Loren Baker, Editor

Hanging Out With Google Japan

February 23rd, 2006 by Loren Baker, Editor | 34 Comments

Hanging Out With Google Japan

As many of the readers of Search Engine Journal may know, I am currently living outside of Tokyo, Japan and have been working on connecting with Japanese search engines and bloggers. Last year at a CNet Search Technology conference I had the chance of meeting with representatives of Yahoo Japan, Technorati Japan, Livedoor, Goo and of course, Google Japan.

Today I took a trip into Tokyo to meet up with v7n’s John Scott who was in town and had the chance to drop by Google Japan’s Tokyo offices in Shibuya.

Googleplex Japan is not the mammoth campus like Google has in Mountain View and its other research centers. It is however one entire floor in Cerulean Tower, which is the tallest building in the Shibuya area at 41 stories tall with 6 underground floors - remember this is Tokyo where space is limited and breathing room sparse.


Google Japan does have a similar feel to what Google offices are popular for : airy workspace, a pool table, well stocked snackroom, and those Google colored stabilizer balls you always see rolling around the Google offices.

Making full use of their wall space, Google Japan has the largest “smart wall” Internet browser I have ever seen.

Kaori Saito & Angela Lee of Google Japan took an hour out of their busy schedule to discuss local & mobile search initiatives (Google.co.jp just added the Local tab to home page & search results - and is a hit), social networking, China & censorship, RSS (and the lack of it on Japanese sites), AdSense, search engine privacy issues (yes, the Japanese Government and Police force have also requested search usage information from Google Japan, which has replied in the same fashion as in the US - with a NO), Matt Cutts, Google News Japan, and blogging - which is extremely popular here in Japan.

We also discussed the branding of Google in Japan (which is overshadowed by Yahoo Japan - which more or less IS the Internet in Japan) and where Googlers from the US like to hangout while visiting Tokyo; Akihabara.

Recently there has been an obsession with Google’s snackrooms. Google Japan may lack the 5 gallon jugs of water which the Google Plex sports, but more than quenches the thirst of their hard working staff with these vending machines along with drink & snack bar (snack bar like in American English; “a selection of snacks”, not the Japanese meaning).

John prays to the Gods of SEO that he won’t get kicked out of Googleplex Japan.

While Google is facing copyrighted image problems back in the United States, Google Japan may want to take a trip a few blocks down the street to see what this Gift Shop is doing with the Google logo.

It was a fantastic day and I thank Google Japan for hosting us. I’ll also be reporting from Search Engine Strategies Tokyo this April. If you have any questions for the Japanese search market, please feel free to post.

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Comments

34 responses so far ↓

  • Sushubh on Feb 23, 2006 at 11:37 am

    Sweet!

  • stuntdubl on Feb 23, 2006 at 12:08 pm

    Too cool. Looks like a blast.

    What’s the Japaneese equivalent of “please tell us your algorithm?” :)

  • alek on Feb 23, 2006 at 12:21 pm

    Google vending machine is hilarious …

  • Brian on Feb 23, 2006 at 12:31 pm

    jealousy ensues.
    and seeing john in a suit makes me laugh. :-p

  • G10 on Feb 23, 2006 at 12:36 pm

    That place looks cool, I’m jealous

  • Mike on Feb 23, 2006 at 12:51 pm

    I wouldn’t know what to pick from that vending machine.

  • Loren Baker, Editor on Feb 23, 2006 at 12:56 pm

    The drinks were free so John starting filling his suit pockets with what he could.

    My favorites are the canned coffee, vegatable fruit juice, and the super genki vitamin drink.

  • ToddW on Feb 23, 2006 at 12:57 pm

    Awesome! Looks like a fun trip, especially with a break room like that ;)

  • Loren Baker, Editor on Feb 23, 2006 at 1:18 pm

    7 Diggs to date and trying to get more, please Digg It here : http://digg.com/technology/Google_Japan_-_Behind_the_Scenes

  • sem4u on Feb 23, 2006 at 2:46 pm

    Looks like a lot of fun :)

  • Gareth White on Feb 23, 2006 at 5:12 pm

    That looks too cool. Did you find out anything?

  • TOMHTML on Feb 23, 2006 at 5:58 pm

    Great wallpaper!

  • Rik on Feb 23, 2006 at 7:06 pm

    What about the onsite chef?

  • Andy on Feb 23, 2006 at 7:39 pm

    Cool Post! Do you have any valuable insight you’ve gained from them on the below items?

    “Kaori Saito & Angela Lee of Google Japan took an hour out of their busy schedule to discuss
    1) local & mobile search initiatives (Google.co.jp just added the Local tab to home page & search results - and is a hit),
    2) social networking,
    3) China & censorship,
    4) RSS (and the lack of it on Japanese sites),
    5) AdSense,
    6) search engine privacy issues

  • Bjorn Solstad aka basicus on Feb 23, 2006 at 8:33 pm

    Besides the pictures, the big question is: What did you guys actually find out by visiting Google?

  • Christos on Feb 23, 2006 at 8:45 pm

    Like #14, #15 said, it would be nice to get more details! But all in all nice.. Checking out a ProBlogger post:

    http://www.problogger.net/archives/
    2006/02/24/problogger-visits-google-tokyo/

    I find another picture of you with a problogger t-shirt (nice!). Any other photos?

  • Tomy on Feb 23, 2006 at 9:14 pm

    Hi
    I am currently working in Tokio too. Wanna meet?

  • Loren Baker, Editor on Feb 23, 2006 at 11:10 pm

    Andy, I’ll have some follow up posts on some of the topics we discussed.

  • kalbzayn on Feb 24, 2006 at 11:59 am

    The labels are a little small to read on the drinks in the vending machine. Do they serve Yahoo?

  • J. Microsano on Feb 24, 2006 at 2:40 pm

    Both really cool… Tokyo and Google. Lucky you.

  • Loren Baker, Editor on Feb 25, 2006 at 7:22 am

    We discussed this a bit on Thursday at Google. They said that their algorithm shows no preference over Kanji, Katakana and Hiragana when ranking page content.

    They did say however that a large factor is anchor text. For example, if you search for a word like Tokyo (in hiragana) a page with Kanji in the title and in the context may get high ranking. There may be anchor text in hiragana that says “Tokyo” pointing to that page, which is why it would be served in the search results.

    Also try doing searches for Japanese words that are commonly shown in Katakana like Busai, Sugoi, Ichiban, Daiichi or Yakitori, you may see similar results.

    They also gave an example of Stanford. Search for “su-ta-n-fo-du” in katakana and the US English Stanford U. page is the top result. Why, because it’s Stanford, and the amount of katakana text pointing to it… you may want to take a look at the backlinks on Google.jp or Stanford backlinks with “.jp” or “.co.jp” domains.

    Oops, forgot for a second Google hiding lots of backlinks, try these Backlinks on Yahoo:

    Not too sure about this, because I’m on a US computer, but other common katakana English phases mayserve similar results from Google.jp; “di-su-ni”, “nu- yo-ku” or “ra-su-be-ga-su”… give it a try Stephen and please feel free to share your results with us.

  • Stephen on Feb 25, 2006 at 8:46 am

    OK. What about this situation: I know a company is called Sanyo, but I do not know the particular kanji the company I am searching for uses for their name. How do I find them with a keyword search? If I use hiragana or katakana, the sounds are right, so you would think that would be the ideal way to bring up a bunch of companies called Sanyo. Unfortuately, in the actual pages, the katakana and hiragana are never used - only the actual kanji that that particular company uses to write its name. So how do I find Sanyo? Well, what about having a Google.co.jo algorithm that can bring up all pages with the kanji that have a particular combination? Possible, except for the fact that the same kanji in combination can have different pronunciations depending on context.

    Now, about anchor text, well that is a great idea. Except for the fact that (despite the impression Google gives of being cool towards SEO), the anchor text in many Japanese web sites does not help you very much - unless you are looking for the phrase “kochira ni kurikku kudasai” (please click here).

  • Douglas Schustek on May 2, 2006 at 2:27 pm

    I am launching a new site featuring
    baseball memorabilia.

    Iwant to advertise on a click through basis.

    Can you help me

  • Davido on Jul 21, 2006 at 9:09 am

    This is great Loren. Thank you for posting this.

    If I want to have Google AdSense ads (in Japanese) on my Japanese-language site, do I need to sign up at google.co.jp? Or is it exactly the same as signing up at google.com (easier to read for me)?

    Thanks!

  • Hen and Stag on Jul 23, 2006 at 6:20 am

    That looks like a very nice place :-)

  • anonymous on Sep 3, 2007 at 8:25 pm

    Wow. What a letdown. Only this from the country with the second largest GDP in the world? From the sound of it, Google Japan is a miserable failure.

  • Apoorv Khatreja on Dec 7, 2007 at 12:13 am

    That’s it. I’m going to Google Japan, today.

  • online on Jan 15, 2008 at 11:58 am

    Is tokio???

  • Nick on Jan 31, 2008 at 2:43 am

    This was a really cool read. I’d love to go to Tokyo. I’ll visit there sometime.
    The comments were cool too, except for the weird post asking to meet around “Tokio” and the last post, which I think is someone asking something like “Is it Tokio?” or… well, IDK. I’m just now learning Japanese, and I don’t know Kanji, but I’d like to use a computer in Japanese.
    Anyone know a kana only language pack that can be used? internet searches turn up a bunch of random forum posts…
    Any help is appreciated, though I’m not sure why I’m asking here :P
    sej@jensencs.com
    Nick

  • gary luckner on Feb 3, 2008 at 6:55 pm

    I knew it was only a matter of time till google took over vending too. I am buying some google stock tomorrow.

  • Barcelona on Feb 9, 2008 at 1:03 pm

    I love Tokio.

  • jasmine on Mar 12, 2008 at 4:56 am

    hi, im just wondering if some one can help me to find this person hiroshi ishidera from yokohama
    thanks

  • bitpusher on Apr 8, 2008 at 11:07 am

    I’m trying to find SEO tips on Japanese web content. Can anyone point me in the right direction please?

  • Ahmed Musleh on May 13, 2008 at 3:00 pm

    I am looking for a friend in the name of Mr Kondo Daisuke around 39/40 years old. I met him in 1988/89 in Tokyo, we became very good friend. Kondo has been graduated from Tokyo University in 1988/89.
    I have been looking for my this friend for ages.

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