They Should Have Called it Bloogle

Taking a cue from Microsoft and other companies with official (and sometimes unofficial) weblogs, Google unveiled the Google Blog on May 10. Like the blogs maintained by Microsoft tech evangelist Robert Scoble, the new Google blog takes a breezy, familiar tone. But while that’s standard for the blogosphere, the move is a big departure from tradition for Google, which–prior to announcing its upcoming IPO last month–had been stubbornly introverted as an organization. Google blogger Evan Williams–a 2003 TR100 winner who co-founded and still manages Google’s free Blogger weblogging tool–writes that the Google blog will consist of “regular bloggy things: What Larry had for breakfast. What Sergey thinks of that Hellboy movie. Which Dawson’s Creek character reminds us most of Eric. And perhaps, news about Google, and our thoughts on whatever random events cross our horizon.” (The references are to Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and CEO Eric Schmidt, Google’s reigning triumverate.)