WHERE DOES GOOGLE GO NEXT?

There isn't a day going by that I am not impressed by Google. This is a company that is continuiously on their feet. Always thinking in dynamic ways - just like a start up should. They have attracted a lot of very bright minds. But it's still one heck of a challenge to go from a handful of people to several thousand over night and not mess the whole place up. I think the only advert I've ever seen for Google is from Russia. Every other time I hear about Google it's authentically, and in a situation where the product they are talking about is being used by a lot of everyday people. Case in point, earlier this spring we had the Youtube debates. That was marketing at Google brilliance. It was, without a doubt, a marketing campaign but one that didn't feel the least bit like a marketing campaign. Rather it was part of our democratic right to ask questions, this time around using a newly purchased technology. Brilliantly done.

This week's Fortune has a wonderful article about Google - enjoy...

Yes, it's making gobs of money. Yes, it's full of smart people. Yes, it's a wonderful place to work. So why are so many people leaving?

By Adam Lashinsky, senior writer

(Fortune) -- Sean Knapp had it made. As a young computer scientist, he couldn't have had a better gig: working at Google, the engineer's paradise. He had all the usual perks - a massage every other week, onsite laundry, free all-you-can-eat haute cuisine. Even better, he got to work on some of Google's highest-profile products, including the search technology that is the heart and soul of the company. And he made full use of his "20% time," that famous one day a week that Google gives its engineers to work on whatever project they want. A little over a year ago he and a couple of colleagues, brothers Bismarck and Belsasar Lepe, ages 28 and 21, respectively, did what many of the young geniuses do at Google: They came up with a cool idea, in this case a new way to handle Web video.