, based in part on the sites linking to them. By analyzing the full structure of the web, Google is able to determine which sites have been "voted" the best sources of information by those most interested in the information they offer. This technique actually improves as the web gets bigger, as each new site is another point of information and another vote to be counted.

5. You don't need to be at your desk to need an answer.

The world is increasingly mobile and unwilling to be constrained to a fixed location. Whether it's through their PDAs, their wireless phones or even their automobiles, people want information to come to them. Google's innovations in this area include Google Number Search, which reduces the number of keypad strokes required to find data from a web-enabled cellular phone and an on-the-fly translation system that converts pages written in HTML to a format that can be read by phone browsers. This system opens up billions of pages for viewing from devices that would otherwise not be able to display them, including Palm PDAs and Japanese i-mode, J-Sky, and EZWeb devices. Wherever search is likely to help users obtain the information they seek, Google is pioneering new technologies and offering new solutions.

6. You can make money without doing evil.

Google is a business. The revenue the company generates is derived from offering its search technology to companies and from the sale of advertising displayed on Google and on other sites across the web. However, you may have never seen an ad on Google. That's because Google does not allow ads to be displayed on our results pages unless they're relevant to the results page on which they're shown. So, only certain searches produce sponsored links above or to the right of the results. Google firmly believes that ads can provide useful information if, and only if, they are relevant to what you wish to find.

Google has also proven that advertising can be effective without being flashy. Google does not accept pop-up advertising, which interferes with your ability to see the content you've requested. We've found that text ads (AdWords) that are relevant to the person reading them draw much higher clickthrough rates than ads appearing randomly. Google's maximization group works with advertisers to improve clickthrough rates over the life of a campaign, because high clickthrough rates are an indication that ads are relevant to a user's interests. Any advertiser, no matter how small or how large, can take advantage of this highly targeted medium, whether through our self-service advertising program that puts ads online within minutes, or with the assistance of a Google advertising representative.

Advertising on Google is always clearly identified as a "Sponsored Link." It is a core value for Google that there be no compromising of the integrity of our results. We never manipulate rankings to put our partners higher in our search results. No one can buy better PageRank. Our users trust Google's objectivity and no short-term gain could ever justify breaching that trust.

Thousands of advertisers use our Google AdWords program to promote their products; we believe AdWords is the largest program of its kind. In addition, thousands of web site managers take advantage of our Google AdSense program to deliver ads relevant to the content on their sites, improving their ability to generate revenue and enhancing the experience for their users.

7. There's always more information out there.

Once Google had indexed more of the HTML pages on the Internet than any other search service, our engineers turned their attention to information that was not as readily accessible. Sometimes it was just a matter of integrating new databases, such as adding a phone number and address lookup and a business directory. Other efforts required a bit more creativity, like adding the ability to search billions of images and a way to view pages that were originally created as PDF files. The popularity of PDF results led us to expand the list of file types searched to include documents produced in a dozen formats such as Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. For wireless users, Google developed a unique way to translate HTML formatted files into a format that could be read by mobile devices. The list is not likely to end there as Google's researchers continue looking into ways to bring all the world's information to users seeking answers.

8. The need for information crosses all borders.

Though Google is headquartered in California, our mission is to facilitate access to information for the entire world, so we have offices around the globe. To that end we maintain dozens of Internet domains and serve more than half of our results to users living outside the United States. Google search results can be restricted to pages written in more than 35 languages according to a user's preference. We also offer a translation feature to make content available to users regardless of their native tongue and for those who prefer not to search in English, Google's interface can be customized into more than 100 languages. To accelerate the addition of new languages, Google offers volunteers the opportunity to help in the translation through an automated tool available on the Google.com website. This process has greatly improved both the variety and quality of service we're able to offer users in even the most far flung corners of the globe.

9. You can be serious without a suit.

Google's founders have often stated that the company is not serious about anything but search. They built a company around the idea that work should be challenging and the challenge should be fun. To that end, Google's culture is unlike any in corporate America, and it's not because of the ubiquitous lava lamps and large rubber balls, or the fact that the company's chef used to cook for the Grateful Dead. In the same way Google puts users first when it comes to our online service, Google Inc. puts employees first when it comes to daily life in our Googleplex headquarters. There is an emphasis on team achievements and pride in individual accomplishments that contribute to the company's overall success. Ideas are traded, tested and put into practice with an alacrity that can be dizzying. Meetings that would take hours elsewhere are frequently little more than a conversation in line for lunch and few walls separate those who write the code from those who write the checks. This highly communicative environment fosters a productivity and camaraderie fueled by the realization that millions of people rely on Google results. Give the proper tools to a group of people who like to make a difference, and they will.

10. Great just isn't good enough.

Always deliver more than expected. Google does not accept being the best as an endpoint, but a starting point. Through innovation and iteration, Google takes something that works well and improves upon it in unexpected ways. Search works well for properly spelled words, but what about typos? One engineer saw a need and created a spell checker that seems to read a user's mind. It takes too long to search from a WAP phone? Our wireless group developed Google Number Search to reduce entries from three keystrokes per letter to one. With a user base in the millions, Google is able to identify points of friction quickly and smooth them out. Google's point of distinction however, is anticipating needs not yet articulated by our global audience, then meeting them with products and services that set new standards. This constant dissatisfaction with the way things are is ultimately the driving force behind the world's best search engine.