- Related Stories
-
Secondary Google offering good for investors
September 15, 2005 -
Calif. judge to consider throwing out Google suit
September 14, 2005 -
Microsoft seeks settlement in Google lawsuit
September 13, 2005
Dubbed "Zeitgeist '05: The Google Partner Forum," the event is "the first 'customer innovation conference' Google said it has ever held," wrote Danny Sullivan in his Search Engine Watch blog from Friday.
The event is scheduled for Oct. 25-27 at Google's Mountain View, Calif., headquarters, Sullivan said. The link to Google's posting about the event now requires a username and password for access.
In his blog, Sullivan cited the following passage, which he said is in the frequently-asked-questions section of the event Web site: "All speeches and discussions at Zeitgeist are off the record. To ensure that our presenters and attendees can speak openly, no press coverage or blogging is permitted."
Speakers on the agenda, Sullivan wrote, include Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Chief Executive Eric Schmidt, Yahoo Chief Executive Terry Semel, MSN Senior Vice President Yusuf Mehdi, InterActive Corp's Chief Executive Barry Diller and Microsoft blogger Robert Scoble.
Members of the press invited include Arthur Sulzberger, chairman and publisher of the New York Times, James Fallows of the Atlantic Monthly and New Yorker staff writer Malcolm Gladwell, Sullivan wrote.
"I found it amusing to think that they are going to have people from The New York Times and other media outlets and suggest they can't talk about what 400 people are going to hear, much less having Scoble, who blogs about anything, not able to talk about it," Sullivan said in an interview Monday. "It's not a small, private event. Major executives from companies are speaking at it."
To be sure, Google's chief rival Microsoft did a similar thing at its sixth annual partner conference earlier this year, which included executives from competitors. The software giant closed its confab for advertisers and ad agencies to the press in 2005, following a first-ever invitation to media outlets the year before, which garnered much press for the event. MSN representatives said this year that it had reversed its invitation to the media because its advertising partners had found press questions the previous year distracting.
Sullivan said he was tipped off to the secret Google event from a posting in a discussion on Threadwatch, a community Web site for Internet marketing.
Google did not return an e-mail seeking comment. (Google representatives have instituted a policy of not talking with CNET News.com reporters until July 2006 in response to privacy issues raised by a previous story.)
See more CNET content tagged:
event, Google Inc., press, MSN, CEO
As far as Google not talking to news.com, I can't say that I blame them. The press isn't unbiased and factual anymore (or probably ever was). Reporters don't wait to make sure it's true or think about it's consequences anymore. If they can sell it then it gets reported.
I'm not against journalist or the news, but it's a wonder anybody wants to talk to the press. I do find it amusing the way some companies manipulate the press to their advantage.
I also find it amusing that people believe the press goes after republicans more than it does any other political party. I'm sure they do, but seeing how their are more republicans in office than democrates or liberals I'd say it's more of a numbers thing.
I swear, the only reason the CNET reporter even picked up the phone to call Google is so that they could add that at the bottom of the article.
Why not just make it a permanent link at the top of the Most Popular news articles?
Oh, yeah... no one cares!
Yes, you were right and Google was wrong. But get over it already, and maybe Google will as well. Stop making yourselves the news, news.com.
Come'on, stop trying to use this to your advantage, it wasn't mean't to be like that, and everyone knows that it is they don't fear you... Shut It!
As far as Google not talking to news.com, I can't say that I blame them. The press isn't unbiased and factual anymore (or probably ever was). Reporters don't wait to make sure it's true or think about it's consequences anymore. If they can sell it then it gets reported.
I'm not against journalist or the news, but it's a wonder anybody wants to talk to the press. I do find it amusing the way some companies manipulate the press to their advantage.
I also find it amusing that people believe the press goes after republicans more than it does any other political party. I'm sure they do, but seeing how their are more republicans in office than democrates or liberals I'd say it's more of a numbers thing.
I swear, the only reason the CNET reporter even picked up the phone to call Google is so that they could add that at the bottom of the article.
Why not just make it a permanent link at the top of the Most Popular news articles?
Oh, yeah... no one cares!
Yes, you were right and Google was wrong. But get over it already, and maybe Google will as well. Stop making yourselves the news, news.com.
Come'on, stop trying to use this to your advantage, it wasn't mean't to be like that, and everyone knows that it is they don't fear you... Shut It!
Do you seriously want them to act chastised and go sit in a corner silently until google tells it it's okay to come back and play?
In my view, CNET mentioning this every time it affects their ability to write a story is the only honorable course of action.
Yes, I understand that regular readers have to notice the same 2 lines at the bottom of google-related news, but it is important that any new/occasional reader (like, say, me) gets a chance to become familiar with the background story behind CNET's remarkable lack of luck at getting public comments from google.
This won't get old until June 2006, and not a day before that.
Unless of course CNET manages to offend once more the company that does no evil.
Metal
PS: If I was the google genius that came up with that policy, I'd have added a clause stipulating that the deadline is extended by a month for every article that mentions the existence of said policy. Now that would have rocked. Ah well, maybe next time.
- It won't be enough until it's over
- by September 20, 2005 4:01 AM PDT
- It would be a lot worse if CNET just took its punishment silently.
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(14 Comments)Do you seriously want them to act chastised and go sit in a corner silently until google tells it it's okay to come back and play?
In my view, CNET mentioning this every time it affects their ability to write a story is the only honorable course of action.
Yes, I understand that regular readers have to notice the same 2 lines at the bottom of google-related news, but it is important that any new/occasional reader (like, say, me) gets a chance to become familiar with the background story behind CNET's remarkable lack of luck at getting public comments from google.
This won't get old until June 2006, and not a day before that.
Unless of course CNET manages to offend once more the company that does no evil.
Metal
PS: If I was the google genius that came up with that policy, I'd have added a clause stipulating that the deadline is extended by a month for every article that mentions the existence of said policy. Now that would have rocked. Ah well, maybe next time.