Last Wednesday I went to the Spam Summit at Google, hosted by Technorati (and locally by the Google spam czar MC). Lots of Technoratis, Google people, and reps from various publishing and blog software outfits. Yahoo! Search was represented by me and my product-management colleague PG. The vibe was really nice, and (even though the Summit itself was closed and invite-only), the general feeling was considerably more open and less cautious than the last one. Props to the organizers and the hosts.
That’s about all I’ll say about the Summit, because the first rule of Spam Summit is … do not blog about Spam Summit.
This was the first time that I’d been to Google, and my main surprise was how much the ‘plex reminded me of the Yahoo! campus. The basic campus scheme was the same: several low-slung angular modernist buildings with lots of glass, connecting sidewalks, coffeebars on the first floors. The entrance was imposing, and the one-click NDA was amusing. (Oh no — by mentioning the one-click NDA, have I _already_ violated the one-click NDA? I would speculate about that question, but I’m sure to get myself in even _more_ trouble.) I will say that the security (both informational and physical) seemed tighter than Y!, the audiovisual situation was more together, and the sandwiches were tasty but nothing to pay a chef a lot of money for.
Tim Converse 