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...
Sunday, November 20, 2005
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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.
Over 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.
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