The interview with the CEO/ Chairman of Google, Eric Shmidt, was very informative. He was very quick to debate with the interviewers when they made a comment that was not completely valid. He paid very close attention to exactly what he said, so as to not be misquoted and such. I feel that I learned a lot from him. His first question was regarding NFC (near field communication) chips. They are sender chips that tell you your exact location. These chips will be in Google's new operating system, Gingerbread, and android phones. Payment systems will benefit from these by allowing you to do payment with your phone, and eventually could replace a credit card.
Another interesting discussion topic was concerning lasts years pay raise to all Google employees. This is of great appeal to me, as I would love to work at Google in the future. The pay raise was for every single employee globally. Mr. Shmidt felt that it was very important to share the success of the company with it's employees. In this high-tech company there is a war for talent. The raise was good for each employee and in turn was good for the whole company. Now that's good logical thinking!
There were many things discussed in this interview, from net neutrality to Google TV, but I would like my last note related to this interview to be about personal security and privacy. This is a touchy subject for Google, particularly when talking about Google Maps/Earth. Mr. Shmidt said that there are lines that they shouldn't cross such as in the realm of face recognition. One thing that they do not do with Google Earth is that they do not show images in real time. This makes real time tracking not possible through their application. I have mixed feelings about privacy issues. As a social networking advocate, I feel that a lot of people seem to have a hard time drawing the line between what is private and what is not. In my personal life, I know where the line is. However, as the internet and technology become more and more a part of our lives, this line is becoming blurry.
The next interview was very different. Mark Zuckerburg, the CEO/President/creator of Facebook, is a young spunky kind of guy. He answers questions quickly, seemingly without thinking through exactly what he was going to say. He is also an extremely talented and brilliant man. When discussing his competition, he said a great quote that resonated with me. He said that "social versions of anything can almost always be more engaging and outperform a non-social version." This is a fact that I find to be true. If I could be doing something such as looking at pictures, and be chatting with friends at the same time, I'd choose that application over another.
Mr. Zuckerburg has a good point of view in regards to his company and the technology industry. He thinks that the technology industry should be more decentralized. He believes in partnering with other companies, instead of expanding Facebook into all different sectors of the industry. He says that they should do what they do best and let others do what they do; let an entrepreneur create a start up with Facebook’s support. I very much agree with this perspective and this will keep the market competitive and innovative.
I gained a lot of insight into Facebook and Google by watching these interviews. I will definitely pay close attention to both of these companies into the future and hopefully work at one of them also!!
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