There used to be the simple counter placed at the bottom of web pages that showed the total visitors on a website. Now you see metrics, such as bounce rates, unique visitors, and page views, being tossed around. As exciting as it may seem to see numbers coming in for your website, it would be more efficient to use that information to improve the performance of your website. The type of information you collect through the process of analytics can be important, whether you are running a political campaign or a grassroots activist trying to gain support.

In the following roundup of observations about Google's embrace of failures, both technical and user-created, notice how deliberately planning for failures can lead to new features rather than merely an obstacle.

1. Ever sent an email too hastily and forgotten to include an attachment?

I have. More often than I really would like to admit. It has happened so often, in fact, that at Terra Eclipse HQ "See Attached" qualifies as an Office Bingo square (stay tuned for more on office bingo).