Sergey Brin on The Huffington Post

Anis Shivani: "Don't Be Evil": How Larry Page and Sergey Brin Really Think and Should We Worry About Google's Dominance

2009-12-03T11:26:38Z

INSIDE LARRY & SERGEY'S BRAIN
By Richard L. Brandt
Portfolio, 244 pages. $24.95

'Searching and organizing all the world's information is an unusually important task that should be carried out by a company that is trustworthy and interested in the public good."
--Larry & Sergey's statement to Wall Street in their 2004 IPO filing.

The challenge for any chronicler of a Silicon Valley company is to distinguish between hype and reality. In Google's case, because of its indisputable financial success, the task becomes harder. After all, when Google has cornered $20 billion of advertising revenue a year--revenue that has come from struggling newspapers and other traditional producers of "content," which are in danger of losing their footing altogether--the vast flows of money can hide many simmering problems. It is remarkable that after ten years of escalating market dominance, Google's one truly successful innovation remains its search engine; it has developed more than 150 other applications, but they're either not as popular as competitors' products, or have failed to generate revenue.

The first question Richard L. Brandt addresses is Google's ambition to be the world's librarian. Google has always been very clear that it wants to digitize every bit of information. This raises obvious questions about the power Google possesses over this information. Why is it that the world's governments are not organizing and digitizing this information? Obviously, it's natural to worry about a single corporation becoming the potential gateway to everything that has ever been written or said. Since Brandt did not have personal access to the Google founders, one might have expected greater skepticism toward the self-proclaimed ethical motivations of Google's founders--embodied in their ubiquitous motto, "Don't be evil." This ethos must be seen in the context of the period of Google's emergence; the great computer giant of its era, Microsoft, was being assailed from all corners--the public, competitors, and governments alike--for being the epitome of evil.

Libraries, it is to be noted, do not charge for their content. So far, neither does Google. But we are at a very early stage yet in the life of the Internet, and it remains to be seen how this evolves. That the gatekeeper should be a single private entity, which moreover imposes its own model of advertising (which may or may not work for every content provider), should provoke concern. It is the business model inside Google's algorithms--Google's own brain--that we should be concerned about, rather than the degree to which Larry Page and Sergey Brin's brains might be virtuous and ethical.

Google is the single greatest force currently putting pressure on existing business models for publishing, broadcasting, communications, and entertainment. Google, with its Android phone software, has entered the telephone business. The way Google looks at it, all forms of communication can be redefined as search--search according to Google, that is. Google is wary of competing portals--such as Facebook, or the iPhone, or anywhere else users congregate and feel most comfortable--posing a challenge to its preeminence as the Internet's homepage of choice. It has tried to keep the homepage simple, free as it is of clutter and distractions, and has not shown any inclination to be a portal, such as AOL, paradigmatically, tried to do.

But as time goes by and we get more and more used to Google as the homepage, it becomes more and more difficult for any competitor to pose a challenge. Inertia is a large part of the explanation, but so is ease of use--in that sense Google harkens back to the revolutionary Mosaic and Netscape browsers, which made the Internet accessible to all. Undoubtedly, Google's search produces better results than any competitor's, which is partly due to the self-reinforcing nature of Google searches. The more consumers use Google search (yielding cookies that refine future searches by the same user), the better it gets at what it does. In all these ways, Google gives us what we need, with the least friction possible; yet in all these ways Google also poses a potential danger of a monopoly using the wealth of the world's knowledge and information for its commercial purposes.

Certainly, reading about Google's success story is a restorative counterpoint to the legends of evil committed in the recent past by Wall Street, Detroit, and other American corporations, which created little value yet rewarded executives extravagantly. Google has fundamentally altered the world, probably far exceeding the capacity of any single government to do so. Politics is now potentially more transparent and accountable than ever before. Users can find information cheaper and quicker and better than ever before. There is no aspect of our lives that hasn't shifted, sometimes crucially, in response to the revolution of information Google has been instrumental in bringing about. Yet Google aims to be all-encompassing, and that always has to bring its own hazards. As Brandt notes, Google claimed it wasn't interested in developing a browser, but it did, with Chrome. Google is posing a direct challenge to Apple's iPhone, with its Android telephone software, available through Verizon. When Google introduced Gmail, it was revealed that information compiled from emails would be used to target advertisements to users.

Brandt, like other chroniclers of Google, emphasizes Larry & Sergey's similar intellectual upbringing, their common Montessori background, and their shared experience at Stanford graduate school, all of which are generally said to be the source of the free-flowing environment at the company. Yet this is too banal to be given much explanatory credence when it comes to Google's eventual success. There is nothing particularly new in this, as far as Silicon Valley goes. The challenge for a chronicler of Google is to separate the corporate mythology--the way the Google founders talk about the 20% time engineers are allowed to devote to their own projects, or the way the company has bent over backwards to provide food and daycare, and even massages, on campus--from the corporate business philosophy.

To the extent that Larry & Sergey are math prodigies--or computer geeks, if you will--and lack the humanistic dimension, we are carried forth into the brave new world on the wave of their shortcomings. They both seem to display a cavalier disregard for the value of content, as Brandt suggests at numerous points. Why would authors write books for free? Only to enrich Google with advertising dollars? What would be the quality of free books? If the existing publishing, journalistic, and broadcasting environments entirely collapsed tomorrow, one suspects Larry & Sergey wouldn't be too unhappy. Content--some sort of content--can always be procured. Free, as Chris Anderson recently pointed out in his new book, can work for authors, musicians, and other content producers, but why should advertising be the sole support for creative work? Surely that would have an effect on the quality of journalism or writing, if that were the case. Yet Google's brain knows no other dimension than to capture advertising dollars through the greatest possible numbers of clicks.

Outside Google, the talk may all be about controlled chaos, yet hierarchies obtain--as they must--within Google. Engineers are a cut above nonengineers. The company makes no bones about it. Again, this reflects Larry & Sergey's bias that data drives everything, that there is no other calculus for decision-making. One might argue that this dilutes the quality of Google's search. It's better than anything else out there, but what is out there is pathetic, as measured by the utterly soulless efforts of Microsoft, Yahoo, and AOL, which wanted to serve as portals where users were captured and walled-off from other options, rather than as neutral arbiters of information. So Google search is an advantage over these barbaric early manifestations of what search never should have been, yet the vaunted PageRank algorithm often fails to value quality over quantity. And moreover, Google doesn't seem particularly interested in measuring the quality of, say, a New York Review of Books article on a particular subject, or of a scientific journal's, compared to the random musings of some uninformed ignoramus, should that have succeeded in getting the most views. The elevation of the engineer's data-driven, linear, antihumanist mind might have something to do with this manifestation in search results.

PageRank, Larry's great innovation, we learn from Brandt's interviews with Google's competitors, might not have been such a great innovation after all. The technology was open and available to others to exploit; the fact that they didn't do so speaks to Google's competitors' disinterest in making the Internet experience pleasurable and efficient and quick for users. Yet the public mythology of Google's discovery of its magic algorithm needs to be brought down a few further notches. CEO Eric Schmidt--who was brought on with some reluctance at first, after insistence by Google's venture capitalists--is variously seen as not being particularly effective, or as the genius who produces the first part of the "controlled chaos" equation. Actually, it doesn't take a genius to be the CEO of a corporation in as dominant a position, relative to its competitors, as Google currently is.

There's no denying that Google's corporate vision includes making things as easy for the user as possible. After all, the dominant late-nineties Internet portal was AOL, and we all remember how user-friendly that was! And we all remember the horrendous banner advertisements flashed on MSN. Google has insisted on not including advertisements on its homepage. Advertisements, when they do appear to the side of search results, are unobtrusive. Yet, again, there is a sense in which advertising--because it is so effective in the form Google uses it--has become the engine of growth, rather than being the outcome of the growth of valuable information on the Internet. It makes no difference to Google what viewers view, as long as it results in advertising dollars. AdWords, borrowed form GoTo (later renamed Overture), which places advertising on search pages, and AdSense, which places ads on other Web sites, are the two key innovations. In response, competitors like Microsoft have eyed Yahoo to try to develop a counter to Google's dominance of the advertising market, but nothing has come of it so far. The logical conclusion to what Google is doing would seem to be the eventual end of all forms of middlemen, so that advertising becomes completely automated, without the human touch. Not everyone will lament the end of the advertising executive or salesman, but there will be other consequences for content should that happen--consequences we ought to think about.

We have let Google slide on many things--its China censorship, to allow it to remain viable in that huge market (though nothing Google does seems to stall the rise of Baidu, the local search engine); its occasionally cavalier public posture toward privacy; and its indifference toward copyright laws--because we feel good about Google. That is both the most tremendous asset (unmatched by, say, Microsoft) and also perhaps the weakest foundation on which to build the world's greatest library. On the other hand, Brandt is right to wish that Google might become an ISP. Our experience of accessing the Internet would probably become much better. We shall see if Larry & Sergey's collective brain can keep up with the spontaneous evolution of the Internet, as embodied in the worldwide community of users. That is the greatest logic of all, and it may supersede the planning and visionary capacities of any Internet corporation--even one as sanctified and mythologized as Google.

Google Cofounder Gives To Charity That Helped Him Escape Anti-Semitism

2009-11-02T18:00:48Z

How many times do you use Google every day? Next time you're checking stocks, researching at work or cyber-stalking an ex-boyfriend, take a minute to type in The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. Without them, Google may have never existed, the New York Times reported.

Thirty years ago, HIAS helped a 6-year-old Sergey Brin and his family escape anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union and start a new life in the U.S. Brin went on to cofound Google and is now worth an estimated $16 billion from his online information empire.

Last week, on the anniversary of his immigration to America, Brin donated $1 million to the organization.

"I would have never had the kinds of opportunities I've had here in the Soviet Union, or even in Russia today," Mr. Brin said in an interview. "I would like to see anyone be able to achieve their dreams, and that's what this organization does."

While the amount is relatively small, Brin said it is just the beginning of his philanthropic aspirations.

Mr. Brin noted that Bill Gates, the chairman of Microsoft, was widely criticized for not giving away enough money but is now known as one of the world's leading philanthropists. "While everyone was criticizing him, he was generating a whole lot more money for his foundation, and ultimately, when he got serious about philanthropy, he did it really well," Mr. Brin said. "I'd like to learn from that example."

He has also used his tech savvy to help out HIAS. Google has digitized their archives and Brin, who now sits on the board of HIAS, has started a social networking site for the organization to preserve the stories of Hebrew immigration to the U.S.

During the past several years, Brin and his wife have donated $30 million to charity, mostly to promote research to cure Parkinson's disease, such as to The Michael J. Fox Foundation. He said he wants to continue to build his philanthropy systematically.

23AndMe: Layoffs Confirmed At Google-Backed Startup

2009-10-30T08:26:47Z

23andMe was founded by Linda Avey and Anne Wojcicki back in 2006. Investors include biotech powerhouse Genentech, as well as New Enterprise Associates. The company also has close ties to Google -- Sergey Brin (who is Wojciki's husband) has loaned 23andMe $10 million, and Google also has a stake in the company.

Sergey Brin's Take On Technology's 'Downside' For Kids

2009-10-29T13:19:56Z

Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, shared his ideas on technology and education at a recent conference, Breakthrough Learning in the Digital Age.

As would be expected from the tech-savvy Googler, Brin predicted computers would eventually become a mainstay in classrooms, given that the devices keep getting cheaper and broadband access keeps expanding.

Surprisingly, however, Brin admitted that this increasing inter-connectivity and access to information might not be a purely positive force for kids, suggesting that it could come at a cost to students.

As the LA Times reports, when asked what kind of technological world he envisions 15 or 20 years from now,

Brin said he hoped that the increasingly powerful access to information would free people up to become more capable individuals. But he did see a downside.

"When I was growing up, I always knew I'd be in the top of my class in math, and that gave me a lot of self-confidence," he said. But now that studens [sic] can see beyond their own school or hometown, they see that "there are always going to be a million people better than you at times, or someone will always be far better than you. I feel there's an existential angst among young people. I didn't have that. They see enormous mountains, where I only saw one little hill to climb."

Esther Wojcicki: Sesame Workshop-Google Education Forum Live -- How Can We Change the System?

2009-10-27T20:30:01Z

Today, Wednesday, October 28, you can watch the education discussion on Breakthrough Learning in a Digital Age LIVE from speakers in privotal sectors. Join in by clicking on this link. All times listed are Pacific Daylight Times so make adjustments according to your time zone.

You can also participate with Google Moderator by sending in questions for the speakers.

8:30 am PDT

Opening Remarks: Constance M. Yowell, Director of Education, MacArthur Foundation

8:45 am
Session I. The Next Revolution in Learning: How Digital Culture is Shaping Where and How Children Learn
Moderated by Brad Stone, New York Times
Gary E. Knell, President and CEO, Sesame Workshop
Mizuko Ito, Research Scientist, University of California, Irvine
James Steyer, CEO and Founder, Common Sense Media
Reed Hastings, CEO, Netflix

9:45 am
Session II. Literacy 2.0: Creative Strategies to Prepare 21st Century Learners Presentations
Moderated by Lisa Guernsey, Director, Early Education Initiative, New America Foundation

Nichole Pinkard, Program Founder, Director of Innovation, Urban Education Institute, University of Chicago
Benjamin Bederson, Associate Professor Computer Science, Institute of
Advanced Computer Studies and iSchool, University of Maryland and
Allison Druin, Director of the Human-Computer Interaction Lab and
Associate Professor, University of Maryland's College of Information Studies
Karen Cator, Director, Education Leadership and Advocacy, Apple
Marissa Mayer, Vice President, Search Products & User Experience, and
Daniel Russell, Research Scientist, Google

11:00 am
Session III. New Learning Designs: Scaling Innovation to Reverse the Dropout Crisis
Moderated by John Merrow, Education
Correspondent, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

Jason Levy, Principal, New York City Intermediate School 339
Larry Rosenstock, Founder, High Tech High School Network
Katie Salen, Executive Director, Institute of Play, Professor of Design and
Technology, and Director of the Center for Transformative Media, Parsons the
New School for Design
Rey Ramsey, CEO, One Economy Corporation

12:15 pm
Fireside Chat: A discussion between Sergey Brin, Co-founder & President, Technology, Google and James Bennet, Editor-in-Chief, The Atlantic

1:30 pm
Session IV: Teachers for a Digital Age: New Strategies to Transform Practice
Moderated by John Merrow, Education Correspondent, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

Anthony S. Bryk, President, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Elyse Eidman-Aadahl, Director, National Programs & Site Development, National Writing Project
Marshall (Mike) S. Smith, Senior Counselor, U.S. Department of Education
Ellen Moir, Executive Director, New Teacher Center
Esther Wojcicki, Chair of the Board, Creative Commons and Journalism/ English Teacher, Palo Alto High School

2:45 pm
Closing Panel: Breakthrough Ideas to Drive Student Success: Action Steps for the Nation
Moderated by James Bennet, Editor-in-Chief, The Atlantic
Blair Levin, Executive Director of the Omnibus Broadband Initiative at the FCC
Jim Shelton, Assistant Deputy Secretary, Innovation & Improvement, U.S.
Department of Education Panel from the pivotal sectors
Barbara Chow, Education Program Director, Hewlett Foundation
Susan Gendron, Comissioner, Maine Department of Education
Elliot Schrage, Vice President of Global Communications, Marketing and Public Policy, Facebook
Kathy Hurley, Senior Vice President, Pearson K-12 Solutions and the Pearson Foundation, and Chair

Google Founder Sergey Brin Donates $1 Million To HISA, Jewish Charity That Helped Family Relocate

2009-10-25T03:46:48Z

Were it not for the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, there might be no Google.

Thirty years ago today, Sergey Brin, a 6-year-old Soviet boy facing an uncertain future, arrived in the United States with the help of the society.

Sergey Brin NY Times Op-Ed: Why Google Books Is Important

2009-10-09T12:38:27Z

Because books are such an important part of the world's collective knowledge and cultural heritage, Larry Page, the co-founder of Google, first proposed that we digitize all books a decade ago, when we were a fledgling startup. At the time, it was viewed as so ambitious and challenging a project that we were unable to attract anyone to work on it. But five years later, in 2004, Google Books (then called Google Print) was born, allowing users to search hundreds of thousands of books. Today, they number over 10 million and counting.

Google's Post-Recession Culture: Perks Are Out, Just Be Happy You Have A Job

2009-10-07T16:47:51Z

Hey Googlers! All those perks -- the great food, the high-end daycare, the fancy bathrooms -- that the company is famous for? Overrated, your bosses say. So is the dream of getting insanely wealthy at your job.

Instead, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said today, you ought to be happy to work at Google... because it's Google. In that sense, Schmidt said, the recession of the past year has been good for the company, since it's highlighted the difference between working at his company and other options -- including not working at all.

Sunil Chacko: Japan's New Era

2009-09-05T17:15:50Z

The landslide victory of Dr. Yukio Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) has given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to effect change. Dr. Hatoyama will become the Japanese Prime Minister this month. The overwhelming electoral success comes at a time when the Japanese people have grown weary of the political and bureaucratic dithering that characterized much of the past 20 years. Even today, Japan remains the world's second-largest economy - larger than Germany and Britain. However, starting in 1989, a gradual economic decline has led many in Japan to question the future. But, just next door, China and India have been growing rapidly, albeit with transient slowdowns, in addition to other Asian nations such as South Korea and Vietnam. Asia's share of the world's GDP will be over 40% in another decade, and already, 50% of Japan's trade is with Asia as compared to 20% with the US. Further, Japan has been a beacon for quality engineering of consumer-friendly high technology. It brings a smile to see octogenarians play back .mpg files on their pocket cameras of musical recitals at the most exquisite Japanese Buddhist temples - and those occasions remind of the sometimes-forgotten but unbreakable links with India and China going back to the sixth century. Further, today, Japan is a leading innovator in the green economy, on quality food and nutrition and the bio-sciences. India's software and China's hardware are poised to provide the fillip to the remarkable possibilities. Through extensive links that already exist with Asia, Prime Minister Dr. Hatoyama's new government can unleash the great potential for broader Japan-Asia cooperation that he has already highlighted when he called for a more unified market and currency in Dr. Hatoyama's article in the Huffington Post.

Innovative structures in Asia need to be created to build on that vision. Merely linking bureaucracies as was done in the past, in multilateral or bilateral bureaucrats-only structures, is so passé and indeed that is precisely what Dr. Hatoyama repeatedly condemned in every one of his hundreds of campaign stops as he traversed the nation by train, van, car, and plane while campaigning for the 300 single-seat and 180 proportional representation constituencies that went to the polls on August 30.
Dr. Hatoyama emphasized new modalities and a new beginning. In the just-dumped era, an "iron triangle" had ensnared the bureaucracy, industry and politicians, and nothing entrepreneurial was possible.

As an example, I had suggested an innovative way for Japan to move actively as an investor nation in Asia as demographic realities may necessitate so that Japanese debt-outstanding with Asia, such as the $24 billion external debt outstanding with India, can be converted into more productive equity investments in Asian enterprise and innovation. Indeed this is continuation of work that I led as Project Director and Research Faculty at Harvard University (see here and here), including initiating, facilitating and organizing the world's first debt-for-health research swap with a former Japanese Foreign Minister, Dr. Saburo Okita, who served in the cabinet of Prime Minister Mr. Masayoshi Ohira. Dr. Okita had been a young economist in the era of Mr. Ichiro Hatoyama, then-Prime Minister and Dr. Hatoyama's grandfather. Mr. Ichiro Hatoyama had been falsely accused by certain Machiavellian elements in the then political establishment and had been purged the day he was to take up the position of the first elected post-war Prime Minister in 1946. It took almost 9 years for the error to be rectified, and Mr. Ichiro Hatoyama later served thrice as Japanese Prime Minister. Indeed, closer ties with Asia are what Mr. Ichiro Hatoyama had himself proposed five decades ago. Also, related to this, Stanford University and its endowment have benefitted tremendously from the conversion of obligations into equity. Dr. Hatoyama did his doctorate from Stanford in engineering management. Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page used the computer labs of Stanford when they were graduate students there and Stanford wisely took equity in Google rather than cash payments from the budding entrepreneurs so as to realize profits in the hundreds of millions of dollars later that now go to providing scholarships at Stanford. I was privileged to be a plenary speaker at Stanford University's International Health Conference.

Beyond its manifesto, DPJ could also look at emphasizing prevention of chronic diseases like cardiovascular, metabolic syndrome/diabetes, cancers and chronic respiratory diseases to prevent or delay their onset thus saving many billions of dollars-equivalent in yen. In the US the expensive long-term treatment of chronic diseases is the cause of 60% of US personal bankruptcies. Just two cardiac procedures, angioplasty & stents and coronary bypass operations, are costing $100 billion every year. Thus, emphasizing prevention programs would be refreshing, when in the past 95 cents of every dollar in health care costs had gone for treating disease after it had already occurred.

Fierce resistance is predicted by some who are so ingrained in the status-quo. But, most of us have hope that with this new beginning, a new upward era may well have come for Japan.

WATCH: Steve Ballmer Unveils 'Bing' Microsoft's New Search Engine

2009-05-28T17:34:04Z

CARLSBAD, Calif.--Microsoft Corp. Thursday unveiled a major overhaul to its Internet search engine, as it enters a new chapter in its rivalry with Google Inc.

Read, the Wall Street Journal's story or watch their video below:

Nicholas Carlson: All the Things People Thought Google Would Do but It Hasn't

2009-05-12T14:05:00Z

Back before Google's 2004 IPO, a joke among employees was to tell journalists and analysts who asked about the startup's future plans that Google someday hoped to build a space elevator -- a huge tether that connects an orbiting platform to Earth's surface. Journalists believed it.

Click here to scroll through All The Things People Thought Google Would Do But It Hasn't →

But as Google's search business grew to a multi-billion dollar industry, journalists and analysts never stopped asking what the company and its thousands of brilliant engineers would do next. The answer was make more money off of Google search. But that was boring, and in the absence anything more exciting, journalists and analysts began to kind of make things up.

sergeybrinspace_tbi.jpg" src="http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2009-05-12-sergeybrinspace_tbi.jpg" width="400" height="300" style="float: right; margin: 0 10px" />Google (GOOG) would take over billboard, TV, print and radio advertising. Google would save the newspaper industry, they wrote.

Some of the ideas were based on the good business sense that Google needed to diversify, to find a second revenue stream somewhere. Others took off on Google's motto "don't be evil," and mistakenly assumed the company was anything other than profit-motivated corporation.

Some of these industry watchers got it wrong. Some could still get it right. But in the absence anything more exciting, all filled the void.

Click here to scroll through All The Things People Thought Google Would Do But It Hasn't →

Here's a list of things people thought Google would do, but it hasn't. Click through to read a description and our take on whether each dream can ever come true:

Take over Billboards, TV, Print and Radio Advertising

Replace Advertising Agencies With A Dashboard

Sell Enterprise Search

Replace Microsoft Office

Become A Content Portal

Develop An Operating System

Build A GooglePhone

Become A Nationwide Internet Service Provider

Buy The New York Times, Save Newspapers

Explore Space

Is Google Evil? A Burning Question Answered

2009-03-13T10:00:57Z

Is Google Evil?

In 2001, just a few years after Sergey Brin and Larry Page formed Google out of a garage, company brass adopted the phrase "Don't Be Evil" as a corporate motto and philosophy. And why not? Their search product revolutionized the Internet and their ad platform broke up the agency stranglehold to help empower the little guy.

Ariston Anderson: Obama's Inauguration: What You Didn't See On TV!

2009-01-21T22:48:13Z

Millions turned up to Washington to witness history. HBO exclusively broadcast the inaugural concert at the Lincoln Memorial with acts like U2 and Mary J. Blige. And record numbers tuned in on inauguration day to CNN for exclusive coverage like, "Obama wipes his nose" on the parade viewing stand. And millions more watched the live feed. We can't remember Washington ever being so cool. What follows are our most unforgettable moments from the inauguration festivities in honor of the 44th President Barack Hussein Obama.

Wyclef Jean doing backflips on the stage of the Green Ball and playing his guitar Jimi Hendrix style. Despite the event name, there were no hippies in sight. It was the future of environmentalism, from press kits on USB drive to an appearance by Treehugger founder Graham Hill.

Attending all the same balls as Hayden Panettiere. She was accompanied by Whaleman Foundation founder Jeff Pantukhoff, and D.C.'s Senator Paul Strauss. If given a spot in Obama's cabinet, Hayden told us, "I would probably choose a position that dealt with environmental causes."

But the Heroes star won't complain if our new Prez doesn't get to it tomorrow: "I hope that people also take into consideration how much he has on his plate."

D.C. Fashion. We never tired of seeing variations of the same flammable tiered gown worn by at least 18 women at each ball. We asked one woman where she got hers: Macy's.

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Sarah Silverman telling us backstage at the Declare Yourself party that she'd like to be Obama's barber. "Because his hair is easy, and it's always a good time to talk. And shockingly, because I have bad hair, I enjoy doing others."

Norman Lear, shushing all the chatterboxes in the crowd so he could speak. The world premiere of Keith Carradine's song, "I am a born again American." The original Declare Yourself spoken word poets following Jamie Foxx's beat-boxing. John Legend playing "Redemption Song."

Congratulating Senator Al Franken! N.B.S. telling us they wanted to redecorate the Whitehouse with Gucci and Louis Vuitton.

Cash Warren telling someone backstage, "You should meet my wife." Watching the Maroon 5 set from stage left. A crowd surrounding the DJ booth to take photos of Samantha Ronson, instead of dancing. A pouty Lindsay Lohan sipping a Red Bull in a corner. Giftbags full of sponsorship opportunities.

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Every man in the room using the line, "I don't want to brag, but I've met Obama," to hit on chicks. A man claiming he was the one who introduced Ben & Jerry to Obama . . . although he had no idea about "Yes, Pecan!"

Carrie Fisher dipping her hand in the white chocolate fountain at the Pajama Party, licking it off, then going back for more. Throwing glitter in everyone's faces. Dancing with Mo Rocca, who was wearing ducky pajamas with matching slippers.

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OBAMA HEADQUARTERS on every streetcorner! Makeshift shops selling official(?) inaugural swag.

Witnessing a hundred young people who decided to attend Do Something's social action bootcamp instead of sleeping in on the MLK National Day of Service. Tobin Van Ostern's, founder of Students for Obama, keynote speech, revealing the secrets behind the Obama Facebook launch.

Chasing the Jonas Brothers around the Huffington Post ball at the Newseum. Meeting the amazing Michael J. Fox and his son Sam (they have matching glasses!). Sting rocking out with will.i.am, and Marisa Tomei leaning over the balcony and singing along. The fact that nobody appeared to be liveblogging in a room full of bloggers. Arianna making sure to say hello to everyone. A New Years countdown to the new era complete with party hats and noisemakers.

Seeing protesters throw their shoes at a giant inflatable effigy, complete with Pinocchio nose, of George W. Bush in Dupont Circle.

Drinking limited edition Hennessy 44 at the Hip Hop Ball. Griff Jenkins wearing a paisley tuxedo. Bouncers throwing out two kids onto the street who snuck in to take pictures of T.I.

Being picked up by a taxicab with a cardboard cutout of Obama riding shotgun.

Realizing that because we failed to get up at 4:30 AM on swearing-in day, our tickets to the Inauguration were worthless . . . or maybe not? A cop who failed to let us into the stands advised us to sell our tickets on Craigslist: "They're going for four grand, at least."

The camaraderie in the crowd on Capitol Hill. The crowd joking that Dick Cheney threw out his back while destroying boxes of files.

The Google Bash lit by fluorescent lights. Sergey Brin hiding in the VIP section. Partygoers liveblogging and twittering and facebooking all night long. YouTube founder Chad Hurley posing with fans.

Rihanna congratulating Shakira on "playing that thing," at the Feeding America concert. That thing would be a harmonica.

After shelling out for tickets to the official balls, having to buy your own drinks. . . and even worse, having to stand on line to buy tickets before queuing up a second time to buy said drinks. Carnival prices: one ticket for a coke...four for a champagne. Couldn't they get a sponsorship?

The obligatory prom glamor shots in front of an Inaugural background. You could get yours framed for $120.

Hawaiian Jack Johnson proclaiming this to be the first concert he's performed in a suit, and the third concert he's played wearing shoes.

Millions waited in the cold for a glimpse of our new Presidential couple, and yet when they came out on stage, they watched the whole speech behind their camcorders.

Michelle whispering to Barack at their Home States Ball, "You're a great dancer." His response? "You're better." Michelle smiling when we screamed, "You're a lucky man, Obama!"

Joe Biden thanking Hawaii and Illinois for "producing Barack Obama."

Tech Billionaires Losing Tons In Financial Crisis

2008-12-16T08:42:02Z

The tech industry has been brimming with billionaires over the last decade, especially since the birth of Web 2.0. But these are dark times, and the richest of the rich are certainly feeling it.

Don't feel too sorry for them, obviously (They're still billionaires.) But they've lost a lot more than you have.

Welcome to The Biggest Losers: Tech Edition. It's a quick summary of how much we estimate your favorite moguls have lost, ranked from least to first. Advance the slides using the 'Next' button in upper right corner of each slide.

Terrence McNally: Q&A with Green Collar Economy Author Van Jones

2008-12-11T18:37:23Z

VAN JONES received the $100,000 2008 Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship in New York City December 8th. Hamilton Fish, President of The Nation Institute, said, "In a year of change, Van Jones offers an integrated, progressive blueprint that simultaneously promotes jobs, environmental stewardship, and economic progress. He has arrived to pull us back from the brink."

The economy is in crisis. Unemployment is rising. Families are hurting. Despite recent drops in oil prices, the days of cheap gas and oil are numbered. Climate change calls for massive changes in the way we supply and use energy. VAN JONES believes that these crises are connected and that together they present an enormous opportunity. JONES is the founder and president of GREEN FOR ALL and author of THE GREEN COLLAR ECONOMY.

A report recently released by the U.S. Conference of Mayors says that we can create over 4 million green jobs if we aggressively shift away from traditional fossil fuels toward alternative energy and a significant improvement in energy efficiency.

Another report from the Political Economy Research Institute and the Center for American Progress shows that investing $100 billion in a green economic recovery plan can create two million jobs over two years - four times more jobs than spending the same amount of money within the oil industry.

Green For All and its partners are proposing a Clean Energy Corps that includes a revolving loan fund to finance the ambitious retrofitting of the nation's building stock. An investment of less than $3 billion per year would provide financing and can be expected to create close to 120,000 green jobs a year and 600,000 over five years, while also lowering home heating and electricity bills for homeowners and small businesses.

VAN JONES is also co-founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and Color of Change, both committed to equal justice and opportunity for low-income people and people of color. Van has earned many other honors, including the 1998 Reebok International Human Rights Award; the International Ashoka Fellowship; selection as a World Economic Forum "Young Global Leader;" the Rockefeller Foundation "Next Generation Leadership" Fellowship; and Campaign for America's Future "Paul Wellstone Award 2008." A Senior Fellow with Center for American Progress, his first book, THE GREEN COLLAR ECONOMY is a New York Times best-seller.

McNally:
You've followed an interesting path. How did you end up doing the work you're doing today?

Jones:
I got out of law school and moved to the Bay Area for love. It lasted about three weeks, then I had to find something to do with my time. I was a 24-year-old African-American male with dreadlocks and a law degree. So it was pretty obvious that I needed to take on police brutality and the criminal justice system. I did it with fervor, helping to build the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Bay Area Police Watch, Books Not Bars and other groups. But I really burned out -- just too many funerals, too many bad court cases, too many frustrating meetings with the activist world.

Trying to get my health together, I ventured across the Bay to Marin County, where I discovered salads and tofu and hybrid cars and solar panels -- healthy green good stuff that wasn't in Oakland or Bayview Point. I realized there was going to be a huge shift in the economy toward clean energy, poison-free food and all that -- and I wanted to make sure we did not have eco-apartheid, some communities being ecological haves and some being ecological have-nots.

In 2001, I came up with the slogan "Green Jobs, Not Jail" back and started going around trying to get people to look at the green economy as the next source of civil rights. I talked about equal protection from the pollution poison-based economy and global warming, but also equal opportunity and equal access to the best of the green solutions.

Solar panels don't put themselves up. So let's make sure that people who need jobs can get jobs and entrepreneurial, ownership and inventor opportunities in solving these problems to fight pollution and poverty at the same time.

McNally:
So you've been working on these issues for years. You started an organization, you wrote a book. Now how does the global financial crisis impact the possible success of your vision?

Jones:
Well, it makes it that much more urgent and, frankly, that much more doable. Now I think that this economic breakdown is awful and tragic -- and inevitable. We got sold a bill of goods for the past 30 years. Can't dump it all on George Bush. Both political parties said we could run the U.S. economy on consumption, not production; on debt and credit cards, not thrift and smart savings like our grandparents, on environmental destruction not environmental restoration. Well, that -- by definition --is an unsustainable pathway. It had to come to an end.

Now we're going to have to find a new way to power the U.S. economy. Let's stop relying on overseas credit, let's start relying on our own creativity. Let's stop borrowing from overseas, let's start building here again. And let's move forward.

The smartest thing that we can do at this point is to rely on some good old green Keynesian-ism. We need to engage in some government deficit spending to get us through this recession, but let's not do the kind of stupid stimulus we did over the summer: We passed out checks to everybody so they could run down to Wal-Mart and buy a flat screen TV -- building the economy in China but not here.

Let's instead use that money to invest in greening our infrastructure. Millions of jobs retrofitting millions of buildings, putting up millions of solar panels, creating wind farms, fixing our power grid. These kinds of things will cut carbon, cut energy prices, make us more self-sufficient with regards to energy, bring our home values up through weatherization, and create jobs. We can cut a green New Deal to get us through this recession - frankly, depression - the same way we used the old New Deal to get us through the last one.

McNally:
The book THE GREEN COLLAR ECONOMY was a bestseller the week it came out...

Jones:
Let me tell you why. I think it's very important. We didn't have a huge advertising budget, I wasn't on the Oprah Winfrey Show, I didn't buy infomercials. We sent out emails to activist organizations, to our friends, to students that I've been privileged to speak to. And they sent out an email saying. "Hey we've got a book coming out. If this book gets on the New York Times bestseller list, it will be the first book EVER by an African-American about the environment or about energy to make the New York Times bestseller list."

Ordinary folks, good activists all around the country said, "We're going to make this happen. We're going to shatter the emerald ceiling of publishing, and get an African-American environmental writer on the New York Times."

Literally millions of emails wound up getting sent out from many organizations, and it's a huge accomplishment for this movement. It shows that there's an invisible network of networks that's already in position to support the next Congressman or the next President who takes bold action. A network that will lift up literature can lift up laws and lawmakers. And that's what this book indicates.

McNally:
I'm reminded of Paul Hawken's book BLESSED UNREST, in which he writes about an enormous movement that hasn't yet recognized its power.

Jones:
Paul Hawken is one of my mentors, and his organization was the fiscal sponsor for Green For All. He pointed out before anybody else that there is a movement bigger than any movement that we've ever seen before. It doesn't have a name, it doesn't have one leader. It's a network of networks. Well, we proved that movement is strong enough to catapult an unknown first time author, a black guy with a very strange book, to the middle of the New York Times bestseller list. That is just the beginning. Wait until next year when this movement actually picks up the U.S. government and puts it down on the side of the people.

McNally:
As you point out, Congress passed the initial stimulus package -- the rebate checks, then they passed the Wall Street bailout. Now it looks like there'll be an infrastructure stimulus, a jobs program. Have you or any of your allies been involved in those discussions -- with the goal of not only making sure this happens, but that it's green?

Jones:
Absolutely. That's why I've got these bags under my eyes. I'm so proud to be a senior fellow with the Center for American Progress, and I encourage everybody to download the Green Recovery Report from their website.

The reality is that for $100 billion -- a teeny weenie modest investment compared to the trillion dollars we just came up with for the banks -- we can create two million jobs in the next two years. When you're losing 100,000 jobs here and 50,000 jobs there, you can start putting the brake on by creating new jobs. And these are not Buck Rogers jobs. These are not sci-fi, George Jetson jobs nobody's ever heard of. Imagine Joe Six-Pack with a green hardhat on and work boots going out to retrofit America. We're talking about hand drills and caulk guns.

McNally:
I've heard you say, "Put down the hand gun and pick up the caulking gun."

Jones:
Exactly. We've got to give people different icons. This is not your grandma in the environmental movement. God bless her and God bless that. This is about sleeves rolled-up, dirt under the fingernails, Rosie the Riveter -- not making tanks to fight wars, but making wind turbines and solar panels to avoid wars. Putting the country back to work, retrofitting and re-powering this country so that we have a clean energy grid, so we connect our clean energy power centers.

We have a Saudi Arabia of wind in the middle of our country in the plain states. We've got a Saudi Arabia of solar in the sun-belt. The problem is we don't have a way to connect our clean energy power centers to our population centers. That should be the big project over the next ten years: to build a clean energy digitized smart grid to get clean energy electrons from our power centers to our population centers.

People can then retrofit their cars, plug them in, and we'll be running the country off of wind, sunlight, geothermal. The country that does that first will have the strongest economy in the world, and lead the way to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It's a full employment program like you've never heard of. You've got to retrofit literally every building in this country. You could put everybody to work with hammers and nails and clean green insulation. There is a way out of this recession. There's a way to beat global warming. There's a way to beat poverty. And it's called a Green New Deal.

McNally:
The components for turbines might be built elsewhere. But when you talk about retrofitting every building in this country, that work cannot be outsourced.

Jones:
You put the solar panels on top, you blow in that green insulation, you replace those old inefficient boilers with new ones, you double pane that glass. That's skilled labor, that's union jobs, that's pathways out of poverty.

Sure, but how are you going to pay for it? We can't afford it. We're broke.

We can't afford not to do it. With most buildings, the energy savings will pay for itself in two to four years. This is not only revenue neutral, it's revenue positive.

And guess what? Those dirty plants that go overtime in the summer, overtime in the winter, also contribute to asthma. Now you're saving on asthma inhalers for children, you're saving on health bills -- and you're cutting global warming.

I don't want to be Pollyanna, but it looks to me like a win/win/win solution. It gets the economy going, it gets us out of some of these oil wars. Maybe then we could bring home some of the troops who are fighting in Iraq and policing oil lines all over the world.

We can have peace on earth when we have peace with the earth. And that requires that we work together to design and build more clean and green agricultural, energy and water systems in this country.

McNally:
That sounds a few "wins" short to me. You've got outsourcing, poverty, energy, climate change, national security...

Jones:
It's good to have a green economy with no throwaway species or throwaway resources, but we should also have no throwaway children or neighborhoods or nations or people. That is how we'll actually get the movement we've always wanted and the country we've always wanted -- through the door of the green economy.

We're going to have to break up with oil. We'll have to break up with coal. When we break up with those two huge things, we may as well go ahead and break up with racism and discrimination. We may as well build a green economy that Dr. King would be proud of. Your grandma's not making it, your dad's not making it. It's us.

We're going to create in our lifetimes a green economy powered by clean energy, smarter on water, smarter on materials, and supportive of less poison on the agricultural side.

We're going to create that, so why not create it with our values of equal opportunity and inclusion and anti-poverty and social uplift baked in from the very beginning?

Our fundamental belief has to be that we are all in this together. Re-powering this country is going to require an all-hands-on-deck. The U.S. can't be the world leader in the green economy while California is spending a dime out of every dollar to be the world leader in the gulag economy. We've got to move forward together.

McNally:
It's a huge vision, but it's made up of many little things that make sense. Let me turn to the recent presidential election. Can you say a few words about how you felt when Barack Obama was declared president?

Jones:
I was proud. The world was proud. It was the first good news we have had in a very long time. You have to remember, just a month or so prior, we suffered this tremendous economic and financial breakdown. The floor disappeared underneath our feet. The financial meltdown scared the country and scared the world. Then along comes Barack Obama, and his victory gives us this tremendous political and cultural breakthrough.

The ceiling disappeared over our head. That inspired the world. So now we have no floor. But we have no ceiling either. It is up to us to either fall or to fly. I believe we will fly.

Senator Obama had the nomination wrapped up for months. So when he walked out on stage the first African-American to accept the nomination of his party, I expected to watch and analyze --and instead I found myself in tears. To hear him say that it doesn't erase the past, and it doesn't fix the present, but it means the future might be different.

Now he's elected. We've celebrated. We have to accept responsibility for the first time in my lifetime. It's not enough to win on election day. We've got to win every day for the next four years, the next eight years, the next 16 years.

The president cannot fix everything. In fact, I don't even want a president to try to fix everything, I just want a president that's going to stop breaking everything! Then let us begin to fix it.

There's a danger that we will say, "What is Barack Obama going to do?" My hope is that we can look at Barack Obama and say, "Well he did his part. Now what are we going to do together?"

There should be an engagement dividend. In 2008 the American people finally woke up. More people watched the Vice-Presidential debate than were watching American Idol. That's never happened. You go to barbershops now and people are talking about dividends and derivatives. Topics matter, the economy matters, people are asking tough questions.

The pay-off for having people participate in discussions, debates, and elections, should be that we have a real democracy in this country for the first time, at least in my lifetime. Barack Obama's election doesn't substitute for that. It opens the door to that for the rest of us.

McNally:
To refer back to the New Deal... Franklin Roosevelt ran on a fairly moderate platform. It was only after he won the election that the people, a national movement of labor unions and farmers and so on, descended on Washington and held his feet to the fire. We never did that to Bill Clinton. He was allowed to triangulate because the people sat back and weren't a force for accountability.

Jones:
I'm taking it even one step further. On the left to hold a guy accountable often means we're going to protest, we're going to cuss him accountable, we're going to kick him accountable. I think we actually need to hold him and keep him accountable.

McNally:
Embrace him accountable...

Jones:
Exactly. And that requires understanding that the logic of the presidency is to disappoint the right constituencies in the right order so that he can be re-elected. That's his job.

It's our job to make sure that our constituencies are not first in line for disappointment. And we do that by not pushing him around, but by pulling the country forward -- by doing things at a local level.

If Congress wants to debate climate endlessly, let's keep charging ahead at the city level and creating green jobs. If Congress won't do it, let's use our utilities to come up with creative ways to finance the retrofits. Let's create lists. If we insist that our local schools have 25% local organic foods that creates an instant market locally for organic foods.

McNally:
Does Obama's being president change your mission or your approach to accomplishing it?

Jones:
It lets me know that everything we are dreaming about and working toward is that much more possible. Brother President is saying that energy is his number one priority, besides stabilizing the financial markets. He has promised five million green jobs in his first term. I am going to do everything I can to help him deliver on that promise.

Shelly Palmer: Microsoft Still Not Interested in Acquiring Yahoo: MediaBytes with Shelly Palmer November 7, 2008

2008-11-07T10:19:39Z

Steve Ballmer noted that Microsoft is not interested in acquiring Yahoo. Ballmer is quoted as saying "We made an offer, we made another offer.. We moved on." However, Ballmer did not rule out the possibility of a potential search ads deal.

Microsoft is trying to sign a mobile search and advertising deal with Verizon. Currently, Verizon is in talks with Google, however, Microsoft is offering Verizon a more generous revenue sharing plan and a higher guarantee. Microsoft sees a mobile search and ad deal with Verizon as a way to significantly increase its reach for mobile search.

Craigslist has reached a deal with 40 state attorneys to curb its "erotic services" listings. Craigslist, which is notorious for catering to sex-oriented businesses, now makes erotic service advertisers provide a phone number, which is called by an automate service for verification. The Internet classifieds site will also charge a small fee of between $5-10 for all erotic services ads.

Samsung has overtaken Motorola as the leading vendor of handsets in the U.S.. Samsung owns a 22.4% share of the market, compared with Motorola's 21.1% and LG's 20.5%. Samsung has increased sales by offering high end touch-screen phones, as well as lower-end phones given free to consumers who sign up for a new plan.

All My Children star, and notorious Emmy nominee (and one time winner), Susan Lucci was voted off ABC's Dancing with the Stars. Despite Lucci's "doble paso" being a hit with judges, Lucci and partner, Tony Dovolani, did not make the final five contestants.

Plus, today's consulting question, "What is white space?" Shelly has the answer on today's MediaBytes.

Shelly Palmer is a consultant and the host of MediaBytes a daily show featuring news you can use about technology, media & entertainment. He is Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group LLC and the author of Television Disrupted: The Transition from Network to Networked TV (2008, York House Press). Shelly is also President of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, NY (the organization that bestows the coveted Emmy® Awards). You can join the MediaBytes mailing list here. Shelly can be reached at shelly@palmer.net

Shelly Palmer: Greenspan Owns Up To Bad Policy

2008-10-24T09:32:50Z

Sony drastically cut its financial forecast, with analysts noting that its profit for the fiscal year ending in March 2009 could plunge 59% from the year before. Sony expects to post a $215.2 million profit for July-September, down 72% from the previous year. Like many others, Sony is blaming the drop in revenue on lack of sales of flat-panel TV's due to the global economic crisis.

Samsung's net profit fell 44% during the third-quarter. The worlds largest TV manufacturer by revenue earned $924 million during the third-quarter, while revenue was up 15% over last year. Samsung expects the fourth quarter, usually the most lucrative for electronics companies, to be "an even more challenging period."

Microsoft posted a 2% increase in net income and 9% increase in revenue for the last quarter. While the software manufacturer surpassed expectations, Redmond, much like other tech companies, lowered its forecasts for the rest of the year, with CFO Chris Liddell noting "I think everyone has a high degree of uncertainty about their forecasts."

Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) is now out of beta. Amazon will now also offer Microsoft Office Suite through EC2. The inclusion of Windows software gives Amazon an even greater lead over Rackspace in the cloud computing game.

Plus, today's consulting question, "Did Google Really Buy A Fighter Jet?" Shelly has the answer on today's MediaBytes.

Shelly Palmer is a consultant and the host of MediaBytes a daily show featuring news you can use about technology, media & entertainment. He is Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group LLC and the author of Television Disrupted: The Transition from Network to Networked TV (2008, York House Press). Shelly is also President of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, NY (the organization that bestows the coveted Emmy® Awards). You can join the MediaBytes mailing list here. Shelly can be reached at shelly@palmer.net

Google Co-Founder Brin: Our Company Opposes California Anti-Gay Marriage Measure

2008-09-27T15:24:39Z

On Friday afternoon Google Co-founder Sergey Brin explained, in an entry written on Google's blog, his company's decision to take an official public position against Proposition 8, which seeks to ban gay marriage in California.

As an Internet company, Google is an active participant in policy debates surrounding information access, technology and energy. Because our company has a great diversity of people and opinions -- Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals, all religions and no religion, straight and gay -- we do not generally take a position on issues outside of our field, especially not social issues. So when Proposition 8 appeared on the California ballot, it was an unlikely question for Google to take an official company position on.

However, while there are many objections to this proposition -- further government encroachment on personal lives, ambiguously written text -- it is the chilling and discriminatory effect of the proposition on many of our employees that brings Google to publicly oppose Proposition 8. While we respect the strongly-held beliefs that people have on both sides of this argument, we see this fundamentally as an issue of equality. We hope that California voters will vote no on Proposition 8 -- we should not eliminate anyone's fundamental rights, whatever their sexuality, to marry the person they love.

Katie Hood: The Patient Empowerment Revolution

2008-09-24T12:17:54Z

Even in the midst of one of the most significant economic shifts this country has seen since the Great Depression, Sergey Brin's disclosure last week that he carries a genetic mutation increasing his risk for Parkinson's disease managed to put the genetics-driven revolution in health care back into the headlines.

Certainly it's not news that technologies to probe our genetic and biochemical make-up are becoming more sophisticated, affordable and accessible. But paired with Internet-based direct-to-consumer services, they are now starting to produce information that feels increasingly relevant to our everyday lives as individuals, health care consumers, and funders (through our tax dollars) of the U.S. government's biomedical research machine.

It's still easy -- both for the scientists producing this work, and for the rest of us observing from the sidelines -- to become paralyzed by both the amount of information that's emerging and our ability to understand its broader relevance. Researchers produce massive amounts of data, and interpretation of this data remains challenging. Often, findings that make a splash are based on small sample sizes, and their greater applicability is therefore debatable.

Yet even with these complexities, each new report of a disease-implicated gene leaves many of us with an uneasy sense of waiting for the other shoe to drop. Brin's revelation, which set off a flurry of new writing on the role of genetics in PD, probably left many people surprised. He's in his 30s, there's nothing he can do currently to lower his risk -- why would he want to know? After all, at this point, for Parkinson's disease and many other diseases, the relevance of genetics information to disease management is nil, and no new therapies have been developed that can treat or prevent the disease once a risk factor has been identified.

But when I look to the future -- say even just five years ahead -- I'm convinced that more and more of us will be following Brin's lead. As technology improves and costs decrease, it's possible to envision a situation where we each carry our genetic profile around with us as we proceed through life -- using it as a new lens to assess risks and prevention/treatment options, and considering it seriously in the choices we make.

But beyond technology advances, I'm excited because I see that a bigger movement -- patient empowerment -- is driving this revolution. Around the globe, people are waking up to a newfound ability to take ownership of their medical futures. That means not only paying attention to scientific discoveries in real time and making efforts to understand what those findings actually mean, but rethinking our individual impact in bringing these discoveries about. Our Foundation is working on a number of different fronts to harness the power of the Internet for gathering patient data in nontraditional - yet scientifically valid - ways. We want to work toward answers to questions like: How can links between our daily lives and our genetic profiles build scientific understanding of health, disease, and ultimately contribute to the development of new therapies (including participating in clinical trials)? How can individuals' feedback be delivered back to drug companies more effectively - so that they have a better understanding of how their medicines are being used, what's working and what's not?

This empowerment carries over to philanthropic choices as well. How -- if at all -- would donors change their involvement if they knew they had a personal stake in the outcomes of their charitable gifts? What sort of accountability would they expect from the recipients of their contributions? What might all of us ask of our government in terms of ensuring that our tax dollars support a medical research enterprise that can drive us toward cures?

While information can be paralyzing, it can also be transforming. As individuals take more interest in their genetic information, and technology becomes increasingly accessible, the way we conduct research will fundamentally change. It's essential for anyone who cares about medical research and health care to begin thinking about the world a few years from now -- not just the world today.

Google Co-Founder Brin Discloses That He Is Vulnerable To Parkinson's

2008-09-19T10:58:03Z

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- Sergey Brin, a Google co-founder, said Thursday that he has a gene mutation that increases his likelihood of contracting Parkinson's disease, a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that can impair speech, movement and other functions.

Mr. Brin, who made the announcement on a blog, says he does not have the disease and that the exact implications of the discovery are not clear. Studies show that his likelihood of contracting Parkinson's disease in his lifetime may be 20 percent to 80 percent, Mr. Brin said.

Mr. Brin, whose personal fortune was recently pegged at $15.9 billion by Forbes, ranking him as the 13th richest American, said that he may help provide more money for research into the disease.

Google's Sergey Brin Buys $8 Million Penthouse In Greenwich Village

2008-09-15T19:38:52Z

A 23-foot balcony, 3,457 square feet of space, four bedrooms, and a limestone bath with heated floors are what Google cofounder Sergey Brin and his wife, 23andMe's Anne Wojcicki, are getting at 744 Greenwich Street for $8.5 million, reports New York's Cityfile blog. The place formerly belonged to Bill Brady, who heads Credit Suisse's Global Technology group in Palo Alto. It'll make a perfect site for more of 23andMe's genetic-testing spit parties.

Operating Systems Are The "Old Way," Says Google's Brin

2008-09-03T12:19:53Z

If you have any doubts about what Google is trying to do with Chrome (its new "web browser"), let Sergey put them to rest. Reuters:

Google co-founder Sergey Brin said Chrome was designed to address the shift to using software from within a Web browser rather than as locally installed computer applications running inside Microsoft Windows or some other operating system.

"I think operating systems are kind of an old way to think of the world," Brin told a group of reporters after the news conference at Google's Mountain View, California headquarters. "They have become kind of bulky, they have to do lots and lots of different (legacy) things."

Read the full story here

Yahoo/Microsoft Deal Dead, Yahoo Enters Ad Deal With Google

2008-06-12T14:28:48Z

**UPDATE**
Reuters reports on the deal reached between Google and Yahoo:

Yahoo Inc and Microsoft Corp ended talks as the Web pioneer agreed to let archrival Google Inc sell search ads on its site, the companies said on Thursday.

Yahoo said it had agreed to let Google put search ads on its site in what it called an $800 million annual revenue opportunity that would boost cash flow by $250 million to $450 million in the first 12 months.

The battle for Yahoo! may have an end in sight.

Yahoo! and Google scheduled a joint announcement for just after market close today in which they were expected to announce an advertising pact, according to the New York Times:

Yahoo's board met to evaluate the Microsoft proposal on Tuesday and voted against the deal in favor of moving forward with Google.

The deal would involve Yahoo! outsourcing its advertising business to the more profitable Google system, according to the Wall Street Journal. When Google and Yahoo! explored a similar deal recently, Microsoft raised antitrust issues, claiming that the two search giants would "consolidate over 90 percent of the search advertising markets in Google's hands."

Earlier in the day, Microsoft -- or Yahoo! -- spiked talks they had been holding over a potential deal for Yahoo's search business:

With respect to an acquisition of Yahoo!'s search business alone that Microsoft had proposed, Yahoo!'s Board of Directors has determined, after careful evaluation, that such a transaction would not be consistent with the company's view of the converging search and display marketplaces, would leave the company without an independent search business that it views as critical to its strategic future and would not be in the best interests of Yahoo! stockholders.

Additionally, according to Reuters, Yahoo asked if Microsoft would still buy the entire company for $33 a share. Microsoft declined.

News of the deal's death sent Yahoo! shares plummeting 10 percent to $24 a share.

While many news outlets reported that talks between Microsoft and Yahoo! were totally dead, CNBC's Jim Goldman reported that Microsoft sources told him that they were still open to some kind of deal.

How Does Google Founder's Spaceflight Affect Shareholders?

2008-06-12T11:29:43Z

In the book, Office Mate, authors Stephanie Losee and Helaine Olen explain how it's possible, even preferable, to meet your lifelong romantic partner at the office. Both authors are living testament; they have been married to their respective office mates for nearly two decades. Stephanie Losee joins us to give some navigational tips for love on the job.

Google Space: Sergey Brin Makes Down Payment On Soyuz Space Flight

2008-06-11T07:01:22Z

Space tourists are getting their own ride. Space Adventures, a Virginia company that arranges passage for wealthy explorers to ride on Russian Soyuz rockets to the International Space Station, plans to buy a Soyuz flight all its own in 2011, with the option of buying more.

A new investor is likely to occupy one of the two available seats on Space Adventures' 2011 flight: Sergey Brin, a co-founder of Google. He made a $5 million investment in the company that will serve as a deposit on a future flight.