Posts Tagged ‘Larry Page’

Google Labs To Be Shuttered, Though Gmail Labs Not Affected

Published by pratyushkp on July 21st, 2011 - in Social, Technology

Image via CrunchBase

In an effort to “prioritize [its] product efforts,” Google announced in a blog post on Wednesday that it will “wind down” Google Labs, the company’s incubator for experimental features and products.

“While we’ve learned a huge amount by launching very early prototypes in Labs, we believe that greater focus is crucial if we’re to make the most of the extraordinary opportunities ahead,” Google said in a blog post.

The post links to notes from Larry Page‘s remarks on last week’s earnings call, where the Google co-founder and new CEO said, “Greater focus has also been another big feature for me this quarter — more wood behind fewer arrows.”

Google describes Labs as a “playground where our more adventurous users can play around with prototypes of some of our wild and crazy ideas and offer feedback directly to the engineers who developed them.”

Labs within Google Maps and Gmail will not be affected, the company said in an afternoon update to its blog post, so those afraid of losing popular Gmail Labs features like Multiple Inboxes and Undo Send need not worry. “We’ll continue to experiment with new features in each of our products,” Google said.

Products like Google Alerts, Google Maps, Google Reader and Google Docs all began in Labs and have, in Google-speak, “graduated” to become mainstream features.

Other products, like Google Listen and Google Squared remain in Labs.

Google said in the announcement that some of the experiments in Labs will end while others will live on in other technologies and products.

Page said last week that Google has “done substantial internal work simplifying and streamlining our product lines,” and TechCrunch’s Alexia Tsotsis writes that closing Labs is “yet another step towards a more focused, streamlined Google.”

Google announced in June that it would close Google PowerMeter and Google Health.

Source :- http://www.huffingtonpost.com

  • Google Shuttering Experimental Lab Site, but Gmail Lab Survives (wired.com)
  • Google Labs is Closing? That’s Unthinkable–Whether Or Not It’s a Good Idea (pcworld.com)
  • Google Labs to be shut down (infoworld.com)
  • In the wake of its social push, Google begins sunsetting Google Labs (thenextweb.com)
  • Google Labs is Closing? That’s Unthinkable – Whether or Not It’s a Good Idea (technologizer.com)
  • ‘More wood behind fewer arrows’: Google to shutdown Google Labs (digitaltrends.com)
  • No More Google Labs (googlesystem.blogspot.com)

Mark Zuckerberg Is The Most Followed User On Google+

Published by pratyushkp on July 5th, 2011 - in Social, Technology

Image via CrunchBase

In what has to be somewhat embarrassing for Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is the most followed user on Google+, according to the Google+ Statistics counter.

The Facebook CEO has 21,213 followers, compared to the Google CEO at 14,798, Google social czar Vic Gundotra at 13,783, Google co-founder Sergey Brin at 11,629, blogger Robert Scoble at 11,389, Google spam avenger Matt Cutts at 9,153, TWIT founder Leo Laporte at 7,566, Google’s Bradley Horowitz at 7,187, TechCrunch’s MG Siegler at 6,579 and blogger Gina Trapani at 5,649.

 

Google+ Statistics creator Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten explains the CEO’s unlikely popularity thus, “He has the most friends in the world, they made a movie about him, and he is more handsome than the Larry and Sergey.” I think the answer goes more like this; The more media coverage someone receives related to Google+, the more followers they get, hence MG Siegler at #9.

Source :- http://techcrunch.com

  • Mark Zuckerberg Is On Google+ (But He Doesn’t Look Happy About It) (blogs.forbes.com)
  • Google+ Mark Zuckerberg account spotted (gustoitalia.wordpress.com)
  • Did Mark Zuckerberg Just Join Google+? (techie-buzz.com)
  • First thoughts on Google+ (globalneighbourhoods.net)
  • Zuckerberg is on Google+. Surprised? (blogherald.com)
  • Google+ invaded by multiple Mark Zuckerbergs (news.cnet.com)

Google Dissolves Search Group Internally, Now Called “Knowledge”

Published by pratyushkp on May 4th, 2011 - in Technology
Image representing Google as depicted in Crunc...

Image via CrunchBase

Google has seven major product groups. Advertising, Commerce & Local, Mobile (Android), Social, Chrome, YouTube and Search. Search is, of course, Google’s first and most important product. But that group actually no longer exists internally. As of April, when Larry Page took over as CEO of the company, the search group was renamed the “knowledge group” internally.

Google confirms the change. And, they point out, it was actually publicly announced in an SEC filing made on April 11. Nobody seems to have noticed that someone was named the SVP of a Google product group that previously hadn’t existed.

Why the change? That’s a longer story.

Leadership of Google search, like most other Google products, was previously split between Marissa Mayer as product lead and Udi Manber as engineering lead. Late last year Mayer moved over to run Local. Alan Eustace now runs the group, and Manber reports to him. There’s a single leader of the group, and he reports to Page.

Page, say our sources, has for a long while been thinking of search as much more than Google’s original mission to “organize the world‘s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” His goal is about more than organizing that information, though. It’s also about enhancing people’s understanding and facilitating the creation of knowledge.

The problem is, “search” still means “search.” And as Google has expanded that product over the years, first bringing in results from Google’s vertical search engines via Universal Search in 2007, and later via Google Squared, which structures information on the Internet.

And there have been other experiments as well. Google Base, for example, as well as Google Knol.

In fact, look back at this 2007 Google blog post about Knol, where Manber says “The challenge posed to us by Larry, Sergey and Eric was to find a way to help people share their knowledge. This is our main goal.”

These product efforts have generally been led by Manber in the past. And they remain in the search/knowledge group today.

Here’s how Google currently views the group. Remember that previously they split it up between Mayer (product) and Manber (engineering). But today Eustace is the overall lead. Manber reports to Eustace and focuses on finding ways to improve the knowledge out there and to encourage more high quality content creation, whether it’s on Google’s servers (Knol) or not.

Amit Singhal, Manber’s peer, focuses on the more traditional goals of search, such as the recent algorithm changes called Panda targeting content farms.

One way of thinking of this, says a source with knowledge of the group, is this. Singhal does the weeding (removing and pushing down low quality content in search), and Manber is focused on the seeding (encouraging “good stuff” to grow).

This isn’t supposed to be information that helps outsiders understand how Google operates, which is probably why Google made the SEC statement in as few words as possible and didn’t publicize it at all. Instead, it’s to make sure that the team inside Google understands that they aren’t just working on search. It’s not just about organization, it’s about enhancement of knowledge.

Other than confirming the creation of the Knowledge group to supplant the Search group, Google won’t comment on the personnel changes or the subtle shifts in strategy. For now, says one source, all Google wants to do is align everyone internally. When, and if, Google talks about this more publicly is a mystery.

Source :- http://techcrunch.com

  • Google Dissolves Search Group Internally, Now Called “Knowledge” (techcrunch.com)
  • Google Moves from Information Organizer to “Knowledge Facilitator” (douglascrets.com)
  • Why Google Renamed Its Search Group “Knowledge” (businessinsider.com)
  • “Knowledge” Replaces “Search” For Google (searchengineland.com)
  • Localization of Knol, an uncertain Future for Google’s Unit of Knowledge (brighthub.com)
  • Google’s Executive Reorg: Does It Matter? (searchengineland.com)
  • Knol: Google vs. the Internet (blogs.sitepoint.com)
  • The Larry Page Re-Org: Google Kremlinology (wired.com)
  • Will Google Fill In Its Own Search Gaps, Demand Media-Style? (webpronews.com)
  • While you were sleeping II 2/24/2010 (e1evation.com)
Tags: Alan Eustace, Amit Singhal, , Knol, , Udi Manber, Universal Search,

Soon Google To Hit Theatres

Published by pratyushkp on August 30th, 2010 - in Social, Technology

A movie on Google creators Larry Page and Sergei Brin will soon hit Theatre screens.

Internet search giant Google is all set to tower the box office with a movie on its creators Larry Page and Sergie Brin. Based on the book Googled: The End of the World As We Know It by Ken Auletta. The book chronicles the rise of Google into the company it is today. The movie will focus on the Google’s founding principles “don’t be evil”.

According to Deadline Hollywood, Michael London’s Groundswell Productions teamed with the producer John Morris to acquire rights to the book. When further quizzed about the movie producer Michael London said “It’s about these two young guys who created a company that changed the world, and how the world in turn changed them. The heart of the movie is their wonderful edict, don’t be evil. At a certain point in the evolution of a company so big and powerful, there are a million challenges to that mandate. Can you stay true to principles like that as you become as rich and powerful as that company has become?,”

The announcement of the movie comes close to the heels of another online based  movie “The Social Network” based on the Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg, which stars Justin Timberlake and will hit theatres by the end of this year.

Tags: , , , Ken Auletta, , , Michael London,
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