I believe that I've mentioned that I'm not much of a "cell phone guy" ... and part of the reason for this is that the damn thing's always dead when I want to use it. Considering how little I use it (maybe 1-3 calls a week?) one would think it would keep a charge, but invariably, I'll want to do something with it and it's kaput. I don't know how people use the damn things as their main communication vehicle ... it would make me insane if I had to rely on it, because even when it's charged it's a crap shoot if it gets a usable signal, and then there's being able to hear it in a busy environment (don't even get me started on not being able to hear it ringing). Bleh.Anyway ... had my damn phone been functional last night, I would have been showing you a real cool picture from Google's Chicago office. Out by the elevators they have a Google logo executed as part of a Frank Lloyd Wright stained glass panel (although it's not actually stained glass, just a rendering of what that would look like), which I (as a Chicagoan) found very cool. Of course, I go to take a pic of it and find the damn phone is dead, so no nicely framed/lit image for you.
You would think that something as "neat" as that sign would have been shot at some point by somebody but the best I was able to find Googling for it this morning was just a corner of it (with somebody posing in front of it). Allowing my OCD to run things, I dug further and found a video tour of their offices, towards the end of which was a shot past the sign (which I did a screen-cap of for the image here), mid-day, with about as many reflections that could be captured in a shot, but at least you can sort of see what I was talking about. How this managed to NOT be on the web anywhere boggles my mind ... but there it is.
The thing at Google's offices last night was hosted by SEMPO, the Search Engine Marketing professional group, and was very well attended ... the presentations on the new enhancements to Google Analytics were standing-room-only, and featured hand-outs from both Google and Forrester Research (who I suspect were being represented by the only two "suits" in the room, after my exposure to those folks last week at their TweetUp). It is amazing that this is a free product, given what it does!
While I was able to say "Hi" to a few recent contacts from other networking events, this was such a mob scene that it wasn't particularly productive for that purpose ... I came away with only 5 cards vs. the 18 that I handed out (yes, I do keep track of that stuff), neither of which were much of a dent on the numbers in attendance (I'm guessing 75 or so). Oh well. Unfortunately, like MicroSoft's Chicago office, the Google Chicago office is pretty much just about sales. If they had any "communications" gigs, either would be very cool places for me to work!
Of course, I'm still HOPING that the phone interview this afternoon will put an end to my job search ... but I'm not stopping looking until I'm at a desk and getting a paycheck!
{EDIT}
Upon poking through Flikr, I found this, this, and this ... it appears that there is a stained-glass panel there somewhere, but the one by the elevators is just a graphic ... doesn't Google Images index Flickr?