Google Israel: Important Innovation Center
May 18, 2008
News about Google’s research work in Israel has been hard to get–particularly in rural Kentucky. Even identifying Meir Brand as the CEO of Google Israel requires some sleuthing. Over the last 24 hours, information is beginning to appear in bite-sized nuggets; for example, Haaretz.com and in emails sent to me from my contacts in the country. My Hebrew skills are shaky at best, so you will want to track down more stories about Google in Israel here and here. Google’s online translation for Hebrew to English word pairs is not available on Google Translate, at least the public version of the system.
Here’s what I have as of 0900 Eastern time, May 18, 2000:
- Strong interest in sustainable energy, specifically Israel’s interest in “environmentally friendly” transportation
- Google’s technology takes time to shape. There’s a myth that Google can work wonders in a day or two. Brin asserts that significant effort is needed; for example, the ad system took years to refine
- Research in Google Israel includes Google Suggest, Google Maps, and some “green projects”
- Google Israel was involved significantly in Google Trends
- In response to a jibe from Microsoft about search lacking innovations, Mr. Brin pointed to limitations in browser technology.
The most interesting information I saw concerned Google Apps. These will become more widely used in business in the future. The report from Yedioth Ahronoth, is only available in newspaper form at this time. I am monitoring my feeds for an electronic version. The story, according to my source, hinted that Google had made some strides in book, video, and multi-dimension search. I will post updates, links, and corrections as I locate them today (May 18, 2008). If you find additional information, please, post it in the comments section below this preliminary summary.
Stephen Arnold, May 18, 2008, 0900 Eastern
Comments
One Response to “Google Israel: Important Innovation Center”
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
[…] Peter Norvig), and an associate in Israel spotted Sergey Brin chatting about green energy and data here. Even this goose’s Web log received a comment from an alleged Googler about the […]