Comments on: Our chance to ask Google

By: Barry Smyth

Barry Smyth — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 00:52:26 +0000

Hi guys, as the organiser I thought I should jump in here & cover off a few points.

In response the Jermayn’s post, I have not received permission from Google PR to record this session, so you will have to attend if you want to ask questions.

I think the popcorn ideas great Michael.

Gavin I think you could chuck in a ranking question without hesitation.

I have spoken to all the guys who are coming & they realise what they are in for, we have posted a few of the questions to them already & have not had any negative feedback, they will answer the questions.

Also, remember I am offering a discount to WSG Members, just type WSG2007_SS into the discount code in section B on the booking page & you’ll save $214.

By: Jermayn Parker

Jermayn Parker — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 00:23:53 +0000

Great questions…
Do you think it will be possible to have a record of what they said for us who would not be able to go? I would be very interested in hearing what they say.

It is good to see them on the panel and lets hope that they do not dodge the questions.

By: Michael Motherwell

Michael Motherwell — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 08:50:54 +0000

> 2) Will Google ever produce valid pages for their own sites?
> Many standardistas have produced proof of concept versions of
> Google search for example – standards compliant AND
> lightweight. Why not use them?
LOL. I can’t wait to hear them answer that one!

And yes, I hope there is some squirming as well (I think I might sell popcorn for this session).

By: John Faulds

John Faulds — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 04:14:24 +0000

Further to the CSS & hiding questions: I was under the impression that disallowing access to your CSS directory via robots.txt was the solution to any concerns with regards Google penalties. Could they confirm that or is hiding your CSS directory itself going to lead to penalties?

By: Chris Blown

Chris Blown — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 02:56:49 +0000

Great questions Russ – looking forward to the responses.

By: Gavin Jacobi

Gavin Jacobi — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 22:59:21 +0000

In the spirit of page ranking: do you have a question ranking?

It would be good to get the “big ones” answered first — get in quick! It is always a shame when a session of finite duration is hijacked by someone asking a no-brainer when you want to ask “the important stuff”.

My biased vote goes towards Microformats and the notion that validity = quality (and the follow-on to a better awareness of accessibility).

By: Edward Clarke

Edward Clarke — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 18:25:22 +0000

“Does Google ever feel a moral obligation to push accessibility and web standards (by improving rankings), seeing they influence the market on such a global scale?”

This has to be the biggest question of all as it can have the biggest impact. As soon as someone from Google mentions ‘web standards’ and ‘improved rank’, watch your group membership take off. Forget Microsoft, this has to be the single biggest way to clean up the web.

By: David J Rust

David J Rust — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 14:48:27 +0000

This sounds interesting… I have friends who work at Google and I’ve always been interested in their humble, “Geek” beginnings and how that influences the quality of their code. I would ask them, however, about their future plans. Given how bad the code is, over at MySpace, and given the “geek” quotient at Google, “Will the company ever attempt to create a ‘MySpace’-like community only with properly-coded XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript?”