Google Maps North Korea
Details of cities and even prison camps in North Korea became more visible on Tuesday when Google updated its Google Maps application to include information citizen cartographers have been providing it about the country through a crowdsourcing development program called Map Maker. Read more…
Good work, Google. The more this info is out there, the more people will pay attention to this issue.
What’s so odd about the whole thing is that no one in North Korea can even hope to afford the things they showed us. And it’s not like they’re going to export this technology. They’re building products for a market that doesn’t exist.Sophie Schmidt, daughter of Google chairman Eric Schmidt • Discussing her experience at the North Korean version of the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month. Schmidt went with her father to the country — both of whom were joined by former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. The longtime Google figure spent much of his time in the nation trying to convince North Korean leaders that their focus on keeping internet access extremely limited was causing long-term harm to the country’s economy, an argument which we wouldn’t be surprised if it fell on deaf ears.
[Chairman Arthur] Sulzberger, working with the board and search firm Spencer Stuart, initially put together a list of fewer than a dozen candidates to lead the company, according to the people familiar with the matter.
Executives on the list who have been discussed included aspirational picks such as Google Inc.’s Eric Schmidt and Eileen Naughton, the people said. Schmidt’s digital-media credentials were attractive to Sulzberger, who wants an executive with significant online experience, according to the people.
Schmidt, 57, stepped down as CEO of Mountain View, California-based Google in April 2011, while remaining chairman of the company. Naughton, a top sales executive at the Web- search giant, was president of Time Warner Inc.’s magazine division before joining Google in 2006.
Sulzberger declined to comment on the CEO search, as did Google and Akamai. The Google candidates are unlikely to take the job, one of the people familiar with the situation said.
Schmidt may just be a pie-in-the-sky candidate for the Times, but as Josh Sternberg pointed out in a March article, media companies are starting to think like tech companies. If Schmidt, on an off chance, decided to move from Mountain View to NYC, it’d be the most blatant admission yet that this is the case. (Now, by the way, might be a good time to look back at the New York Magazine’s piece on the departure of Janet Robinson, the company’s last CEO.)
» Say whaaaaaaaaaaaa? The news on this one broke in a somewhat sneaky way — the San Jose Mercury News reported that the executives had offered to pay $33 million to finish restoration of a historic air hangar at Moffett Field, which is a stone’s throw from Google’s Mountain View headquarters. It came out, as a result of this news, that the company has eight jets at its disposal between Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt. Google doesn’t own them, mind you; H211, a separate company that has no formal relationship with Google, operates them. Still, though … you gotta wonder why they need eight jets. If they want, they could give one to us.
So we get hauled in front of the Congress for developing a product that’s free, that serves a billion people. Okay? I mean, I don’t know how to say it any clearer. I mean, it’s fine. It’s their job. But it’s not like we raised prices. We could lower prices from free to…lower than free? You see what I’m saying?Google Chairman Eric Schmidt • Proving to be a bit cagey in an interview after taking questions at a Senate hearing a week ago. Google is facing antitrust questions that they’re abusing their power in the search market, and Schmidt claims that there’s a disconnect at play between Washington and the tech culture of Silicon Valley. “The press is so young, they don’t understand the history here,” he said. “We’re still a small component of what a whole bunch of other companies have done, and certainly most other industries. So I reject all such charges.” Think he’s right about all this? source (via • follow)
» He still has hefty stock options, too: Schmidt, who recently announced he was stepping down as Google’s CEO, but will stay on as chairman, will keep around 9.1 percent of his voting rights. This, by the way, is after selling a crapton of his stock.
I am enormously proud of my last decade as CEO, and I am certain that the next 10 years under Larry will be even better! Larry, in my clear opinion, is ready to lead.Google CEO Eric Schmidt • Revealing he’s stepping down as CEO to become Executive Chairman of the company. Larry Page will be taking over. Everyone give crap to the new guy, OK? source (via • follow)
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