jatiN mahindrA doT coM

The Marketing Worth Of Twitter and Facebook

As marketing professionals, we usually have to justify ourselves to our bosses, our clients and everyone in between—especially in the less-tested, sometimes-hit-or-miss arena of social media. But now Ad Age wants accountability, too, as they ask “if you’re getting enough out of all the volunteer work you do for Biz & Ev and Mark,” or, more specifically, “Are we all...

Giving up Twitter for three more weeks

Quick summary: I’m giving up Twitter for 30 days. I normally tweet about the webmaster videos that we make. Please follow googlewmc on Twitter if you want to find out about new webmaster videos. For the last few months I’ve been doing 30 day challenges: - In May 2009, I walked 10,000 steps a day. - For June 2009, I didn’t watch television for 30 days. - For July 2009, I biked to work. -...

Looking back ten years

Ten years ago this month I paused working on my Ph.D., eloped to a courthouse to marry my lovely wife, and went for a hastily organized honeymoon cruise in the Caribbean. Then we packed up everything we owned and drove from North Carolina to California to join a small start-up called Google. That means this month marks my ten-year anniversary with Google, too. Evan a husband with a thick skull like...

Doing the “Digital Cleanse”: no Twitter for a week

John Mayer had a good post about a “digital cleanse.” The idea is to step away from the busy, buzzy world for a week. John mentioned four ideas, but I’m going to try just one: “no use of Twitter or any other social networking site”. That’s right, I’m going Twitter-free for a week. I don’t really use Facebook, so that’s not a problem. The only other...

What charities do you donate to?

Every year I like to ask what charities people are leaning toward. So here we go: what organizations, charities, or good causes are you supporting this year? Lately I’ve been interested in transparency and reform in government, so organizations like the Sunlight Foundation, MAPLight (Money and Politics), and Change Congress are on my list. I’m also looking at Free Press and the Electronic...

Happy Diwali for 2009!

Hey everybody, I just wanted to wish you a Happy Diwali! I hope that everyone has a wonderful festival of lights. It’s a good time today for introspection and reflection on the past year, and for hope for the year to come. Whether you celebrate with firecrackers, sweets, or appreciation for what you hold to be good and true–I hope you have a wonderful Diwali! linkscolor...

Disclosure

I was glad to see that the FTC unanimously approved new guidelines regarding endorsements and testimonials. The updated guidelines affirm the principle that material connections behind endorsements should be disclosed. This seems like a great time to offer my own disclosure information. I am currently an employee of Google. I receive a salary from them and I also own Google stock and options. Other...

Bad Experience with U.S. Airways Dividend Miles

I’ve been having an ongoing bad experience with U.S. Airways over their Dividend Miles. I’d accumulated about 15,000 miles with them and the miles were about to expire. I didn’t have any trips coming up, so I looked for a way to redeem those frequent flyer miles before they expired. U.S. Airways provided a way to subscribe to magazine and newspapers using miles — great! I signed...

30 Day checkin: book challenge

So how did I do on the “15 books in 30 days” challenge? Not too badly–I made it through 12 books. I could probably have squeezed in three more books, but I’d rather take my time and enjoy books than artificially force things for a deadline. I’ll make up those last three books later. This month is really busy with some internal Google projects–don’t worry,...

Tesla Hires YouTube’s Communications Head

Tesla Motors has held the attention of most car nuts for some time; it is perhaps the leading manufacturer of electric automobiles that work in the real world.  And now, Tesla has gotten hold of YouTube’s head of global communications and public affairs, too. Ricardo Reyes, who started collecting paychecks from Google in 2007, is set to officially begin working for Tesla in two weeks’...

30 day reports

For the month of May, I didn’t watch any TV. I learned that I don’t miss summer TV that much. For the month of June, I tried to walk 10,000 steps a day. I learned that a walk in the evening is a nice way to wind down and relax. For the month of July, I biked into work. I learned: - I don’t much like to bike to work. Part of it is probably that I have pretty old/crappy bike that doesn’t...

Good workout music?

Okay, so I registered for a sprint triathlon (400m swim, 11 mile bike, 3.1 mile run) in August. Maybe that will turn out to be a really stupid idea, but I’m going to see if I can at least finish. So I need some good workout music, because my current tunes are getting tired. What songs get you pumped up when you’re exercising? Here’s some tunes that work for me: - Blink 182 - music...