Google Blogscoped is live blogged a Google Press Event happening in Paris (actually on Tuesday, June 19th, 2007 - though my Google Reader just picked it up on Saturday - makes me nostogic based on my Paris Trip). While 90% of the content that Google presented is the same as any other press event they'd give where they talk about Search.
I noticed some emphasis of environmental concerns more important, it seems, to Europeans than Americans (at least, as covered by the Press here).
"…Google is committing to being carbon neutral by 2008. They already use evaporative cooling, Urs says, which according to him results in data centers that use “50% less energy than standard industry data centers.” Google also runs a shuttle service on Bio diesel in the San Francisco area, gives free bikes to employees, uses video conferencing to reduce travel, and has solar panels installed at their headquarter. Urs says that Google is “offsetting what is left,” which he says isn’t always the best, but a “good compromise.” Urs’ speech ties into yesterday’s announcement of Google Recharge, as well as the recent Climate Savers Initiate."
The long video of Chad Hurley and Steve Chen (below) at the Google Press Day event was the most interesting to me, and the longest (an hour!). When YouTube started in 2005 - it tried to solve a common problem of sharing video - there was no easy way to do that. As people had the capability to capture video … and now to share it - they did not always want to target it - and the rise of video blogging - and the the rise of a New Entertainment Platform.
In other words, as access changes - new things happen - which intern, create new possibilities - often unforeseen. In fact, Google announced the launch of availability of YouTube in 8 languages (markets).
Another interesting insight that came out of this meeting .. as Google acquires companies like YouTube, the Google Infrastructure team takes over the issues of network availability, up-time, datacenter operations - often making these things better than they were before - and allowing more possibilities of merging the data with other Google Services.
Perhaps this is Google's real killer app - the ability not only to buy up all these services (like YouTube and AdScape, etc) but the merging of them all under one common datacenter architecture and one common front end, the Google OS!
Perhaps, in this way Google also beats Yahoo and Microsoft, in that, as sophisticated as the are, Yahoo and Microsoft probably can't pull this kind of merging of services, and leveraging of them…. to pull it off as well.
Search may the the entry point, as CEO Eric Schmidt says (read further down) the "Killer Application" - but it does not stop at Search … it just begins there.
Another point was CEO Eric Schmidt's statement about Search being the "killer application" for now and the foreseeable future. As long as Search is viewed this way, no competitor has a chance of beating Google, except in specific niches markets and applications.
“Search was, and is, and I suspect will be for many years, the killer application. We have more engineers working at Google on search than we do anything else. …."As the web gets bigger, you need a bigger index … It’s like looking for more needles in larger haystacks.”
"…Personal search is the next big phenomena, Eric says. The best search is a personal search – one that we arrange, we control, etc. This is going to become the theme of Google as they move forward, Eric proclaims, stating that (and this surprises Eric) iGoogle is exploding in its use. Eric likens iGoogle to a ring-tone as people love to personalize it."
There's YouTube Videos that are now posted on the Google Press Day event - sorta wish I was there - no so much for the event as just being back in Paris.
Nikesh:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xxWX35BsQg
Chad & Steve:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDG2JKuHjLc
Marissa Mayer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNRE5x-V-sQUrs
Marissa Mayer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNRE5x-V-sQ
Urs Hölzle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uvTIKe-CMo
Eric Schmidt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMgQGBl0T-A
