Google is once again making headlines, and this time it’s a private air terminal. Google is ready to start construction in February on a private air terminal and will complete it by late 2015. It is rumored that the facility will have 270, 000 square feet of hangar space and will be able to service air-crafts as large as a Boeing 737. When it is fully completed, 7 terminals will be available and 5 of them are probably going to be dedicated to Google. The terminal will be one of the largest private air facilities worldwide.

Larry Page, Eric Schmidt and Sergey Brin (Google’s founders) are financing this project with their own money. This terminal will be located at Mineta San Jose International Airport and is expected to make $3.5 million for San Jose. The terminal will not be run by Google, but by a fixed-base operator called Signature Flight Support. Gensler is the firm that will build this terminal and it’s famous for building the Denver International Airport as well as the Seoul’s Incheon International Airport, and Los Angeles’s Farmers Field football stadium. Google has taken the top people with them to work on this terminal, it’s not a surprise because everyone expects Google to make the best of whatever they work on.

Google is brand that is famous worldwide, and a private terminal from their name can really attract many private jets. They might even have some of their own air-crafts that they might offer to the people. More details will appear as the project continues. The amount of money invested and the people investing it can tell us one thing; Google is serious about this project. Lately they have been developing ideas that are outside the box. For example, buying a home solutions company, creating a service to buy plane tickets for cheapest prices and now building a private air termi

In case you haven’t heard, there’s been a serious shake-up of power at the search giant Google.

Eric Schmidt, who’s been at the helm of Google for the past 10 years, is stepping down as CEO. And in his place, co-founder Larry Page will be stepping up to take the lead.

In a Twitter update on January 20th, Eric Schmidt said the following:

What to make of the shakeup, no one is quite sure.

Did Eric Schmidt step aside from the CEO position voluntarily?

Of did the founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin decide the company needed new direction and faster decision making from the top?

via GoogleBlog

Finally, a true cloud computer is on its way in the Chrome OS netbook.

Google has an ambitious goal indeed – offer a web based OS alternative to Windows OS and Mac OS.

The Chrome OS is said to boot up in 6 seconds flat from an off status. And you can simply close the netbook and the computer shuts down. Open the netbook and pow – the OS is back online and ready to go.

Google believes that the cloud is the future of personal computer usage.

Instead of having local drivers and local storage on a computer, Chrome’s OS wants to push everything to the cloud (to the web).

Instead of buying software that has to install on your hard drive and resides locally in your files, Chrome OS will provide apps that can purchased (or for free) from their own Chrome Apps store.

The release date of the Chrome OS netbook is expected to be at the end of this month (December), and I’ve already received an invitation from Google to request / text beta Chrome OS netbooks.

Here’s a recent video of Google CEO Eric Schmidt talking about the relevance of the Chrome OS netbook:

via eWeek

In my opinion, and the opinion of top CEO’s like Google’s Eric Schmidt, the future of the web is mobile. The number of people accessing the web through mobile devices is exploding, and not just here in the United States. Countries like China, Japan, and India an seeing explosive growth in mobile web consumption.

Here are 3 tell tale signs that the mobile web is in fact the web of the future:

1) iPad and tablet growth

I don’t really know about the sales forecast for tablets other than the iPad, like Android tablets. But I do know the outlook for the iPad.

Back in April, the iPad was announced. And on that day an entirely new paradigm in mobile computing.

Colin McGranahan, retail analyst at Bernstein Research has said “by any account, the iPad is a runaway success of unprecedented proportion.”  He expects future sales of the iPad to be in the range of 4.5 million per quarter, which is unprecedented for any one particular consumer electronic item.

2) Verizon’s new 4G LTE Network

This might be hard for you to believe, but Verizon has just released their 4G LTE network to 38 cities across the United States.

And when I say “just launched”, I mean it was like yesterday at a news conference where the Verizon 4G network was announced.

Although the Sprint 4G network has expanding rapidly throughout the US, the markets that Sprint has been targeting have been smaller, secondary markets.

Of course, with the exception now of the Sprint 4G in New York City.

The point here is that 4G is a relatively new phenomenon in the world of mobile broadband data access.

4G will redefine the way people access the internet through their mobile device, thus allowing for more robust applications to be made available.

And the more you become reliant upon your mobile devices, the less you’ll find yourself using your laptop and regular computers.

3) Opera mobile browser has 150 million users

Opera just celebrated celebrated 150 million users this week.

It was only back in April that the Opera mobile browser hit 100 million users – so that’s 50 million users in about 8 months.

Now consider the fact that Opera mobile web browser – Opera 4.0 – was first released in 2000. Now that’s over 10 years ago.

So in more than 10 years, it took Opera’s mobile web browser to grow to 100 million users. And then less than one year to grow 50 million new users.

Again, Opera is a tell tale sign that the age of the mobile web is upon us.

What do you think?

What are your thoughts about the future of the mobile web?

A new documentary on Bloomberg reveals that the Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin try to pursued Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, to become the CEO of Google. Once Steve Jobs turned down the opportunity to leave Apple, the Google guys turned their attention to Eric Schmidt.

What’s interesting is that the Google guys state their reason for hiring Eric Schmidt as the Google CEO is because he attended the hippy art festival called Burning Man in Black Rock Desert, Nevada.

Watch the Google documentary in full here.

Last week I wrote about how Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO, thinks it’s ridiculous that cars are driving themselves. He said that computers should be doing the things that we humans are bad at – like driving. Well, this has now quickly evolved from just a random statement during a speech, to reality. Google is now actually testing cars that can drive themselves.

The testing ground was Highway 1 that weaves along the ocean between Los Angeles and San Francisco. The car was a Toyota Prius with a camera on the roof. And yes, if you saw the car on Highway 1 you would notice someone in it, but ironically, that person was not actually driving the car.

So what are we to think of Google’s latest gadget – a self driving car?

via NYTimes

When Eric Schmidt showed up at TechCrunch Disrupt last week, he made some very interesting and forward looking statements. He said that the mobile phone is the defining and iconic device of our time, technology has given us an augmented version of humanity, and that computers should be doing the things that we humans aren’t good at – like driving. Perhaps Eric Schmidt’s most interesting statement of the day was when he said that computers should be driving cars, and not humans. “It’s a bug that cars were invented before computers,” Schmidt remarked.

Thoughts?

via TechCrunch

Google CEO Eric Schmidt has been quoted as saying that Google Me will be launching this fall. Google Me is a social layer that will be integrated into existing Google products and will allow you to share and connect to friends while using Google products.

No sooner was Google Me announced and the accusations started flooding in at Google. People immediately thought that Google Me was Google’s attempt to compete against Facebook.

But Google CEO Eric Schmidt has abruptly shot down those views by saying, “”If you think about it, it’s obvious. With your permission, knowing more about who your friends are, we can provide more tailored recommendations. Search quality can get better.”

And also, “Everybody has convinced themselves that there’s some huge project about to get announced next week. And I can assure you that’s not the case.”

via BusinessInsider

The way you experience the internet is about to change with the arrival of Google TV.

Google TV is scheduled to be released by this Fall (2010), according to Eric Schmidt, Google CEO.

Sony is already signed on as a partner to work with Google TV, and Samsung is now considering working with Google to bring Android powered TV’s to the market place.

So how much will Google TV cost?

Nothing – it will be 100% free.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt said that the web enabled TV service would be free and they will work with a variety of program makers and manufacturers to bring a full web browsing experience to your TV.

“We will work with content providers, but it is very unlikely that we will get into actual content production,” Schmidt told journalists after a keynote speech to the IFA consumer electronics trade fair in Berlin.

Here’s a promo video for Google TV:

via Reuters, Google.com/tv

Last week Google announced they will be shutting down the Nexus One online store – the location where Google took orders for their new Nexus One mobile phone.

When exactly the online store will come down I’m not sure, (maybe someone out there has this info), but as of right now, you can visit the online store and you’ll see the Nexus One available for purchase >> Google.com/NexusOne

How Google Lost Their Way

I wrote an article not too long ago discussing how I felt that Google lost their way when they decided to become a mobile phone carrier like Verizon or AT&T.

Notice I said a mobile phone carrier! I don’t believe for a second that Google’s mistake was in launching the Nexus One mobile phone.  The problem was when they (Google) tried to become the carrier, distributor, manufacturer, and customer service representative for the Nexus One.

Google is made up of computer scientists – not customer service reps, and not even sales folks.  Quite frankly, a bunch of geeks work at Google who sit around all day (and night) developing new innovative technologies and applications. Not to mention the bread and butter of Google which is search.

When Google developed Android, the operating system that is now being utilized on multiple mobile phones and other devices (including cars), they were right in their element. Google is a master at developing systems and platforms upon which the rest of the world can run their applications.

The Nexus One, powered by Android, was a perfect example of a mobile phone running on the Android platform. And Google was keeping within their element when they opened Android up to a wide range of companies and developers.

But then Google made the mistake of trying to sell, ship, and service the Nexus One to customers via other phone carriers.

Someone at Google must have felt in their gut that launching the Nexus One store was a mistake. It was so far out of their element that someone, somewhere within Google had to sense it.

So as to be expected, whenever you try to do something where you don’t have the comparative advantage, Google failed miserably.

However, Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt will be quick to tell you that failure actually defines success.

If you’re failing, then you are in a sense experiencing success.

Almost immediately after Google launch the Nexus One, customers started complaining not only about the device, but the fact that Google’s customer service was basically absent.

Google isn’t designed to be a retailer – they are designed to be developers of amazing platforms and innovative applications.

So when Google announced they were closing their Nexus One online store, and in turn looking to distribute and sell the Nexus One through multiple carriers, I must say that I was proud of Google for making that decision.  And I know, me being proud of Google doesn’t really matter a hill of beans to Google… but still.

I’m impressed because Google isn’t afraid to try something new – and they definitely aren’t afraid to fail.

This has really been a point of inspiration to me.

But what else is inspiring, and very important to learn from, is that Google knows when it’s time to quit.

And because Google knows when to quit, it makes sense then that Google CEO Eric Schmidt defines failure as being an element of success.

Well that was weird – Google’s DoubleClick Publisher blog just put out a blog post that reads:

I am pleased to share the news that Google has acquired DoubleClick. Please go here to read Eric Schmidt’s blog post.

But there is an article from March 11, 2008 – yes, that’s right, 2008 – where Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO, announced Google acquiring DoubleClick.

So what’s up with the blog post today on DoubleClick’s blog about Google officially acquiring DoubleClick.

Anyone care to add some insight…?

The Unvarnished website is about to hit the scene and it’s only going to do one thing – contribute to the garbage that makes up the Internet.

Or as Google CEO Eric Schmidt once put it – the “cess pool” of the web!

Unvarnished people rating website – really? Just think about how that sounds. Who has the right to be rating anyone, let alone being able to publish the information to the web for all the world to see.

The Unvarnished website goes down the same path as other vile spewing websites such as Rip Off Report.com.

RipOffReport.com is another one of the those bottom dwelling websites that do nothing but hurt, ruin, and otherwise destroy people and their businesses.

If at all possible, do not engage the upcoming Unvarnished, people rating website.

Google Hits Impasse in China

The efforts to find common ground in China over Google censoring their search results seems to be coming to an abrupt end.  China is simply unwilling to allow Google to display search results that are not censored. This decision by China is about to cost the country the use of Google altogether.

From eTaiwanNews.com:

Google, the US-based search giant, is “99.9%” sure to withdraw its service from China over the negotiation impasse concerning website censorship, according to a local report. The China government noted on Mar 12 that there is no concession over the censorship issue in order to retain the internationally-known company.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt noted on Mar 10 that Google’s negotiation with China over news censorship and hack attacks will be soon to come to an end despite lack of clear timetable at a media conference in Abudhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.

“We are no longer willing to censor our search results in China, and we are currently reviewing our options,” Google vice president and deputy general counsel Nicole Wong said in her testimony before the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.

“If the option is that we’ll shutter our .cn operation and leave the country, we are prepared to do that,” said Wong

The image above shows the beginning phases of construction on the Google China headquarters.

However, construction on the facility has ceased due to Google getting hacked by people in China, and also directly over the issue of China demanding Google to censor their search results.

Google is nearly 99.9% sure they will be existing the China market.

Here’s Eric Schmidt presenting the future of the mobile web at the MWC (Mobile World Congress)

Search By Voice

Currently, the Google Voice iPhone App allows you to search by speaking directly into the phone.  As does the Nexus One.  The future of the mobile web centers around speaking search queries.  But there is one missing piece that Google is heavily focused on refining.  And Google actually believes this one simple element truly defines the future of the mobile web.

Location Awareness

Location aware mobile devices allows you to speak your query into your phone, but then your phone knows exactly where you are and presents search results relevant to your exact location.  This revolution concept, according to Google, will not only revolutionize the way people search, but will also facilitate an entirely new paradigm of business marketing.

The video above is the full 1 hour plus of Eric Schmidt’s presentation of the future of the mobile web when he spoke at MWC.  It’s a great video to watch to get a feel of what the future web looks like, but also to hear Google’s vision and their involvement in the transformation of the mobile web.

With the new Google Android OS text translation, all you have to do is take a photo with your Android phone, and you’ll instantly get a translation into English, or whatever language you desire.

The example that Eric Schmidt used for the text translation was this – “Fruhlingssalat mit Wildkrautern” as “Spring salad with wild herbs.”

A picture was taken of a menu written in German, the image was sent up to the Google servers, and back came an English translation of the text.

There isn’t any definitive timeline as to when this new feature will be available, but knowing Google, it will be sooner rather than later.  As we learned with Google Buzz, the search giant is not afraid to launch a product and let the masses deliver feedback for changes and optimization.

Of course, the Android OS is running on multiple carriers such as Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint, and not to mention the various netbooks and hand held devices.

But still, 60,000 Android handsets per day is pretty strong.

Do the math (multiply 60,000 by 365) and you have Google’s Android OS going out on 21.9 million devices per year.

As MobileCrunch pointed out, “that works out to about 5.4 million handsets per quarter, or 21.9 million per year. Not only that, but the rate seems to be growing fairly rapidly; according to Schmidt, the rate has nearly doubled over the last quarter.

Solely as a point of reference for the curious: Apple sold 8.7 million iPhones last quarter.”

Is that a bullet proof vest?

Here’s the full size image of Eric Schmidt’s Twitter profile picture:

Here’s the Google Super Bowl Ad – all 49 seconds of it:

The only question is this – although YouTube might be your favorite website to visit, are you willing to actually pay for content on YouTube?

Google is looking to premium content providers such as Hollywood production studios, TV shows, and premium news channeles, to offer a pay per view model or even a subscription based model.

I’m quite sure that I won’t be paying for premium content on YouTube.  I’m already paying for cable TV and I spend money on movie rentals.  So the prospect of paying for content on YouTube is not very appealing.

I also think that until TV’s are more integrated with the Internet, the “paying for online video content” model is going to have an uphill climb!

What are your thoughts about the possibility of YouTube charging for premium content?  Will you pay?

Google CEO Eric Schmidt

Guess what… the recession is over!

And guess what else…  mobile phones are the future of technology!

Watch this great new video of Eric Schmidt on Your World Cavuto:

Here’s the complete interview of Eric Schmidt:

Magical Mobile Cloud

TechCrunch released a great video of Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO, talking about the power of the cloud and of mobile phones.

Specifically, as TechCrunch points out, Eric Schmidt is talking about the potential – the magical potential and power – of mobile phone platforms when combined with the cloud.

Eric Schmidt’s full video is below

What is the cloud?

What is the cloud you ask? As summaried from Wikipedia, the cloud is a virtualized version of the Internet that allows you to access data from anywhere there is an Internet connection.

Here’s Eric Schmidt speaking:

Taken from TechCrunch, here’s a summary of what was said in the video:

The mobile platforms, Android and the others, are so powerful now that you can build client apps that do magical things that are connected with the cloud. This is I think the most visually obvious example of that…don’t limit your imagination to this set of problems. Anything where you can produce this phenomenal customer benefit when you have a mobile device broadly defined connected to the cloud….Obviously we like the price of free because the consumers like that as well and we can figure out ways to use advertising to pay for it.

Here are some quotes from Eric Schmidt during the onstage interview yesterday that relate directly to the Google Chrome OS:

“the netbook is arriving–in particular, netbooks running Google’s forthcoming Chrome OS, a browser-based operating system.”

“Maybe in a year it’ll be possible for procuring a Netbook that costs a factor of five or 10 times cheaper than what you’re getting today… Chrome OS is due to arrive on netbooks in about a year.”

The term “netbooks” in association with Google Chrome OS means that the operating system is going to be more web integrated, versus the current Windows OS which is strictly PC / local operated.

The Google Chrome OS is sure to be a game changer in the world of computing.  Now with consumers having a choice to ditch Microsoft, Google Chrome OS is definitely going to appeal to users.

There are very few details at the moment about the deal, but some sites are mentioning that Google is in final talks with record labels to work out the details of buying music and videos online.

Whatever is in the making here with Google Music, it’s sure to be a highly profitable venture for both Google and music industry.  And my guess is that because it’s associated with Google, it’s going to have “search” at the heart of it.

The recent profit growth of Google from last quarter (7%) spawned Eric Schmidt (Google CEO) to make a very pointed comment about the future:

“We’re going to invest…  That, I think, ultimately is good for the long term of Google.”

So although the web is still buzzing about the new Google Wave release, we now have something new to be buzzing about around Google – Google Music!

From TechSpot.com – Google’s quarterly net income rose 27% to $1.64 billion ($5.13 per share) from $1.29 billion ($4.06 a share) a year ago, beating analyst’s expectations. Revenue climbed 7% to $5.94 billion — 53% of which came from outside the US.

The company’s sales rose 7% to $5.94 billion, hinting at a growth in demand for online advertising, which many see as a sign of economic recovery. Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt, offered his take on the economy saying, “While there is a lot of uncertainty about the pace of economic recovery, we believe the worst of the recession is behind us and now feel confident about investing heavily in our future.”

Google’s conference call on Thursday is not only a good sign for Google, but it should also be a great indicator for the economy as a whole.  This is extremely positive news, which our economy needs.

And when the CEO of Google, the company who just posted records profits and who generates 99% of their revenue from businesses who advertise in Google Adwords, says that the worst of the recession is over – then it’s something I believe we should take heed to.

They said net income for the quarter, which ended in September, rose to $1.64 billion, or $5.13 a share, from $1.29 billion, or $4.06 a share, in the same period last year.

Net revenue for the period ended in September rose nearly 1% to $4.38 billion. Excluding special items, the company said earnings for the quarter were $5.89 a share. [source: Marketwatch.com]

Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said during a conference call with analysts that, “We’re very, very happy,” adding, “the worst of the recession is clearly behind us.”

Clearly Google is positioned to benefit from the economy making a turn for the better.  Online traffic is up, search is up, and Google’s exposure on the web is doing nothing but increase at exponential rates.

So this morning, Engadget launched an announcement that Verizon has scheduled a conference call with Google for 7AM PST / 10AM EST, and Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt and Verizon chief Lowell McAdam will be present.

Verizon teaming up with Google’s Android makes sense to me.  Obviously, the Android operating system is trying to compete with the iPhone, who has AT&T as it’s dedicated carrier.

So Android chosing Verizon, AT&T’s biggest competition, seems like the perfect match for a battle in the mobile phone war.

We’ll continue to follow this story and report what we hear.

Google announced today

In the second quarter ending June 30, 2009, Google posted revenues of $5.52 billion, an increase of 3% compared to the second quarter of 2008.

Despite a down economy across the globe, Google is posting 3% revenue growth from ad revenue – nothing short of an amazing feat!

Here is what Google CEO Eric Schmidt had to say about the second quarter results:

“Google had a very good quarter, especially given the continued macro-economic downturn. While most of the world’s largest economies shrank, Google’s year-over-year revenues were up 3%. These results highlight the enduring strength of our business model and our responsible efforts to manage expenses in a way that puts us in a good position for the economic upturn, when it occurs.   We remain focused on investing in technical innovation to drive growth in our core and new businesses.”

You can listen to the live webcast of Google’s earnings call  at http://investor.google.com/webcast.html.

The webcast version of the conference call will be available through the same link following the conference call.

According to AP, Schmidt is quoted as saying “that the worst of the global recession is over, seeing improvement both inside and outside the United States.”  These statements came from an interview Mr. Schmidt conducted in Pittsburgh at the G20 convention.

Since Google is so integrated into our economy, and into our lives globally, if Eric Schmidt the CEO of Google says that he sees the worst of the recession as over, then in my opinion, it’s a pretty authoritative source making that statement.

Schmidt goes on to say, “What we see at Google is some level of improvement and what is more important is we see it not just in the United States but outside the United States.

“Acquisitions are turned on again at Google and we are doing our normal maneuvers, which is small companies. My estimate would be one-a-month acquisitions and these are largely in lieu of hiring,” Schmidt said.

“There may be larger acquisitions but they really are unpredictable.”

All of these statements spell great news both for small tech companies that Google might be reviewing for acquisition, and for the economy as a whole.

Google has already said that search is a leading indicator of the economy.  And with statements like this coming from the CEO of the search giant, it’s probably a solid bet that our recession has indeed hit bottom!

Paying For Online Content

From a world in which an entire generation knows only free information and content on the web, we now have Rupert Murdoch storming onto stage demanding that you pay for the content.

The question is, of course, will this business model work?

In short, my answer is “heck no”.

And why?

Because there will be too many people like myself, and millions of others, that will take the online content, find the best news and information relevant to their niche, and then retell the news with their own stories, opinions, and insights.

So I guess that leaves online publishers maybe paying for content, and that would probably be determined by the value of the source.  But to expect the general population to start paying for content, especially with so many free news and information sources availabe, is quick extraordinary.

I’m not the only one who thinks Rupert Murdoch is crazy in thinking he can charge for online content.  Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt thinks he is way off track as well:

in general these models have not worked for general public consumption because there are enough free sources that the marginal value of paying is not justified based on the incremental value of quantity.” (via Reuters.com)

He continues:

“So my guess is for niche and specialist markets … it will be possible to do it but I think it is unlikely that you will be able to do it for all news.”

Ultimately, there are too many free news sources out there to make people in mass think it’s worth their money to buy or subscribe to news content.