[puzzle]

It sounds more like Matt Cutt's external role.

If I were still at Google, I'd send you a welcome email and point you to the few things that I thought you got wrong in the past (mainly due to lacking the same context as those on the inside... now you can be the one biting your tongue). Quite a few of us paid attention to your writings. They were always among the most insightful, comprehensive and accurate, even when negative.

In some way, your hire might be a bit of a net loss, because now that you're on the inside, you're no longer going to be considered a neutral third party and I'm not sure that anyone out there writes as well as you did until June.

[sullivandanny]

Thank you. On the loss part, I'd left journalism. So Google's not causing it -- I just really needed a change after 21 years of doing it. I appreciate your kind words about it. I'm also absolutely fascinated by understanding from the inside. That was always the hardest part. If you can't see fully, it's hard to explain things -- things that some times help people know if there's actually a reasonable or good explanation. I'm hoping that being on the inside, I'm going to be able to perhaps help Google share more than it has in the past.