[uf-discuss] Google at it again

[Chris Messina]

On 4/13/06, Mark Pilgrim <pilgrim at gmail.com> wrote:

> I second this (although I have no good Google contacts either).
> Sniping from the sidelines makes us look petty and insular.  Instead
> of making assumptions about big bad evil Google ignoring open
> standards and locking users in, have we tried opening a dialogue?

While I third this and am all for opening to as many people as
possible, I think the issue is the lack of transparency at Google --
and how insular their culture is.

Examples? I was able to push forward a patch for hcard support in
Flickr because I'm friends with one  of their developers... Folks from
this community rolled the patch and he was able to get it implemented.

Another example is Upcoming -- which has had hcal support forever and
is only adding more.

In both cases, the developers are out and about in the community and
are accessible -- in most cases via email.

In the case of Google, I have no visibility into what they're up to
and as far as I can recall, know only *one* Google developer. Where
are the rest of them who are making all these apps?!

I would love to have a sit down/community meeting w/ the Google folks
about microformats... it just seems that at every turn they're missing
opportunities (see Google Base).

But you're right -- we ought be proactive about this. So I will email
the one (actually, I just remembered another one)... make that *two*
.... people I know in Google and see if they're game to meet. At least
then we can't say we didn't try.

;)

Chris