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I think Google would be well served if Schmidt had a little more Steve Jobs in him. Not a lot, as I think Jobs might get so frustrated he'd melt down, but a li
by rmrm 15y ago
I think Google would be well served if Schmidt had a little more Steve Jobs in him. Not a lot, as I think Jobs might get so frustrated he'd melt down, but a little. Eric makes everything sound somehow slightly sinister, even when it isn't.
When asked about something like maps and places the correct answer is:
We realized that is what people wanted in response to their queries. We looked around, and the other map products sucked. Also, we couldn't use them in the way we wanted to serve the users, even if we had wanted to. So we spent a ton of money developing our own -- and it absolutely clobbered the competition. It was magical, far better than anything that existed before it. Way more information, way easier and faster to use. And the users have responded overwhelmingly positively to it.
If you're asking if we favor our own maps properties, damn right we do. Because it is better. Were the people that made other maps products happy about it? Of course not. We didn't build it for them. We built if for our users.
As a part of any online maps product, users want to use it to find information tied to the locations and businesses they are looking at. We call this places. We realized we needed to build something so that we could serve up this information in a highly integrated way, because we believed users wanted a unified experience. So we spent a ton of money, and we built out our maps product with Place information. Business hours, phone numbers, pictures, and reviews. We tried to partner on reviews. It didn't work out. So we built our own review system.
And it is brilliant, consumers love it. Maps and Places absolutely blow away anything else that exists in terms of ease of use and functionality and richness of information. It is one of our greatest feats. Again, consumers love it.
Were existing business directories and review sites happy about it? Of course not. We didn't build it for them, we built if for our users.
Maps, and Places, and Product Search -- they are all part of search. They are all part of finding information, and answers. And that is what we do, and we'll continue to push forward on that front. Because that is what consumers want.
- DevX101 15y agoPerceived arrogance doesn't go over too well in these type of hearings.
- DonnyV 15y agoYeah you really don't want to give them an emotional reason to come after you.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- aamar 15y ago> Maps, and Places, and Product Search -- they are all part of search. That's a very relevant point, but it also sounds at least superficially similar to Microsoft's "the browser is part of the OS" argument, which generally seems to be a failure. That case has been referenced several times in this hearing; it's clearly front of mind.
- yanw 15y agoNo, that meme is wrong, it's not similar. You bought Windows and Microsoft bundled IE with it, you didn't by Google you use it, Google is Google's. And no one says that search must be just the 10 links and nothing more.
- Ainab 15y agoYour reasoning is flawed!
- rmrm 15y agoMicrosofts case would have been (or should have been) bolstered if their next largest competitors were all doing exactly the same things. All Google has to do to point out that these things are a natural part of search is point at Bing, Yahoo, Yandex, Baidu, etc -- and look for maps, places, condensed information and answers served up directly. Microsoft was hamstrung by not having any competitors doing the same thing. It makes it more difficult to make that argument.
- aamar 15y agoGood point. Schmidt mentioned that competitors have similar features, but I didn't connect the idea that they're all doing very similar things, which they probably are, with the idea that those features are part of any complete search product. You could imagine Bing implementing a preference which will automatically swap in Google's Maps, News, etc. in place of home-grown versions whenever you search on Bing. If such a preference is feasible (leads to an okay user experience), it would help make the case that these ancillary features are in fact separable from basic search, and that Google ought to do the same. My guess is Google wouldn't mind that terribly.
- yanw 15y agoEric did well. What bothers me is that no reps of small businesses were in this hearing, it just seems like one big corporation is shilling a fight against another.
- alexqgb 15y agoWelcome to Washington.
- martincmartin 15y agoIf you're asking if we favor our own maps properties, damn right we do. That sound bite would be taken out of context, and the game would be over for Google.
- rmrm 15y agoIsn't the fact that Google Maps appear at the top of any results page that might be location related the smoking gun evidence? It's an obvious truth. I understand the need for diplomacy, but acknowledging the obvious and then explaining A) Why you do it, and B) Why you're entitled to do it just seems like the right answer. Or at least more right than saying you don't do it, and acting kind of ashamed about it. Obviously I was facetious with my overly Jobsian approach, but I'd like to see a little more upfrontness about it. Of course we do it. Here's why.
- alexqgb 15y agoWhatever else it may be, your Steve Jobsulator is pitch perfect.
- zem 15y agono, the google maps thing isn't a ranked search result, it's a onebox result http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2006/07/google-onebox-results.html http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2006/07/google-onebox-resul...
- TallTalesOrTrue 15y agoTo the end result it looks the same though. In fact many of my non-techie friends click on adverts thinking they are the search results. Either the ads are too good or thhat they are very well placed.
- EGreg 15y agoDisagree. Eric Schmidt is being very careful and respectful, knowing that his quotes will be taken apart later, and it's hard when you have congressmen some of which with their own agendas who want to show their constituents that they are asking Google the tough questions and are not afraid to take action. Whenever I see a person and think, "man, that would be really hard for me to do, and I am a CEO!" I think they are doing an excellent job. I would say that a programmer's carefulness is serving him well here. Even though he's not one, as far as I know. :)