LAS VEGAS -- Google cofounder Larry Page delivered the final keynote address of CES Friday afternoon. Like the company itself, Mr. Page's keynote was markedly different from those of other executives at CES. The soft-spoken billionaire wore a Google lab coat and carried a packet of notes, as if he was making a presentation to a class, not unveiling new products and services from one of the most widely watched companies in the world (see our photo gallery from the event for more information).
Mr. Page, who created Google as a graduate student at Stanford, made no attempts to mask his academic and engineering roots; his keynote was virtually free from the marketing glitz that normally accompanies these events. He took the stage driven in by Stanley, the robotic Volkswagen Touraeg that recently won the DARPA Grand Challenge. Mr. Page praised the vehicle and the Stanford team that developed it for demonstrating what vision, talent, and technology are capable of creating today.
From there, he turned to a demonstration of Google Local developed for car dashboards. Think of it as your GPS on steroids, harnessing the power of Google Earth to not only provide directions, but also enable the driver to compare on screen what he should be seeing based on his location with what he is actually seeing. Mr. Page then demonstrated the new Google Local for mobile, a similar implementation of the technology available today for select mobile devices.
The world as Mr. Page sees it
In an unusual twist, Mr. Page proceeded to take a break from Google and to express to the audience his two biggest gripes about consumer electronics, both of which center around adopting open standards. The first is the lack of interoperability between devices. Why can't one person with a digital camera not directly share photos with another person in the room with a digital camera, Mr. Page asked. Similarly, why can't one's Bluetooth cell phone not be used to start a Bluetooth enabled car's engine? The examples were numerous and Mr. Page pleaded with device makers to get together and adopt open standards to make such inter-device communication possible.
Mr. Page then lampooned the multiple power adapters device makers force upon consumers, with each device generally requiring its own custom power adapter. There's no reason why a universal intelligent power adapter shouldn't be possible, one that automatically detects and provides a device with the power it needs courtesy of a standard power port that all devices would feature. Doing so, Mr. Page said, would also save device makers money, since they wouldn't need to manufacture different packages of their product for different regions of the world because of the power limitation. Once again, it comes down to adopting a single open standard, since the technology already exists for doing this.
Similarly, Mr. Page criticized the various instant messaging protocols, blaming the lack of interoperability between services as a result of instant messaging's corporate development roots, compared to the universal e-mail standard that was developed by universities and that any computer with any e-mail client can take advantage of. Google's response to the issue has been its Google Talk client, which yesterday gained full compatibility with AOL Instant Messenger.
Mr. Page then turned to the ever-increasing technological gap between developed countries and developing countries and the social responsibility companies and governments should feel for bridging this divide -- this was not your typical keynote presentation. Only 15 percent of the world is on the Internet and Mr. Page feels delivering Internet access and technology to poor parts of the world is an important component of increasing the advancement of developing countries. To that end, Google has thrown its support behind MIT's $100 laptop initiative and Mr. Page encouraged other companies to think and act similarly.
With his rants and desires for the future aside, the keynote's focus returned to Google, which earlier that day released Google Pack a collection of free applications for Windows bundled together for easy downloading and installation. Pack makes it easy for Windows systems to be brought up to speed both with malware protection and handy applications, including Google's own suite of products and others like Acrobat Reader and Mozilla Firefox.
While the highlight of the keynote for Google watchers and analysts was surely the forthcoming Google Video announcement, prior to launching into that Mr. Page told the audience that it has always been a dream of cofounder Sergey Brin to develop a Google implant that can read a person's thoughts. With that, he ushered in the "prototype" a shadowy figure wearing a colorful head contraption that turned out to be none other than comedian Robin Williams, who then launched into a five minute act about Google, the Internet, and technology that left the audience roaring.
Google Video Store
Following Mr. William's act, Mr. Page moved on to the day's biggest announcement: Google Video. Calling the original incarnation of the service "weird and innovative," Mr. Page introduced the new Google Video Store, which is also "weird and innovative." The service will allow anyone to sell their video online for a price of their choosing, the justification here being that producing video content is often quite costly and that enabling providers to recoup those costs -- from the college kids who put together an amusing short to the independent studios that lack a marketing budget -- is important.
Google also announced its own partnerships with a number of premium content providers, including CBS and the NBA, which will make all NBA games available for viewing 24 hours after they have aired. The premium content will cost US$1.99 per episode, identical to Apple's iTunes Music Store pricing. Premium content utilizes Google's own DRM scheme and thus requires the new Google Video Player, currently available only for Windows but coming soon for Mac. The store currently offers more than 3,000 videos, with more coming each day.
While Mac users can't as of yet tap into Google's premium content, non right-protected content can be viewed in a browser or downloaded in video iPod or Sony PlayStation Portable formats.
Broader View
Like Intel's Viiv strategy and its media partnerships announced the day earlier, the Google Video Store leaves open the question as to how much longer Apple will be able to snub other content providers in its quest to dominate digital delivery. Mr. Page mentioned that Google was open to offering different DRM schemes, presumably suggesting that iPod-friendly premium content using Apple's FairPlay DRM could be offered in the future if Apple obliges. To date, Apple has refused to license FairPlay to anyone.
Next week's Macworld Expo will surely offer a better glimpse at what the future holds for Apple and content delivery, but even with 70+ percent market share, Apple may end up finding itself in a difficult position if it decides to go up against the likes of Intel, Microsoft, and Google alone.
Mr. Page then turned to the ever-increasing technological gap between developed countries and developing countries and the social responsibility of companies and governments should feel for bridging this divide
Okay, what are you going to do about it, Mr. Page? “Supporting†the $100 notebook project? Oh boy!
And sort of self-serving, ain’t it? More internet users mean more hits for Google right? And does this really make the lives of people in those countries better? How is this a “social responsibility�
CloseViewName:Guest Sat Jan 07, 2006 8:38 pmSubject:
must we be so synical? is there always a bad side to CEO's of big company's? how do you know what he's thinking? get a grip. I hate people griping...its only because they came up with the idea that you thought you might have to liked too, but couldn't have been bothered thinking too hard about it. so what are you going to do about it? i've already done my bit. actually maybe you should e-mail him, although on second thoughts, if you have a gmail account, don't, as surely this too will line his pockets will green dollar bills...
That's right, Bubba. Usual Ayn Rand crap. You don't approve of someone else's means of assisting folks at the bottom -- so, denying that assistance is your solution.
CloseViewName:Guest Sat Jan 07, 2006 9:24 pmSubject:
For your own interpretation:
"In an unusual twist, Mr. Page proceeded to take a break from Google and to express to the audience his two biggest gripes about consumer electronics, both of which center around adopting open standards. The first is the lack of interoperability between devices."
followed later on by:
"Premium content utilizes Google's own DRM scheme ....."
The guy has some good points, about power adaptors. He also has points about the poor of the world, whom he would like to be able to use Google too.
These folks have grown quite wealthy, these Google founders. They are in a powerful position. I hope they do support the Mac platform. I wish they would get to the business of making their Mac software, such as Google Earth, or any others.
I use Google, and will continue to. However, Dogpile is often better at finding pages. I don't find their interface to be beautiful, but it does have useful searching. They use google, but they also use other search engines.
It is an alternative to google.
It seems that google's contribution to the poor is simply the search engine, and any free applications that it offers to those windos users it serves, as well as making people aware of various catastrophes, so we can give our money to them.
I wish that I could find some responsible agency to give some help to for those who are Afghanistan.
Man, I can't help but think that within the next 5-10 years, people will be bowing down to this company because it will eventually move into politics and set out to govern the world. What's going to be next - Google Bank, at your Google grocery store, that you drove to in your Google XL?
And for those who think we're jealous - hardly! I aspire to higher things.
Google could have talked about virtually any other subject, such as how it dominates the search markets, or how it's changing the world accesses information.
Instead, and not self-servingly, Mr.Page has given the Corporations of the technology world a wake-up call to make devices more user-friendly and to help allow poor people to have access to a $100 laptop.
Rainy Day, did you most definately didn't stop to think before posting your comment did you? How on earth will the average person in Africa be able to afford the internet to click on google's website. Your credulousness astounds even me.
Shame on anyone for bringing down a man who wants to help the poorer nations. Mr. page will be astutely remembered, you on the other hand, will not be.
P.s. don't bother posting a reply, I won't be looking here again.
Exactly what DRM standards are there for Google to draw from? Sony's? Wooohoo... I don't think so! Fairplay? He said they'd be happy to use it.
And to the first poster; Page didn't say anything about relieving poverty, just the digital divide, and those $100 laptops will do exactly that - especially when they allow the user to access free services like Wikipedia and, oh yeah, Google.
How awesome would it be for Sudanese students to be writing articles for Wikipedia about their corner of the world from $100 laptops?
Computer nerds always think that computers will save the world. Nevermind fresh water and things like that. It's a symptom of a narrow (potentially brilliant; but still narrow) mind.
The talk about open standards is inspiration... the fact that google has yet to support the Mac is hypocrytical. Mr. Page talks a good game.... but anyone talkin' about making the internet available to everyone knows that Microsoft is still the Borg.. and Mac is still a vote for freedom.
Oh, did you hear the one about the giant American conglomerant the shut down the Chinese blog?
Unlike our posts on this obscure chatboard or whatever it's called, Larry Page, is a relatively high profile public figure.
It's easy to snipe at him, anonymously from your web enabled computer, while most of the world's citizens have never made a phone call. So other than that, instad of pointing fingers, or mouse pointers or whatnot, what are you doing?
I'm sure with the billions Larry's accumulated, he's able to do a little tax deductible charitable per year that could easily far exceed the value of your entire lifetime's accumulated net worth, and your entire extended family.
Page seems like a pretty accomplished fellow for somone his age and ain't a huge member of fan club or anything, but the MIT laptop project will make a huge difference to some peoples lives whether you agree or not.
Providing laptops may sound ridiculous, and perhaps pales in contrast with solving our global warming problems, fossil fuel energy dependence and various droughts, diseases, famines & exasperating political situations.
So, what do you want him to do...how about not supporting the MIT project. Better yet, maybe he can just be a prick 24-7 like your hero and fan of tightly controlled proprietary b.s ... Steve Jobs.
Fair enough, although there's no reason to worship money per se. No Jobs fan here. Just remarking that all this computer money flushed down computer philanthropy toilets is a result of computer people who are remarkably capable of conflating what makes them money with what helps others, no matter what other approach any rational analysis of the problems would dictate.
The Google company is doing very well, and is probably not pressured to make more money than what naturally comes in. This company can touch a very large percent of our world's population. To create a socially responsible community around this company is a chance for us to bring the world's people together in an effort towards prosperity and peace.
This brings to mind a gripe of my own. How can our governments operate so independantly from the intellectual greats in our global society? It is as if we have focused entirely on hiring the elite, connected and already powerful to run our world. The people who ascend the educational community usually do so out of excellence and/or passion for gaining and sharing knowledge - a much more virtuous venture.
CloseViewName:Guest Sun Jan 08, 2006 1:14 amSubject:
Think about how much the internet has impacted the world economically....and how much having a laptop could help out third world nations...not just to endorse google, or any other technological company. That's not what this is about...this is about helping out people who need it, in more ways than just food, and water...These people only know they world THEY live in, and nothing else. Don't you think it would be nice to know what is out there? It could totally change their lives! They could learn so much, about keeping healthy, about AIDS, about all sorts of things that are plaguing them that they don't know enough about to prevent. They could make a little money....with having internet access, the possibilities are endless!
As for the Google/Mac topic....they're just working for the majority right now...and they are planning on releasing everything to be MAC compatible, so I don't think it's a double standard at all. They're just releasing this first. If they weren't planning on doing it at all, I could see your point as being valid...but it IS on the way
Imagine what your decision would be when you get up in the morning, develop another line of code or save 100,000 lives in the poorest nations on earth, what would you do?
Time Magazine got it right, and a MIT/Google $100 laptop could only help the residents of earth find their way.
If your not moved by the Time article, you are not human.
I love Google and have multiple services, even this post was spell checked in the G-Bar, the company formula is infinite, and seems to apply to everything, in mathematical formulas, to the point it raises the hair on the back of my neck, that this is just not possible.
CloseViewName:MikuroPosts: 453Joined: 15 Jun 2002 Sun Jan 08, 2006 2:37 amSubject: DRM = evil
Quote
Guest wrote: Exactly what DRM standards are there for Google to draw from? Sony's? Wooohoo... I don't think so! Fairplay? He said they'd be happy to use it.
The answer would be to NOT use DRM. That simple. But instead, Google has bowed down to the economics of the situation — the same way everyone they're criticizing has in their respective fields.
Google's decision to introduce yet another properietary, limiting, producer-centric DRM system simply IS at odds with their supposed principals.
From someone who has never done anything. When Page has as much money as Gates, I will expect him to save the world. Until then, he is just an exceptionally rich dreamer seeking to better his company.
Quote
Rainy Day wrote:
Quote
Mr. Page then turned to the ever-increasing technological gap between developed countries and developing countries and the social responsibility of companies and governments should feel for bridging this divide
Okay, what are you going to do about it, Mr. Page? “Supporting†the $100 notebook project? Oh boy!
And sort of self-serving, ain’t it? More internet users mean more hits for Google right? And does this really make the lives of people in those countries better? How is this a “social responsibility�
CloseViewName:Guest Sun Jan 08, 2006 9:47 amSubject:
Quote
Rainy Day wrote:
Quote
Mr. Page then turned to the ever-increasing technological gap between developed countries and developing countries and the social responsibility of companies and governments should feel for bridging this divide
Okay, what are you going to do about it, Mr. Page? “Supporting†the $100 notebook project? Oh boy!
And sort of self-serving, ain’t it? More internet users mean more hits for Google right? And does this really make the lives of people in those countries better? How is this a “social responsibility�
Well, what are you doing about it?
You must be a complete self-sacrificing person to be able to make a comment like that comfortably, right?
CloseViewName:Guest Sun Jan 08, 2006 9:47 amSubject:
Congratuations on supporting the $100 laptop idea. I wonder how much cash Google, or Mr Page has donated but still, its a very worthwhile cause and one which he should be commended for backing. And not the sniping we see here. Education is a powerful tool and good on MIT, Mr Page in this project.
As for the Mac, well thats just like the dodgy plug adaptors he's on about. A non standard captive market which should of been removed years ago. And the only reason things like the dodgy plugs (and the Mac) remain is cash milking off the companies behind them.
The DRM issue, as others have said is something which is a little two faced when he also discusses the plugs etc. Ok, so these days we're not going to be able to download much at the way the TV companies are going without some stupid DRM. But like the plug, I think Page is hoping for a open standard to the DRM's, and again, for Apple to stop trying to milk money from users again and open it up for others too use. Then again, that means allowing competition and Apples little "communist state" of play when it comes to being open wouldn't ever allow that.
There are products that charge by magnetic induction. What I want is one pad that sits on my kitchen counter. I plug this pad into whatever local power grid, then place all my devices on top of it. The pad detects something changeable and turns on the field. Flash-based cell phones, iPods, flashlights, cordless home phones, remote controls, bluetooth headsets, whatever - they all change from the pad. If and when flash memory is huge enough to run a laptop ($100 or otherwise), then just drop your laptop on the desk. No more power cords. You could even put a charging pad in your car, then whatever you brought into your car would be charging while you drove around.
Oh wait, I forgot we were talking about people without homes, cars, and food. If we expose them to the wonders of our modern world, it's a fair bet they won't stay that way for long.
CloseViewName:Guest Sun Jan 08, 2006 12:40 pmSubject:
Quote
Anonymous wrote: As for the Mac, well thats just like the dodgy plug adaptors he's on about. A non standard captive market which should of been removed years ago. And the only reason things like the dodgy plugs (and the Mac) remain is cash milking off the companies behind them.
The DRM issue, as others have said is something which is a little two faced when he also discusses the plugs etc. Ok, so these days we're not going to be able to download much at the way the TV companies are going without some stupid DRM. But like the plug, I think Page is hoping for a open standard to the DRM's, and again, for Apple to stop trying to milk money from users again and open it up for others too use. Then again, that means allowing competition and Apples little "communist state" of play when it comes to being open wouldn't ever allow that.
Uh, yeah.... As opposed to what? Microsoft and Windows? Windows is horribly standards non-compliant (very poor interoperability between it and Mac OS and Linux) and closed (MS does not give visibility to all of their APIs). And MS' DRM is not standard (does not work on Mac OS or Linux).
And MS is the GOLD STANDARD for milking money from consumers and companies.
rezonate wrote: If and when flash memory is huge enough to run a laptop ($100 or otherwise)
FYI, the $100 notebook IS all Flash-based. HDs are too power-hungry and error-prone (not to mention slow, although that's not really the concern here). 500MB of "disk" space is plenty for the purpose. Just don't expect to use it for modern multimedia.
I really think the $100 notebook is the coolest thing since....well...ever. Yes. Coolest thing ever. It's everything a computer should be, and nothing it shouldn't. Perfect for education. I just hope it catches on and people will start developing for such "limiting" hardware (which, by the way, is about 100x better than my first computer, which completely changed my life in ways I can't imagine today's bloated beasts doing for anyone).
Not true,folks in Africa know plenty about AIDS.....The UN, with mostly US funds educates the heck out of them about AIDS....BUT.......they dont beleive it and they wont use free condoms.
No amount of computers is going to change anything.
IMHO, what Africa needs most is to rid the countries of morally corrupt socialist leaders and a healthy dose of capitalism.
Did I forget to mention, adding a solar cell, just like in calculators, to add an assist, would the sun glare the screen? Even if it was just put down, it would charge.
Most countries this would be going to are near the equator, not that I wouldn't like to try one myself
Sorta like a, "Flintstones" "Segway" of technology.
rezonate wrote: If and when flash memory is huge enough to run a laptop ($100 or otherwise)
the $100 notebook IS all Flash-based. Perfect for education. I just hope it catches on and people will start developing for such "limiting" hardware.
Yes, that's one of it's main selling points. I'm thinking more about everyday devices: phones, cameras, headsets. They're already getting ample flash memory. So instead of sticking with old-school plugs, let's move on. Each device has different voltage/amperage needs, and offloading the power management to a wall wart keeps them small. But dropping everything onto a charging base would be way more convenient. Eventually the technology developed for small will get worked into medium.
I agree that you can design good instruction for minimal hardware. If you've ever tried putting an entire multimedia program together in less than 650mb for CD-ROM delivery, you'll know just how much can be presented. Today's designers have forgotten 300 baud modems and 5.25" floppies!
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