Everyone who reads here knows I am a huge fan of Danny Sullivan, I've worked with him for over a decade and I've got to know him so well over the years that I just respect and value the man so much. So with that said up front, that is probably why I am covering that he has been profiled by Jillian D'Onfro at CNBC with the article named Meet the man whose job it is to reassure people that Google search isn’t evil.
I was interviewed for the story, Jillian reached out to me to ask about how it was working with him in the past and now in his new role at Google. In short, I explained it can be funny or weird for me at times but ultimately I know the questions I am asking Google, even if it is asking Danny directly, would be the same as Danny would be asking if he did not work at Google and was still reporting on Google. So it does make it somewhat fun - although, honestly, I still don't directly ask Danny much - I go through other channels mostly.
I learned something new in the article about how and when he was approached by Google. I know it was after he retired but I didn't know it was around two months after he retired and I didn't know it was Ben Gomes, Google's vice president of search, who reached out to him. All interesting points to me. I suspected he was reached out to two weeks after he announced he retired and I suspected it was Paul Haahr who reached out to him but I was wrong on both points. It was just my gut thinking that.
In any event, I do recommend you read the profile - it shows an interesting human side to Google and why it is important.
Here are some tweets:
It was nice talking to @jillianiles about my still new role at Google. Hope to accomplish much more! I'm also only one of many who are public-facing in different ways, and everyone I work with wants to make Google more accessible, understandable & trusted https://t.co/bCtxuKY6tO
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) June 23, 2018
Reading this profile of @dannysullivan and enjoying how he has switched roles, but his empathy has remained constant: https://t.co/l9hpmvgSsn
— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) June 23, 2018
FYI, most of the photos in that story were from myself, I am surprised they used so many.
