Sunday, March 18, 2007

Some interesting facts about Google

Ran into this article this afternoon, about a lecture given by Marissa Mayer (Product Manager for Google). The author of the article[link] was invited to the lecture and as an ardent audience he summarized from the lecture a couple of interesting facts about google. Following quoted facts are the ones I find most interesting to me:

  1. The prime reason the Google home page is so bare is due to the fact that the founders didn't know HTML and just wanted a quick interface. Infact it was noted that the submit button was a long time coming and hitting the RETURN key was the only way to burst Google into life.
  2. One of the biggest leap in search usage came about when they introduced their much improved spell checker giving birth to the "Did you mean..." feature. This instantly doubled their traffic, but they had some interesting discussions on how best to place that information, as most people simply tuned that out. But they discovered the placement at the bottom of the results was the most effective area.
  3. Google makes changes small-and-often. They will sometimes trial a particular feature with a set of users from a given network subnet; for example Excite@Home users often get to see new features. They aren't told of this, just presented with the new UI and observed how they use it.
  4. Google has the largest network of translators in the world.
  5. They use the 20% / 5% rules. If at least 20% of people use a feature, then it will be included. At least 5% of people need to use a particular search preference before it will make it into the 'Advanced Preferences'.
  6. The name 'Google' was an accident. A spelling mistake made by the original founders who thought they were going for 'Googol'
  7. Gmail was used internally for nearly 2 years prior to launch to the public. They discovered there was approximately 6 types of email users, and Gmail has been designed to accommodate these 6.

Friday, March 9, 2007

CV versus resume, what's the difference?

Have a look at: <http://www.dcardillo.com/articles/resvscv.html>

"Although many people use the terms “resume” and “CV” (curriculum vitae) interchangeably, they’re actually two different types of documents, each with its own distinct focus. [...]


A resume is the 1-2 page career summary that most of us are familiar with. It summarizes work experience, accomplishments, education and other pertinent topics such as professional associations and special skills. The resume is what is most universally used and expected by prospective employers. [...]

A curriculum vitae, or CV, on the other hand, is a longer, more comprehensive document. It’s usually multiple pages long and gets into much more detail, including a listing of publications, presentations, research projects, academic work, teaching experience, and so forth. A CV is generally used in PhD-driven environments, such as academia and higher level research. It attests to expertise and authority.
[...]

There are even two different styles of CV, the American and the International. Which style you use would depend on where the company you’re applying to is located. The International version includes personal information, such as marital and health status, which would be inappropriate on an American-style CV."

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

LYCE Winter Camp

李阳疯狂英语第23届冬令营教师全家福

非常怀恋那段日子!!