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Tuesday, April 26, 2011

"The TGIF Show" from 1999

I finally got around to putting up the final bit of video I shot shortly after I started at Google in 1999. Watching it, you'll get a feel for the unstructured nature of our weekly all-staff TGIF meetings back when the company had fewer than 60 employees. Ad libbed remarks. New hire introductions. The board of directors presentation. Lame jokes. Off-key singing. Birthday cake. Silly string.

Many of those elements were still in place when my boss gifted me with responsibility for running TGIF shortly after Valentine's Day in 2003. Larry and Sergey wanted some changes made, and my boss thought it would be good project for me to take on. In my next post, I'll talk about how TGIF evolved into a massive multi-media production as it came to consume ever increasing chunks of my life.

In the meantime, please, watch your head as you duck into the TGIF time machine.


11 comments:

  1. It's great to see how things are moving so fast!!.

    Thanks for sharing this video.

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  2. Wow, its amazing to see how the company changes so rapidly. But glad to know the philosophy remains same.

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  3. Anonymous6:53 PM

    Whose dog is that? What is its story?

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  4. Anonymous7:22 PM

    Awesome man!

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  5. Jay Gischer9:27 AM

    Now that's a blast from the past. So many familiar faces.

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  6. The dog is named Yoshka I think...belongs to Urz Holze. Yushka was so awesome. I remember a TGIF in mid-2002 where there were some rows of people standing, Yoshka tried to squeeze in and knocked several people over!

    Those were the days!

    Doug, I just ordered your book and I'm looking forward to reading it. I started April 2002 -- I sat in the moneyplex not too far from you actually.

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  7. I just finished your book. Which is very amazing and energetic.
    One of the great book I ever read.
    Btw, is this video is original footage?

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  8. I've just finished reading your book and I really enjoy it. It's sad that you have to leave Google just because they can't find you a slot (or is it because any other reason?).

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  9. It was an awesome video to explain about how growing the company so fast. thanks for sharing.

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  10. I wish you have some way to put tags on the people so I can have an idea of who is everyone.

    I just finished reading your book and I have all these names that I try to fit into those people's faces and clothes but it's impossible hehe.

    My interest in Google has increased after your book. I'll be visiting your blog often and "consume" any content you have on the older and newer days.

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  11. Great and amazing information about the movement of things fast.
    Very interesting.

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