Fireside chat with Larry, Sergey, and Eric
Google Press Day's big finale: a chat with the Triumvirate.
Oh, it's most of the "big questions" that you've either already read in the dozens of articles and commentaries and interviews, or haven't read because you don't give a damn.
Sergey slithers around a question about the fight with Microsoft over default search, without actually admitting: Google's mad at Microsoft for doing the same thing with MSN search that Google does with Mozilla Firefox.
Larry's proud that everyone's glad to get traffic from Google. And if you're trying to hide, you will be assimilated re-educated gently coaxed out.
Sergey gives a tepid answer to a mention of "Don't be evil." (The questioner mangles it as "Do no evil," natch.) In any case, Sergey admits that not everyone will always agree with Google's decisions. In other words, you can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time...
How does Google begin to collect demographic data, asks a reporter from the San Jose Mercury News. Larry says specific marketing works much better than demo data (which taps into the basic "situational behavior" theory of psychology).
A reporter from a Japanese paper asks about privacy issues and ends with, "How do you prove you're not evil?" Eric: "Yes, Larry, how do you prove you're not evil?" Larry: "I'll...answer the second part..."
And what about the risk of getting bought by another company in the future? Larry and Sergey are a bit bewildered at the thought. Who can blame them? Man, if they sold to someone really big, they could be, like, billionaires!
Google Press Day: Live Stream [Google]
More Press Day coverage: Google Press Squeeze [Google]