Breakdown: Google Corporate Blog
In my experiences, Google’s blog is a stellar example of corporate blogging done right. It is posts like these that really demonstrate how they’ve added a personal feel to the information. However, posts regarding “interesting” information are not the only purpose of this blog. They also incorporate posts regarding new technologies and features that have been developed or are in development. While some may feel that this is a form of advertisement (and it is), it was done originally by the employees who developed the software for this feature or are tutorials/explinations for a new product. However, some posts shift between that fine line of marketing and informative. These two examples about advertisements and Google Apps demonstrate this point well.
The blog also takes on a press release function as well, with posts regarding the current issues with the company. For example, after the cyber attacks on Google, they posted information that was “press release” information that news sites used. Also, a most recent case is with public relations in Italy regarding a video posted on the Google videos segment of their site, where a few of their employees are now in Italian prisons. Even though this takes on a press release feel, it also brings out the opinions and ethics regarding this issue, both of the company and individuals. Even with the press functionality, the blog tries to bring out some of the personal feel to their posts.
The structure to the blog is particularly interesting because the Google blog is really just a collection of smaller Google blogs. Each psot from the Technology blog is fed to the main site’s blog. This provides a great user-friendly way to filter content in addition to any search of tag technology used. A user could subscribe to only the technology segment of the site instead of all corporate postings.
