Google: “we’ve done a poor job at real time search”
More from Google at the company’s annual “Zeitgeist” conference: Google has done “a relatively poor job of creating things that work on a per second basis.” That was from Google co-founder Larry Page in a conversation on stage with CEO Eric Schmidt.
“People really want to do stuff in real-time and they [Twitter] have done a great job about it,” Page continued.
That doesn’t mean that Google is thinking of buying Twitter. Schmidt told reporters after the event that Google doesn’t have to “buy everyone to work with them.”
Here at AIMGroup.com, we’ve already found an interesting Firefox add-on that mashes up Google and Twitter, perhaps providing a sneak peek at how a real-time Google would operate.
The script from Greasemonkey puts the 5 most recent tweets that match the search entered into Google at the top of the Google page.
You can install it here.
Schmidt: Google not buying a newspaper
Google will not be buying a newspaper, though the search engine giant has considered it. That’s from Google CEO Eric Schmidt in an interview with the Financial Times. Google had also considered using its charitable arm to support news businesses seeking non-profit status.
There has been speculation that Google might even try to save such venerable news institutions as The New York Times, but Schmidt told FT.com Google nixed the idea in order to try “to avoid crossing the line” between technology and content. Google would instead be working with publishers to make their Web sites “work better” for online advertising.
The real subtext: newspapers are too expensive or carried excessive liabilities, Schmidt said, although he suggested that the idea might return to the table if there were “some massive, massive set of corporate bankruptcies.”
He also would not comment on speculation that Google was offered a 20 per cent stake in The New York Times held by Harbinger Capital Partners. Schmidt did say that he thought David Geffen, the DreamWorks co-founder also eyeing the paper, would be “an excellent owner”.
Schmidt also played down industry calls for Google to increase the amount of revenue it shared with news organizations whose content appears on Google News. Google was, however, working with the Washington Post and other newspapers to improve their online products.
YouTube to make buying music easier
When Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion two years ago, many industry analysts were left scratching their heads. YouTube was king of the hill for user-created videos but how would Google make money from the site? This week, Google may have taken baby steps towards addressing that concern.
Music videos on the site will now sport an icon to buy that song from either Apple’s iTunes or Amazon.com. The idea is that if you like a song, you don’t need to leave YouTube to buy it.
Google is counting on new forms of advertising to help it make up for a slower growth of its core text ads business.
The new YouTube program is starting off with a limited number of partners: Only EMI and Universal are participating. The recently released video game Spore from Electronic Arts is also available. YouTube plans to expand the program beyond iTunes and Amazon and to include other merchandise like concert tickets, a Google spokesman said.
Music labels will also be able to put “buy” links next to user-uploaded videos whose images or soundtrack match what the labels are offering. The matching process is via YouTube’s Content ID system which was originally created to help content owners find unauthorized material on the site. The pendulum now seems to have swung the other way with labels embracing user content incorporating their work.
The new YouTube service is long overdue, even Google execs admitted. Earlier this year, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said it had taken longer than expected to find the right advertising models for YouTube. “You Tube is a huge end-user success and we are awaiting the monetization that goes with that, and we believe it will come,” Schmidt said.
More on the YouTube blog
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