On stage at D5, on what will later be known as Google Day, Walt Mossberg asked Google CEO Eric Schmidt about the the $1 billion Viacom lawsuit against YouTube. "It was probably just a mistake," he said.
Some mistake.
Schmidt began his upcoming legal defense on the stage: "It's really about the DMCA. It's pretty clear that there's a safe haven for sites like ours."
Walt asked if Schmidt believed in intellectual property. He does, but said that the law says that in this case responsibility for enforcing copyright should be shared, and that Viacom rushed into the lawsuit: "Had they simply waited, the tools would have been available."
Walt pressed the issue: Why should Viacom have to wait? "From a legal perspective, we met the terms of the law."
Sounds like an artful dodge, but that is that what these suits/negotiations are all about.
Walt asked Schmidt if he was going to try to mobilize the YouTube user base to get clunky old industry-service digital rights laws updated to be more balanced towards consumers. Said Schmidt, "There's a line of advocacy we probably should not cross." But that, "the user content explosion is so profound, it will eventually cause the world to change."
On Google.com
Moving beyond the legal issues, the discussion turned to Google.com. Would Google upgrade its user experience? Schmidt: "We announced Universal Search. People love it." But: "I don't think we're going to go very far beyond the single search box." Personalization is where the action is in modernizing the Google experience.
Walt brought the discussion to the new "human-powered" search engine, Mahalo. "It doesn't scale," Schmidt says. And, "there are new artificial intelligence techniques that can use all the information we have and produce a pretty close approximation of what a human can do." Eric: We're waiting.
On advertising and evilness
We should also look forward to better Google-powered advertising. "When we show fewer, more targeted ads, we make more revenue, because we run an auction."
Schmidt was very clear that Google is all about the consumer. "We will trade off revenue for end user benefit," he said. He pushes the message that "we are one click away from losing the end user," and thus this mission, which is closely related to the "Don't be evil," slogan, is actually core to Google's success.
Where's my Google phone?
If you're waiting for a Google phone, don't hold your breath. "Internally, we say, mobile, mobile, mobile. Everone has a mobile phone." But he indicated that while Google will continue to build mobile apps, lots of them. "We're building the software," he said. A mobile operating system, perhaps? "The model is not as simple as an operating system and a platform. It's really a set of services."
Update: The video is back. All is explained on the D5 site. Here it is:
The intro for Viacom CEO Phillipe Dauman at D5 came from Stephen Colbert (a Viacom employee), via tape. It was very funny. But not nearly as funny as the fact that the video, which was then posted to the D5 site, was quickly removed after Viacom's lawyers demanded it.
You gotta be kidding me.
(Credit: CNET NEtworks)And let's be clear: It's not like this video was an episode of the Colbert Report. It had no ads and it never aired on a Viacom channel. Furthermore, Dauman said on stage that he was not going to sue to remove the video if it was posted.
Maybe the takedown algorithm that Steve Chen was pitching earlier today needs some more tuning.
Let the games begin.
(Credit: CNET Networks)CARLSBAD, Calif.--Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the stage at the D5 conference Wednesday night for a rare joint appearance.
I'm in an overflow room with a half-dozen other reporters, many of whom flew to San Diego to watch the main event on TV from a room several hundred yards from the ballroom.
The keynote kicked off with a 1983 video of a young Jobs hosting the "Macintosh software dating game" with three software CEOs--Gates, Mitch Kapor of Lotus and Fred Gibbons.
In the video, a young Gates in a blue polo shirt tells Jobs how important the Mac is to Microsoft. "During 1984 Microsoft expects to get half of its revenue from Macintosh software," Gates says.
It moved on to a video of the famous 1997 Macworld conference where Jobs announced Microsoft's investment in Apple. In the video, Gates appears via satellite to a chorus of boos from the Macworld crowd.
Four people then walk out on the D5 stage--Gates, Jobs and Wall Street Journal columnists Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg. Jobs is wearing his trademark black mock turtleneck, jeans and tennis shoes. Gates is wearing a button down shirt, dark pants and shoes.
Steve Jobs, Bill Gates. Ready for grilling.
(Credit: CNET Networks)The discussion began with Swisher asking each what the other's biggest contribution was.
"Bill built the first software company in the industry," Jobs said. "The business model turned out to be one that worked very well for the industry. Bill was really focused on software before anyone else had a clue."
Gates responded by first noting that he is not the author of a popular Steve Jobs satire site.
"I want to clarify I'm not Fake Steve Jobs," he quipped.
Gates praised Jobs for pursuing the idea that the computer could really be a mass-market product and then for betting heavy again on the Mac, despite the Lisa's lack of popularity.
They then delved back into the early days of the Mac when Microsoft and Apple worked closely together.
"When Steve first came up, it was going to be a lot cheaper computer than it ended up being," Gates said. "That was fine."
They discussed the Mac versus PC ads.
"PC guy is great," Jobs said.
"His mother loves him," Gates quipped back.
"PC Guy is what makes it all work," Jobs said, leaning over to Gates. "It's worth thinking about."
It was noted that when Microsoft was developing the Xbox it used Macs as early hardware references, since the Xbox used a member of the PowerPC family of chips that Macs used at the time. "We never ran an ad on (that)," Jobs said.
"Steve is so known for his restraint," Gates replied
Both Gates and Jobs shrugged off the notion that the computer is waning as more and more work is handled via the browser. "The PC has proved to be very resilient," Jobs said, later clarifying that he was referring to the PC generally, not Windows specifically.
At the same time, both talked about the explosion in portable devices and the opportunities there.
Mossberg shifted discussion to the Internet. He noted that Apple talked about personal Internet services when it introduced .Mac several years back, but that it hasn't really kept pace. "I couldn't agree with you more and we'll make up for (lost time) in the very near future," Jobs said.
The formal discussion ended with each of them being asked about any misunderstanding in their relationships.
Walt Mossberg, Kara Swisher, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates, onstage at D5.
(Credit: CNET Networks)"We've kept our marriage a secret for over a decade now," Jobs joked. Gates stayed silent for a while then said that neither of them really have anything in general to complain about vis a vis the other. "It's been fun to work together," Gates said. "It's nice when somebody sticks around."
Jobs noted that in their early meetings, the two were often the youngest people in the room and now they are often the oldest.
He then quoted the Beatles' song "Two of Us," off the Let It Be album. "You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead," he said. The pair got a standing ovation, and Jobs appeared to get a little broken up.
The two were asked about what they see as their legacy, particularly with Gates balancing his Microsoft work with his humanitarian work.
"The most important work I got a chance to be involved in, no matter what I do, is the personal computer," Gates said. "That's my life's work."
He said he was fortunate to develop skills that lend themselves to his humanitarian work, but he said it's software that's still first on his mind. "If you look inside my brain, it's filled with software, the magic of software, my belief in software," Gates said.
Both men noted what stood out about the other. Gates said he admired Jobs' intuitive taste when it comes to picking both people and products. "The way he does things, it's just different," Gates said. "It's magic."
For his part, Jobs said that he admired Microsoft's ability to partner with other companies.
"Because Woz (Apple's co-founder, Steve Wozniak) and I started the company based on doing the whole banana, we weren't so good at partnering with people," Jobs said. "I think if Apple could have had a little more of that in its DNA, it would have served it extremely well," Jobs said. "I don't think Apple learned that until...a few decades later."
The discussion ended with Gates predicting that most of the things that are now the stuff of science fiction, virtual reality and the like are likely to come true, with the exception of a teleporter. Unless Steve has one up his sleeve, Gates said.
I owe an apology to my lunch companions at D5. When conversation turned to the Palm Foleo, I said it was a terrible idea. Overpriced, underfeatured, and too close to the well-established laptop market.
That was before I got my hands on one. It took me only a few minutes to develop a desire to get one of these for myself. This is partly because I tried the product while my back was straining from the messenger bag carrying my Thinkpad. The Foleo is tiny and light, yet big enough to hold a full keyboard and a nice screen.
Small, light, and useful. But too expensive.
(Credit: CNET Networks)
It was also because I was in a rush, and the Foleo powered on instantly when I opened its lid (just like a Palm Pilot is instant-on).
The device does e-mail and it surfs the Web, and not much more. But most of the time, especially when I'm traveling, I don't need anything else.
Downsides: It's still too expensive. At about $500, it's over my personal tech budget for a device that does the same thing that my laptop does. And although it has Wi-Fi, you don't get full functionality unless you pair the device, via Bluetooth, to your mobile phone. This is because the Foleo's e-mail application relies on your mobile phone's e-mail client to feed it; the Wi-Fi connection is used only for Web browsing. Of course, you could use the Foleo for Web e-mail, but over a cellular connection that would be painful.
But I actually think this is great hardware for Webware. It's got problems, but it's a very slick and useful gizmo. I'd buy one if I could afford it.
See also: More Foleo pictures.
Today at the D5 conference, publishing entrepreneur Jason Calacanis (blog) is releasing his latest project: Mahalo, a search engine.
Mahalo organzies search results very nicely. (Bigger screenshots below.)
(Credit: CNET Networks)In a world filled with Google alternatives, this search tool is different even from them: it's powered by humans. Instead of a server farm that crawls through the entire known Web so it can automatically match Web pages to the queries you type, Mahalo's search results are created by humans, in anticipation of the queries its users will type in.
How can this possibly work? Because, Calacanis says, the top 10,000 search terms account for 24 percent of all searches. If you can create great results for the top results, users will learn to appreciate the difference between machine search results--which are often thrown off by spam and poor-quality links--and human-powered search pages, lovingly created by caring search editors. For the obscure "long tail" queries that make up the 76 percent of search terms, Mahalo will serve up Google results.
In the demo I got last night, in advance of Calacanis hitting the D5 stage today, he showed me a few results that were demonstrably better than what Google would return, both in content and presentation. Searching for "Paris Hotel," for example, gave a list of great links, clearly chosen by someone who knows the difference between a link farm and a real travel site. Also, the links are categorized in the way a human would set them up: by general price category. A search on "Corvette," had similarly good links, as well as RSS feeds from appropriate car fan blogs, a stats box showing information about the current Corvette model year, a list of links to cars that Corvette buyers might also be looking at, and other sections of relevant links and info.
... Read more
(Credit:
Apple.com)
At D5, Walt Mossberg interviewed Steve Jobs. A lot of interesting talk about the business, but at the end, Jobs dropped some real news on us:
"Wouldn't it be great if you could see YouTube in your living room?" he asked. In mid-June, Apple TV will get a new menu item: YouTube.
Interactivity (search, in particular), uses a TiVo-like letter grid, which is slower than a real keyboard (hey, maybe you'll be able to use your iPhone as a remote?), but when you need to locate the latest robot dances, it does the job.
Other video sources may come later, Jobs allowed.
Last week, word got out that adventurous developers had created their own AppleTV plug-in (among others) for playing YouTube videos; the plug-in is called "A Series of Tubes."
Apple.com has already been updated with a Quicktime demo of the new plug-in.
- 5 hours of workable battery life, and the charger is cell phone-size, not a giant laptop brick.
- Weighs under 2.5 pounds, and is less than an inch thick.
- No touch pad -- uses a pointer like a Thinkpad.
- It runs Linux.
- All solid-state, of course, no hard disk.
Palm started to tease people last night with a cryptic press announcement saying that Palm founder Jeff Hawkins would be introducing a "new category of mobile device" at the D5 conference, to be followed by a live videocast.
Jeff Hawkins unveils the Palm Foleo at D5.
(Credit: CNET Networks) I'm at the conference, watching Hawkins on stage. The new product is "Foleo," an Internet interface appliance. It's got a full-size keyboard, and a nice screen. It's for accessing e-mail and the Web, and it's slim, light, and very nice-looking. But it's missing something critical: network access. That's right, it's not that useful on its own. It requires a connection via another device, like the Treo that Palm hopes you're already carrying, or any other gizmo that can share its access via Bluetooth. Update: The Foleo does have integrated Wi-Fi, though Hawkins seems to be downplaying this feature for some reason.
The device, at about $500, is priced closely to low-end laptops. It's a lot smaller, of course, and it has Palm software so it will likely be more robust and useful on the fly than a laptop. Also, it synchronizes data to and from a smart phone. So it's a workable companion to people who live cellphone-centric lives. There are a lot of execs like that. The thing is, most of them already have laptops.
Stay tuned for more. Also, see TreoCentral for the early scoop.
More info:
Steve Ballmer is being interviewed by Walt Mossberg on stage at D5. Dan Farber is blogging the talk over at ZDNet. Here are the Web 2.0 takeaways:
Steve Ballmer and Walt Mossberg at D5
(Credit: ZDNet)Ballmer is pushing the inter-relatedness of software and Web services. "We staked our ground... on that value proposition." Mossberg is asking Ballmer about Silverlight running on Linux and the Mac, given that theory. Ballmer says, "Some things will run better on Windows. People ought to be able to exploit the local richness if they want to."
Now Ballmer is showing the new "Surface" computer. OK, not Web 2.0... but I think it'd be pretty cool to interact with a Web site on a flat table. It's not a consumer product... you'll see it first in casinos and retail locations like TMobile. Look for it later this year.
The Surface computer will interact with devices (Bluetooth and RFID, I think) so you can easily transfer photos from a camera that has a wireless connection. In retail locations, you can drop your loyalty card on the screen, and it will know who you are and show you deals or help you out in other ways. The TMobile demo is that you can put two devices in the store side-by-side on the table, and it will display the differences between them.
Walt: Let's talk about Google. Why are you losing share in search?
Ballmer: "We are well down the learning curve and we continue to innovate... Our results keep getting better."
Walt: Why are you now in the advertising business?
Ballmer: "All media will be delivered by IP over the next few years."
It's a big opportunity, he says. Ballmer adds that the "killer app" of advertising is search. Microsoft has software and a search engine, now it has an advertising platform too.
Oddly, Ballmer simply will not say the word, "Google." He prefers, "the market leader." Because: "The leader may change." Silly.
Ballmer's example of how Microsoft will innovate in advertising: ads will get smarter. On the Web, the ad will know more about the potential buyers looking at it and the sellers behind it. He's talking about giving both parties more control over what they see, and also (I think) providing software that lets marketers make more user-aware and interactive ads.
On innovation in the search experience: "You ought to expect innovation in the user interface." Like what? Better results from multiword queries, he says. OK... but more, please. If that's all we have to expect, Microsoft search is going to stay in its trailing position.
Will Microsoft sell phones? Ballmer: "No."
Furthermore, "I know I said the same thing about music players..." but phones require an operating system, and Microsoft wants a big share of the 1.2 billion phones that are sold each year. Ballmer thinks the way to reach that goal is to get in via software, not sell hardware.
I've got a Web site in my hand. Sort of.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Can you sell physical tokens to access Web sites? At the D5 conference, Qigo is launching its "keys" for Internet content. Qigo keys are nothing more than USB sticks with small executables that fire up Web content, and there's a unique identifier in each. So when you put a Qigo key in your PC or Mac, it launches a Web site, perhaps with exclusive or personalized content. When you remove the key, the site closes.
It's a marketing ploy, and it has some potential. Qigo keys can be made into collectible items, thanks to the addition of fancy plastics and graphics, and they can be sold or given away as promotional items. (If you think this can't work, I have one word for you: Pez.)
Content can be locked to keys, so it can only be displayed when the key is in a computer. I don't know how robust the security on this system is. Or, frankly, if it matters terribly much. I think Qigo will be a convenience play. It can be used to automate log-ins to multiplayer games, for example. It could also be used for kids' sites--to launch restricted online services that keep kids from exploring the wild Web.
Qigo's plan is to sell its key manufacturing and data management services to big brands that want to give their online products some presence in the real world.
If, because of Qigo, I end up with a keychain of USB sticks that I need in order to access online content and services, I will be very upset, since one thing I really love about Webware is that I don't have to carry anything with me to access it. But as a marketing scheme, this is a clever idea.
Two bags full, and a windbreaker too. Play the vid to see the contents.
(Credit: CNET Networks)I'm at the D5 conference, the one put on by the Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher. It's a high-end schmoozefest, and like many executive conferences of its type, all attendees are presented with "goodie bags" filled with conference sponsors' promotional items when they check in.
I've seen overflowing goodie bags before, but nothing like this. In fact, the D5 bag is actually two bags, one of which is a very nice Timbuktu backpack. For my report, see the video.
I'll be reporting on the happenings here from the conference ballroom and the demo rooms. There's a big Palm announcement coming up. We also have a reporter here specifically to cover the much-anticipated Gates/Jobs joint interview tomorrow. Stay tuned for more.
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