The highlight of my experience at this year’s Search Engine Strategies Conference in San Jose was a personally guided tour of the Googleplex. This, and the Google Dance, helped me break past earlier assumptions to see what all the fuss is about.

Avinash Kaushik led myself, Li Evans and Bill Slawski on a tour Wednesday afternoon. While there, we were permitted to eat lunch with Google employees and ask Avinash lots of questions. He’s an extraordinary host and open minded, with a sense of humor, frankness and warmth that put me instantly at ease. We weren’t allowed to take pictures but we were welcomed everywhere we went.

Food

There are over a dozen cafeterias. A few are focused on a food type by country or preference, such as vegetarian. Ingredients used in food preparation are of the highest possible quality and must meet strict health standards. Therefore, you’ll find organic, low calorie, whole foods and other food in their most natural, original state (such as sprouts), no trans fat, and sugar-free choices throughout the entire campus.

In addition to cafeterias, there are sections of food closer to working areas stuffed with fruit, water, juices, and healthy snacks and even some fun stuff of every conceivable kind. I felt like I was with Willie Wonka in the candy factory. Avinash turned us on to the best toffee candy I’ve ever had in my life.

All food is free. There are no cash registers. When we went to lunch in one of the cafeterias, I went down the vegetarian line with Avinash. There were salads and creations I’d never seen before, with mixtures of ingredients I never imagined you could put together. Every bite was heaven. Bill found some cookies he loved and shared with me. Avinash found more. Every liquid, from water to coffee, is of the best quality.

As we sat there, surrounded by employees, I never once felt out of place or like a visitor. They never stared at us, or gave me the impression we weren’t welcome. I’ve never worked anywhere that welcomed visitors with open hearts like this.

Li had spotted ice cream with the name “Google” on it. Avinash told us that Google founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, had come across ice cream sandwiches that they really liked and wished to offer them to Google employees. However, when they looked at the ingredients, they went back to the ice cream maker and asked if they would make a version with no trans fat for Google employees. The ice cream maker agreed and packages them up with “Google” on the label so they know where to ship them.

Work

Everyone knows that getting into Google can be harsh. The interview process is long and intense. Essentially, only college educated, top of class people are sought after. I was interested in Avinash’s thoughts on this. We discussed how many talented people exist who are self taught or whose passion and expertise came later in life, long after their formal education years. Someone like me would never be hired by Google because I don’t have a degree. And yet I’ve accomplished so much without one.

Managing employees is vastly different than how companies are traditionally run. With Google, you’re there because they recognize something in you that they know will grow, take root and likely blossom into something that will enhance the greater product. To do this means not managing or even scheduling you.

If your creativity comes out late at night, Google is open. Bring your laundry and do it while you’re there. Bring your pet. Run out to play volleyball to clear your head. Ride any of the bikes that are free for transportation between buildings or just to get your heart rate going. There’s no clock. Nobody is controlling your time. Grab a massage chair and chill.

Every tech company I ever worked for had an IT help department that forgot the meaning of the word “help”. Not Google. If you need a part, plug, cable, or piece of equipment you simply go to the area in the building where they keep the stuff and get what you need, instantly.

There are no “cube farms”, but rather dorm-like areas where several people work together in a shared space. They can make this space their own, in any way they wish to. We saw a lot of creativity and humor everywhere we walked.

Google is so big on education that speakers are brought in on a frequent basis. Topics are all over the place, including religion and politics. There’s a wall with pictures of famous actors and actresses, politicians, sports people and others who have visited. I asked why their interest and Avinash said that people hear so much about Google life that they ask to see it for themselves.

Usability

It’s there. The funniest part of the tour, for me, was when I joked that I wanted to breathe the same air as the usability folks at Google. And so Avinash let me do that. Before he covered my eyes so I wouldn’t see anything long enough to remember it, I had a brief moment to learn enough to be satisfied that Google cares as deeply as I do about the human experience. It’s something I’ll keep in mind now, whenever I get angry at Google for something I think is unfair, invasive or too close for comfort.

Walk The Talk

In addition to caring what goes into the bodies of Google employees, Google also strives to exist on this planet in peace, in a non-invasive way. Solar panels are going up everywhere with the intent on generating 30% of their own power. Shuttles transport employees home and elsewhere so they can save on cars and gas. Hybrid and electric cars are encouraged, with the parking lots being converted so that employees can plug in their electric car. Bikes are used to travel between buildings. This year they’ve started an herb and veggie garden. In the early morning the chef’s can be seen picking what they need for the day.

Loyalty

Turnover is low at Google. News leaks are nearly unheard of because of the extremely close-knit camaraderie that exits. Yes, nearly everyone I saw was younger than me but I doubt age is a physical thing there. The spirit of the place was youthful, robust, friendly and joyful. I can’t recall ever working anywhere where employees were happy.

It can’t last forever. There’s a sense of utopia at Google. It’s hard to imagine ever leaving an employer like Google. We don’t get to hear the bad stuff on a tour of course, but after seeing heated toilets and someone swimming laps in one of the lap pools, I didn’t want to. The fairy tale felt so good to believe in.

I realized that at Google, if you want to create something big, beautiful, perfect and long lasting, you must begin at the source of the creative energies. This energy must be fortified, nurtured and supported at every turn. It must be acknowledged and valued. It must know it is honored and will be rewarded with even more comforts.

Google does this by starting with the humans who build its gigantic search brain. By taking care of their people, the Google product is defended, protected, grown and nourished.

It’s an exercise in spoiling your employees that will be fun to watch unfold.

When we last left off on the trip from hell just to attend SES San Jose, I had finally arrived Monday afternoon after being stranded last Sunday in Chicago. I kid you freaking not, I’m stranded again in Chicago and am once again in a glorious king size bed at the O’Hare Hilton - the very LAST room they had.

My dinner mates on our fun trip to Japan Town last night know I was starting to worry after Bill Slawski got a call from some SES attendees who were dealing with a nightmare at O’Hare yesterday. Many SES-ers had left on Thursday. There were 500 canceled flights and that created delays. The story we got was there was a hurricane somewhere. I read reports about electrical outages, etc. In any case, I contacted my airline and they insisted flights today would be safe.

And they were, up until the last possible second.

The flight from San Jose was a blast. A woman I sat with was a delightful sweetheart whose son works in Human Factors for Adobe. She was tickled I knew what that was, and we spent the next 4 hours chatting about everything from usability, to web design, to raising kids, to breastfeeding, to world travel (she’s been everywhere), meditation, and her work with people who suffer traumatic events. She has her own practice. Her husband and son were on the flight too. I met her son when we departed the flight, he and I had a funny talk about what we do (while his mom just beamed) and I think they adopted me. We made plans to stay in touch…

I had a 3 hour layover, which was tolerable because many of you who were at the conference are putting up pictures and my Facebook page is going nuts. I was entertained the whole time. My flight was delayed by 30 minutes, for Allentown, PA, but I didn’t sweat it. The sun was shining.

We boarded the flight, and since it was an 1.5 hour flight, the plane is small. It didn’t take long to discover the guy I was sitting with went to my high school and we knew a ton of people in common. He lives near Seattle now, but was coming out to my area for a family reunion. (Bill! He’s been to City Gardens. How cool is that?) We jumped right into our stories of the bars we hung out at (when the drinking age was 18) and things we did that our kids will never know about.

Once we taxied out towards the runway, we saw THE LINE. We were number 43 in a line of planes that weren’t allowed to fly due to a line of thunderstorms cutting across the central states. All flights coming in or out were being funneled through a hole in the weather system, so we all had to sit in the planes and wait our turn.

Several hours later, they took us back to the airport because the stewardesses had reached their 16 hour limit of work time and they canceled the flight.

Like last Sunday, I was stuck.

This time, my husband Eric booked me the room at the O’Hare Hilton, while I waited in line to get a boarding pass for a standby flight at 1:45 or a regular flight tomorrow night at 9pm. Meanwhile, just as on Sunday, my luggage is going to Allentown on the next flight out, which I heard is tonight because they started flying planes again. Everyone on my flight had to find different arrangements. Some were so fed up they were looking into renting cars to get the hell out of Chicago.

Anyone else stuck here?

Related discussion - Scary Travel Stories By Those Who Travel To Ses/seo/sem Conferences

Three days into the Search Engine Strategies conference and I finally had a chance to grab a copy of the latest issue of the Search Marketing Standard magazine distributed free for attendees. The theme is “International Search Markets” and there’s also an interview with Danny Sullivan on Personalized Search.

I’ll have to wait until the plane ride home to read it front to back, but it looks to be loaded, as usual. Topics include universal search, Ask.com, local search and PPC, link building by Eric Ward, global search markets, tools coverage and choices used by pros by Kalena Jordan, social media marketing, mobile marketing, and here’s the real news, they’ve added a usability category.

For this issue, I wrote about increasing conversions with your forms. I wanted to offer actionable advice with easy ideas you can implement now. It’s always the small details that offer a huge bang for your buck with just a few more minutes of your time.

Investigate this excellent search engine marketing industry magazine.

Five years ago, on August 22, 2002, a date that only Bill remembers because I keep forgetting…a bunch of us who met online launched Cre8asiteforums. It was the next stage of my old Cre8pc Website Promotion Club in Yahoo!, which I’d started in 1998 while I was still an SEO.

Bill Slawski, one of my co-Admins, and myself, are in San Jose for the Search Engine Strategies Conference this week. Forums Moderator and good friend, Barry Schwartz did us a favor and made the announcement at the forums, since we were running around so much and had no time to get the word out. (We actually discussed it while being interviewed by SearchMarketingStandard’s Joe Whyte, who suggested we run to Kinko’s and get a big banner for the conference about our news…)

I even got a birthday hug from Webmasterworld’s Brett Tabke, whose forums was and remains in the number one spot, no matter what we do…(Just kidding, Brett!)

On behalf of Bill, myself and Ammon Johns, my other co-Admin, as well as the amazing, dedicated, incredible moderating staff, I’d like to extend our huge thanks to the entire Cre8asiteforums community and those who have supported and cheered us on for five years.

We’re honored to share this day with you all.

Party - Cre8asiteforums Turns FIVE Years Old

In other news, all is well. I arrived in San Jose, have a story to tell you about my “Savior”, Nate, who has met just about everybody you could meet because of his kindness towards me after my hellish adventure just getting to San Jose, and Bill and I have lots of stories to share at the forums. Today, he, Liana Evans and myself are returning to Google for a private visit…hope to be able to share some of that later.

To Google, thank you. You really know how to throw a party! The Google Dance last night was just amazing.

Coverage:

Happy Birthday Cre8asite Forums!

Posted by Liana Evans while at Google. Myself, Bill and Li are guests of Avanish Kaushik today.

We’re celebrating at Google!!

Where to begin? I hear the reason I’m sitting here in the Chicago O’Hare Hilton hotel is because of a hurricane. I won’t be arriving to San Jose today as planned. All I can do is hope the flight I re-booked for tomorrow isn’t canceled too.

Woke up at 4:15 am to catch a flight from my local airport to grab an early morning connector flight in Chicago’s O’Hare airport. The hour flight turned into 2 hours, with 7 flight route changes and delays due to the weather. Despite their best efforts to get us there, my connecting flight to San Jose was departing as I was rolling into the airport.

They had no other flights to San Jose, on United or American airlines, which were the only two airlines going to San Jose today. I’m not a seasoned traveler. I traveled alone once, over 20 years ago. They re-booked me for tomorrow morning but I wasn’t ready to deal with an overnight stay in a strange city so I booked a flight to go back home instead. I had made up my mind not to go to San Jose.

Then, they canceled my flight to go home because of the weather. I could either rent a car and drive 14 hours home, or join the swarm of other people in the exact same situation as me. The weather is making a real mess here. United Airlines, thankfully, has lots of customer service phones that connect you with humans, so rather than wait in line, I used one. I’m now booked for a flight out of here to San Jose tomorrow am, but it appears I will not make the SES Womens Lunch.

I have no idea where my baggage is. Thank goodness for TV, cell phones and the hotel Internet connection.

If anyone got stuck in Chicago, and you see this, please leave comments or if you’re a friend, email me.

Pray for better weather.