Ed Zitron

Hello and welcome to Better Offline. I'm your host, Ed Zittroth. And in the next two episodes, I'm going to tell you the names of some of the people responsible for destroying the internet. And I'm going to start on February 5th, 2019, when Ben Gomes, Google's former head of search, well, he had a problem.

Jerry Dishler, then the VP and GM of Ads at Google, and Shiv Venkataraman, then the VP of Engineering Search and Ads on Google Properties, had called something called a code yellow for search revenue due to, and I quote emails that came out as part of Google's antitrust hearing, "...steady weakness in the daily numbers and a likeliness that it would end the quarter significantly behind in metrics that... kind of unclear."

Jerry Dishler, then the VP and GM of Ads at Google, and Shiv Venkataraman, then the VP of Engineering Search and Ads on Google Properties, had called something called a code yellow for search revenue due to, and I quote emails that came out as part of Google's antitrust hearing, "...steady weakness in the daily numbers and a likeliness that it would end the quarter significantly behind in metrics that... kind of unclear."

Jerry Dishler, then the VP and GM of Ads at Google, and Shiv Venkataraman, then the VP of Engineering Search and Ads on Google Properties, had called something called a code yellow for search revenue due to, and I quote emails that came out as part of Google's antitrust hearing, "...steady weakness in the daily numbers and a likeliness that it would end the quarter significantly behind in metrics that... kind of unclear."

For those unfamiliar with Google's internal kind of Scientology-esque jargon, which means most people, let me explain. A code yellow isn't a terrible need to piss or some sort of crisis of moderate severity.

For those unfamiliar with Google's internal kind of Scientology-esque jargon, which means most people, let me explain. A code yellow isn't a terrible need to piss or some sort of crisis of moderate severity.

For those unfamiliar with Google's internal kind of Scientology-esque jargon, which means most people, let me explain. A code yellow isn't a terrible need to piss or some sort of crisis of moderate severity.

The yellow, according to Stephen Levy's tell-all book about Google, refers to, and I promise this is not a joke, the color of a tank top that a former VP of engineering called Wayne Rosling used to wear during his time at the company.

The yellow, according to Stephen Levy's tell-all book about Google, refers to, and I promise this is not a joke, the color of a tank top that a former VP of engineering called Wayne Rosling used to wear during his time at the company.

The yellow, according to Stephen Levy's tell-all book about Google, refers to, and I promise this is not a joke, the color of a tank top that a former VP of engineering called Wayne Rosling used to wear during his time at the company.

It's essentially the equivalent of DEFCON 1, and activates, as Levi explained, a war room-like situation where workers are pulled from their desks and into a conference room where they tackle the problem as a top priority. Any other projects or concerns are sidelined. And independently, I've heard there are other colors, like purple. I'm not going to get into that, though.

It's essentially the equivalent of DEFCON 1, and activates, as Levi explained, a war room-like situation where workers are pulled from their desks and into a conference room where they tackle the problem as a top priority. Any other projects or concerns are sidelined. And independently, I've heard there are other colors, like purple. I'm not going to get into that, though.

It's essentially the equivalent of DEFCON 1, and activates, as Levi explained, a war room-like situation where workers are pulled from their desks and into a conference room where they tackle the problem as a top priority. Any other projects or concerns are sidelined. And independently, I've heard there are other colors, like purple. I'm not going to get into that, though.

It's quite boring and irrelevant to this situation. In emails released as part of the Department of Justice's antitrust case against Google, as I previously mentioned, Dishler laid out several contributing factors.

It's quite boring and irrelevant to this situation. In emails released as part of the Department of Justice's antitrust case against Google, as I previously mentioned, Dishler laid out several contributing factors.

It's quite boring and irrelevant to this situation. In emails released as part of the Department of Justice's antitrust case against Google, as I previously mentioned, Dishler laid out several contributing factors.

Search query growth was significantly behind forecast, the timing of revenue launches was significantly behind, and he had this vague worry that several advertiser-specific and sector weaknesses existed in search. Now, I want to cover something because I've messed up, and I really want to be clear about this.

Search query growth was significantly behind forecast, the timing of revenue launches was significantly behind, and he had this vague worry that several advertiser-specific and sector weaknesses existed in search. Now, I want to cover something because I've messed up, and I really want to be clear about this.

Search query growth was significantly behind forecast, the timing of revenue launches was significantly behind, and he had this vague worry that several advertiser-specific and sector weaknesses existed in search. Now, I want to cover something because I've messed up, and I really want to be clear about this.

I've previously and erroneously referred to the code yellow as something that Gomes raised as a means of calling attention to the proximity of Google's ad side getting a little too close to search. I'm afraid the truth is extremely depressing and so much grimmer.