Google Dance 2006

I got back from SES and was immediately swamped by the backlog of work that usually happens whenever I leave for a few days.

However… The Google Dance this year was even better than last year. I took lots of pictures and had a great time so even though I should have posted this about three weeks ago, I still think it’s better late then never.

The Google Dance is an annual party that Google has to correspond with SES. Everyone attending the conference is invited.

As soon as we got off the bus and entered the “Googleplex” we were greeted by cheering Googlers who acted like we were some sort of celebrities about to take the stage and perform. It was very cool.

The Googleplex is a very cool place in general. They have each of the buildings connected via enclosed, overhead walkways. Once inside one building, you can walk to any other building like some sort of wacky habitrail for software engineers.

After picking up my souvenir t-shirt, I headed to the buffet to see what kind of food they had. As usual they had lots of great food but tiny plates. (I’m a big eater, so I needed several plates)

The door to the main kitchen was open and there were no signs that said to stay out… So I went in.

Here is a picture of the two Google chefs who were coordinating the food effort. I expected them to kick me out, but instead they asked me about the food quality, which was great.

Next stop was the area called “Meet The Engineers”. They had this in a small room and it was hard to find. They did have a small sign, but it was nowhere near the action. They didn’t promote it this year and there were very few people there to compete with. I got to ask Matt Cutts and Adam Lasnik all kinds of questions.

Here I am grilling Adam about how to get new website to show up.
Believe it or not… I stole this picture off the Google Website!

Greg Hartnett from The Best Of The Web (BOTW) was kind enough to give me a t-shirt earlier that day, so I was kind enough to wear it and get his logo on the Google Dance Gallery.

I also got to meet Aaron Wall - AKA SEO Book. (If you don’t read his Blog… You should start today. You should also buy his book.)

After they closed the session down, I found Hawaii local, Brent Norris from Aloha Workshops at the front of the line for the Dance Heads karaoke booth. This was one of those setups like they have at the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet where they place your disembodied head on a professional dancer’s body and make a music video. Brent was with Bill Cullifer and need a third person to join them so I got a silly DVD of myself made. It was hilarious.

Google is great at developing a community around their services and maintaining great client relationships.

Aloha,
Dave.