A week ago I had a chance to sit down for a hour-long one on one interview with Google CEO Eric Schmidt. There were no rules, and the whole interview was on the record. Part of the interview was on video as well.
There’s so much material that we’ve broken the interview notes up into a few different subject areas. We’ll post separately with his thoughts on the future of search, books, news, mobile and more. Schmidt also spoke candidly about the Microsoft/Yahoo search alliance, Twitter (he mentioned them before I did!) and Facebook.
What Is Google?
I started the interview with a simple question: What is Google?
Most people think of Google as a search engine, a place to start and end the day. People also think of it as an advertising company. But Google is obviously more than that.
Google says its mission “is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” But that’s too much of a 50,000 foot view of the company – and it’s so vague it’s not very useful.
Schmidt describes Google:
I think of Google as a set of overlapping things. It’s a consumer platform, consumer phenomenon of which search is its fundamental activity, but there are many other things you can do than search…I think of Google as an advertising company who services the broader advertising industry in the ways that you know. And the first and the second are inter-related. The third is I think of us as a network of partners and infrastructure. I don’t know how many billions of dollars we hand to everybody. But by the time you look at the publishers, the use of AdSense and so forth, it’s literally billions of dollars going through Google and to other people which we hope fund additional software, additional web applications, additional content and so forth and we care a lot about that.
He also says Google has a certain way of doing things internally, a theme comes up repeatedly later in the interview. It involves the small cultural things, like free soft drinks, snacks and lava lamps. But he also says Google has always focused on solving big problems:
And then I also think of Google as a cultural phenomenon in and of itself, you know, the lava lamps and the way in which Google is run and so forth. That’s how I like to think about it. With respect to product buckets, we’ve always taken the position of we want to do things that matter to a large number of people at scale. So, we don’t define ourselves as search only or ads only or what have you. We sort of wait until something comes along which could actually affect, in a positive way, a lot of people. We don’t want to work on problems that only affect a small number of people.
Five years ago (about the time Google went public), Schmidt says, he sat down with founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to talk about Google’s strategy:
And so, we had a – Larry and Sergey and I had a strategy meeting five years ago…I said, OK, well, let’s write down our strategy. We never really had a strategy. And so Sergey basically got up and said, our job is to do things that matter to the world at scale and it should just boom, boom, boom like that. And that became our strategy. And then Larry and I wrote down in detail some of the ideas that happened from that. But it’s not just a search company or not just an advertising company. It doesn’t even have to be just an Internet company, although obviously, the Internet is key.
More interesting conversation from the interview coming up in additional posts. We’ll also update this post with links to those, too.
Additional Posts:
Part 2: Google CEO Eric Schmidt On The Future Of Search: “Connect It Straight To Your Brain”
Google-Crunch
Mike, did you shake the guy’s hand before and after the interview?
Hah! Good question!
I bet he did not! Mike, did you? (From someone who dropped handshake habit after reading your post).
At the same time, achieving this attitudinal change in the home and school environment is key. ,
Fantastic! Great material.
I read the Wired magazine interview with Eric Schmidt about a month ago, and that left me wondering a lot.
Hopefully the rest of this interview is as good as the start
And looks like Michael Arrington has done a better job than the Wired interviewer… He kept getting corrected and stopped by Eric Schmidt.
“What Is Google?” I like that question. It’s a lot more complex than it was years ago.
My take…
Google is an Internet Services Provider (not an ISP), in that they provide a wide array of Services available on the ‘Net…
(Interested to see his complete reply in the follow-up)
Google is a browser isn’t it? It’s that internet thingy that you surf the web with and even buy things.
Google says its mission “is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”
>>>> Really an interesting post. Google serves for the said purpose. It keeps on extending the service and monopolizing major fields in web. It would have been more interesting if the complete session of interview posted.
Looks like google is eyeing something big …very big
G is a monetary momentum monster.
“What Is Google?” The best place to search something
EXTREME Racing Crashes – Live Accidents on tape
http://www.auto...g-crashes-live/
search being so big…who woulda thunk?
I like where this is going. Google thinks big, they like to work on BIG problems and deliver BIG results.
Interesting that they don’t like to be pigeon-holed into a category; for example, not just “search” or “advertising.”
That first strategy meeting sounds really neat. I like the openness in their approach – not limits really. I think their ability to NOT be limited is the winning piece of their culture that makes Google uber successful.
Thanks for doing these interviews. I definitely look forward to seeing the entire interview series!
@SusanBeebe
http://SusanBeebe.com
looking forward to your second post
Good job techcrunch, can we have more articles like these in the future? thanks
Just give us the video, already!
What is Google? The largest monopoly that has ever existed with more power than any before it.
jealous?
Translation: Waaah! Google won’t show my annoying and useless ads, or put my lame website in the top 10 results!
What are they upto….only eric knows……….btt something big is in their mind…………..hope itzzzz gud for us too……..;)
so good so far, can’t wait to see the rest of the Q&A….job interview with an amazing person
couldn’t you just hire somebody to transcribe the interview for you so we could see it all at once instead of dripping it out to us? Stop worrying about your traffic number and give us the goods, or do you have a “premium” section with the full interview?
I needed more than a comment to point out why Google has gotten boring. Why Google won’t do the next Twitter or Facebook: http://scobleiz...t-twitter-or-fa
GAAA! Is there no place online without Scoble?
Google Wave will kill Twitter, Facebook and Friendfeed.
What is Google? Google is a self reinforcing feedback loop where shareholders steal from advertisers in order to keep the stock price artificially inflated.
Google is a securities fraud and a monopoly that allows shareholders to control the share price via internet by clicking on paid search results. (Why else are Google’s ads all SO clearly labeled?)
If that’s the case, how come these so called advertisers who are being ripped off continue to spend more and more money on these ads?
Why? Because google adwords is the most successful advertising mechanism there is for almost every industry.
chicken or the egg?
Whatever Google ‘does’… starts to matter to lots of people at scale.
I’d love to see the video. Any chance that will be posted as well?
my question is whatever happened to “Project 10 to the 100th” ?? all those entries but no word at all….
You too? I check for updates about once a month and have yet to hear anything new.
hmmm, not convinced so far
… waiting for the rest to learn something we did not know already.
Wow!
Great Job. You are awesome..
you are letting the world know how google sees the world..
Taking us closer to google. Can’t wait till you update your post.
way to Go mike..
Cheers, Nag
Publish the whole damn thing. Also put out the video. Let’s hear it.
but we know what is Techcrunch! irritating, but to stright to the point!
Such a long convoluted answer to a great yet simple question. and even their search is not useful as it used to be, as more .
Mike, maybe readers can suggest what Google is, or should be? I suggest “making the world information useful and accessible to everyone”. it will keep them for the next 20 years.
this article is a tease, the title is misleading, and you have just one question. :S
Is it me or does Schmidt look more and more like Bill Gates – maybe Bill has hired a make up artist and secretly infiltrated Google – he must be up to something
So how many girlfriends does he have now, 3 plus one wife. And I should care about his views why ?
Why should you care about his views? Well for starters…..he’s got three girlfriends and one wife (sez you). DUH.
Google does the most innovation, but they could do so much more.
OK, now we’ve got the corporate brochure out of the way, I’m hoping you put the blowtorch to the Google belly in subsequent posts. Google’s business has always been ‘relevance’ – data, information, tools, advertising – based on hunting, gathering, storage and retrieveal. What changes in the next generation web could make all this irrelevant?
what is google.
!microsoft
good interview!
Organizing the world’s information. I’d like it if Google just organized my Web presence.
At what point did Arrington offer Schmidt felattio?
If this is a trailer for the ‘bigger picture’, then its even worse than the Avatar trailer.
I think Google is a company that collects, stores and helps create data, information and knowledge for others to search through or add to.
Being a company that helps others find, store, search and create information makes it very useful to almost all people and businesses.
Google is in the business of creating knowledgebases and helping others to use it for their own gain… whatever that may be… for personal, educational and business purposes.
when i pointed out this post is bumf … as in “a post saying i like talked to eric schmidt for like an hour and we even talked about TWITTER (omigod heart goes pitter patter — MA hearts twitter !) and i will post again and again saying more each time (and probably talking twitter YES! ” you deleted my post Mike? What gives? You also deleted the post from a guy who said “check post for lack of content”. How ’bout a post about what lindsay lohan had for lunch Mike?
Dear Schmidt,
“…although obviously, the Internet is key.”
One simple question, what is the internet with out video?
…as you plan to enhance the Google internet kingdom with the takeover of On2 for $106M in stock?? Not a dime out of your pocket?? After On2’s NOL carry forward, you will spent more on your employee ‘cultural perks’ in one year than you will for the IP tech, the products and existing device royalties!!
The last quality, ‘non patent pool’ tech left on the planet, that you will use a dozen ways to enhance the Google internet kingdom…..your offer is nothing less than EVIL!!
YouTube, VP8 quality, server, storage and bandwidth savings, no royalties….$$$$
HTML5, the basis of your online future, VP6 goes open source, free video encoding solutions for every level of developer….there’s more VP6 online content than anything else….not good for Flash and JavaFX, Silverlight either$$$$
Google Voice, a telecom killer?? Already using VP8 and how many times will you bundle it to Chrome and Android$$$$
How is multimedia and video acceleration needed in new (Chrome) browser and (Chrome) OS initiatives$$$$
Android, On2 (Hantro) gives you embedded video optimizations for every major codec on earth, is this a plus to the device OS$$$$
Take your ‘DO NO EVIL’ Code of Conduct and stick it!! Microsoft, the ‘old evil empire’ trying to go fair…..Google, the ‘old fair company’ now going EVIL!!!
Personally, I don’t mind the short “teaser” piece as long as future installments fulfill the promise of the title. I always enjoy hearing what Schmidt has to say. He is a deep thinker and Google has a very unique, complex and significant game plan for their future. I’m looking forward to reading more.
Google is master of all search engine. Messaged using BOLT Mobile Browser
“our job is to do things that matter to the world at scale and it should just boom, boom, boom like that.”
What matters to the world?
- Gtalk ?
- Android?
- GPay ?
- …
Then boom, boom, boom without revenue.
I think Google’s next step is to become a mobile isp/telco
Developers, developers, developers BOOM BOOM BOOOM!
Mike,
Did you remember to wear your Bing t-shirt to the interview? What was Eric’s reaction?
Looking forward to the rest of the interview, and the video.
Don Dodge
if you didn’t shake his hand how did you greet him?
when can we read the rest?
i’ve been trying to get over my google addiction. i used bing for one day and couldn’t make the jump. i google everyday and i gmail everyday and sometimes i use other google services, but i think the two i mentioned are my constant. i love google. i was at the library and i happened to read an article about marissa mayer in vogue or vf. i think my dream job is to work at google (google maps) or work for the rotten core that is apple
for their advertising or design department. my two goals in life. it’s kinda sad but it’s true.
Great interview. Let’s not be naive about Google. The love affair with Google is fine for now. I use Google and some of their associated services everyday. However, I’m very careful about how much of my life I turn over to them. Google organizes information better than any organization has ever done and they’ll just keep doing it better. It’s crazy to think that with the control of information that they currently have that they have even bigger plans. As long as I keep hearing that they are doing things for the good of all I’ll keep backing them and I’ll keep using their services. But someday when their stock price is falling and their finances are not good, they could easily change that philosophy and use that power in a bad way. I think we all need to be aware of what Google is doing and be ready to end the love affair if it’s going bad. Just my $.02
hoping someone eventually asks him what the similarities are between running google and novell.
“It doesn’t even have to be just an Internet company”.
I like this.