Spun

I spent a day up at the Microsoft campus in Redmond last week meeting with their search team along with several other bloggers discussing web search problems and solutions. It was a pretty amazing day for me. No matter how much MS’ approach to things irritates or enrages me, the fact is that it’s one of the greatest software companies on the planet which brought personal computing to the masses. This means I was starstruck and totally excited to visit campus, which is a huge, sprawling, beautiful place.

Since I signed an NDA 70 pages long which requires I give up my first born child if I reveal any company secrets for the next 100 years, I can’t say much except 1. the search team was having the same discussions we had back at Kinja two years ago (which hurt, deep, since Kinja still languishes) and 2. the search team is bigger than any team I’ve ever worked for, they are aware of their status as underdog, and they are willing to drop more than a few bucks to listen to random bloggers to sit around and demand what they want from search.

A weird and dizzying experience for someone who’s worked only for small companies which sometimes required I go out and buy more toilet paper for the women’s bathroom.

eWeek coverage of the event quotes me briefly and erroneously calls the meeting “camp,” when the name of it is Search Champs. Only jokingly, a few of us bloggers called it camp.