Leosghost - 2:51 am on Oct 20, 2011 (gmt 0)

G has always been pretty "siloed"..the only ones who seem to have access to all areas and know what is going on overall appear to be the lawyers , the accountants and the ruling triumvirate..

Follows the model of the medieval church very closely ..monks didn't talk to nuns except via the visiting bishop passing on what the archbishop wanted communicating ..and above the bishops who didn't have much contact with each other were the archbishops..again not much contact with each other ..above them the cardinals ..( a bit more contact between peers there ) ..and then the pope and inner confidents..top down dissemination of information and policy ..but with each member feeling that they were a part of a greater thing..a greater work..

When "same level" members met ..they didn't talk "shop" nor were they encouraged to do unless a superior was present ..and so on upwards through the system..

Word is.. inside Goog ..at the coffee machines etc .. different areas workers ..don't discuss what different areas are doing..part Chinese wall , part "deniability", part siloed management system ..but it has its roots a long long way back..

Perfectly possible that this referrer crap was not discussed even with some parts of the search team..the number of things they try out ..no way would they keep bringing everyone together and saying "hey guys ..what do you all think about we do this"..not enough hours in the 24 hour day for all the meetings that would need..

The number of times that their PR people who used to come here had to "go back" and "ask the engineers"..even Matt when he was GG here occasionally said "I'll have to go ask why that is"..

Inspite of his comments on this SSL and referrer thing ..he may actually not have been consulted at all about it ..he may have just been sent out to face the storm and to be "good 'ol Matt" .."smile and dissemble" ..'cos we'd have strung Eric up if he'd announced this one..