Scientific method at Google

Great podcast of an interview with Google busdev VP Omid Kordestani. Kordestani is credited with coming up with the AdSense business model (although it originally came from Overture, and another person gets the credit in a recent NYT article discussed here). There was also a recent WSJ article in which Kordestani is described as one of the Googlers driving up real estate prices in Atherton -- in his case by buying a 16,000 sq ft house for $17.8 million!

What is interesting about the interview is Kordestani's continued references to the scientific methods applied within Google to tasks as varied as screening job applicants, rooting out click fraud, monitoring (and modeling) AdSense auctions, etc. He uses the phrase "teams of PhDs" several times :-) It is amazing to hear a busdev guy talk this way, even considering that Kordestani has an engineering background.