stop-design-logo

One developer recently left Google and wrote a goodbye message on his blog. Douglas Bowman was previously the Visual Design Lead at the Big Blue G.

Doug’s post titled, Goodbye Google, is only the second employee complaint I have ever seen.

Bowman faults Google for being incredibly reliant on data to make decisions, down to the minuscule:

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. I had a recent debate over whether a border should be 3, 4 or 5 pixels wide, and was asked to prove my case.

This Is Not a Slam

Bowman continues in his post with a statement that I feel nullifies any negative impact of Google’s data decision dependency:

I can’t fault Google for this reliance on data. And I can’t exactly point to financial failure or a shrinking number of users to prove it has done anything wrong. Billions of shareholder dollars are at stake. The company has millions of users around the world to please. That’s no easy task.

Alliteration aside, Google does have a lot riding on their decisions. They are the biggest player in the marketing, which also makes them the biggest target, and their “Don’t Be Evil” slogan has just made the scrutiny all the more poignant.

Aircraft Carriers Make Wide Turns

Finally, Douglas compares Google to an Aircraft carrier, the largest seagoing vessels currently known to man, and himself to a small dingy.

Google [is] a massive aircraft carrier, and I [am] just a small dinghy trying to push it a few degrees North.

This is arguably the most critical statement.

Reread the above statement, but remove Google’s name. Which company first comes to mind?

  • Microsoft?
  • IBM?
  • Compaq?

Never before would I have thought Google could be compared to these companies, who are all struggling.

Be Careful Google!

I do not want to see the big G go down, let alone turn into Microsoft. They have done too much good, and should be able to continue doing so indefinitely!