I am getting the feeling the only way I can get any REAL work done today is if I shut down my email, Twitter and browser. But then how could I possibly survive? :)

Thanks to everybody. Lots of work ahead. No question. Here to help.

/via My Google+ Profile.

In the world of tech, you can make the news or you can break the news. I like to do both.

Never wanting to just play the role of armchair quarterback, I have over the last 12+ years actively played a direct or advisory role to dozens of startup companies, both consumer and enterprise. In the last 5+ years, I have shared with you many of my own experiences here on this blog, be it what I am seeing in the market, new products and services I am enjoying or big trends I think are going to impact the way we interact with tech each day.

Behind the scenes, often with less fanfare, in my various roles with my6sense, Paladin, BlueArc, and other companies, I've worked closely with and learned from some of the top people in the Valley and beyond. Increasingly, I have spent more time with different teams at Google, learning how they work, what they find valuable, and seeing how their goals closely mirror many of my own. Starting Monday, I will be playing an active role in helping bring Google's products to more people, as I am joining the Google+ team in the role of Product Marketing Manager.

The way the world perceives Google and the way I perceive Google has changed a great deal since my first posts on the company's services back in 2006. The company has grown from its initial roots in search and advertising to play a major role in many parts of our online lives, and has been among the most vocal in fighting for standards, data portability, and bringing content to more users, faster. The company's new social effort, Google+, is in its initial stages, and from what I know about the people behind the project and how they are positioning it, this will be a major piece of the company's strategy going forward.


After years of sitting on the sidelines watching various networks get some pieces right and others frustratingly stall or make decisions that seemed contrary to their users interests, I am eager to be on the inside helping make the products better, fighting for users and thinking creatively about how social plays a beneficial role in our increasingly connected and mobile world. I want to help build and promote a product that isn't just more fun, but more intelligent and useful.

Joining Google, a company greater than 100 times larger than anywhere I have ever worked, about 3,000 times larger than my6sense, and 10,000 times larger than Paladin, is daunting, and will bring its own challenges. In the last few months, as I talked with future colleagues at Google, I asked about how one person can make an impact at such a company. I asked about the potential for slowness and bureaucracy, and each time, employees talked about its revitalization under Larry Page and acting like a startup with incredible resources. Many times, through interviews and casual conversations, the company referred to its own youth as being remarkable - just over a dozen years old, and them just getting started, even if we take their pervasiveness for granted. While some may question the company's stretching into new venues with projects like driverless cars, it shows me the company's willingness to experiment and tinker and try new things outside of scope, where others might not.

Obviously, joining Google changes things and I don't honestly know all this means for what you can expect on this blog and elsewhere - but it doesn't change who I am and this blog isn't going anywhere. I remain a major advocate for small startups, niche apps and services everywhere, in addition to my new 9-5 work.

In the coming weeks, I'll learn the best approach to talking about the company and its products and competition, so you know you're still hearing from me in the most transparent way I've always tried to be, while also honoring appropriate confidential activity with the company and its partners - the same way I always have with my6sense and others. It does mean that my work at Paladin is officially on hold, and I'm not taking on new consulting work. It also means that I am wrapping up my dedicated role with my6sense on Friday - still a big supporter of their ideas, their people, and looking forward to some great product announcements they have coming up.

This move to Google is made even more exciting due to the caliber of the people I will be working with, from Chris Messina and Joseph Smarr to Jonathan Terleski, Timothy Jordan, DeWitt Clinton, Don Dodge, Chris Chabot and more. In meetings with Google as a blogger, as a power user or as a partner, I've always been impressed by the insight, integrity and culture of the company and its employees - a different feel than that I have seen when working with others across the Valley.

You know me - I vote with my activity. I push what I like and I advocate what I will actually use. When Google+ debuted, it made sense to me immediately and I've been using it as my primary social destination since, even when it wasn't obvious I'd be heading Google's way. I've been holding back some of my ideas and feedback on the product here as I want to do that from within the core of the project - but I am happy with I've seen so far and eager to help push it to the next level.

You can find me on Google+: http://www.google.com/profiles/louisgray

On Friday, I mentioned Spotify's recent update that brought artist radio to the on demand music service, aiding for music discovery through similar bands and genres. But one of the main ways to discover music on Spotify is through your friends, thanks to the ability to design dynamic playlists and subscribe to any you find interesting. The social element, should you choose to leverage it, means you aren't just making playlists for yourself, but for anyone who wants to listen, making finding a new song even more exciting, as you can pass it on to your listening circle.

Having built my Spotify playlists largely for myself over the last two years, I haven't done an amazing job of curating them, and honestly, it's probable that the first one (Louis' Spotify) has gotten a bit stale. Even I don't listen to it as much as I used to. But I was jolted into paying attention when Facebooker Tudor Bosman, formerly of FriendFeed and Google, pushed me to keep updating the playlist. Apparently it is good background music to code to, and I wasn't doing my job well.


With him now firmly in mind as my target audience, I know am even more interested in finding new music worthy of being added to the playlists. I even went back and cut many of my early adds, knowing I wanted to get the set right. Even if Tudor is my only listener, a good DJ just wants to be happy by making people dance. (Little known fact - I was the station manager of our campus cable radio station in high school and logged hundreds of on air hours) So now when I bump into a great song on Spotify, I add it to the playlist and imagine Tudor seeing the new song fall into his queue.

Of course, Spotify's not the only service that has allowed for shared mixes. Apple's iTunes launched iMixes years ago, and I even wrote about my first one more than five years ago. But since the launch of iMix, Facebook blew up and Twitter debuted. This, in addition to other networks, has set the foundation for increased sharing one to one and one to many. Spotify posts have made up a good amount of my Twitter stream, and I've found new bands in my in box on the service, some good and some less so. 

Unlike Apple's iMixes, which if I remember correctly were to be published once and never edited, Spotify's playlists are dynamic. As I add or drop songs, the subscribers get new content and new arrangements. No good DJ plays the same set twice, and the same is true here, even if the subscribers are virtual.

Just about every year, I buy myself a gift - a boring one, but one that I end up using practically every day, which I can't imagine not having. Practically every twelve months, I get a pair of elastic wrist supports from Core Products International, and wear them off and on throughout the day when I'm logging serious hours in front of my laptop. Knowing how many hours of my awake time I spend in front of the computer either while at home or at work, it's common sense to expect that my body complains from time to time - through numbness, strains or simple fatigue. Not interested in falling victim to carpal tunnel syndrome, I made a decision before graduating college that I'd trade fashion for comfort and make sure I brought reinforcements.

My sophomore and junior years at Cal (UC Berkeley), I followed the day's classes with writing news and feature stories for the school newspaper, and after a short break for dinner, I came back and converted the print stories for the paper's online site, often working well past midnight, before starting the routine over the next day. Hearing the popping of my wrists and strain even back then told me I should do something about it. My mom, a geek before me, who actually sold her own self-started Web business when I was in college, guided me toward the wrist straps I wear today. While it may look like I am about to add on some silly looking shoes and go bowling, the difference in how I feel when I wear the supports versus when I don't is remarkable.


In the last dozen or so years since college and working in a variety of offices, either at home, at headquarters or on client sites, I've been impacted by other bad behaviors. I learned to purchase a footstool for the main office to gain leg support and avoid fidgeting, didn't mind putting on unattractive glasses for eyestrain, and when one shoulder would start hurting more than another, I even started carrying my laptop bag with one arm and sleeping on one side, for weeks, until fatigue subsided. So even if you feel like Superman, the truth is your code might last longer than you do.

There's no question I'm among the worst offenders of trying to always be on. I famously mock sleep, and hate being disconnected - even in the rare times when vacation comes up. The Olympic motto of "Faster, Higher, Stronger" may now mean "Surf longer, Share more, Connect always"… but nobody's handing out medals. Being a dad of three kids means I do disconnect and wrestle or play catch with each as best as I can, but there are still too many hours of them in the background and the laptop or tablet or mobile phone in the foreground. So priorities occasionally need adjustment.

Big companies, especially the Web giants, have made taking care of their best geeks a major part of what they offer, with improved meals, wellness centers, massages and all matter of ergonomics. But not everyone works at these big companies, locked away in bland cubicles or fluorescent-lit dungeons. In the absence of someone else taking care of you, you need to do it. For years, I've put up with people asking "how I hurt my wrists" or if I have carpal tunnel, and the answer is that I don't, and I'd bet a major reason I don't is because I made sure early to avoid it. As your doctor will tell you, preventative care is the best kind there is, so don't forget to take care of yourself. I just bought a new pair of wrist supports today.