Interview with Eric Schmidt

Great interview at the Wired site with Google CEO Eric Schmidt. (Click here to read.) When asked about what kind of business Google is, here's how Schmidt responded:

Think of it first as an advertising system. Then as an end-user system - Google Apps. A third way to think of Google is as a giant supercomputer. And a fourth way is to think of it as a social phenomenon involving the company, the people, the brand, the mission, the values - all that kind of stuff.

As I wrote in Googlepedia, Goolgle is first and foremost an advertising company. Note how the word "search" doesn't appear anywhere in Schmidt's response.

Plus Box in Search Results

Here's something new you might find in selected Google searches. Look for a big "+" icon next to your results. Click the "plus box," as Google calls it, and the results expand to show related information. It's more results from the same search page.

Google Acquires JotSpot

Google just announced that they've acquired JotSpot. If you've never heard of them, JotSpot does wikis, which facilitates the web-based creation and sharing of spreadsheets, calendars, photos, and other documents. It's all about web-based collaboration, which fits in with the "Google Office" ethos. Look for JotSpot to join the Google apps lineup sometime soon.

Google Buys YouTube

You've probably heard the news already, but if not, here it is: Google is acquiring the video sharing site YouTube for $1.65 billion. That's a lot of money (to you and me, anyway; less so to Google), and not everyone thinks it's a smart thing. (Mark Cuban recently stated that anyone would be a "moron" to buy YouTube, based on the huge copyright infringement liability from users posted unlicensed videos.) Google, no doubt, thinks it's a good place to sell advertising (online video ads, in particular), since that's what Google is all about. In any case, it kind of makes Google Video redundant -- or maybe Google merges both the commercial and the home-made videos together into a single site. Be interesting to watch.

Google Stop Words

Reader Tams Bixby wrote in requesting a complete list of Google stop words -- those common little words, like "a" and "how," that Google automatically excises from all search queries. (You can force Google to search for stop words by putting a "+" in front of the word in your query, of course.)

Unfortunately, Google doesn't list all their stop words, so compiling such a comprehensive list is a hit or miss affair. That said, here's a site that attempts to list Google's default English stop words. Yeah, I know it's not a complete list, but at least it's a start -- and it has links to stop words in other languages, too.

Google and eBay

Google and eBay just announced an advertising alliance between the two companies. Google is now responsible for selling ads on eBay outside the U.S. (Yahoo! has the assignment for eBay U.S.) The interesting thing about this announcement is the emphasis on integrating "click-to-call" technology (from eBay's Skype unit) with Google web advertisements. Interested users will be able to click on a Google ad and immediately be connected to the advertiser, via Google Talk and Skype.

I'm not hip on this whole click-to-call thing. I'm not sure too many consumers will want to talk directly to advertisers, and I'm less sure that many advertisers will want to spend the money to staff a 24/7 call center to handle these click-to-call communications. While there are apparently some market segments where this might make sense (mortgage brokers seem to be keen on the idea), I think this is yet another attempt by eBay to justify its ill-thought-out acquisition of Skype. (eBay has already added click-to-call as an option in its online auctions; sellers are not flocking to embrace it.)

In any case, this is more confirmation that Google is really in the advertising business, not the search business. It's all about the ad dollars, folks.

Welcome to Googlepedia: The Blog

Welcome! I'm author Michael Miller, and this blog is in support of my book Googlepedia: The Ultimate Google Resource. Look here for regular updates to the book and coverage of new Google features!