5 Google Culture Google corporate culture is that of it’s own. Surroundings inside the Googleplex in the Bay Area have been described as “a combination of a rich child’s bedroom and an exhibit hall in the National Air and Space Museum. (Levy 123) Montessori philosophy relies on the individual moti-
of the instructor. Children do things when they want to, at their own speed. This mentality has been adopted by Google; except now not with children getting a primary education, but with highly skilled adults working at a very important company.
3 The goals of the company are huge, and further facilitate the welcoming work environment they provide. “When a single company is determined to organize the world’s information including one’s very own personal information, will the service be welcomed more than feared?” (Stross 150) Most of that depends on perception. If Google had a standard work structure, and environment, the company would likely be perceived to be more terrifying than it would like. Public relations, including that of their own employees in crucial in Google’s success. Google has so much power, and so much information that they could be accused of being a monopoly, wildly out of control even. It is stated in Google’s own company philosophy, commandment six, that “You can make money without doing evil” (Google.com). How does such a giant company keep most people at bay about the behemoth amounts of power they have amassed.
Google’s Semiotics “The study of signs dates back as far as Hippocrates (460-377BC), who noted that symptoms are signs for underlying illness, thereby establishing that a sign “stands for something other than itself” Outside of medicine, philosophers including Aristotle (384-32BC) established that and a sign can be divided into: a.) its physical self; b.) The thing to which it directly
6 refers; and c.) its meaning, which may vary due to social and personal experience.” (Brownie 2)
4 Google's aesthetic is unique, playful and overall inspires trust amongst its
technology companies. Facebook, Microsoft, Bing, Apple, and countless others all use sans Serif typefaces for their logos. Why not Google? Google is the pinnacle of modernity, the poster child of technology. What is more modern than satellites taking high resolution pictures of the entire earth, and making buildings searchable by street address? What is more modern than a search engine that knows what one is going to type? This company is prototyping “terminator style” (Manjoo) glasses that can respond to human speech, and access the internet. I digress. Google is known to be meticulous and data-driven when it comes to their appearance, “Yes, it’s true that a team at Google couldn’t decide between two blues, so they’re testing 41 shades between each blue to see which one performs better.” (Bowman) Google chose Catull in red, green, yellow and blue to represent the company. Why?
synonymous with Google. Most anything else set it in looks a bit Medieval, and frankly a tad on the ugly side. Why not utilize a nice sans-serif that reeks modernity, especially when all of the other tech giants are using them? Toy store logos look like toy store logos, bank logos look like bank logos, tech logos look like tech logos; mostly. Google breaks suit. If one compares the basic aesthetic of serif and sans-serif typefaces, and does some basic research a few facts appear, and the mystery behind Google's branding decisions become more clear. sans Serif typefaces are new; modern. Such typefaces were even banned in Germany during the Third
ingrained within modern design, pervasive globally. Serif typefaces on the other hand are classic. Serif Typefaces are old. Serif typefaces have been around longer, and have a different vibe to them all together, they seem
7 to have more authority without being as bold, they can be reminiscent of script, but not in a tacky way. In what applications are sans-serif and serif typefaces most commonly used?
5
The Holy Bible The Holy Bible
would feel too generic; the same could be said about the Bible, and most other holy books. Holy texts are usually titled with a Serif typeface on their cover, as the contents of the book are to be highly regarded without being too forceful. Taking heed of the messages contained therein and being guided by the book is sold as the right thing to do. Holy texts are not warning signs, the are to be seen as more important, and henceforth should not have to be actively forced upon the reader. They can establish a trust, percieved as a truth too important to not be studied. Imagine for a second "The Holy Bible" in Helvetica Neue Extra Bold, about 32 pt., in white on the cover of a. Now consider Catull, same size, in gold, on the cover of a Bible. Which seems more authoritative without being forceful? Which one looks more modern, which one looks older? Which would you trust with something important? Serif typefaces are closer related to cursive, and can have the appearance of being more intricate; more detailed than Sans serif type faces. How do most people sign their names? The
trust; something unseen that is believed to be true, based on the merit behind the mark. Holy texts are not based on concrete evidence, they are based on a complex web of trust, message, and perceived truth. Proof of content is in the heart of the reader, not his or her logic. These works convey themselves to be trusted without offering tangibles, much as trust can be established through a signature on a check, or a handshake, or a web search. This has not gone unnoticed; anecdotally there are a handfull of sites that view Google as some kind of “god� for example, thechurchofgoogle.org as well as isgooglegod.com. If one types the latter into an address bar the word YES is the only thing seen on the site. People perceive Google to be god more often than Facebook, which is usually seen as more of a Orwellian entity when criticized for privacy violations, perhaps due to its branding. People are used to the concept of having their
8 every action watched, recorded if it’s by a diety, or “god� per se, it is seen as normal, perhaps even comforting. When having every action watched by another human is considered, it is an entirely different narrative. Folks are generally disturbed by the notion that they are being watched, by other humans, by god, not so much. Little hints at what a company or concept is closer to, god or Big Brother, may prove more important than anecdotal as 21st century life progresses. Semiology is something everyone is subject gers that may suade folks one way or another. Most, that is, disregarding the company that tests 41 shades of blue to see which one users respond best to.
WARNING: Sans-serif typefaces are often considered to bolder, more eye catching; whether that is inherent of their nature, or because they are synonymous with caution signs is debatable. Sans serif typefaces seem to signify the obvious, or state fact that can be immediately and easily
end of a crosswalk, if the message is not heeded, chances are immedi-
alike: all signify the present, or the near future. Take for example signs warning drivers of road work. Workers are walking about, the pavement is
set in bold sans-serif: CAUTION ROADWORK, WORK ZONE. The same holds true for countless more examples, sentences warning the early birds about how hot their coffee is, how bleach can irritate the eyes, how inhaling burning tobacco could cause the body harm. The use of a sans serif typeface to denote something usually relies on the presence of the tangible, the immediate, the near obvious. Whether it be a warning, or something to deal with carefully, a sans serif is almost always present in any physically testable situation.
9 “Signal words must be in all uppercase sans serif letter. Message panel should be a combination of capitals and lowercase letters (clc), also using a sans serif font...” “Sans serif fonts we recommend are Arial, Helvetica, Futura, and Univers. We also recommend that BOLD versions of these fonts be used” (Mavericklabel.com) There have been industry standards
Product Safety Signs and Labels.” (Mavericklabel.com) If Google utilized a sans-serif typeface for its logo, government sanctions, rules and regulations, and worst of all danger would be denoted. Google does not want to be a warning, or seen as modern, or imply the obvious; for several reasons. It wants to be regarded as one would view a holy book, or a wedding invitation. Google is sacred, and must be regarded as so for it to function properly. Google deals scarcely with tangibles, and requires deep levels of trust from large amounts of people in order to work. Take a look at what it does. It has billions of pages of information stored in its systems, Google owns phone companies, social networks. Is Google a vast encyclopedia? The gem of modern life? Or is it Big Brother? Is it to be trusted, or feared, or both? Google is arguably the most comprehensive web search engine available today, it provided 65.02% of all US internet searches in May 2012 (Expe-
can likely provide any result a user looks for, from plane tickets to heirloom squash. Where have people gone throughout history for answers? Whether the query was personal, or just out of curiosity, science and 6
religion have yielded profound results for man kind. Anecdotally it may be of interest that Google employs the same colors
religious or spiritual signs and subsequent search results are displayed as vious fact. One enters the site in a spiritual environment, and is rewarded phies merged into one experience. Granted this may seem a bit outlandish, but for a company that tested 41 shades of blue, nothing should be off
10 limits to subaqueous levels of analysis.
7
How Google Works
For example: Bill is walking down the street and hears two ladies passing
kick, and wants to know more about this dragon fruit. Upon arriving home, he opens his web browser, and lands on Google, his home page. He types in "dragon fruit" and goes to the images section to examine what this fruit looks like. He is presented with several similar organic forms in an authoritarian grid. Dragon-fruit can be seen on trees, in stands, and some even prepared. Bill now believes he knows what a dragon fruit looks like, is shaped like, and probably even a few anecdotes on presenting the fruit without ever tangibly experiencing it. This is a mixture of faith and science. The images are all perceived to be real, even though he has never physically interacted with said fruit, not knowing one from an orange before he google’d it. Google offers up about 33,600,000 results for pictures of dragon fruit, as of October 23, 2012.
We’re Google to be smaller, and branded differently, the results would not be seen as legitimate. It is due to the massive nature of this company that people have such faith instilled in what it deems to be true, and henceforth what the user deems to be true.
The New Power Structure
Google Earth is an ambitious project. It consists of satellite images of the entire surface of the earth, and even elevation maps of areas underwater. It was allegedly started by Keyhole Inc. with funding via In-Q-Tel, a
Central Intelligence Agency to complete the project. (Wikipedia) Upon attempting to further source this information all pages read “404 Page Not Found” which is not uncommon when dealing with such projects.
11 Nonetheless, Google acquired the base technology for Google Earth in 2004, and has built on it since. Stratocam.com is a website in which users can bookmark different places on the globe, randomly browse places chosen by others, and search for aerial views of any address on a global scale. Ambitious projects like this are essential for Google’s success even 8
though they bring critique from the public, and world governments. Google
creating trust. This feature makes Google appear omniscient, and historically several successful religions have been based around omniscient dieties. In short, people tend to put trust in pansophical entities, but become paranoid about being constantly watched. One has to think of the delicate Aerial view obtained by using Google Earth.
balance Google must achieve to remain relevant, and not reluctantly embraced by the public. Google cannot become too over arching, too saturated, at least not obviously, or people will complain they are “Big Brother”. If they withdraw from too many facets in people’s lives then Google will not be seen as important, not as big, not as powerful. A company that literally answers millions of questions every few hours needs to instil a
Several governments have condemned such widespread information to the public, that Google facilitates. In years past having a street level view of any area in the world would be the thing of covert basements full of secret agents, but not now. The layman is entitled to this level of information as long as he or she can access a computer. This upsets several groups of people. “ In fact, the Swiss government is taking legal action to protect Swiss citizen’s privacy.” Groups of lawyers, professors, and journalists in Japan have asked Google to take down Street View. (Cleland, Brodsky 35) Their complaints have some ground, “Google is the now arguably the
Street view, and Google Earth, one must take into consideration the tags ample, the touchy subject of Isreali-Palestinian relations was sparked by Google a few years ago. “In 2007 the Gaza Strip was labelled “occupied” even though Israel withdrew completely in 2005” Abu Nasser, labelled as a “terrorist” said he was “thrilled” with Google Earth’s depictions. (Cleland,
12 Brodsky 35) When dealing with a company that answers everyone’s questions, and as a source that is wholly trusted on several levels, feared by governments, what implications could their political and ideological standings have? Obviously they have already upset some high ranking folks, and even heads of state, but they can do little more than request Google to change or remove the information listed.
Cultural Implications of Google’s Legitimacy 9 More people use the internet everyday, and the people using it get younger and younger. Generations born from a few years ago, to current day will have grown up with computers, and will likely utilize them for several things. Google image search is used by millions daily. People trust Google with directions, with what Dragon fruit looks like. What happens when certain words are typed into Google Images? Nouns are obvious, cat, First result on Google Images for “beauty” Try searching good, bad, or beauty, via Google Images and what comes up? A Google image search of “beauty” will yield nearly exclusive results of white women, scantily dressed, usually thin, adorned with cosmetics.
the provider. Nearly all people can agree on what a dog is, what a orange
Google, but Google was started in the relatively early days of the internet, before most every child knew how to use a laptop, It simply collected information and spat it back up to anyone who searched for it. Today people go to Google for answers, and will they think that Google insists that
will it have on the people who have not had part in providing Google with
rebel? Google was created with a status quo of information, and the quo slowly shifts, but not quickly enough to ignore the impact it has on people searching for answers to words, or concepts that cannot be tangibly
13
The frequent use of Google and Ivan Pavlov’s experiments on conditioning have a few things in common. Switch the ringing of the bell, (the conditioned stimulus) with using Google search, and the salivation of the dogs, (the unconditioned stimulus) with the results served, for this exam-
some other fruits may look like, he does seperate searches for apples, oranges, nectarines, and Jack fruit. He examines the images and comes to the conclusion that these were appropriate responses for the items that he searched. For every search Bill makes with Google, and get’s what Bill deems appropriate, a little bell goes off in his brain. Google is correct, Google is correct, Google is correct. Bill googles for 100,000 more things
getting pretty philosophical, pondering his life. He searches such words as beauty, evil, and important. These results are what Google serves up as closest matching to the terms, what do these grids of images convey to Bill? It cannot be said for certain what this relationship between perceived truth, Google, and the general population will ultimately create, but it sure does come in handy as a design tool, knowing what nouns, verbs, and feelings people most commonly associate with certain color palettes, images, concepts, etc.
Google For Designers: moodboarding
Google can be used as inspiration for creatives, especially Google Image search. Searching words like, good, evil, relaxing, etc. can help provide useful color palettes for artists and designers. Most designers are familiar with the concept of mood boarding. Google images is a giant mood board,
The more people that use Google, and are slowly conditioned by it, will make design more straightforward when designing for the mainstream. If
14 one is working on a project in which the client wishes to sell the idea for “a relaxing vacation” what does one do? Thanks to Google image search, scape, or a beach scene to be more relaxing. Noting all other considerations of course, Google is a great place to start any project. Design is really just organization of information, all the concepts, colors and shapes are out there, every last one. The issue is bringing them together into something coherent which expresses a certain message.
Google For Designers: research 10 A client is trying to push a new brand of yogurt. He wants this yogurt to be unique, new, crazy and exciting, but not threatening, or too over the top also. He wants it to be sleek and modern, but not trendy. Bill is in charge of this project, he is responsible for packaging, video advertisements, the whole deal. A Google image search of “yogurt” yields several options for Bill. The color palette in the public’s current perception of yogurt is that it is usually white or pink, the packaging is usally white, and that it is prob-
There is a bar of related searches, one suggestion is “yogurt brands” with a simple click Bill can now look at all other major yogurt brand’s packaging and make educated decisions about how this “new and exciting” brand
his chair. Unlike television and print, Google can be worked with on a
traditional design of yogurt in the United States? Should the cup be black? Is that too outrageous? What about grey? With a web based world Bill can actually see what kind of environment his design will live in before it even exists, allowing him to in some essense see into the future of the product, or at least its environment. With just a few searches and some deductive reasoning Bill is well on his way to a solid concept, or at least a pitch
15 about the look of this new unique, but not too over the top brand of yogurt. When it comes to video advertisements, that too is just a a few clicks ing (Vise, Malseed 145). Everyone uses Google, and the more people use it, the smarter it becomes, the more comprehensive it becomes. The more information it collects the more useful it becomes as a kind of thermometer of culture in a sense. Google is also useful in more apparent ways, it is a dictionary, a refer-
pelican is, or the most recent politcal gaffe going on. It can deliver whatever one wants as long knows what one is looking for, which is usually not an issue when designing something. When one designs for the people one must realize what the people think, and there is no easier way to do this than through Google. Google is basically the largest focus group available, it is where the hive mind of humanity resides to an extent. If one wants to know what a certain group thinks about a concept, then to Google one goes. To check the originality of an idea, Google is useful. If one is thinking about doing a project where oranges have human faces on them, a simple search of “orange with human face� will reveal useful tips about whether or not the project is worth doing.
Google For Designers: plaigarism
Google is prototyping an image based, image search tool as well. One
images, or instances of the same image wherever they reside on the -
similar images. If one is to take a photograph of a seagull, framed in the middle of the shot with plenty of blue around it, then use it to search for similar images, plenty will show up. It is safe to say that this image is not
16 original. One can create compositions from colors and shapes, and then drag them into the search box and see what comes up. It is a good way
Google.
Google For Designers: quality of product
Among the numerous differences between traditional media and the Internet is the ability of the consumer to complain, or comment about something- potentially reaching as many people as the target of said comments did. In magazines and on TV, if there is a poorly designed ad, or a really awful commercial there is no audience for dissent, save the those in the immediate vicinity; the internet is the complete opposite. As often as it happens, yelling at a television set has little if any affect on the content streaming through it. Anyone can essentially comment on anything online, if the comments happen to get taken down, there is nothing stopping this individual from creating a blog of his own, to further his mission. This is all a relatively new phenomenon. In the past people could be sold a useless or badly designed product guised by a few clever lies. The only discussion that would occur about the product would be between friends, reaching a trivial amount of folks. Today one voice of frustrated disgust can trigger the masses to chime in on the conversation. A few key examples of how Google can make or break designs have transpired over the past few years. It was 2005, and Jeff Jarvis had enough of his new laptop. The Entertainment Weekly co founder, and avid Dell-Hater went to the internet to vent his frustration. Jarvis posted on his blog, “The machine is a lemon and the service is a lie. I’m having having all kinds of trouble with the hardware: overheats, network doesn’t work, maxes out on CPU usage. It’s a lemon.” (Jarvis, 13). He digresses into a quasi-profane rant and caps it all off with “DELL SUCKS. DELL LIES. Put that in your Google and smoke it, Dell.” (Jarvis, 13) What ensued was a “PR avalance” and eventually a change in Dell’s customer service strategies, all thanks to Google. This is an example of what could happen on large scale when people get fed up with something, but what if someone makes a bad video? A bad design? Or something inadvertantly
17 racist, or considered offensive? People will talk about it, people will comment. 11 tumultuous relationship between modern design and Google. KONY 2012 is a recent campaign started by Invisible Children with the intent to capture Joseph Kony, the head of the LRA, a Ugandan militant group. “Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army have been abducting, killing, and displacing civilians in East and central Africa
in 2003 when we met a boy named Jacob who feared for his life and a woman named Jolly who had a vision for a better future. Together, we promised Jacob that we would do whatever we could to stop Joseph
promise.” (InvisibleChildren.com) Sounds good right? The campaign features choice design, in graphics and in planning. The video work done was inspirational, motivating thousands of people to join the cause. KONY 2012 spread across the internet with remarkable speed, lying social aspects of the campaign arose, some said it was racist, others said that it was a ploy for US military action in Africa. A Google search for “KONY 2012 racism” yields 1,570,000 results, as of October 23, 2012. It also didnt help that Jason Russell, founder of Invisible Children suffered “a very public meltdown in which he wandered naked post.com) Design is not just pretty pictures, or beautiful videos, design is perception, and perception of the design must be created itself. cuse for the designer not to. Granted, wandering nude in the streets is never an exceptional choice, but especially not when one is the head of a charity, and promoting a new campaign. With rampant discussions going on, and Google picking up on all of them, Google has inspired an honest age of design, and put an emphasis on quality of product. Everyone online is a critic, and each has a potentially powerful voice, all of these millions of opinions made available by Google. “Start at Google. Go there now, search for your-
what people are saying about you”. (Jarvis, 20)
26 bibliography Bowman, Douglas. “Goodbye, Google.” Stopdesign. Douglas Bowman, 20 Mar.
google.html>. Brownie, Barbara. “Semiotics of Typography.” Typedimage.com. N.p., 2009. Web. 13 Oct. 2012. Cleland, Scott, and Ira Brodsky. Search & Destroy: Why You Can’t Trust Google Inc. St. Louis, MO: Telescope, 2011. Print. “Enjoy the Best Google Maps Satellite Imagery around the World.” Stratocam.
“Experian Business Credit Reports and Scores.” Experian Business Credit Re-
“Google Earth.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 23 Oct. 2012. Web. 23 Oct.
Hughes, Jason. “Jason Russell, ‘Kony 2012’ Creator, Talks About His Nude Public -
html>. “Invisible Children, Home | Invisible Children.” Invisible Children, Home. N.p., n.d.
Jarvis, Jeff. What Would Google Do? New York, NY: Collins Business, 2009. Print. Levy, Steven. In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011. Print. Manjoo, Farhad. “You Will Want Google Goggles.” Technology Review. N.p., n.d.
27 bibliography (continued) Penn, Mark J., and E. Kinney. Zalesne. Microtrends: The Small Forces behind Tomorrow’s Big Changes. New York: Twelve, 2007. Print. “Rely on the Leading Custom Printed Label Manufacturer for All of Your Custom Printing Label Needs!” Custom Labels, Custom Stickers, Fast Label Printing Ser-
Stross, Randall E. Planet Google: One Company’s Audacious Plan to Organize Everything We Know. New York: Free, 2008. Print. Vise, David A., and Mark Malseed. The Google Story. New York: Delacorte, 2005. Print.
28 image credits, in order of appearance
jpg
5. provided by author
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9. earthsbeauty.com
10.images.google.com
STREET-GHOSTS-GOOGLE-STREET-VIEW.jpg
14. provided by author