Revolution's live blog from Google Zeitgeist

by Gareth Jones, revolutionmagazine.com 19-May-09, 14:59

LONDON - Follow Revolution editor Gareth Jones as Google co-founder Larry Page and chief executive Eric Schmidt take the stage alongside Richard Branson at Google Zeitgeist Europe 2009.

Schmidt is rounding up. Larry and Richard live their lives without stopping. (However, this doesn't apply to the conference, which is over).

The banks should lend more money for a start, says Branson. Then we should have a vision to be carbon neutral in ten years. Let's take on Green Peace - nuculear energy is far cleaner than anything else. Let's build nuclear power stations and power everything - cars, business etc - on that fuel.

What do you thinj Governments in Europe can do to stimulate entrepreneurs to tackle green and economic issues? - asks a delegate.

They will be finalised by the end of the year.

Branson is outlining his plans to push into space.

Branson, Page and Schmidt are now discussing 'how do you decide which business and other problems to tackle?'

I've got to an age where I spend most of my time on socially-related pursuits. I'm trying to use my skills to make a difference in three areas: 1. disease control. 2.global warming. 3. conflict resolution.

Richard Branson has joined Page and Schmidt

Page: People really want to do stuff in real time. We've done a relatively poor job of indexing on a second by second basis. We will do a better job now we have examples (Twitter).

Can you comment on Twitter? asks an audience member.

Schmidt hints heavily at a potential launch of a Google ad exchange.

In the case of YouTube we are trying CPM models as we are looking for the right balance, explains Schmidt. We have introduced discounts for agencies to make sure agencies have the right incentive to experiment.

Why are you selling YouTube advertising on a CPM-basis? asks another delegate.

Larry: There is so much good that can be done with all this data. Pretty much anything in this area is a mix of good and bad. Having a lot of data, for example, is good from a law enforcement point of view, but bad from a privacy point of view.

Guy Phillipson from the IAB asks a question from the floor. Do you think consumers and government will understand how important consumer data can be to the internet.

We're not doing a good enough job of using technology to improve mankind, says Page.

We're working on making Chrome apps run much further. Gradually we're getting to the model where you can run any piece of software from the web browser.

What apps are you going to build on top of Android and Chrome? - asks Schmidt.

They make the world work better.

Also we've taken a very different strategy with Android and Chrome than other companies. They're completely open, which is really important for the functioning of the internet

We're only just in the early stages of these services.

I've been amazed by mobile and geolocation services, says Larry.

I have learned many things from Larry and Sergey, including having the courage to be unreasonable and the courage to innovate.

He's just introduced Larry and asked him what's next?

Eric Schmidt has just taken the stage.

Here are some brief snippets from the pre-conference Q and A with Google co-founder Larry Page and cheif executive Eric Schmidt.

Page on Wolfram Alphra: "All those kinds of things are good. There are a lot of things that still need to be done in search."

Page on privacy: "We’re not trying to get any information forcibly indexed. If you don’t want to be indexed you don’t have to be."

Schmidt on plans to bost search advertising: "If the user experience is not there the advertising won’t be effective. We take a holistic approach to search."

Schmidt on Google’s planned video chat service: "The quality is better than Skype."

Page and Schmidt will take the stage at 4:30pm to give a 'Perspective from Google'. Read about it here as it happens.