Schmidt: Google Has Just Begun

Google's CEO Eric Schmidt told media attendees at Press Day that search is the inevitable outcome of what is and will happen on the Internet.

The Internet has started a new phase, according to Schmidt, and Google is ready to lead the way to it. "We've organized Google to be the systematic innovator of scale," he said. "Virtually all of the interesting information businesses have can live on this platform."

Schmidt made the argument for search as the "inevitable outcome" of all that happens online. "As the web gets bigger you need search as a tool to get thru this," he said. "Web growth has turned out to be faster that [url=http://www.answers.com/moore's+law?nafid=3]Moore's Law[/url]."

That growth is mostly happening outside of the United States, according to Schmidt. That likely means China, acknowledged as the fastest growing Internet market with over 110 million users and more signing on all the time.

How Google does it

Schmidt also mentioned the 70-20-10 rule of Google again, in discussing how they run Google. "The 20% time is part of our bargain with our key technical people to encourage innovation, and it works really well."

This year, the goal is to systemtize everything at Google. He noted the heavy investments Google has made in search algorithms, and acknowledged they have had to invest in very significant storage and comupting capacity.

The competition has money to invest as well. "What does the competitive landscape look like?" Schmidt asked. "We have two major competitors with scale management and cash."

"None of the other competitors are focused on the 70% which is search," Schmidt said in referring to Yahoo and Microsoft.

Who are the winners online

When it comes to winning, Schmidt thinks the companies that partner more broadly, as Google has with AOL and eBay, will be the ones that win due to those collaborations. There is room for more than one winner, he suggested.

Our editor, Mike McDonald, observed in his notes that the "businesses living on the platform" is an echo of the old 'search is big enough for everybody' mantra they throw up when people talk about Google and Microsoft, and a winner and loser in that battle.

Governments and obstacles

"The challenge to a corporation is to act responsibly when governmental conflict exists," said Schmidt. "The goal here is to find the right path through the conflicting goals."

"We have people who have very legitimate privacy issues that we have to deal with," he said, a reference that recalled Google's fight with the Department of Justice over information from their search index.

"I'm convinced the impact of users on information, and information on users, is changing the way people are thinking about search."

The future of search

"What does the future look like for Google and its users?" asked Schmidt. "We have more people working on search than ever before in this company."

He also said things are going to become much more interactive, with much more content like audio, video, etc.

Schmidt said there will be much more collaborative activity taking place. That statement was strengthened by Google's announcement of Google Co-op, which enables the sharing of expertise through the labeling of useful webpages and creating "subscribed links" as well.

On ads and where to find them

Google has been driving development efforts at increasing its local search, as a way to enhance how it can deliver ads for clients.

"In the advertising world we are going to have even more targeted ads," he said. Mobile devices will be part of the strategy, due to their presence.

"In mobile the numbers in mobile are fascinating," said Schmidt. "The growth rate of mobile devices are more than 3 times that of personal computers.

"People are going to use them for searches, and they're going to be using them more for finding than searching because the screens are so small."

A Google utopia

"We want to solve the problems people have online today," he said. "We call this Create, Remember, and Share."

"The important thing is that the more things we can bring online, the more detailed, personal, and accurate we can make search."

Google sounds like it is shifting its strategy. Schmidt said, "we are much more focused in user and partner participation, and we in fact focus on giving users the ability to distribute their content.

"We're committed to a much more transparent way of working and communicating. Our fundamental goal is to get you as quickly as possible to the information you need and we remain absolutely committed to that goal.

"We have literally just begun."