Fortune Exclusive: Larry Page on Google. FORTUNE -- Last month, Larry Page sat down with Fortune Senior Writer Miguel Helft for a lengthy interview for a forthcoming Fortune magazine article. It was only Page's second wide-ranging conversation with a print publication since becoming CEO of Google in April 2011. The 70-minute discussion covered, among other things, Page's take on the future of search, his plans to integrate Motorola and how his management style has changed since taking the helm of the company.
Edited excerpts follow. Fortune: When you're thinking about the next bet you're going to make, how do you pick? Sorry, back to your main question: Choosing what to do. What else would change [in a world with self-driving cars]? Let me bring you back to management in the company. And do you measure the speed at which [you are executing]? Web search is going through a pretty significant transformation with things like the Knowledge Graph, Google Now, mobile. MORE: Top 10 MBA programs in the U.S. At times. Okay. The future according to Google's Larry Page. Note: On Jan 3, as Fortune published this article, the Federal Trade Commission ended its investigation of Google's search practices saying it found no evidence that the company manipulated search results in violation of antitrust laws.
The European Commission and other regulators continue to investigate the issue. FORTUNE -- When Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP Group, the giant advertising agency, visited Google this past fall, CEO Larry Page sent a car to pick him up at the Rosewood Hotel about 20 miles away. Only this was no ordinary car. The Lexus SUV drove itself thanks to a slew of high-tech tools, including radars, sensors, and a laser scanner that takes more than 1.5 million measurements every second. For about 20 minutes, while navigating I-280 and the area's busy State Route 85, the car cruised on autopilot, making quick course corrections, slowing down here when traffic loomed ahead, speeding up there to get out of the blind spot of a neighboring vehicle. MORE: Meet the L-Team. The Google+ Long Game Is Brilliant.
I’m finding myself using Google+ more and more. I recently decided that the long game Google is playing is absolutely brilliant. They are being understated about it but doing exactly what business strategists talk about when they describe the long game as the one to play. Rather than making a bunch of sweeping pronouncements, struggling to jam together a bunch of random crap in a big bang release, and then worry about staying involved in a feature race with a competitor, Google is continually experimenting with new functionality, rolling it out broadly in a fully integrated fashion on a continuous basis, and providing it as a core part of an ever expanding thing that is getting more and more useful by the week. By now I hope you are saying something like “What the fuck is he talking about – Facebook is crushing Google+” or something like that. Yeah, whatever. That’s why it’s the long game that they are playing.
Here are some examples. I live in Gmail. Google Voice is my Phone Number. Google, competition and the perfect result. “When you use Google, do you get more than one answer? Of course you do,” he told public television host Charlie Rose at the time. “Well, that’s a bug. We should be able to give you the right answer just once. We should know what you meant. You should look for information. Fast forward to Thursday, when the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ended its two-year antitrust investigation into the search giant.
But the decision left me thinking about the potential ramifications of what Schmidt described in 2005. When asked whether Schmidt’s description was an accurate representation of the company’s current goals, a Google communications representative referred me to CEO and co-founder Larry Page’s 2012 letter to investors. Indeed, I believe Google’s latest advances to achieve what Page describes — to say nothing of the goal Schmidt outlined — stand to increasingly shrink the potential role of competitors. “Is it a ‘hot dog’ or a ‘hotdog.’
Why Google Could Be In Serious Trouble. How Google Builds Its Maps—and What It Means for the Future of Everything - Alexis C. Madrigal. An exclusive look inside Ground Truth, the secretive program to build the world's best accurate maps. Behind every Google Map, there is a much more complex map that's the key to your queries but hidden from your view. The deep map contains the logic of places: their no-left-turns and freeway on-ramps, speed limits and traffic conditions.
This is the data that you're drawing from when you ask Google to navigate you from point A to point B -- and last week, Google showed me the internal map and demonstrated how it was built. It's the first time the company has let anyone watch how the project it calls GT, or "Ground Truth," actually works. Google opened up at a key moment in its evolution. The company began as an online search company that made money almost exclusively from selling ads based on what you were querying for. But then the mobile world exploded. And for good reason. This is not just a theoretical concern. But that would entail actually building a better map. More like what? How Google Went From Search Engine To Content Destination. Of things I imagined when I first started writing about Google as a hot new search engine in 1998, the idea that about 15 years later, Google would buy the venerable Frommer’s travel guides or sell “Google Play” gift cards weren’t remotely on the list.
From Search Engine To Content Engine How did we get from Google being a search engine that pointed to things, like travel guides or gift cards sold by other companies, to being a content company? It’s a position that more than ever before makes it hard for Google to assure other companies that it won’t play favorites with its search listings. I pondered a headline for this column called “How Google Lost Its Way” or “How Google Became Evil,” but while either probably would pull more traffic, neither are correct. Google’s not lost its way, in the sense of being dysfunctional. Some might argue that this new path is Google having become the “evil” it speaks against with its “Don’t Be Evil” mantra. What Is Google? That’s not very helpful, either. Google Puts Nail In The Coffin For Old Version Of Analytics, Places Emphasis On Real Time.
In a move that struck fear in the hearts of under-educated web editors everywhere, Google announced today that it will remove the old version of Google Analytics tomorrow. After releasing a new version focused on real time analytics in September, Google has kept a link to the old version, which it has supported, at the bottom of the Analytics page for the past year. What can you expect from Google Analytics if you haven’t transitioned yet?
Never fear, straggler. We’ve got you covered with a link and media bonanza. The major change is the transition to real time analytics, a vast increase in the amount and usefulness of information that a user can derive, provided they know what they’re doing. This makes a strong analytics employee even more valuable–companies that know what they’re doing with the new system will have a competitive advantage over those who don’t (duh). Real Time Exactly what it sounds like: this will show you what’s happening on your site in real time. Social Reports.
Platform Hygiene | Vector. In Wake of Facebook Bullying Claims, Google+ Chief Woos Developers - Mike Isaac - Social. When our enemies stumble publicly, some take the high road and steer clear of mentioning our adversary’s folly. But for others, some things are just too good to pass up. In an almost comically timed display of opportunism, Google SVP of Social Vic Gundotra did just that. After Facebook took public knocks from developer Dalton Caldwell, who in a blog post on Wednesday accused the company of shady, bullying practices surrounding its platform, Gundotra took to Google+ to post a note of reassurance to his developer base, saying in so many words: Google don’t play that.
“When we open an API, we want developers to feel confident that the innovations they build are going to be long lasting,” Gundotra wrote in his Google+ post. “Releasing an API, and then later changing the rules of the game isn’t fun for anyone, especially developers who’ve spent their life’s energies building on the platform.” “I’m not interested in screwing over developers,” he wrote, linking directly to Caldwell’s post. Minneapolis street test: Google gets a B+, Apple's Siri gets a D. FORTUNE -- Pi per Jaffray's Gene Munster is nothing if not methodical. When customers queue up for a new Apple (AAPL) product, he's the analyst who goes to the line and counts heads.
When programmers gather at an Apple developers conference, he'll stop three or four dozen to ask if they are writing apps for Mac, iPhone or Android devices. So when he wanted to know how Siri stacked up against a Google (GOOG) search, he (or his staff) asked an iPhone 1,600 questions, 800 on the busy streets of Minneapolis, 800 in a quiet room. Piper Jaffray published the results Thursday in a note to clients: Google understands 100% of the questions (not surprisingly, since they are keyed in)Google replies accurately 86% of the timeSiri comprehends 83% of queries in noisy conditions, 89% in a quiet roomSiri answers accurately 62% of the time on the street and 68% in a quiet room.
Given the results, however, it's not clear that reducing Siri's reliance on Google is necessarily a good thing. Google+ API Expanding, Flipboard Integration Coming Soon. 20 reasons to switch to Google+ The New Google+ Is More Beautiful Than Facebook (But It Doesn’t Matter) Google+ has failed to take off. And it’s not even necessarily a fault of the product: Facebook is the de facto social network of our time. If there’s a second in command, it’s the more quick and casual Twitter. There are only so many social networks that we can all be social on every day. But that’s not stopping Google from announcing a major redesign of Google+ today.
It’s better in almost every way, focused on real-time trends, customization, and playing to Google’s few advantages they have in the space. But, you know, it’s just a little too late for design alone to save the day. The biggest change, aside from the upsized pictures and videos, is the new Navigation Ribbon. Furthermore, this Navigation Ribbon is a step toward a platform filled with deeper customization options.
Google’s other series of changes leverage the company’s technical prowess. A lot of what Google announced today was pure catch-up. Why I think ad's are no one-for-all revenue solution. First of all: I'm not experienced enough to make any kind of prediction regarding vastly successfull companies and their business. I just wanted to get some thoughts from others. Secondly, I'm not a native speaker, so please excuse errors and missing rhetorical sophistication. With that out of the way: I think Facebook (especially) and others have chosen the wrong business model.
I'm concerned about the applicability of the ad-revenue model. It seems to me, that many people stopped thinking about what advertising actually is, and just rely on Visitors = $$. But recently it occured to me, that this model has actually failed, and not every big company will be able to fulfill their investors dreams through advertisement (alone). I'll take Facebook as an example. Some numbers: Impressive numbers for both companies, but what's wrong with Facebook?
Finally, here is why I think ad's can't work for everyone: What I'm trying to say, is not that Facebook can't make any money, they already do. Sources: Www.google. Google+: Searching the Social Network.
Rip Rowan - Google+ - Stevey's Google Platforms Rant I was at Amazon for about… Google+ Google Wrapping Up Groundbreaking Deals To Launch 25+ Professionally Produced YouTube Channels: Debut In January. EXCLUSIVE: I’ve learned that Google has put Hollywood on notice to keep mum as it prepares to announce its big plan to redefine YouTube with 25 or so channels that will offer professionally produced news, information and entertainment. Google plans to spend an estimated $150M for the services — top tier channels would get about $5M apiece. I’m told that the search giant wants to unveil its initial slate of channels by the end of this month. They’d go live in January. YouTube is gearing up to announce additional channels in January that would be up around April.
Partners expected in the the first round include Warner Bros., Shine Group, BermanBraun, FremantleMedia, and skate boarder Tony Hawk. But Google has insisted that partners sign non-disclosure agreements — and has warned that those identified publicly before things are official might be cut out of the announcement. So what does this mean?