h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/mar/23/google-interviews-job-search-giant

Yes based on the questions in here.

A Feynman based meme on answering dumb-ass interview questions, he was asked how you would measure the height of he Empire state Building using a barometer - supposedly he came up with 15 ways that didn;t include the obvious one- I can; actally find anywahere that gives all 15:


http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ericlippert/archive/2011/02/14/what-would-feynman-do.aspx

http://www.sellsbrothers.com/Posts/Details/12395

The barometer story is also told about (amongst others) Nils Bohr. In that version he gives one answer in an exam and the others in a viva to appeal his fail.

When I was still working, I had a colleague who actually did go to work for Google.

For me, the question is not "Could you work for Google?" but rather "Would you ever want to work for Google?" I wouldn't. I think they're somewhat crazy there.

When I first saw the title of this thread, the end part of it was covered by a dialogue box. So I thought the thread was going to be 'Could you work for God?'



Mol

My brother wanted to work for Google. They made him do 4 separate interviews before they turned him down.

Mol



Only in mysterious ways.

yes but not always

"My brother wanted to work for Google. They made him do 4 separate interviews before they turned him down."

He should've clicked the I Feel Lucky button...

B

There was a time when you could have a choice of at least a half dozen search engines when you wanted to find something. Now it's mainly Google, with a few stalwarts like Bing hanging on. What I enjoyed about the old days was that you could get a variety of search lists. Now you just get whatever Google is programmed to give you.

in the old days we had to walk 20 miles in the snow, barefoot, to get to a computer at the school...
against the wind... but the good thing was we could find emails (!!!) with our search engines

You don't have to walk through snow any more. Snow is history now. But maybe our current coastlines will soon be history as well.

No not now - wouldn't stand a chance.

There were times though, when I took anything to bring in some pennies.

The reason Google is more or less the only search engine is because it is and always was by far the best.

I did an experiment for a week - every search I wanted to do, I did in both Bing and Google. Google consistently found what I was looking for far quicker than Bing. (By quicker, I mean it was closer to the top of the list, so I had to explore far fewer links).

Google also has an option for turning off results which are to shopping sites, while Bing returns hundreds of shopping pages. While I do shop on the internet, I still feel its primary purpose is the free exchange of information.

For obscure searches I used to use a meta-search site, http://www.metacrawler.com

There's no real need now, as Google pretty much has it covered.

I don't know if I'd be good enough at these puzzles to get selected, but I'd certainly be willing to give it a try.

I have never been able to do these 'lateral thinking' puzzles. At all. Never, not even the simplest, school-age ones. I would like to think I'm fairly intelligent and my strengths lie elsewhere... well I'd like to think.

At the very faintest wiff of a puzzle like this, my brain shuts down; I cant even bring myself to read the whole question Is it just me or have i just confessed to general thickness on a forum full of people of above average intellegence...?

Yes, unfortunately this has given them a stranglehold on web advertising.

We looked at advertising some of our degree courses online a while back.

Hell no. Unbelievably expensive.

Although we do actually advertise them online - just not through google

The problem with Google searches is that it gives you search results based on what you have searched for in the past. This was highlighted around the subject of evolution and the way Creationists will only get Creationist slanted website results as their search histories will indicate to google to bias the search results that way rather than returning mainstream websites on evolution hence there's less of a possibility for a Creationist to even become exposed to mainstream evolutionary work.

Hence, different people can do the same search but get dfferent relults.