Last year, while waiting to ride with John and Pamela Blayley, I wore a Google jersey (so I would be distinguishable) and waited at the corner of Canada Road and Woodside Road. There, some other cyclist recognized the jersey, rolled up to me, and said, "Can I borrow a million bucks?"
Then this summer, while Touring the French Alps, Mike Samuel and I wore almost nothing but Google jerseys, but only one person even bothered to comment on it, so I thought Google-mania was over.
Then this weekend I made the mistake of wearing a Google sweatshirt to Las Vegas (to attend a wedding). The guy at the Thrifty Rental Car counter spotted it (and asked me about it --- I was quick to say that I got the sweatshirt as a result of a favor I did for someone), and my orbitz negotiated rate went up immediately. (Not by a lot, or so much that I wanted to immediately shop for car rental prices, but enough to annoy me) I don't know whether it was just standard practice for them to bait and switch customers like this, or whether it was the guy behind the counter, but...
Piaw, I've experienced this and I'm not even a Googler! I've had the pleasure of coming to several of your parties and also being given Google shirts from my AdWords rep and Urchin rep and so on; I now have 7 or 8 total.
ReplyDeleteOver the last few years, I've found my google-shirt experiences to range from humorous to annoying.
At an airport deli, I had a woman begging me to get her a job at Google. I've also had waitresses clearly expecting a *huge* tip. Not to mention lots of comments and questions from random folks at my gym and so on. On a slightly more annoying note, one bus driver (shortly after the IPO) commented about how I didn't even really need to take the bus anymore since I could afford my own limo. Sheesh.
On the flip side, I was greatly amused at how different the response was when I wore Google t-shirts last year while vacationing in St. Louis, MO. One elderly lady said, "Oh, you must be a computer programmer!" and I replied, "Um, you mean because of my shirt?" "No, you just look like one. And what's a Google?" To my surprise, I actually encountered several folks that week who had little if any awareness of what Google did :). Living here in the Bay Area, it's easy to forget that the rest of the world isn't bloggily tuned into Google 24-7 :D
Anyway, I'm going to be interviewing with Microsoft in about two weeks. I'm guessing that I probably shouldn't wear a Google t-shirt then. Especially if Steve Ballmer is nearby.