Yes, it’s that time of year when we take a moment to reflect on the past year’s accomplishments and muse about what the next year will bring. Other than milder weather! I began this year as a Noogler and leave it as a Xoogler. I hope I left Google better than I found it — [...]

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In light of the recent WikiLeaks saga and the various leaks that have plagued my former employer, I was musing the other day about whether leaks are inevitable as an organization grows. I started off by considering a model where each individual in an organization leaks a particular piece of sensitive information with a constant [...]

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CIKM 2011 is nearly a year away, but I wanted to give folks a heads up about the Industry Event there that I am organizing with Tony Russell-Rose. These events have become an an increasingly important part of the annual CIKM and SIGIR conferences, and I believe they are helping to bridge the gap between scholarship [...]

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It’s hardly surprising, at least in retrospect, that location-based social networking company Foursquare was founded (twice!) in New York City. Where else (at least in the United States) are there so many people with so many places to go and so many ways to get there? I’m not a social or environmental determinist, but clearly [...]

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Today is my last day at Google. I have enjoyed an incredible year there, during which I’ve had the privilege to work with some of the smartest engineers on the planet. Working at Google taught me how much impact a handful of dedicated people can have on the lives of billions of users. Not that [...]

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