Expecting the unexpected from celebrated organizations, overwhelming favorites and topnotch websites has become the order of the day. The organizations’ loyal investors and customers would love to relive those nostalgic moments that held the little secrets. These little secrets have the merit and substance to enhance their already glittering sheen. In addition, these secrets have the desired blend of bite and penetration to add a dash of color to strike a nice tandem with the rank and file. Let me let the cat out of the bag!
- Google – A surprising side business in its store!
Whenever you delve deep into the details of an aspiring software engineer, he quips “I wish to pursue a lucrative career in Google.” More often than not, Google is known to the world as a reputed search engine. Apart from this, Google has entered into tablets and mobiles. Did you ever expect something out of the blue? Google is indeed a fully licensed electricity broker. Well, it isn’t a part of its master plan to rule the roost. However, it endeavors to invest in large solar installations and generate green electricity. The reason explained by one of its executives is simple, yet efficient- “All those Google searches consume a lot of power. We hire goats to mow a few lawns at our company headquarters.”
Despite its best efforts, Google isn’t able to generate enough power through these avenues. To simulate the likes of a utility company, Google sought the special permission of Federal government to buy and sell electricity. The year 2010 witnessed the surprising business of Google. Google was quick enough to create a subsidiary called Google Energy in 2009. To all intents and purposes, Google hasn’t ruled the possibility of selling power to the open market countries in the open market.
- Twitter- tweet, tweet, tweet, and tweet!
As the corporate legend says, nobody expected an earthquake but the new Yorkers addicted to Twitter. The year 2011 witnessed an earth shattering quake on 23rd August. It hit the East Coast of United States. As the seismologists rightly pointed, the quake’s epicenter had its residence in northern Virginia. According to the National Zoo officials and office bearers, the zoo’s captive lemurs triggered the warning call 15 minutes prior the rest of the area experienced the wrath of the quake.
No doubt the East Coast was reduced to smithereens, but some of the victims who experienced the earth rumble beneath their feet, tweeted about it at the drop of the hat. Many people in Washington DC and Virginia expressed their dissent in the form of tweets. These tweets travelled faster than the earthquake itself only to ridicule its occurrence. Some people in the New York and Boston areas reported seeing tweets about the quake 15 to 30 seconds before experiencing it.
- Facebook – the true blue book!
The celebrated social networking site turned ten years old in February, 2014. Over the course of the decade, the site underwent umpteen changes – some of which earned the approval while some earned the disapproval of its billions of its users. The original domain name – thefacebook.com has changed. In the fitness of these changes, one thing remained unchanged. Yes, I am talking about the color scheme. Since its inception in February, 2014, Facebook has been blue and white. Did you ever tickle your grey cells to comprehend the logic behind its color scheme? Apparently, Mark Zuckerberg, the first user and its founder is red-green color blind. He has an easier time seeing blue hues. Paradoxically, half of the internet citizens who do not enjoy social networking on Facebook live with others who often relish social networking on Facebook.
- AOL’s exuberance
American based Mass Media Company and digital distributor of content, products and services, American Online has a few secrets up its sleeve. In late 2011, Eric Simons was resolute enough in taking the necessary initiatives of building a startup. Due to his diligence and supreme dedication, his startup ClassConnect was selected for an incubator program hosted on AOL’s campus in Palo Alto, USA. Despite the completion of the program, Simons gave viable reasons to continue his stay at AOL’s campus. Armed with a valid building pass, he did the needful to work exceptionally on ClassConnect. Simon’s daily schedule: work late, sleep on sofas, eat the free food, and make the best use of gym locker room as a storage facility and a place to take a restful shower. More often than not, many an AOL employee mistook him for a young employee who was in constant pursuit of earning a solid reputation.
Eventually, Simons’ ruse was discovered by a security guard. He revoked Simons’ building pass and ditched him. Au contraire, AOL’s credit earned its merit as Simons spread the good word to the entire world. The tremendous strides in the workplace prompted one of the executives at AOL to covey, “It was always our intention to facilitate entrepreneurialism in the Palo Alto office. We just didn’t expect it to work so well.” Ultimately, ClassConnect experienced a metamorphosis and established itself as Thinkster.
- eBay’s fad:
What’s your opinion on a man’s trash? Nada? Well, eBay believes in this witty aphorism- One man’s trash is another’s treasure. However, nothing works wonders like eBay’s modus operandi. The auction giant got its start when its founder, Pierre Omidyar, was tinkering with his new website called, then called AuctionWeb. He happened to list a broken laser pointer as a test. To his surprise, someone bid $14. Without much ado, Omidyar mailed the bidder to tell him that it was damaged. Breaking with the convention, the person replied he knew that and he collected damaged laser pointers. The rest, as they say, is history. eBay embarked on a professional journey to sell anything and everything-a blend of omnipresence and omnipotence.
There is a sense of antiquity to the famous little secrets. Counting on the marketing gambits and evolutionary tactics, these celebrated companies have won the hearts of their customers by going overdrive, only to bring laurels.
