Valleywag: Googirl

Google raises the stakes in competition with rival Baidu

Owen Thomas — Thu, 15 May 2008 16:00:00 PDT

Google has been hoping to get more market share in China, but surely not this way. A tipster sends in this photo of bus ads in Xi'an, China, advertising "Googirls" with the search engine's familiar candy-colored design. Is this another Marissa Mayer project? Suggest a caption in the comments. The best one will become the new headline. Wednesday's winner: "The first rule of Hair club is you do not talk about Hair Club," by FlakJack.

Marissa Mayer: "I've never been in the cupcake business; I just like to bake them"

Nicholas Carlson — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:00:00 PDT

Google VP Marissa Mayer likes cupcakes, we learned in Julian Guthrie's profile of her for San Francisco magazine. Mayer likes them so much that the Google exec once created a spreadsheet to maintain a detailed record of the ingredients that go into her favorites. Mayer is not, however, in the cupcake business, she corrects KQED's Michael Krasny in this clip. She's in the cake-sculpting business, thank you very much. Krasny was likely alluding to Mayer's investment in San Francisco art-bakery I Dream of Cake. Mayer, dubbed "Googirl" by San Francisco, is really into frosting: "Vanilla fudge is my favorite. It gives you brain euphoria," she told the magazine.

Google blog link to "Googirl" story killed

Nicholas Carlson — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 13:00:08 PST

After Marissa Mayer announced Google Health on Google's blog, Capital Valley blogger Andrew Feinberg linked to the post in a reponse titled "Google Health is Frightening." Per usual, a link to Feinberg's post appeared in the trackbacks under Mayer's post. For a time. But soon Feinberg noticed his trackback disappeared. In fact, all the trackback links were gone. Feinberg told a CNET reporter, who in turn asked Google PR what happened. Soon the links were back. Now Feinberg wonders if Mayer nixed the trackbacks due to his critical commentary. We're skeptical. The more likely culprit? A link to Cade Metz's story in The Register headlined "'Googirl' unloads on Google Health: A seminal moment." Just like Feinberg's story, Metz's story links to Google's post. But unlike Feinberg's, it's still not to be found in the trackbacks.

Googate: It's all our fault

Paul Boutin — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 21:31:55 PST

Google's cupcake princess, Marissa Mayer, it must be said, runs the part of the company that actually matters: the search engine. She recently made a huge adjustment to search results to favor recent content. So I'm sure it took her about 150 milliseconds to realize, from wherever she happened to be sitting or standing at TED this afternoon, that creeps Googling for "googirl" would for a very long time find San Francisco magazine's profile of her in the top slot, thanks to a link from us that outranks the Urban Dictionary. Which is why it's gone now. You know, the worst part of this job isn't the cheap shots from sad-assed journalists who wish they could post this stuff. It's knowing that we'll never, ever, ever get invited to the Four Seasons for cupcakes now. (Photo from Mel's Kitchen)

"Googirl" article vanishes from Web

Owen Thomas — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 19:55:51 PST

115,000 copies of San Francisco magazine, on newsstands throughout the city, name Marissa Mayer as Google's "Googirl." But on the Web, the article has gone missing. Could the editors have belatedly Googled "googirl"? The 13-page profile has been reposted with the humdrum headline "The adventures of Marissa." Boring. They could at least have gone with "Marissa explains it all." Any other suggestions for a replacement headline?

Marissa Mayer not really that kinky

Melissa Gira Grant — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 13:20:53 PST

I tried not to go there, really I did: San Francisco magazine's profile of Google cupcake princess Marissa Mayer is titled "Googirl". I'm guessing they didn't actually Google "googirl" before publishing. But if Marissa really is Google's googirl? You go, girl.

Marissa Mayer gets the cupcake treatment

Owen Thomas — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:20:28 PST

The only shocker in Julian Guthrie's profile of Marissa Mayer for San Francisco magazine: That the "gorgeously geeky Googler" is well-respected within the Googleplex. Perhaps among the executives Google PR trotted out for the ritual encomiums, but not among the rank and file. One engineering group so loathed Mayer that they threw a party when they were assigned a new boss. A ray of hope for anyone still suffering under Mayer's lash: In this piece, she announces that she may leave the company in two years. If, on the other hand, you can't get enough of Mayer, here's some obsessive biographical detail exerpted from "Googirl," as well as the article's opening shot:

$5 million, 38th-floor penthouse at the Four Seasons
Mayer is infatuated with the color purple ... a formfitting deep-purple dress by C.D. Greene with small black mirrors ... the bedroom's violet walls — replicated from one of her favorite cashmere sweaters — ... announce her love of eye-poppingly bright colors and Marimekko-type patterns
A social climber who paid $60,000 to win lunch with Oscar de la Renta
Once dated Google cofounder Larry Page
Rumored to be worth several hundred million dollars
As vice president of search products and user experience, Mayer manages 150 product managers, who direct the efforts of nearly 2,000 software engineers
Her pet dog, an Aibo robot named Rover
She also has a Craftsman in Palo Alto
She'd recently bought an array of cookbooks to study the cupcake recipes in each, created a spreadsheet for the ingredients, and then tested the recipes before writing her own
She made another spreadsheet for frosting.
The ceiling installation she commissioned from the famous glass artist Dale Chihuly: 400 pieces of blown glass in the shapes of sea flora and fauna.
A wall-size light panel with 576 individually placed Ping-Pong balls, which Mayer made over eight weekends spent home alone, inspired by the light display she'd seen at a 2005 U2 concert.
Original works by Andy Warhol, Sol LeWitt, and Roy Lichtenstein.
Mayer had 12 job offers: Carnegie Mellon, McKinsey, Oracle.
For the first month at work, she was a closet InfoSeek user, turning her computer screen so no one would see.
Her high school debate team ... won the state championship her senior year.
Her all-time favorite foods include duck confit Sloppy Joes, sliders of Angus beef with brie, and macaroni and cheese with lobster.
dozens of Mayer's favorite Sprungli Luxemburgerli (bite-size macaroons), which she brought back from Zurich, where she was on business a few days earlier. She even sent invitees a Wikipedia link to information about the treat.
Mayer samples a piece of cake and says, "I'm a huge fan of frosting. Vanilla fudge is my favorite. It gives you brain euphoria."
Her favorite designers are de la Renta and Carolina Herrera.

FULL COVERAGE OF THE GOOGIRL SCANDAL