Google Zeitgeist renews emphasis on core activities

Google's big Zeitgeist executive shindig at the high-class Grove hotel in Hertfordshire yesterday certainly caught the imagination of our broadsheets – not least because it was a platform for Conservative leader David Cameron to polish off his credentials as a new age believer in "flexible working policies" and the need for a better work-life balance. The speech was so tumescent in meaning that The Guardian published it in full.

To IWR Blog readers outside the UK, Cameron is positioning himself as the next Tony Blair, with a carefully crafted series of speeches designed to appeal to women voters. As someone desperate to capture the Zeitgeist, his speech was apposite, and it had extra resonance when you remember that Google encourages its workers to spend a fifth of their working week playing around and developing new ideas. A company's workforce as a cauldron of creative energy.

The UK Zeitgeist event was also an opportunity for Google chiefs to hob-nob with European business leaders and make pronouncements on the state of internet business in Europe.

The previous day, Google's Europe vp, Nikesh Arora (left), lambasted Europe's tardiness in online development. The Daily Telegraph reported him as saying: "The internet will change the shape of commerce, advertising, newspapers, entertainment [and] of most industries it touches. Europe has not embraced the internet as a commerce platform as much as the US."

The paper also reported some big names were expected at the Grove – Orange ceo Sanjiv Ahuja, Labour peer and media mogul Waheed Alli, and BT Retail ceo Ian Livingston among them - though noticeably absent from that list were more Google-sceptic leaders like Elsevier's ceo Crispin Davis or Pearson's ceo Marjorie Scardino.

They might have had a few choice words to address to co-founder Larry Page (who made a surprise appearance) or ceo Eric Schmidt. But no such fireworks. Instead, Page had an opportunity to restate Google's core mission, and probably reassure shareholders.

As The Independent noted, Page's ambitions are not diminished by riches. He's quoted as saying: "People always make the assumption that we're done with search. That's very far from the case. We're probably only 5 per cent of the way there. We want to create the ultimate search engine that can understand anything ... some people could call that artificial intelligence."

Dan Sabbagh at The Times chose to focus on perceived differences between the two men. Schmidt is quoted as saying: “Innovation is best delivered by small teams, but there is a penalty for that. We are changing our strategy to ensure that products are not developed in isolation.”

That seems to me to be a reinforcement of Page's views. Google is clearly going to fight hard to remain the dominant player in the search market, and not be overthrown by Microsoft's manoeuvrings or cash mountains. Focus on its core activities will be needed to avoid the fates of Microsoft's past scalps. Who remembers Ashton-Tate, Lotus 1-2-3, and Netscape?