Google Hires Goats

Google's public image has taken a few hits over the years, what with its collaboration with Chinese authorities, monopoly concerns, and the human tendency to suspect anyone who adopts "Don't Be Evil" as its motto. But the company scored a huge P.R. coup over the weekend with its new lawn management strategy. On Friday, Real Estate Director Dan Hoffman blogged that from now on, Google will no longer use lawn mowers to keep the hills around the GooglePlex free of weeds and and brush. Instead, it will unleash a herd of goats and let them munch to their hearts' content. "A herder brings about 200 goats and they spend roughly a week with us at Google, eating the grass and fertilizing at the same time," Hoffman wrote. "The goats are herded with the help of Jen, a border collie. It costs us about the same as mowing, and goats are a lot cuter to watch than lawn mowers."

Let's say it all together: awwww. With one move, Google gets to reassert its quirky, eco-friendly face and remind us that at the end of the day, we're not dealing with Halliburton here. Hoffman even gets to trade in a few hircine quips ("We're not 'kidding,'" nyuk nyuk) and flash a pic of the adorable eating machines boppin' around the GooglePlex. And none of the world's Google-watchers can resist. "If Google keeps this up, someone might accuse the company of doing good rather than not doing evil," writes InformationWeek reporter Thomas Claburn. TechCrunch writer MG Siegler raced down to Mountain View for an on-the-scene exclusive, but when you're reporting that yes, there are some goats, and yes, they're eating grass, it's hard to work that into Pulitzer material if you're battling a deadline. "The question of if it cost Google more in both money and fuel to have the goats shipped over to the site versus what it would have been to pay some people to mow the lawn, is a different question," he writes. "But hey, nevermind that, cute friendly goats!"

Some folks, notably Search Engine Journal editor Loren Baker, noticed that Yahoo started using goats two years ago. But we feel obligated to point out that the prize for early goat-grazing adoption goes to the great city of Chattanooga, Tennessee, which started using goats to trim its kudzu plague back in 2006. The happy herd became the talk of the town, and even inspired a folk song to the tune of "The Ballad of Billy Joe," which you can hear about a minute into the clip below. Now that Google's got religion on goats, we expect a mashup on YouTube any minute now.