Larry Page

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Two of the biggest tech companies in the world–Google and Apple–couldn’t be more different in their philosophies. Apple has always believed in doing a very few things very well, famously saying no to a thousand things for every time it says yes. Google, in contrast, has tried to do– well, almost everything, including things well in the realms of science fiction.

Steve Jobs and Larry Page spoke about this difference shortly before Jobs died, with the Apple co-founder urging Page to “figure out what Google wants to be when it grows up.” Jobs expressed the view that, without focus, Google was in danger of turning into the next Microsoft, creating a large number of ok products but none of them with any wow factor …
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Google donating $10 million to fight Ebola, launches donation matching campaign

Zac Hall Nov 10 2014 - 7:44 am PT

Google CEO Larry Page announced on the company’s blog today that Google has donated $10 million to several nonprofit organizations in an effort to fight the Ebola virus disease. Among the nonprofit organizations Google has donated money, “InSTEDD, International Rescue Committee, Medecins Sans Frontieres, NetHope, Partners in Health, Save the Children and U.S. Fund for UNICEF” are included according to Page.

In addition to donating $10 million to assist nonprofit groups in the fight against Ebola, Google is pledging to donate $2 for ever $1 donated to its public giving campaign. Funds raised through Google’s public giving campaign will go toward the Network for Good and continue until an addition $7.5 million is raised.
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Larry Page talks mission statements, solving mankind’s problems, and more in wide-ranging interview

Mike Beasley Oct 31 2014 - 2:53 pm PT

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Larry Page recently sat down for an interview with the Financial Times that covered a wide variety of topics regarding the past, present, and future of Google and Page’s vision for the company. The executive wastes no time in confessing that he believes Google may be expansive enough that it’s time to consider a new mission statement.

When Page and his co-founder Sergey Brin created Google, their mission statement was simple: “Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Since then, the company has evolved into something beyond just a search engine, with a hand in everything from smartphones, to laptops, to robotics research, and even stuff that sounds like it came straight out of science fiction.

Seeking to focus on ‘big picture,’ Larry Page hands control of most Google products to Sundar Pichai

Mike Beasley Oct 24 2014 - 2:59 pm PT

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Google’s executive team has undergone a shakeup according to a new Re/code report. CEO Larry Page has apparently decided to hand control of many of Google’s products over to SVP of Android, Chrome, and Apps Sundar Pichai in order to take a step back and guide the ‘big picture’ of the company’s future.

Page has reportedly been concerned for some time that as Google ages it will become less and less innovative. The executive reorganization is designed to help him ensure that doesn’t happen. Pichai will take over what Re/code refers to as “core Google products,” except for YouTube, which will remain under Page’s control.

Google X old hat, thinks Larry Page – proposes Google Y for even bigger challenges

Ben Lovejoy Sep 18 2014 - 6:23 am PT

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You might think Google’s ‘moonshot’ lab, Google X, is pretty out there, with autonomous cars, smart contact lenses and balloon-served Internet. But co-founder Larry Page seemingly thinks the company needs to look even further ahead: The Information (paywall) reports that he has proposed a second lab, Google Y, to look at even bigger issues.

The idea came out out of an initiative Page created called Google 2.0, designed to create a new set of goals for the company, an approach similar to that taken by the late Steve Jobs at Apple in 2010, where he created an off-site strategy-planning meeting for the top 100 people in the company.

A little over a year ago, Google CEO Larry Page convened his direct reports, the company’s dozen or so senior vice presidents, for a project that would take up two days a week for a couple of months. About 100 other employees below the SVP rank also participated in the effort, dubbed Google 2.0 …

Qualcomm exec named new head of Google Fiber

Zac Hall Sep 17 2014 - 7:47 am PT

The Wall Street Journal reports that Google’s ultrafast Internet service Fiber has a new leader running the show, and not just any new leader. Dennis Kish, a former executive at semiconductor company Qualcomm, is replacing Milo Medin to head Google Fiber going forward. The Journal reports that Medlin will remain “an adviser to the Google Fiber team,” but the Google vice president will begin work on other unspecified projects.

Kish was brought in for his operational expertise and will lead Google Fiber as the high-speed Internet and television service expands to new cities.

Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin latest high-profile tech players in ice bucket challenge

Ben Lovejoy Aug 15 2014 - 4:05 pm PT

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9QYepYfGxo]

Whoever came up with the idea of the ice bucket challenge to raise awareness of the fatal disease ALS is a genius. Since former Boston College baseball player Pete Frates raised its profile, we’ve seen a succession of public figures accept the challenge to have a bucket of ice-cold water poured over them – many of them in the tech sector.

When Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella challenged Larry Page, it seems Page thought Brin should join in too – thanks to David F Watson for the video. Page appears not to have noticed a large piece of ice lodged in the collar of his t-shirt afterwards, adding weight to our theory that he’s actually a robot from the future.

With Apple CEO Tim Cook also having participated, that’s the head honchos at all three main smartphone platforms united in the awareness campaign.

ALS is short for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a disease that results in loss of muscle control and which is fatal in two to five years. The ALS Association is raising money to try to find a cure, and so far the ice bucket challenge seems to be helping, donations so far more than six times what the charity raised in the same period last year. If you’d like to donate, you can do so here.

The Verge has collected together a whole bunch of ice bucket challenge videos and photos on one page.

Google and Samsung’s relationship continues to worsen, this time over wearables

Chance Miller Jul 17 2014 - 11:17 am PT

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According to a new report out of The Information, the already tense relationship between Samsung and Google has begun to worsen thanks to both of their own lines of wearables. The report claims that Google CEO Larry Page and Samsung Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee took part in an a “tense” private meeting at the Allen & Co. conference last week in Sun Valley. The meeting reportedly centered around Page being frustrated that Samsung was investing more in its smartwatches running Tizen than the ones running Android Wear.

Google’s co-founders on how they nearly sold the company, how they differ from Apple & more

Ben Lovejoy Jul 7 2014 - 6:45 am PT

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdnp_7atZ0M]

In a ‘fireside chat’ with leading venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin talked about the moment they thought they’d sold the company to him for $1.6M.

There were four of us at the time – four grad students at Stanford. I remember, we fired off this note to Vinod. It was just a little e-mail that said, “We really don’t want to sell, but for $1.6 million, you got a deal.” And a few minutes later, we got a reply that said, “That’s a lot of dough, but ok we’ll do it.” That’s characteristic Vinod there. So then, ten minutes later, Scott – one of the four of us – comes running in, laughing. Huge grin on his face. He had faked the reply and back then, the ethics around faking emails weren’t quite the same. Anyway, so he had that big joke. The deal obviously never came to fruition, and we went our own way to build search …

Larry Page says healthcare data-mining could save thousands of lives

Mark Hearn Jun 26 2014 - 3:27 pm PT

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A large chunk of the world’s population has a great fear of data-mining, however the paranoia of being spied on could be costing people their lives, according to Google’s co-founder Larry Page. The Mountain View executive recently addressed concerns about the way that Google handles sensitive information and Page made the argument that there are some benefits to data-mining.

Google uses artificial intelligence to boost efficiency of its data centers

Ben Lovejoy May 28 2014 - 4:48 am PT

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Google has been using artificial intelligence for a wide range of tasks, ranging from delivering search results to speech recognition, so perhaps it should come as no surprise that Google’s latest AI product was figuring out how to improve the energy efficiency of the very servers used to do all that other stuff.

A Google blog entry spotted by Engadget describes how a Google engineer used his 20 percent time to apply machine learning to predict the real-time energy efficiency of its data centers. Google uses a measure known as Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE): a ratio of total power used to power actually used for computing. In simple terms, if cooling used as much power as computing, the PUE would be 2. The closer to 1 Google can get, the more efficient the energy usage.

Google has already got its PUE down to 1.12 – about twice as efficient as a typical data center – but is using the AI project to try to further reduce the number. By using machine learning to predict the impact of variables like outside air temperature, Google can tweak the setup to minimize power usage.

The days of self-aware machines grow ever closer …

100 billion searches a month, but a million miles to go, say Google founders

Ben Lovejoy May 15 2014 - 4:37 am PT

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In Google’s annual Founders Letter, Larry Page revealed that Google was handling more than 100 billion searches a month, but said that the service was still “a million miles” from the service he’d like to see Google become.

In many ways, we’re a million miles away from creating the search engine of my dreams, one that gets you just the right information at the exact moment you need it with almost no effort. That’s partly because understanding information in a deep way is a hard problem to solve …

European court privacy ruling “disappointing” and “wrong balance,” says Google

Ben Lovejoy May 15 2014 - 4:09 am PT

Photo: dexigner.com

In a surprisingly low-key response to a European court decision that individuals can require Google to remove links to sensitive information, executive chairman Eric Schmidt said that the court had got the balance wrong, and its chief legal officer say that the ruling was “disappointing” and “went too far,” reports the WSJ.

In response to a question at Google’s annual shareholder meeting, Schmidt said the case reflects “a collision between a right to be forgotten and a right to know.” A balance must be struck between those two objectives, Schmidt added and ”Google believes … that the balance that was struck was wrong.”

The European Union Court of Justice ruled that individuals could ask for the removal of links to information about them which was accurate where the passage of time made it “out-dated or irrelevant.”

Shareholders also raised concerns about the the controversial stock split that gave Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin 56 percent of the voting rights despite owning only 15 percent of the company.

Page said that the company’s goal is “making major investments in things that take a little longer to get done” and that by adding the new non-voting shares Google can avoid the “quarter to quarter focus” that he said plagues other public companies.

I have to admit sympathy with this view: too many public companies are forced by shareholders to focus on short-term financials rather than longer-term goals. Given Google’s record to date, it would be hard to argue that the co-founders are getting things too wrong …

Google chairman Eric Schmidt, other tech CEOs meet with Obama, NSA

Mike Beasley Mar 21 2014 - 4:53 pm PT

Google chariman Eric Schmidt joined a group of tech CEOs who met with the president and members of the administration today to discuss the implementation of recently-announced changes in the National Security Administration’s spying practices. Other CEOs in the group represented Facebook, Dropbox, Netflix, and more. Along with the president were several advisors and councilors, including the Deputy Director of the NSA.

The executives were updated on the status of changes to the NSA’s spying policies that were first detailed last year and continued to be further expanded upon in recent months. These CEOs were among those who signed an open letter to the federal government comdemning the unwarranted sue of spying tactics to intercept and store communications sent via various online platforms.

Earlier this week Google’s Larry Page also discussed the NSA and issues of privacy during the TED conference.

Video: Larry Page discusses NSA, privacy, healthcare at TED conference

Zac Hall Mar 21 2014 - 10:24 am PT

Google CEO Larry Page made a somewhat rare public appearance this week speaking with CBS’s Charlie Rose at the TED ideas conference in Vancouver. During the conversation, Page expressed his ‘tremendous’ disappointment in the government using the NSA to conduct surveillance in secret and how that affects democracy. He noted the importance of having a conversation about privacy and democracy as Google tries to protect its users’ privacy as we share more and more information. (Video below)
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Google rewarding three top executives with bonuses of more than $3 million

Chance Miller Mar 10 2014 - 2:57 pm PT

Googler Patric Pichette

In a filing with the SEC today, Google has revealed that it will be giving three of its top executives bonuses of more than $3 million. Co-founder and CEO Larry Page will not be awarded a bonus, nor will co-founder Sergey Brin. The two co-founders also take a salary of $1 a year, as their wealth is tied almost entirely into Google stock.

Chief Business Officer Nikesh Arora will be receiving a $3.5 million bonus, up from $2.8 million last year. Chief Legal Officer David C. Drummond will receive a bonus of $3 million, down slightly from the $3.3 million he was paid last year. Finally, Chief Financial Officer Patrick Pichette’s bonus increased to $3 million from $2.8 million.

Last month, Google announced that it had paid Eric Schmidt $6 million in cash and given him $100 million in restricted stock.

The bonuses issued to Arora, Drummond, and Pichette will be paid out on March 14th.

Google SVP Sundar Pichai denies it bid on WhatsApp

Zac Hall Feb 26 2014 - 9:03 am PT

Sundar Pichai at D: All Things Digital conference

Despite widespread reporting that Google bid and failed to purchase WhatsApp ahead of Facebook’s $19 billion acquisition of the messaging platform company, Google SVP Sundar Pichai went on the record during a panel discussion at Mobile World Congress to put that claim to bed, The Telegraph reports.

“Whatsapp was definitely an exciting product,” he said. “We never made an offer to acquire them. Press reports to the contrary are simply untrue.”

The source of the reports that Google attempted to pick up WhatsApp for $10 billion source back to a report by Fortune citing “two separate sources” claiming Google had previously underbid Facebook.
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Valentine’s Google doodle features real-life love stories from ‘This American Life’

Ben Lovejoy Feb 14 2014 - 5:15 am PT

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With so much of what is offered on Valentine’s Day feeling contrived and commercial, today’s U.S. Google doodle provides a rather heartwarming antidote, allowing you to listen to real-life love stories from This American Life.

Click on any of the hearts to play the story, narrated by Ira Glass. If you enjoyed those, you can subscribe to the free weekly This American Life podcast on iTunes …
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Google ad head Susan Wojcicki to head-up YouTube in bid to boost ad revenues? (Update: Google confirms)

Ben Lovejoy Feb 5 2014 - 4:31 am PT

Photo: makers.com

The Information is reporting that the head of Google’s advertising products team, Susan Wojcicki, is likely to replace Salar Kamangar as the head of YouTube.

The move would send a clear signal that Google CEO Larry Page wants to zero in on the site’s ad products. While YouTube’s growth has continued, the site has struggled to charge more for its ads as the supply of videos continues to outstrip advertiser demand across the Web …
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Controversial Google stock split going ahead in April after shareholder lawsuit settled

Ben Lovejoy Jan 31 2014 - 3:57 am PT

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More than three years after Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin first proposed it, a controversial stock split has finally been scheduled for 2nd April after a shareholder lawsuit opposing the move was settled. The split will see the number of shares doubled and their value halved.

The controversy stemmed from the form the new shares will take. Google currently has two types of stock: Class A and Class B. Class A stock is what most shareholders own, and gives them normal voting rights. Class B stock, held by Page and Brin, gives them ten times the voting rights per share, which gives them 56 percent of the voting rights despite owning only 15 percent of the company.

The stock split will create a third type of share, Class C, which have no voting rights. This will enable the company to issue additional shares to reward employees without Page and Brin losing control of the company. Existing shareholders will get one Class C share for each Class A share they own. The lawsuit alleged that Class C shares would trade for less, and that their existing shareholding would therefore be reduced in value.

Under the terms of the settlement, Google has effectively agreed to make good any losses as a result of a gap opening up between the values of A and C shares, with up to $7.5 billion set aside. Class C shares will trade under Google’s existing ticker code GOOG, while Class A shares will get a new code, GOOGL.

Via Mercury News

Any data gathered by Google-owned Nest devices will be “transparent and opt-in,” says Tony Fadell

Ben Lovejoy Jan 20 2014 - 6:48 am PT

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Photo: websummit.net

Nest CEO Tony Fadell has responded to data privacy concerns expressed after the company was acquired by Google, stating that there have not yet been any changes to the data collected by the smart thermostat and smoke detector, and that any future changes would be both transparent and opt-in.

At this point, there are no changes. The data that we collect is all about our products and improving them.

If there were ever any changes whatsoever, we would be sure to be transparent about it, number one, and number two for you to opt-in to it …
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Is Google under Larry Page on the decline? Here’s one editorial that makes an interesting argument

David Beren Nov 19 2013 - 11:36 am PT

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There’s been a lot of discussion about the “new” Google under Larry Page and whether they are a stronger company, a leaner company, or a company finding new direction. As is usually the case with the Twittersphere, a retweet brought a link to Erik McClure’s blog post where he discusses Google and its “decline.”

Steve Jobs went all Steve Jobs on Andy Rubin, calling him a “big, arrogant f***”

David Beren Nov 12 2013 - 10:24 am PT

Steve Jobs isn’t exactly a man known for keeping his thoughts to himself which is why excerpts found by Business Insider from a new book documenting the Google-Apple smartphone war are grabbing attention. According to the book written by Fred Vogelstein, Google was already working on its first Android-powered smartphone when Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007.