White Notes: The First Cambridge Google Meet-Up

Note:  Let’s give a warm MIN Blog welcome to Jennie White, our fabulous new intern/volunteer.  Jennie is carrying on the MIN tradition of getting out there and mixing it up with the innovators!  Take it away, Jennie!

Walking up the stairs to the Enormous Room in Cambridge, I felt a sudden surge of panic. I was going to a Google Meet-up.

I’m a student.  I have only recently entered the world of Social Marketing and Web design. I created a Twitter account only a couple of weeks; my blog is less than impressive, and I don’t have any novel ideas on how to make the Internet a better place.  Yet.  But, I was instantly reassured.  The Google Meet-up atmosphere was warm and welcoming. Who knew Googlers, Twitterers, and web masters would be so talkative in real life? The minute I entered the room I knew I had found my people.

The highlight of the Meet-up for me was listening to Google’s search evangelist, Adam Lasnik.   Lasnik is a wealth of knowledge on all things Google and spent most of his time answering questions which had been posted on meetup.com before the event.

Of course, everyone wanted to know when Chrome is going to be available for Mac and Linux users. Lasnik, playing it close to the vest, wouldn’t give a specific release date, but assured us there are numerous teams working on Chrome for us.  (Yes, I am a Mac user.)  Chrome for Macs and Linux will look different than Chrome for Windows. Google is customizing a look that will work with the design of Macs, which for me, makes it worth the wait.

When talking about Google’s Webmaster Tools Lasnik recommended exploring his competition’s Webmaster resources, like Yahoo. (Wow, sending someone to the competition!?) After experimenting with Google’s Webmaster Tools, I took a look at Yahoo. I found their tools to be unorganized and not as accessible as Google. Ah ha, lesson learned.  When you have a superior product, you lose nothing by suggesting potential customers check out competing products.

Nate Tyler, who organized the Google Meet-up using Google’s own meetup.com, attracted more than ninety people to the event.  For me, this was the first event in many I plan to attend.  When faced with tough economic times, we all need to network, network, network!

-Jennie White (@jenniewhite)