
#154 - Matt Cutts
Samrawit Shemsu
Description
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/mattcutts">Matt Cutts</a> is the Administrator of the <a href="https://www.usds.gov/">US Digital Service</a> and previously he was the head of the webspam team at Google.<br><br>You can find him on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/mattcutts">@mattcutts</a>.<br><br>The YC podcast is hosted by <a href="https://twitter.com/craigcannon">Craig Cannon</a>.<br><br>Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year.<br><br>Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: <a href="https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/ ">https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/</a> <br><br>***<br><br><b>Topics</b><br><br>00:00 - Intro<br><br>00:36 - Working at Google in 2000<br><br>2:48 - Did Google's success feel certain?<br><br>3:53 - Building self-service ads<br><br>7:23 - The evil unicorn problem<br><br>8:23 - Lawsuits around search<br><br>10:48 - Content moderation and spam<br><br>14:38 - Matt's progression over 17 years at Google<br><br>17:18 - Deepfakes<br><br>18:43 - Joining the USDS<br><br>21:03 - What the USDS does<br><br>23:43 - Working at the USDS<br><br>26:43 - Educating people in government about tech<br><br>28:58 - Creating a rapid feedback loop within government<br><br>31:48 - Michael Wang asks - How does USDS decide whether to outsource something to a private company, or build the software in house?<br><br>32:58 - Spencer Clark asks - It would seem that the government is so far behind the private industry’s technology. To what extent is this true and what can be done about it? How should we gauge the progress of institutions like the USDS?<br><br>36:03 - Stephan Sturges asks - With GANs getting more and more powerful is the USDS thinking about the future of data authenticity?<br><br>38:23 - John Doherty asks - How difficult was it to communicate Google’s algorithm changes and evolving SEO best practices without leaking new spam tactics?<br><br>40:18 - Vanman0254 asks - How can smart tech folks better contribute to regulatory and polic