How Google CEO Larry Page Understands Search

Google not only showed off a slew of new tools, updates and features at a press conference Tuesday, but also offered a peek at how its new CEO, Google co-founder Larry Page, conceives of the giant's trademark product: search.

Page, who replaced Eric Schmidt as Google's chief executive earlier this year, has mostly stayed out of the limelight since he took control of the company. He did not speak at Google's "Inside Search" event, though another executive, senior vice president of knowledge Alan Eustace, outlined Page's approach to search and detailed organizational changes that have taken place since Page's promotion.

Eustace's title, previously "senior vice president of search," has changed to "senior vice president of knowledge," a shift Eustace attributed in part to Page's view that search was "too narrow," and that Google should focus on delivering knowledge rather than just sorting information.

"Lots of things are related to knowledge and he thought search was too narrow," said Eustace of Page.

Page "thinks Google should be responsible for understanding how things are related" and "going deeper into understanding concepts and how concepts are related," according to Eustace. "He wants us to know more rather than just find better.

"[Page's] view is that Google should be better at understanding the world and if we understand the world we can lead users through understanding topics better," continued Eustace. He added that Page "elevated the importance of search in the organization" and "allowed me to go deeper into some of the issues."

Read more about Google's announcements here, including a feature that could popularize yelling at screens and a way to shave seconds off of search.