And When Google Hires Goats

May 4, 2009 by Shanker Bakshi
Filed under Ramblings

Have you heard this news about google hiring 200 Goats to mow, fertilize fields?

It’s an unusual idea so every one is talking about it.

At our Mountain View headquarters, we have some fields that we need to mow occasionally to clear weeds and brush to reduce fire hazard. This spring we decided to take a low-carbon approach: Instead of using noisy mowers that run on gasoline and pollute the air, we’ve rented some goats from California Grazing to do the job for us (we’re not “kidding”). A herder brings about 200 goats and they spend roughly a week with us at Google, eating the grass and fertilizing at the same time. The goats are herded with the help of Jen, a border collie. It costs us about the same as mowing, and goats are a lot cuter to watch than lawn mowers. [ As in ; The Official Google Blog]

MG Siegler from TechCrunch visited the fields and shot this video which TechCrunch shares on their “ESTEEM” tech blog.

Can you tell me why there is so much noise about it?
<object width="580" height="385" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/Jw_XI0WVZBg&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Jw_XI0WVZBg&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /></object>

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Tags: Ramblings

Comments

9 Responses to “And When Google Hires Goats”

Marlene on May 4th, 2009 10:48 pm

Not bad. It’s a good contribution to Earth Day. Google is becoming environment-friendly.

Marlene´s last blog post..Get Slim With Belly Dancing

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phoenix2life on May 5th, 2009 3:47 am

Wow…nice idea Google…

They are always into more innovative yet simple basic ideas. Cool thing like sending balloons up for gathering solar energy and reusing it.

This one shows one more approach of virtual reality touching nature. )

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wilhb81 on May 5th, 2009 4:50 am

Oh my, Google’s always have the new and bizarre idea to catch people’s attention, Shanker!

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Best CSS Gallery on May 5th, 2009 8:42 am

I think it’s very cute

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Prince Sioni on May 5th, 2009 2:30 pm

Thats a very good idea. Google says it costs them about the same as mowing. I love this

Prince Sioni´s last blog post..Make Money Selling A Product

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Aman@BullsBattleBears on May 5th, 2009 2:44 pm

That is a really cool idea. Its ironic that a technology giant is using such a low tech approach as a solution for their problems.

Aman@BullsBattleBears´s last blog post..Monday Winners!

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Sanya @ China Travel on May 5th, 2009 5:44 pm

This is really funny, but very good. I think they can do many other things which can helpful for environment protections but this one is very creative and can make a buzz effect.

Sanya @ China Travel´s last blog post..Photo Lijiang Dayanzhen The Ancient Town18

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Jacques Snyman | Website Design on May 5th, 2009 8:27 pm

Definitely a feelgood green story. Google is doing what all the big guys are trying to do – at the very least they all are pretending that they are conscious about green issues, and willing to try new ideas to be more ecologically in tune.

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natural beads on May 6th, 2009 10:50 am

Google always knows how to pull one up over people. Maybe live feed from the goats as they work next?

Reply