A lesson in primary research…

Posted by Jim Stroud

March 11, 2006

Check out this interesting tidbit I found online. Think of it as a good example of what someone can achieve when they give “good phone.”

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A tipster reveals how TechCrunch blogger Michael Arrington snagged screenshots of Google Calendar — from Yahoo.

You’ve probably read the buzz about Google Calendar on TechCrunch. The story behind how he got the screen shots is even more interesting. He alluded to it in his post, but he’s afraid to come out and say it.

Obviously, he knows a number of people at Yahoo!. He was able to track down the Product Manager over there that got into the Google Early Tester and finagled the screen shots out of him. He’s been sitting on these screen shots for about a week now. (Below is one of the screenshots for Google’s calendar.)

Eventually, Yahoo! told Google about the insider in the tester program and Google canceled the account. What Yahoo! didn’t tell them was that the screen shots were already out there. Google is generally extremely tight about their early tester programs and this leak is a big deal over there.

Supposedly, Yahoo! has numerous accounts in several Google early tester programs to this day. (Jeepers, I wonder who else has one under an assumed name?)