State Department

Steven Levy and Jon L. discuss Google

• #29: Jon Lebkowsky (jonl) Wed 8 Feb 12 12:24
  My ears stood up at this part of your post: "...we must as users demand control of our information." You've written one after another forward-looking and savvy book about the Internet, and we both know that this issue's been in the air since the Internet was commercialized in the early 90s. I'd love to hear your thoughts about how th […]
• #28: Steven Levy (steven) Wed 8 Feb 12 09:00
  Ted has a range of questions. I totally agree with Battelle (and have written about this myself) that the idea behind Search Plus Your World (SPYW) is flawed if Google can't get access to social content other than G+. Google's response is that no one complains (any more) about maps. (Well, Google just did get a fine from France for offering Maps fo […]
• #27: Steven Levy (steven) Wed 8 Feb 12 08:54
  I'll get to Jon's question last. First to Ari. In "In the Plex" I describe Google's attitude towards customer service. In short, Larry thought it was a waste of time. Why not let customers instruct each other how to navigate Google's quirks? Believe it or not this worked pretty well--when Google's products were only free se […]
• #26: Ted Newcomb (tcn) Wed 8 Feb 12 03:31
  From John Battelle's Searchblog: http://battellemedia.com/archives/2012/02/larry-pages-tidal-wave-moment.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+JohnBattellesSearchblog+%28John+Battelle%27s+Searchblog%29"To continue being a great search engine, it needs the identity and relationship data found, for the most part, beh […]
• #25: Ari Davidow (ari) Tue 7 Feb 12 09:08
  More than any other SaaS vendor, Google exemplifies "we're not supporting this; if you're not bright enough, use something else." I don't think I have used products or services from any other vendor where I have more frequently found myself with a problem preventing use of the service, no one to contact, no FAQ or help file that cove […]
• #24: Jon Lebkowsky (jonl) Mon 6 Feb 12 21:30
  How do you see Google's business strategy now, in the Page era? How has it changed? [Read entire topic] […]
• #23: Steven Levy (steven) Mon 6 Feb 12 12:38
  Probably more the latter. Look, Eric took over when the company was fairly tiny and grew it to the giant it is now. I also don't know if you can tie it directly to Eric that the company's efforts seemed so diffuse in the last couple of years. We do know that Eric was shackled by a management structure of a troika -- the big decisions would be deter […]
• #22: Jon Lebkowsky (jonl) Fri 3 Feb 12 21:43
  Google seemed all over the map with acquisitions and initiatves for a while, then Eric Schmidt left the role of CEO and and, now under Larry Page's leadership, the company started focusing. Can we draw a conclusion that Schmidt didn't know how to focus the company, and that's why his role changed? Or is there a more complex story behind the tr […]
• #21: Steven Levy (steven) Fri 3 Feb 12 20:55
  If you have the energy to go through some paces, it's pretty easy to use Google anonymously. Don't log in, and wipe the cookies after you use it. Poof. The action in all these products is in the default settings. A big majority of users don't change defaults. Google really wants to know who you are because it now feels that's a key to del […]
• #20: Brian Slesinsky (bslesins) Fri 3 Feb 12 18:26
  Yes, there are ways, but they're not especially convenient.Charging money for anonymity doesn't make a whole lot of sense, given that they then have your credit card information. But it's not necessary because you can do it for free.IP addresses aren't all that useful for tracking people unless the ISP cooperates or you've given away […]