UM…TRY GOOGLING JAMES WHITTAKER…

So I read the blog regarding the exit, stage right of James Whittaker from Microsoft, and like everyone else, am consumed with curiousity as to “where he landed”.

So, probably like everyone else, I google up a few blogs from his compadres at Microsoft.

Nada.

So then I google up a few blogs from his professional compadres.

Goose egg.

So then, just to cover all bases, I just google on Dr. James A. Whittaker, hoping perhaps the company in question put out a press release saying “We Nabbed Him!”.

Nuthin’.

So I resign myself to waiting around for a while, maybe even until the new book comes out, to learning more about his work with and ideas about tours and to assuage my vulgar curiosity about where he’s working.

Fate works in odd ways. First of all, the fact that I googled on all of this is ironically “The Clue”.

Yup. James Whittaker is the new Test Engineer Director for Google out in the Great Northwest (Seattle and Kirkland).

I wish I could tell you I arrived at that through brilliant deduction, or that we’re like this (crossed fingers) and I’m always giving him a hard time for stealing all of my ideas, but no.

The reality is that Dr. Whittaker took pity on me and my curiousity about his work with tours and shared a few advance chapters of his upcoming book with me. He told me where he had landed and gave me permission to tell whomever I liked; probably because he knows that three people can keep a secret if two of them are dead…

So the book chapters? I ain’t a-telling. Suffice it to say I’m buying the book because I have to read the rest!

Congratulations to both Google and Dr. Whittaker; it seems like a “natural” fit and I’m irritated I didn’t even think of it, even when I was there googling the heck out of everything. James Whittaker is wicked smart AND wicked funny; I think we can all expect some great things percolating out from Google; coffee isn’t the only thing they’ve got going in Seattle…