Google has often been seen as a competitor to traditional newspapers, but the search giant is now teaming up with two major papers for a new experiment in presenting news online.
Google announced on Wednesday "Living Stories," an experimental new feature designed to deliver news stories, updates, editorials, and multimedia focusing on specific topics, all on one single Web page.
Each Living Story, whether it's on health care, global warming, or the war in Afghanistan, has a permanent URL that you can follow. That page displays everything from headlines to summaries to in-depth articles on that subject. By clicking on the various links on each Living Story page, you can read the articles, view photos, watch videos, and access a time line for an historical view of the topic. As new stories and updates are posted, you can read them on the same page.
The Living Story keeps track of your activity, so it alerts you to updates you haven't yet seen and grays out or collapses older news that you may have already read. You can also subscribe to e-mail updates and RSS feeds of your favorite stories, so you don't need to return to the Living Story page to grab the latest news.
Since Living Stories is a new experiment in the Google Labs sandbox, the number of topics is limited. Google is working with just two media partners to start--The New York Times and The Washington Post. The newspapers decide which topics appear on their own Living Story pages. But Google has plans to develop open-source tools so other outlets can create their own Living Stories. If the concept takes off, it might prove a money maker for other publishers, according to the Times, as they could sell ads on their own pages.
Newspapers have been hit by declining business as more people have flocked to the Web to grab their daily or hourly news fix. In some corners, Google has been seen as the enemy to traditional print outlets. Media maven and Wall Street Journal owner Rupert Murdoch has even accused the search giant of stealing his content and threatened to remove his sites from Google listings.
Responding to such concerns, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt recently wrote an editorial in the Journal in which he argued that his company could actually help newspapers boost their business. And in the face of lower revenues, many news outlets have started to embrace the Web rather than compete with it.
From its perspective, The New York Times seems optimistic that the Living Stories experiment could lead to bigger and better things.
"It's an experiment with a different way of telling stories," said Martin A. Nisenholtz, senior vice president for digital operations of The New York Times Company, in a statement. "I think in it, you can see the germ of something quite interesting."
Real-time satellite imagery of lunch at the Googleplex would be "creepy," according to CEO Eric Schmidt.
(Credit: Screenshot by Tom Krazit/CNET)Google is trying not to be creepy.
That's according to CEO Eric Schmidt, who told Fox Business Thursday that "we're trying not to cross what we call the creepy line" when it comes to the data it gathers. As an example, Schmidt said Google only publishes satellite data that is a month old, indicating that Google would consider it creepy to publish real-time satellite data.
Google is quite used to facing charges that it has become a little too Big Brotherish in its conquest of the Internet search market. In response, it emphasizes that Google users have control over the data the company collects on them, most recently introducing Google Dashboard as a way of letting users see all the personal data the company has assembled in a single Web page.
That will likely never be enough to satisfy the hardcore privacy advocates of the world, but the general public--and the government--are also starting to get a little uneasy about Google's unparalleled reach across the Internet.
In the interview, Schmidt also said that Google had to avoid the "mistakes" made by Microsoft that led to its prosecution by the U.S. government. But Google also has to be wary about how aggressively it courts favor with the Obama administration, he said: Schmidt is a technology adviser to the administration.
"You don't want to be too close to any particular administration, and they don't want to be too close particularly to you," Schmidt said. That drew a dry retort from Fox Business' Neil Cavuto, who said, "Well, take it from us here at Fox, that's not a worry."
Don't forget, CNET is scheduled to interview Schmidt next week, and if you have questions for the CEO, leave them in the comments below or on this page.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt feels like a man with a glimpse of open highway after being stuck in traffic for hours.
Google is ready to once again hit the gas, with plans to invest in people, products, and companies over the next several months now that it feels much more confident about its business and the economy. When the last recession hit in 2001, Google was still a small growing company, but a year ago the crumbling economy spooked executives into caution mode as they tried to anticipate just how bad things might get.
Now they know. "The worst of the recession is clearly behind us," Schmidt said following Google's announcement of third-quarter earnings that were stronger than financial analysts had expected. "Because of what we've seen we can be optimistic about the future."
That means Google is about to go on an investment binge; although, it probably would object to the term "binge." The most likely scenario is that Google plans to buy a few more companies than it has in the past year, open the hiring floodgates to the types of engineers and salespeople that fit within Google culture, and make sure it has the right technology assets to continue to dominate the search landscape.
That's not good news for anybody who competes with Google. Yahoo reports earnings Tuesday, and Microsoft next Friday, so it's hard to know if they are feeling as optimistic about the upcoming quarter. But Yahoo has been focused more on big strategic questions and product rollouts during the past quarter, and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told CNET earlier this month: "I don't think things are getting worse, but I don't think they're getting a lot better yet either" as Microsoft prepares to launch Windows 7.
One year ago, Google executives weren't sure what kind of mess they had on their hands, as banks failed and markets plunged, said Patrick Pichette, Google's chief financial officer. "Twelve months ago there was a massive crisis going on, and we decided at that time to be prudent about navigating these uncharted territories. (Now) we'll go back to what we do well: innovate, invest, and build the future."
Search will be the main beneficiary of this increased investment, Schmidt said. "We want to get to the perfect search engine," he said, emphasizing that Google's primary focus has always been and will continue to be search despite all the other areas the company has tackled. Mobile searches are growing at a 30 percent clip, Schmidt said, emphasizing that sector as another area slated for investment.
And where there's search, there's advertising, spurring Google to look for new ways of showing ads to searchers. "Many of our advertisers would like to find more ways to spend money with Google if our products would allow them to do that," Schmidt said.
Along those lines, Google is working on developing new kinds of ads, such as the local listing ads that Google is testing in San Francisco and San Diego that offer advertisers a flat-rate listing in the sponsored links, said Jonathan Rosenberg, senior vice president for product management. (Try "San Francisco coffee" in Google for an example.)
Schmidt would like to see Google spend a little bit more on capital expenditures over the next several months, after the company took a cautious approach to such spending over the past year. He noted that Google has been able to wring efficiency from existing servers by tweaking its software for multicore processors, but maintaining Google's army of servers is a competitive advantage: infrastructure spending "creates a very significant platform for future growth."
And Schmidt declared Google "open for business" as far as acquisitions are concerned. He said essentially the same thing earlier in the year, but took things a little bit farther in saying that not only would Google continue to look at small technology companies, it was considering larger acquisitions on the order of YouTube ($1.65 billion) and DoubleClick ($3.1 billion). However, Google is unlikely to make that big a buy more than once every year or two, he said.
Could Google be overconfident? After all, unemployment still remains high, which could mean that retailers are in for another poor holiday shopping season. And any recovery could take quite some time before individuals and businesses feel like spending money like it's 2007.
But Google seems to think that now that it has a baseline for how bad things will get, it can be more aggressive with its formidable resources. If you had taken the worst punch the economy has delivered in generations with little difficulty, you'd probably feel the same way.
Lots of smart people are concerned about how quickly technology is changing virtually everything it touches in the world, but count Google's Eric Schmidt among the optimists.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)Schmidt would agree that technological change has happened so fast over the past few decades that it's almost impossible to appreciate the long-term effects of that change, he told attendees at The Atlantic's First Draft of History Conference Friday in Washington, D.C. But he said he feels that while it's true that such change can be used against the world, it's important to remember that the combination of access to knowledge and cheap powerful computers can also spur people to new heights.
"If you live in a little group of terrorists, you can decide that the whole world agrees with you. (But) the same is also true of optimists and people who want to change the world," he said.
Schmidt touched on a variety of topics during his 30-minute interview, which was streamed live online, with James Fallows of The Atlantic:
• Governments could improve their ability to make "gray-zone decisions" by opening up information and debate to a wider circle of voices, Schmidt said. It's so easy in the current world to create "disinformation" that the best way to tackle a complex subject is to have a wide circle of people discussing the possible effects of a decision as to minimize the impact of that disinformation.
• The print-based news industry is doomed, Schmidt said, but the silver lining is that an emerging Internet-based news industry could have a bright future because of its ability to sell "products that are highly targetable, and products that are highly targetable are highly advertisable."
• "I start everyday by assuming that people don't appreciate how fundamental the Internet is," Schmidt said, when asked about his and Google's efforts to support investment in broadband Internet connections, which is currently being debated in Washington. Fast Internet connections should be a national priority but complicating the matter is the fact that opening up fast connection to the home will negatively impact a lot of existing businesses, such as the cable industry.
• Schmidt expressed his hope that the settlement in the Google Books case is approved, but the settlement he referred to will likely be different from the one that will emerge as the parties involved revise the terms of that deal ahead of a status conference next week with a federal judge in New York.
• He also expressed support for Arthur Levinson, a Google board member who is also a board member at Apple. Schmidt stepped down from his role on Apple's board earlier this year amid concerns the companies had grown into competitors as well as scrutiny from the FTC. The FTC is still looking at whether Levinson's service on both boards in an issue, but when asked if Levinson would have to step down from Google's board, he said, "I would hope not."
Google's Eric Schmidt will discuss his board role at Apple with the company following the announcment of Chrome OS.
(Credit: Elinor Mills/CNET)Google CEO Eric Schmidt said Thursday that he plans to discuss his role on the board of directors at Apple with the company following Google's announcement that it is working on an operating system for personal computers.
Schmidt has served on Apple's board since 2006. He has already implemented a policy of recusing himself from discussions involving the iPhone at Apple, given that Google's Android software competes with the iPhone for consumer and developer attention, but before his appearance at the Sun Valley media conference Thursday, he had not responded to direct inquires about whether he'll now have to do something similar when Mac OS X development is discussed at Apple.
While the announcement of Google's Chrome OS won't result in any products that compete with Apple until 2010--at the earliest--Schmidt told attendees at the conference, sponsored by Allen & Co., that he'll talk the situation over with Apple at some point in the future. Google and Apple have already reportedly drawn interest from the Federal Trade Commission over Schmidt's role on that board, which isn't likely to subside given Google's new direction.
Schmidt, who appeared on stage at the conference with Google co-founder Larry Page, also said that Page and Sergey Brin needed to talk him into the Chrome browser and OS project at first. "Having come through the bruising browser wars, I didn't want to do that again," the Wall Street Journal's Digits blog quoted him saying in response to questions about Chrome OS. Once Schmidt saw a demo, however, he obviously changed his mind.
Dear Eric Schmidt:
Google's Eric Schmidt should think long and hard about his role on Apple's board now that Google plans to develop a computer operating system.
(Credit: Dan Farber/CNET)It's time for you to go.
Not from Google; even your biggest detractor would give you credit for the technological marvel and prosperous business you have helped create in Mountain View. But your position on Apple's board of directors now looks completely untenable given Google's intention to release a lightweight operating system for personal computers called Chrome OS.
Google is developing Chrome OS because "We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear -- computers need to get better," according to one of your employees. The first part of Apple's mission statement declares "Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications."
It was pretty clear before, but now it's completely obvious: you are overseeing two companies on a collision course. How can you possibly claim that you're guiding the best interests of each company when the best interest of each company in two years will be to out-maneuver the other?
CNET News Poll
And the thing is, we've had this conversation before.
When Google announced plans to develop Android, a smartphone operating system that competes with Apple's iPhone OS for consumer and developer attention, you said you would recuse yourself from any discussions about the iPhone during meetings of Apple's board. You reiterated that stance in May after reports emerged that the Federal Trade Commission had raised an eyebrow at your presence on both boards, and when asked if you recuse yourself from any other topics at Apple meetings, you answered, "Not that I recall."
So, do you now plan to recuse yourself from any board meetings in which Mac OS X development is discussed? You're also not a member of the three main committees on Apple's board: Audit and Finance, Compensation, and Nominating and Corporate Governance. Is the iPod the only product at Apple that you're now qualified to oversee?
Representatives for both Google and Apple did not respond to requests for comment on your role overseeing both companies, and how that might have changed with the announcement of Chrome OS. But enough is enough.
As I'm sure you're well aware, the last thing you need this year is more government scrutiny of your business practices. If Apple's board doesn't ask you do to so, please submit your resignation so both companies can free themselves of this obvious conflict of interest, and continue to develop the amazing products and services you have been separately creating.
Tom Krazit
CNET News
This story was updated at 9:38 a.m. PDT Wednesday with the correct spelling of Patrick Pichette's last name.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt, as one might expect, offered no public sense that Microsoft's new Bing search engine has him pacing the halls at night.
Google plans to review Microsoft's Bing tomorrow, but CEO Eric Schmidt isn't losing sleep just yet.
(Credit: Dan Farber/CNET Networks)"It's not the first entry for Microsoft. They do this about once a year," Schmidt said Tuesday in an interview with Fox Business Network. "I don't think Bing's arrival has changed what we're doing. We are about search, we're about making things enormously successful, by virtue of innovation."
Bing has been well-received in its first trip around the Internet, but it obviously has an awfully long way to go before it makes a dent in Google's business. Still, with some in the search industry now wondering if Yahoo really intends to compete in search over the next few years, Bing may shape up as the only true alternative to Google.
Schmidt seemed to acknowledge those thoughts. "Google is about getting all the information and organizing it. Yahoo has a different strategy. We think ultimately Bing will evolve to a different strategy as well."
Earlier in the day, Google Chief Financial Officer Patrick Pichette said the company planned to hold "a review tomorrow on it with the executive committee," so it's not like Google is ignoring the possible threat, either.
Schmidt held forth on a wide range of topics during the interview, including:
• Yahoo: "As you know we got within an hour of doing a very deep partnership with Yahoo, but we were unable to do it because of the government and their concerns over various parts of the deal."
• Smartphones: "This is the year of mobile phones. What we like is every one of these has a powerful browser and every one is used to search."
• And Google's new plug-in for Outlook: "I grew up with Outlook as well, which is why we're doing these things. It's very important to bridge the new kind of customer, the young customer, with the existing customer that has grown up with the Microsoft infrastructure."
Google is starting to share more details about its high priority of making more money off YouTube's popularity, introducing an advertising product on Tuesday called buzz targeting.
The ad product uses an algorithm to find videos that are about to "go viral," when word of mouth (or IM, or blog, or e-mail) promotes a Web site to a phase in which it spreads like wildfire. In this case, ads are overlaid on the bottom fifth of viral videos supplied by YouTube partners who share ad revenue with the search giant.
Making more money off YouTube is Google's "highest priority," Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said in April. The company is working on new YouTube ad possibilities, he said last week.
Until now, YouTube ad campaigns have been more targeted to specific demographics. Buzz targeting adds a broader option, though the ads still are sold as categories such as entertainment or how-to, a YouTube representative said.
Lions Gate was the first advertiser to sign up, using buzz targeting to promote a film, The Forbidden Kingdom, on 500 different videos. "Buzz targeting allowed us to reach a very large, diverse audience," Danielle DePalma, Lions Gate's director of digital media, said in a statement.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--YouTube users soon will see some new advertisements around their online videos.
Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said the company is working on new ads for the video site in a meeting here with reporters before Google's shareholder meeting, but he was cagey with details.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt
(Credit: Elinor Mills/CNET News.com)"We have new ad products that are not pre-roll and post-roll," he said, referring to ads that show up before and after videos. "We have new approaches. Think of them as ads that are in the context of YouTube. They use the page around YouTube in interesting ways."
The new ads will launch "over the next few months," Schmidt added.
Schmidt has made no secret of his desire to make more money from YouTube, the dominant video site on the Internet; Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion. In an interview last week with CNBC, he said about YouTube, "We're working but have not yet in my view gotten a breakthrough around monetization...We're working on that. That's our highest priority this year."
For what it's worth, Google last year experimented with overlay ads that pop up within the YouTube video player itself for a few seconds. They didn't go over too well with some viewers.
Google, which bought YouTube in October 2006 for $1.65 billion in stock, makes the vast majority of its money from text ads that show up next to search results, but in particular through its acquisition of DoubleClick, it's working to improve its business in display ads.
"We are not the leader in display ads. As far as I can tell Yahoo is," Schmidt said.
And of what will make Google's display ads different from the rest of the market, he said, "We always want to be the most targeted. Greater targeting leads to greater advertiser value."
Google has just announced its acquisition of Zenter, a small company that makes software for creating online slideshows--a much rumored, and fully confirmed product Google's CEO Eric Schmidt officially announced a few months ago at the Web 2.0 Expo.
Zenter joins Tonic Systems, another presentation-creation service Google picked up back in April.
Zenter first unveiled its service in mid-March and has since stayed fairly quiet. The service lets users import Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, as well as grab bits of content from all over the Web for making presentations that can be viewed and shared in the Web browser. Users can also create their own live broadcasts, similar to many of the Web-based PowerPoint competitors that have popped up in the last few years.
While Google hasn't announced a timeline of when we can expect to see the official presentation application, as of last week, users of Google's Gmail service have been able to open attached PowerPoint files inside their message windows without having the software installed.
