Blind faith in Google Maps question, Christmas in June and Mince pies

In which I question blind faith in Google Maps and enthuse about Christmas and mince pies….

This week’s highlight was definitely our visit to Google HQ in London….. or rather all three Google HQ’s in London. This was not a deliberate plan. The intention was only to visit a shiny new multi-coloured one, however, rather unfortunately, together with the address of the said colourful office, my invite had the postcode of one of their other monochrome offices (whose address was a familiar one to me) which I slavishly entering into my Google Maps whilst planning my journey.

Arriving bright eyed and bushy tailed at the swanky Google offices, having already bumped into and exchanged pleasantries with a few Googlers that we knew (who, in hindsight, did look a little confused but were possibly too polite to say), we were met with some rather puzzled and slightly embarrassed looks when we boldly announced ourselves at the reception desk. Some little time later, we were shuffled off to another, even more impressive, office across the road, where we were met with further blank looks and the feeling that we probably didn’t get out enough. Fortunately, the kind receptionist was also a skilled detective and able to establish that we hadn’t fallen off a haystack and did indeed have business in town, albeit some 20 minutes taxi journey away.

The afternoon was much better with some really interesting stuff, announcements of new innovations and some fascinating insights for the coming months, Black Friday, Christmas and ecommerce in general, I also ate my first mince pie of the year. We will be sharing these with you (the insights not the mince pies) over the next few weeks, as we prepare for the next six months (or Q3 and Q4 as we, maybe, should be referring to it as) and will be developing a series of awesome presentations for interested parties.

Elsewhere, I think we are starting to see the first, significantly noticeable, impact of the mobile changes within Google and we are also starting to see a growing interest in HTTPS. We’re still not seeing any huge correlation with rankings for secure pages but I definitely believe it makes sense to adopt it going forward.

This week I will not be leaving the office, in fact I might not be allowed out again.

So until next time…