Google Enters the Second Season of Transparency

October 3, 2009

Maybe it is just my distorted view of the world but Google’s executives have been in communications overdrive. There have been exclusive interviews with Eric Schmidt; talks at conferences by Googlers; and even the product manager of Google Blogs on podcasts revealing the number of new pages of content on Blogger.com every 24 hours. The stream of technical papers rushes forward. Today I noted five Google patent applications. Yikes, the Google is a babbling fool.

Or, is it?

My view is a bit different from the Times of London, a newspaper that seemed quite proud of itself for running “Ask the Boss: Eric Schmidt, Chairman and Chief Executive of Google” on October 2, 2009. For me the important fact is that Eric Schmidt is making the rounds and other Googlers are turning up in unexpected places: This Week in Law!

Well, the Times of London does not think in the manner of the addled goose. Its story was a question and answer presentation of some email questions. Think filtered questions. For me, three points leapt from the weeds. I will paraphrase and quote snippets.

Google’s future. Bigger, faster, probably less agile.
Books. “This involves very close collaboration with the publishing industry, and we’ve partnered with over 30,000 publishers and dozens of libraries for the project.”
Newspaper industry. “Embrace journalism as a two-way conversation.”

My take on this is that these answers are the game plan that will be run when questions arise in the numerous legal hassles in which Google finds itself embroiled.

When I read this Times of London article, I asked myself, “When will analysis of Google get below the bright surface?” After 11 years of describing Google as a Web search and ad company, I don’t think that deeper level of questioning will arrive quickly.

Stephen Arnold, October 3, 2009

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Business strategy, Google, News

Comments

One Response to “Google Enters the Second Season of Transparency”

Frank B on October 3rd, 2009 2:34 pm

It keeps coming….http://searchengineland.com/google-ceo-eric-schmidt-on-newspapers-journalism-27172

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.