Google thanks Schmidt with $100 million. This generous goodbye gift suggests that Schmidt did not want to leave, that Larry Page and Sergey Brin no longer wanted him as the public face of Google.
Jan 11
Larry Page's yacht, Senses, now docked in St. Maarten. (marinetraffic.com)
Google co-founder Larry Page’s recent purchase of an 187-foot, $45 million yacht is a classic case of “conspicuous consumption.” The term, coined by economist Thorstein Veblen, refers to “the waste of money and/or resources by people to display a higher status than others.”
As an investment the purchase of the yacht, dubbed “Senses,” makes little sense, as one commenter to Business Insider notes. The purchase is an intentional waste of money designed to prove something we already knew: that Page has the capacity to waste more money than most of us will have. Continue reading »
Jan 05
Does greed corrupt Google search quality?
Americas, Internet, United States
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Three rants about the decline for Google search quality highlight a phenomenon the better minds of Mountain View can’t afford to ignore, says culture blogger Anil Dash. Or can they? Continue reading »
Dec 09
As documented in another Wikileaks cable from Beijing. How long can Mountain View take the torture?
Dec 06
Google fails to appease China
Americas, Asia, China, Internet, United States
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Can Google do business ethically in China?
The Wikileaks documents released in the past few days revive that question, first posed in 2006 when the search engine entered China, by revealing the hardball tactics that Beijing’s communists use to bring Mountain View’s capitalists to heel. One Google executive, worn down by three years of Chinese harrassment, told a U.S. diplomat that the company might consider leaving China, a comment quoted in this July 2009 cable. With company co-founder Sergey Brin already going public with his qualms, Google’s Chinese future seems in doubt.
The cables reveal how Beijing relentlessly pressurizes Google to achieve its economic and political goals.
Nov 19
There are fears, oft-discounted but still harbored by at least one Israeli intelligence official, that terrorists might use Google Street View to plan terrorist attacks. If so, Google’s offices in Munich are safer today, because they are blurred in Google Street View, according to CNET’s Technically Incorrect. Continue reading »
