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Let's face it, rumors create headlines, and sometimes reporters get it wrong. That's the case this past weekend around Google and the non-launch of Google Circles.
But, if reporters thought like Fred Shero, the late and former Philadelphia Flyers hockey coach, they would understand tendencies and patterns. Back in 1974 the Flyers beat the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup finals by giving Bobby Orr the puck, not keeping it away from him. Shero, who studied the "fillums" as he called them with a voracious appetite never before seen in hockey, realized that Orr would be on the ice longer, the more he had the puck. By game 6, on May 19, 1974, he was one tired defenseman, and the rest, they say is history, as Orr was pretty much out of gas in the third period of the the final game where the Flyers won 1-0.
Being around Shero taught me a lot as a young executive around the Flyers organization in the 70's about sport, winning and how teams behave. That translates to how companies operate, and Google never announces anything at a big event. They always announce before the event starts so the news is talked about at the event. They did this with the Nexus One back in 2010 just before CES started, getting the buzz building BEFORE people arrived. When they do announce at events, they do it at their own, like the upcoming and already sold out Google I/O conference, which is their version of Apple's World Wide Developer Conference.
But in the race between online news outlets, it's easy to see why some outlets jumped on the rumor, and others chose not to.
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