YouSaid · the spoken record

Matt Cutts

lines on the record: 104
first: 2018-07-02
most recent: 2018-07-02
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“And so, as a result, only 8% of veterans were able to apply for healthcare online. And when they filled out the paper version of that form, the average wait time is 137 days. So we deployed what I like to joke is a crazy revolutionary world-changing technology that we call a web form. It's responsive, so it works on mobile phones, it's accessible, so it works with screen readers, and 50% of veterans using this online form get their information, their yes or no verdict back within 10 minutes. So 137 days to ten minutes just by putting up a web form. There's lots of examples like that, everything from introducing bug bounties into the Pentagon to one really good change we had that launched last week, which is a policy change about continuous glucose monitoring, just all kinds of things.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Sure. So I'll give you one quick example. One is if you were supposed a veteran is trying to get her healthcare benefits It turned out you need to have the right version of Internet Explorer. And it had to be Internet Explorer. And you had to have the right version of Adobe Acrobat. And if you had the wrong version, it would say, sorry, you need to upgrade your version of Adobe Acrobat.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, bring in user-centered design and also plain language Is a huge difference because it's not just technology, like design makes a really big difference and making systems more usable and more understandable.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We have been actually working with a lot of those sites and we're looking at whether it might be possible to merge some of the goodness from feds.gov onto VA.gov. So it's more broadly available because that's the first thing that everybody thinks of.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They're not at the table. They're afterthought. The U.S. Digital Service does a wide spectrum of projects. Everything from a system has gone down, like the OPM breach that happened a few years ago or a visa processing system at the State Department or a database that helps people sign up for bootcamp. So we do do those firefighting things, but we also do longer-term engagement. So, for example, if you're a veteran and you want to access your healthcare benefit, it can be really tricky to navigate over 500 different websites, over a thousand different toll-free numbers. Yes. And so we made a website. It's called vets.gov, and it's a single one-stop shop where you can sort of discover, apply, track, and manage your benefits. So everything from short-term engagements to”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm talking about technical. Well, and you do see technical people, but sometimes they might not be situated or empowered in order to be able to get the table.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“With the agencies, the longer we've been at agencies, in general, the more need we see from those agencies, and the more trust and credibility and willingness to work together.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's primarily where we sit, but we do have that dotted line to the White House if we need it in order to urge someone to do something. But we have found that While the first years of the U.S. Digital Service, the story was about trying to establish the group. One thing that we found is if we can be better partners and collaborators”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's right. That's right. Chris, that's right. And Chris still keeps an eye and talks regularly to people like the federal CIO, Suzette Kent, who has fantastic instincts and has also been leaning into change policy. So the Office of American Innovation was sort of an umbrella group that brought together a lot of these different folks, although all of the efforts of each of these folks.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“In addition to 18F, there's the technology transformation service So that's sort of a broader umbrella within the General Services Administration. There's also the presidential innovation fellows or PIFs. So that's more like a single person parachutes in and tackles a hard problem. And we've even seen there's sort of a fellowship called coding it forward, which is some people have joked that it's like USTS Jr., which is people who are often in college or earlier in their career and they'll come in and do an internship as well.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They are similar. ATF typically doesn't require people to move to DC, and they're also cost recoverable. So, for example, if a system goes down, U.S. Digital Service can fly in the next day to try to help get that system up. Sometimes it might take a little longer to do an interagency agreement or memorandum of understanding, that sort of thing. So there's lots of different ways to serve the government right now and serve the American people through their own.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“and has been a fantastic organization. But we are really within the Office of Management Budget. So we're a separate group. There are lots of different groups. There's one group called ATF.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, it is interesting. So there's the Office of Science and Technology Policy, which helped create the U.S. Digital Service. It did.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I'm a big fan of technology. I've seen the ability. My dad was a physicist. I like science. Science is cool. That shouldn't be a controversial.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, let me just be clear. There isn't one of either right now for two years. I'm sorry. You don't have to insult the drum administration, but the fact that they don't have a chief science officer alone, they should have one. CTO, that's up to them because that was a new thing that the Obama administration did. But a chief science officer to me seems critical.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I see. So you're within that thing. Explain the difference because a lot of people usually looked at the CTO or the chief science officer. How do you interface with them? Because they're also doing various initiatives.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We are really, we have historically not been constrained by budget. We have been constrained by finding people who we can get in, who meet our hiring bar, who are highly qualified, who then can move to DC and tackle interesting problems.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, you have to do a lot of paperwork to join. This is all true. But once you get on board, you're able to help doctors and improve Medicare and make it more robust. And so that is a really rewarding thing to work on.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, you know, moving across the country, taking a drug test, possibly taking a pay cut if you're a high paid software engineer.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And your job is to recruit them into it, correct? You have more people trying to get in than you, because a lot of people felt like when the administration shifted from Obama to Trump, that the Silicon Valley people wouldn't want to come in.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, we recruit them just reminding everybody we're here to help the American people, and it's about the mission and the purpose and the impact that people can have. So what we see over and over again is we'll ask somebody to come out for three, four, six months, and they'll end up staying for a year, a year and a half, or two years. Because once you see the kinds of projects that you can work on, you're like, Okay, that's more impactful than a dog walking startup or a laundry startup. People tend to do your job.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, in fact, we've had over 100 people start since the election, so over half of the people in the U.S. Digital Service have started after the election.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“A little bit of a SWAT team, but also sticking around to not just put out fires but also help improve the fire code in some cases. So about half of us are in the office of management and budget, which is in the executive office of the president, and about half are hired directly into agencies, veterans affairs, department of defense, homeland security, health and human services. So we are in about six or seven different agencies, and then we also do short-term engagements.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Not that concerned about it We're going to go into that, but I want to understand. So you're the acting administrator of the Digital Service, and I want to understand how many people are involved in the program that is ongoing. It's ongoing since the Obama administration. It hasn't been impacted. There's same numbers and things like that.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, from my point of view, we're getting good work done, so I'm really not that concerned about it. I'm happy to add acting in front of the title because as long as good things are happening, that's all there really is.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So it was coming up on December of 2016, and after the election happened, they said, you know, the administrator of the U.S. Digital Service is currently a presidential appointee position. And so they said, Mikey Dickerson, the first administrator, needs to resign on inauguration day. So we need someone who will keep the U.S. Digital Service running and performing good work. And so they asked if I would be the director of engineering who would then be next in line to take over after Mikey resigned.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I walked out of the study in Omaha where I was to where my wife was in the living room and I said, let me say that back to you. If I start one week early, I can go to Afghanistan. And my wife was like, immediate thumbs up, ready to go for it. So it started looking at the kinds of things that soldiers are running into downrange, you know, the sorts of real problems that they have. And the team at the Defense Digital Service does everything from flying into bases outside of St. Louis, Missouri to revive databases to trying to help service members and their families whenever they're moving across the country. So there's a wide variety of technical problems that need to be solved.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They've been doing some great stuff in the different cabinets. Absolutely. And the chain of command is also good because if the secretary says we're doing this, everybody falls in line immediately. But Chris Lynch called and he said, hey, Matt, if you start a week early, we're going out to Afghanistan. Would you like to join us?”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I got a call. I started the Pentagon for six months, and I got a call from Chris Lynch, who's the head of the Defense Civil Service.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah. Well, and it's super interesting that you, I will say there are a ton of really dedicated civil servants who are trying to do the right thing.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Tinder works does matches every day. Millions of matches more than millions, tens of millions of matches every day. And they said, are you comparing the government to Tinder? And I go, no, Tinder works. And they know how to run a scalable situs. It's not unlike, it's a matching system. So I'm not as technical, but I'm like, I'm pretty certain Tinder works and the government doesn't. So I'm going with Tinder to run healthcare.gov. Well,”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“People who are working on it currently. Absolutely. It was so interesting. I was on one of those TV talks, I think it was this morning, whatever, the weekly, the Sunday one. And I said, you know, it's really astonishing that that didn't work. I mean”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Mikey Dickerson and a whole bunch of other really dedicated people. But the fact that they were able to get that website back up. Really kind of demonstrated that you might have a signature policy proposal, but unless you had”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Sure, the famous beginnings for the US Digital Service was healthcare.gov. So everybody remembers when that website fell over, caught on fire, shrapnel went everywhere. And some of the things that helped were SRE site reliability engineering practices that were widespread in industry, things like how do you monitor that your website is up? How do you do root cause analysis? And so the process of doing that and iterating on that, and by the way, that was before my time. That was a good thing.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I started during the Obama administration, but the idea that the U.S. Digital Service does is people come for a limited tour of duty, you know, six months, a year, up to two years, and then you can renew for up to two more years. But the idea is you want to get people who are fresh out of industry. They really understand industry best practices. And then you don't want them to go and get their incentives misaligned or to situate themselves in government forever. So the idea is they come, they work as hard as they can, they push things forward as much as they can. And then they rotate out and they hand the baton on to somebody else. And it's a system that's worked very well.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Because that's where her family lives Because they're Air Force. So we spent about a year in Omaha, Nebraska, and after a year of Omaha summers and winters, I was like, you know what? I'm going to try this thing in DC for a few months. So I signed up for a three-month tour, and that was almost exactly two years ago.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And then after 15 years or so, she was like, wait a second, weren't we going to have some fun? So I said, you know, you're right, you were very nice to be willing to move to California. Why don't we go anywhere you want to go next? I thought she might say New York or Seattle or London. And she said, Omaha, Nebraska.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, it's kind of funny. My wife had said, why don't we do, you know, four or five years in California with this crazy Google thing? I was like, okay, that sounds good.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I started it, well, I actually spent a year in the ads group, but started in quality in Google in about 2001 and started the spam group up about 2004 and ran it until I stepped away and took a leave of absence in about 2015 or so.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So it was a Right, which people didn't realize it was fascinating that you got the result you got. It was such a simple idea, but it's difficult to do. So you ran the spam team for those 17 years for the entire 17 years? No.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“If you type in prostate cancer and you got pornography or you got debt consolidation, you would stop using that search engine. So it was a competitive advantage to be able to reduce spam”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's exactly right. You know, we trusted our editorial judgment and editorial, you know, you could argue about how to define that better than someone who just figured out how to cheat. They shouldn't rank highly.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The category search engine optimization has something like 2 million people that list that SEO as a skill. But search engine optimization was not really a well-known thing back then. So our team of engineers and spam fighters just tried to keep people who were cheating from ranking high. And the reason being is.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh, so, you know, for example, you might run a bunch of queries before the rest of the world could see it and say, okay, who are the sites that don't seem to be good actors in this? Are they getting spammy backlinks? Are they signing guest books? All this kind of stuff. And so trying to find the techniques that the bad guys, the black hats would use to rank highly, get ahead of that. And it's pretty interesting if you look on LinkedIn.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It is just because Google gets billions of queries a day. So the beauty of it is you had this fantastic team of engineers and also people who could manually remove spam from Google search results. And so you'd have a new monthly index because at that point Google only updated once a month. Right. They did. You'd scrub it as clean as you could and then you'd put it out for the world to see and you'd see what they complained about. And so coming up with the algorithm.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, for years at Google, it was a little bit lonely to say, hey, you know, Larry's serge, it's possible to spam Google because back then people didn't really think that was even possible.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was like, well, that depends. Why do you want to know? And she said, well, we need to sell a family-safe version of Google. And so the first project I worked on was really that. And it was because I had worked on SafeSearch that I saw a spammer who was able to rank highly for a search. They weren't able to rank.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I had been at Google for about two or three months and somebody, my manager, actually walked up to my cubicle and said, hey Matt, how do you feel about pornography?”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, my PhD was computer graphics related stuff, but got started in that because I wrote SafeSearch, which is the first version of Google's family filter.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, and they were like, well, we don't discuss that unless you're a job candidate. I'm like, oh, okay. And I went back to my PhD. And like three or four days later, they wrote back. And they're like, well, would you like to be a job candidate? Oh, wow. Yeah, it was small enough. They still cared about, you know, each one.”
2018-07-02 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Matt Cutts · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT