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The shortest way to describe this is that Google is no longer a verb. It’s becoming a noun. Not just the few clicks to find information, but the information itself and the experience surrounding it. Today, we get to add Google’s chapter to ” Will One Company Dominate the Cloud ” introspective series and take a glimpse of the silent revolution from “index” to “be” that is transforming the company and it’s products to the default way to engage the Internet. As fate has it, Google done us a big favor in preparing for this piece. The company has launched an assault on the enterprise with its movement in the Google App Engine, having a stand-off with China , and negotiating with the EU . And that was just a bit of Google news from this week. Sponsor Whereas it’s a bit more clear where Amazon and Cisco win (our recent analysis) as they head towards the cloud, with Google it takes a bit more expansive view. We have to take the focus out a bit, to be able to dial in on the details. Acknowledgment: Developers are the Products they Build We recently had the opportunity to sit down with Tim Bray . He has been a key contributor and thought leader in key areas of interoperability and information design, including his leadership in bringing XML to the world. He recently announced that he’s joining Google and focusing on Android in a transition from Sun. Several things struck us about our dialog that we think are key for Google. First, when Bray described his new job at Google, he talked about what he wanted to do and what he saw that needed to be done. Within three days of being there, he has a sense of ownership of the companies products and mission. In some organizations, you may never get such a luxury. Second, Bray described his opportunity to “roll up his sleeves” and get back in the groove as a developer on a project he feels passion for. He mentioned his desire to take the open APIs of Android and expose some of the information in a more portable way, for example to transfer a call log from one phone to another. A very interesting project, with tangible results. This type of innovation lives on top of all the work the company has done to make the API exist, and to attract individuals who are willing to rethink how it should really work. We think that this is the most interesting thing about where Google is right now. It’s “open” mantra gives the company the ability to see a whole generation into the future of information channel disruption. And, by bringing in “no holds barred” developers like Bray and a legion of others, the company is patiently solving problems that many of us don’t even know exist. Lastly, Bray said something that caused us some deep thought. His comment, “when the Drizzle team was moved into Google, they just kept working on the their open source project and things stayed nearly the same.” What caused us to pause was that open source development, whether Linux or XML, gives the developer, as a person, a way to contribute to the world. And it’s documented. If the Internet was the Bible, leading a key open source initiative, is like getting your own chapter in the book, where time will be the judge of your actions. Much better than your manager alone. To know that hard work, intellectual capital, libraries are available to the world after the contract is complete. This really speaks to the artist in us, in a way, the paid open source developer is using Google as a canvas. If working at Google offers this emotional spark to employees, it will gain entirely new efficiencies in solving the big problems, in the context of individual efforts. Maybe this open source spirit is embedded into Twitter, and is why it works. We like to contribute to our version of the greater good…and want fans to cheer us on. What we learned; acknowledgment matters, and connections to the whole population of people is an amazing vehicle. Google: become an indie rock star – with the strength of grep. All of the Information on Earth Google’s destiny to become the hub of the worlds information is intertwined with history. And this comes with artifacts of policy and posturing. To start with, not everyone agrees that Google should achieve a dominant cloud position. As we’re noticing, stopping it is another matter. We’d like to suggest that in 2010, the company is not shy about stepping towards its future and will use its power, technology, and cash to stir it up. Here is our list of organizations in the world that Google has, is, or will be, continually bumping into in its quest for cloud information dominance. China (counties own the filters for the people) ATT (service providers own consumer on the network) Penguin (book publishers own the words in the texts) Visa (financial institutions own the digits in the transactions) Facebook (social networks know the details) Amazon (commerce sites own the decision point) Twitter (owns “what’s happening”) Microsoft (owns the computer applications and files) Open can be a Key to Unlock Doors We see both practical and strategic reasons that Google has a deep connection with the open source movement. Strategically, being the new optimized layer, removing all historic barriers to information give the company more leverage. Practically, solutions can be built where information is free. Reviewing a few examples, such as Google Earth, Android, and even GMail and we see that where there are open protocols and information disruptive products can be built. Once they are built, the Google wields a significant economic advantage in binding the worlds information assets and converting them to eyeballs. Here, we take a quick look at the information assets that Google is investing the global cloud. Results : Google has moved away from Page Rank to “Closest Object” in it’s default results. What this means is that many businesses today show up as widget in the results in google with embedded links, maps, and other efficiencies. Ads : This is perhaps the best known and most valuable insight and unique asset, who wants to pay for what customer Realtime index : Google has worked to keep up with Twitter’s realtime firehose Semantic index : The company continues to add more and more microsyntax parsers into its index, giving more controlled tools for publishers GMail : It had to be done. And it is monetized. Documents and files : Google Docs and the Apps Marketplace create a whole new stream of information about an individual. Private, personal, and shared. Mobile transactions : This is an interesting sample of where Google’s strategy to build the Android OS pays off in the cloud. Not only does Google get to connect mobile to the rest of the offerings, but also to be able to dial in on movements, calls, and other critical tasks in our real-time lives. Books : Indexing all of them, first is an interesting piece of the strategy to break apart historic containers of knowledge. Is the book copyrighted? How about the quote? Browsers : The browser knows a lot. Google’s Chrome moves it from being default search, to being default experience. This was a great example of where access to information “Faster pages” is the simple value proposition for consumers to switch. Filters : Protecting companies, trademarks, and interpreting the legality of free speech. Someone has to do it, if we’re all one people. Health transactions : Google has even taken on one of the most sensitive challenges, private health information. And, it’s connections to legacy systems that prefer EDI to JSON. It’s clear that Google is making progress. What we’ve also learned in this review is that the companies biggest asset – people – may scale to solve problems in lightweight ways that entire teams and companies haven’t been able to in the past. Perhaps being open, or transparent, gives the company a unique advantage in being prepared for a cloud future. Is the cloud where the action is? What verb would you be if you were hired at Google? Discuss

The news that Google is buying DocVerse is now official. The reasons why Google bought this small company can be learned by taking a look at the people who started this small company out of Seattle. Shan Sinha and Alex DeNeui worked at Microsoft before launching DocVerse in 2007. Sinha ran product strategy for Sharepoint and SQL, 1.6B and $3.0B products, respectively. DeNeui served as program manager on the SQL Server Strategy Team and the program manager for the WinFS ISV Team. Sponsor The two have built a strong company that will help Google in its battle with Microsoft. Sinha and DeNeui know Microsoft products. They know the Microsoft processes and its culture. DocVerse understands the challenges of working on deeply collaborative technologies. That’s a goal for Google as it continues to develop Google Apps. The DocVerse application installs a lightweight plug-in that is installed in the background of the user’s machine. The plug-in opens a widget in the document sidebar that includes a unique link. Any time a user makes an update to a Microsoft docment, the plug-in syncs the web page that is associated with the document. Every modification gets synced. When multiple people work on a document, the updates are made through the plug-in and versions are stored online. Syncing will become increasingly important for companies as more of the workforce uses smartphones. Google does a good job with email synchronization. But enterprise collaboration tools have a higher level of complexity. Co-editing, for instance, has to carry from the PC to the mobile device among mulitple users. Interestingly, Jive Software uses the DocVerse functionality for their product add-on: Jive Connects for Microsoft Office. The competition is getting fierce in the enterprise space. We wonder how this competition will affect the DocVerse relationship with Jive. Discuss

For entrepreneurs trying to form a startup, one of the first challenges they face that persists throughout the businesses life is how to find and keep talented partners and employees. From finding that first co-founder to finding the prolific programmers to fill your ranks later down the line, talent acquisition is always a major step in any business. Just look at some of the deals that have gone down in the Valley; Facebook didn’t buy FriendFeed for their technology, that deal was mostly about getting FriendFeed’s talented employees on the Facebook team. Sponsor A new book from author David Russo, 17 Rules Successful Companies Use to Attract and Keep Top Talent: Why Engaged Employees Are Your Greatest Sustainable Advantage , seeks to make this process more clear for businesses. Russo is the CEO of Eno River Associates, Inc., which is a consulting service that helps business executives build better team relationships. Their portfolio of clients includes American Express, Johnson & Johnson, and the CIA. With his new book, Russo outlines the key strategies he has learned over the years as a consultant and human resources executive that has helped him and others create winning teams. The book doesn’t waste any time getting into its 17 rules; after a brief introduction the entirety of the book consists of one chapter per rule. The rules cover a broad base of topics, including the more straightforward rule #4, “Provide Ample and Appropriate Resources,” to the more abstract rule #12, “Understand Human Capital.” One of the key rules that sticks out to me is #3, “Cultivate Leadership, Not Management, and Know the Difference!” “Whereas managers administrate, leaders have the power to influence, to motivate, even inspire, and those are distinctly different traits,” writes Russo. “Indeed, true leadership is the ability to display attributes that make people want to follow.” Russo points out that leaders need to have passion, vision, and energy, as well as recognize that each employee has value to the success of the business. He likens this value to a tight end in a football game running “a crisp pattern” and distracting the defense despite knowing before the play that he’s not going to be the ball carrier. Another rule which will likely strike a chord with the startup culture is #10, “Make Room for Fun in the Workplace (Nurture Lightheatedness/Levity).” Anyone who has seen the popular workplace movie “Office Space” knows what a bland work environment can do to employees spirits, but I don’t think we have to worry about startups not having enough fun on the job. Aside from being passionate about the job they’re doing, most startup employees are probably used to everyday being “casual Friday” and taking a brain break in a game room. Granted, not every experience is like this, but we all know that many startups are a very relaxed environment, which Russo says is very important for attracting skilled employees and keeping them happy. Other important rules Russo includes on his list include knowing how and when to “cheerlead,” acknowledging and rewarding efforts and contributions, and the lastly, telling the truth. While this book isn’t aimed directly at startups, young entrepreneurs looking to lead their team to success should certainly take a look at this book. One of reasons I would suggest it is that at times, young entrepreneurs who have little or no workplace experience are suddenly thrust into a CEO role. If your company takes off, you might be in charge of a lot of people very quickly, and this book will certainly help keep them happy. Disclosure: A review copy of 17 Rules was provided to ReadWriteWeb by Pearson Education, Inc. Photo by Flickr user madebytess . Discuss

For the past couple weeks, we’ve been following some interesting developments with Twitter – things that most end users probably would not know or care about. As we suspected, the quickly-growing company is putting more emphasis on engineering, taking “steps… to make our engineering division more open and transparent,” according to the team’s infrastructure manager, Evan Weaver . “Much of Twitter’s success has been enabled by open-source software, and we want to give back,” he continues. And there’s a lot of giving back going on, from a new blog to new recruiting efforts. Read on, and let us know your opinions in the comments. Sponsor An Open Source Directory This new directory lists all the public software that twitter’s in-house developers have created or contributed to. “Everyone is welcome to use this software for their own projects,” Weaver wrote, “and if the project is Twitter-related, so much the better.” The Official Twitter Engineering Blog For those interested in the nitty-gritty, day-to-day challenges of developing and maintaining Twitter’s products and features, this blog will keep them up-to-date. Current posts include information on local trends, capacity issues and uses for Twitter’s translation libraries. They’re Hiring! The icing on the cake is Twitter’s new recruitment methods . “We’ve updated our job descriptions to better reflect our company culture and the skills we’re looking for” wrote Weaver. “My team is looking for performance, systems, and Ruby engineers, but the company is hiring across all groups, so check out our full listings.” Twitter also recently launched a recruitment Twitter account with updates on blog posts and new openings. Finally, you can follow Twitter Engineering on Twitter – duh. Discuss

Lifehacker’s founding editor Gina Trapani has just announced that she’s joining Expert Labs , the government-oriented independent think tank led by Anil Dash and funded by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Her first project: deploying her Twitter-based decision making software called ThinkTank for the White House. The Obama administration announced the joint project with Expert Labs in a blog post earlier this month . As Trapani described it today: “The President has identified a series of scientific and technical challenges that are as important to the future as the moon landing was. And we want to help drive feedback on that list, and even suggest what other items should be on there that haven’t been included.” Sponsor Trapani explained today that the fundamental qualities of ThinkTank are that it leverages existing social connections (today on Twitter, soon on Facebook and later beyond), that it stores the data on your own server just like WordPress does and that it’s open source and community developed. The software sounds like “the WordPress of Twitter data harvesting.” Trapani has been one of the foremost voices in tracking the ways the web can improve everyday life and work. She focuses on making new developments accessible and is also a respected software developer. Discuss