Schmidt Briefs Journalists on China, Office, Dark Fibre, ..
BBC report of 8 journalists invited to lunch yesterday with Eric Schmidt in Google's "tiny" NY offices (250 computer engineers and product development staff, scattered over five spacious floors.). Schmidt was " was charming and candid". No doubt the other 7 journalists at the lunch will have more to add.
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Google agonized for a year before agreeing to censor their searches as a condition for opening up in China?
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We're told that a new deal with Time Warner is very close, and Google would clearly like that to gain access to the Warner Bros film archive.
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Google is also working out how it can turn itself into a global retailer, so that customers can not only search for something but buy it from them in a few clicks. Its enormous and expanding database could clearly make the company many more millions.
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Microsoft is clearly considered the main rival, and we're likely to see Google move more tanks onto Bill Gates's lawn. Indeed, references to Microsoft's co-founder and his empire always come with subtle but loaded asides.
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Speculation among experts is rife about what the company wants with all that dark fibre - but in the end, your guess is as good as mine. But that's fine with Google. "The mystique works to our advantage," says Eric Schmidt,
- Y! MyWeb
Retail: Dream On
>Google is also working out how it can turn itself into a global retailer, so that customers can not only search for something but buy it from them in a few clicks.
I laughed pretty hard at this. Amazon works very hard at customer service, keeping the customer informed about their purchase at every step and taking the scariness out of the online shopping experience. This requires a willingness for hands on interaction with the end user and an ongoing commitment to really care about the customer's needs. It also requires that the shopping experience be transparent - it is the customers money and their merchandise being purchased they darn well want to be informed what is happening to it. Google does none of these things well. They don't have live people answering emails, they don't keep people informed other than with propaganda, and they have no concept of real customer service.
Back when Amazon was just getting started, Amazon CEO Bezos and all the execs at Amazon would spend their nights in the warehouse actually packing book orders so that they would ship in a timely manner. It gives you a real insiders view of the operation and shows a commitment to the customer. You won't see Google billionaires packing orders every night for months.
They might be able to deliver digital goods but in true hard-goods retail these guys are dabblers and dilettantes.
link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4816848.stm
Perhaps
Dark fibre does not equate into hard goods, warehouses, etc..
However, they could become the largest affiliate overnight, demanding and receiving whatever percentage they want, they wouldn't even have to remove aff sites from their index, as a well placed link at the top of the page would do the trick.
I think they just want to be
I think they just want to be a payment processor who has a value add in the following ways
They don't want to handle the customer service. They will just want to set up a framework conducive to a good customer experience.
the big problem with P2P
the big problem with P2P commerce is transaction enforcement -- i.e. making sure both parties live up to their end of the deal (buyers pay, sellers deliver). customer service is not the solution IMO as it does not scale. the automated solution thus far has been a reputation system, although ebay's rep system leaves much to be desired, i think. with the amount of data that google has on its account holders, i think they can come up with a rep system that beats ebay's. couple this with their breadth of search, their enormous marketing reach, and the convenience to users that google will be able to offer given their market reach), and i think you have something that could really change the game and make ebay irrelevant. it will probably be far from perfect and still susceptible to being gamed, but i think it has the potential to be far superior to the alternatives.