A few random thoughts:<p>* "he left out the part where Google recently sent Microsoft a cease-and-desist letter demanding that it remove the YouTube app from its Windows Phones" has nothing to do with interoperating, but rather Microsoft not showing ads (among other infractions).<p>* "Mozilla guy" is Dan Buchner (<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=dandonkulous" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=dandonkulous</a>), who's working with Google on web components. <a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:2cpEUw1o24cJ:https://hacks.mozilla.org/2013/05/speed-up-app-development-with-x-tag-and-web-components/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" rel="nofollow">http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:2cpEUw1...</a><p>Larry gave an impressive non-answer to the relatively basic question ("Hey, any chance web technologies will replace Java on Android?"), and went off on quite the interesting tangent about just about everything.<p>I can only assume he's been wanting to say these things for a while, and jumped on basically the first open ended question he got. I bet the Google PR team was freaking out a bit.
Jesus, that was some serious word-twisting. It was an impromptu response and IMO they should be weighed with the spirit more than the words in mind.<p>Given the benefit of doubt, I can totally see where Larry was coming from. In fact it seemed bold and even slightly refreshing to hear him convey his thoughts without the usual restrictions. Industry wide conversations start these ways and examination of a problem is crucial before we can attempt to solve it.
Why the negative slant in this article?<p>Personally I want more folks to spread ideas similar to Larry's. (Whether he meant it or not is impossible to know of course)
"To recap, Page criticized Microsoft for treating Google as a rival, blasted Oracle for caring too much about money, and then whined about everyone being so negative. Heck, if it weren’t for those other companies standing in the way, Google would have probably already solved world hunger."<p>I mean, pretty much this (assuming the above was facetious). The Youtube thing really made me lose a lot of hope in Google as a company. Even though, I feel that we've made great strides in the past 10 years, I can't help but be reminded that:<p>1) I have people on my Facebook that I can't add to my phone without some ridiculous hacks (that essentially scrape FB, breaking the TOS) - thanks Facebook<p>2) I can't use GMail in the vanilla mail app on my touchscreen W8 laptop - thanks Google<p>3) I can't have a Metro Chrome app - thanks Google<p>4) My sister can't have almost anything (native) Google-related on her ARM-based W8RT tablet - thanks Microsoft<p>5) I can't have a distro-agnostic framework that "just works" for downloading/updating/installing/uninstalling Linux packages - thanks FOSS infighting cliques<p>6) I don't have full control over my Android/Apple phone, over my Android/Apple/Windows tablet, (and soon over my Google glass) unless I root said devices<p>This is simply a consumer-space extension of the legal battles that these companies are so fond of (see Samsung vs. Apple). The sad part is, it's probably going to get worse before it gets better. Oh, well.. c'est la vie.
Considering how big of a lie Google's "Don't do evil" motto has become, are we supposed to believe that Page really wants to solve problems and make progress by cooperating with other companies?<p>You have to have consumed quite a bit of the "Goolaid" to be able to take his ramblings seriously.
As much as I philosophically agree, and <i>want</i> to agree with much of the sentiment being evoked here ("solve problems", "cooperation", "progress", etc.), I can't help but shake the feeling there's a shark out there currently being jumped by a vibram-sporting surfer.
Folks who are tired of lazy cynicism and spiteful snark might prefer to read this one:
<a href="http://gizmodo.com/larry-page-reminded-us-why-we-love-google-today-506915269" rel="nofollow">http://gizmodo.com/larry-page-reminded-us-why-we-love-google...</a>
I identify with this.<p>I want to produce food for myself and my community on my property, and build structures that make efficient use of space for occupancy, and these things are extremely illegal.
Here's the Q&A for those who didn't see it<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfK8h73bb-o" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfK8h73bb-o</a>
Larry Page seems to be in denial that Google is different from Microsoft or Oracle. For the most part Google doesn't care about collaboration or innovation. What they care about is increasing their mass, by offering an ever increasing number of products & services, in order to attract more eyeballs to view ads.<p>What value is Google creating by making another subscription music service with a similar catalog size at the same price as existing companies?<p>What radical innovation has Google+ Hangouts incorporated that doesn't exist with Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp & Skype?<p>Why does the Chromebook Pixel look so much like a boxy Macbook Pro?<p>Just like Microsoft, they aren't trendsetters, they follow and copy what others are doing and use their brand recognition in order to gain market share.<p>Larry says "you can't focus on zero-sum games", but that is exactly what Google is doing. Maybe not for a specific industry ( Messaging, Music, etc ), but they are interested in winning the zero-sum game of people's attention.<p>If Google can spread itself across as many industries as possible, not necessary being the market leader of a specific industry, and take slices of people's attention here and there, they'll win the attention game.<p>Google embraces collaboration/standardization because it means a lower barrier of entry into another industry for them.
Well, if Google decides to found a new country akin to Bioshock's Rapture, I don't think they'll lack for volunteer citizens...<p>But even for Google, founding a country would be enormously difficult. So even if Page genuinely wanted to, it won't happen this decade. Whether it should is a different issue.
Copy pasta from someone else's HN comment on Google sending cease and desist to MS for Youtube story:<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5715889" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5715889</a><p>From Google's About page:
"Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful."<p>Last time when Google was intentionally blocking Google maps and then deprecated ActiveSync on Windows Phone someone suggested Google should updated it to the following:(which seems quite true given how much of the world's crowdsourced video content is on YouTube):<p>"Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful, except on Windows Phone".