My Yahoo Visit

Well, today we drove 1 hour and 20 minutes to visit the Yahoo! Office in Sunnyvale. Well, 8 buildings, all grey with some purple around. A different feel. A different world. You call it Yahoo! I call it depressing. From Lego land colors of its competitor the other one with "oo" in the name, we felt differently. First, no smiles in the lobby. Busy? stressed? You decide. We met a friend there and decided to check (what else?) the cafeteria. At Yahoo! food is subsidized. No free food but the choices were nice. Today special was Persian food: did anyone call and say I was coming? Persian rice, koobideh (ground meat with spices and onions grilled on barbecue) and cucumbers/tomatoes salad. Very tasty. I added fruit (papaya strawberries and melon.) Ah yes, coffee and drinks are free. The employees look older: at Yahoo! the age group we saw was 40-45. Some people looked "dressed" up: tie and shirt. Some very laid back. It was cold and windy, so nobody was eating on the outside area. The whole experience was different. Was it the bad news of the last few weeks (the refusal of Microsoft's offer) was it the economic situation or..? Well it is Yahoo! Some numbers: 13,000 employees. 10 buildings in the Silicon Valley: 8 on main campus, 2 more far away. Now do you know what is the mission of Yahoo! I am quoting their website "Yahoo! powers and delights our communities of users, advertisers, and publishers - all of us united in creating indispensable experiences, and fueled by trust." I think my bank could say the same thing. But my bank has different responsibilities hasn't it? Now physically speaking Yahoo! has brand new facilities or at least it looks brand new. Beautiful purple lounge area, cow computer. Beautiful spacey area. Immaculate lawns what else do you want? The ambiance! Yes the feel is more administration. We are missing the fun part of a major enterprise. Now when a company reaches 13,000 employees, it is for sure, difficult to feel the palpable obligatory ambiance. The company has spent a lot of money in fitness rooms, basket ball courts, ping pong area, foosball (in French Babyfoot.) hiking trails: by the way the landscape is glorious You play any sport with a background to die for (see the view from the basketball courts -top picture on the right.) Yahoo! visit was a little bit depressing: I am not sure if it was the weather (all grey today) or the news from the internet. A lot of the same benefits as G. That means shuttle busses, subsidized if not free transportation from Caltrain (local train) busses from South San Francisco. One person at Yahoo is needed to handle the transportation issue. Anyway, we looked, we enjoyed, we left.