Sundar Pichai

In advance of the release of Google Drive, I sat down yesterday with Google SVP of Chrome and Apps Sundar Pichai and Google Drive product head Scott Johnston. I asked them to elaborate on how Google Drive emerged from within Google, how the product compares to the competition, and where they see it evolving.

What’s ironic is that Pichai was the guy who helped kill a previous product called Google Drive, or GDrive, as detailed in Steven Levy’s “In the Plex”:

Google was about to launch a project it had been developing for more than a year, a free cloud-based storage service called GDrive. But Sundar had concluded that it was an artifact of the style of computing that Google was about to usher out the door. He went to Bradley Horowitz, the executive in charge of the project, and said, “I don’t think we need GDrive anymore.” Horowitz asked why not. “Files are so 1990,” said Pichai. “I don’t think we need files anymore.”

Pichai is still not a fan of files — in fact, his criticism of Dropbox and others is that they’re all about file management –  but he’s come around on “having data available in context.” Here’s an edited transcript of our chat from yesterday:

Liz Gannes: With Google Drive, you’re straddling distinctions between personal and organizational use, and personal storage versus sharing. As a user of Google Docs, Dropbox and others, I often get confused across that juncture about who can see things. How do you design for that?

Sundar Pichai: We strongly believe in the consumerization of the enterprise, and that’s the pillar of all our Google Apps strategy. At work and at home, we try to bring the same set of products. There’s some work in bridging the shift, but examples like the iPad bridge it pretty well. We have good controls in place — an admin can control when you’re using Drive within a company — but it’s an area we can do a lot more in.

Who can see what’s in my Google Drive folder?

Scott Johnston: This is a big shift, in that, really, the Google Drive folder is yours. Only things go in there that you create or that you move there explicitly. There’s a new “shared with me” view, and then you can move them into your Drive if you want. So it’s really this space that you control.

Do you see people using their Google Drive as their backup for everything?

Pichai: It’s a good question. I’m probably not the best representative use case, but the first time I got my access, I put my family pictures there, for safety and peace of mind. I don’t think that problem is well-solved today, so having a very safe, secure place to store, which is cost-affordable, I think is a good opportunity. We also really want people to have data anytime, anywhere.

So — yes?

Pichai: Yes, it’s a long way of saying yes.

What’s the team that created this project? I know Google Drive had been “killed” internally before, but what about this group?

Scott Johnston

Johnston: I came onboard Google in 2006 when we were acquired at JotSpot, and joined the Docs team. On that team, as we got better and better at collaboration on different file types, we started seeing them more and more in our everyday life; for planning a birthday party or, internally, our designers were constantly sharing mocks. And it was this idea of getting out of the way of the user so they don’t have to think about where their stuff is, and they can just do what they’re trying to do. It was a natural evolution of Docs. This is just more touchpoints to access your data.

Is there continuity with previous Google Drive products?

Pichai: What Scott’s talking about, Google Drive as an evolution of Docs, is one thing. Early on, we had a project called Google Drive that was completely different.

What was different?

Pichai: There was a very traditional file system approach, a long time ago, having nothing to do with Google Docs. It was pre-mobile, pre-tablet, with deep integration into My Documents and Windows, et cetera. So it was very different.

Why is this a good product now?

Pichai: Today, when I look at different solutions out there, those are still in the old metaphor of “here are files that you want, manage them.” This is about you living your life online — planning a wedding, buying a house — and having your data available in that context. I think it’s a big pivot, and that’s what excites me and makes it a good product. It’s in the natural flow.

I wouldn’t underestimate the fact that you can use it not just with Google but with third-party applications over time will be a big differentiator. And third is, deep search is very powerful. There is a lot of deep computer science in there, the fact that you can comment on any file type, that there’s full-text indexing with optical character recognition, all that happens magically with our infrastructure.

Johnston: There’s also being able to offer up to 16 terabytes of storage per user.

It’s kind of unusual for you to ask consumers to pay for Google products, right?

Pichai: Today, people are paying for Gmail and Picasa storage. For power users, it is popular. We’ve kind of made it very hard for you to do, but [Google Drive] is very easy. When you do upgrade here, your Gmail automatically goes up to 25 gigs. Over time, given how much Google Apps are the center of many users’ life, and you want to store safely and securely, I think it’s a good model and it’s a pretty good deal.

I know you’ve been working on Google Drive, in various iterations, for a long time. Why are you releasing it now, especially if some key parts are not done?

Pichai: We wanted all of this to be done — iOS, Gmail, etc. We picked a schedule and, like, 18 things made the train, and two got left out, but they will get added in after. The fact that Gmail got delayed and G+ made it, I wouldn’t have known a month ago.

Is this like the Chrome browser, where you guys promised a Mac version was coming soon, and then it took a couple years?

Pichai: Sorry about that. We dramatically underestimated what it would take to do Chrome on the Mac. IOS is a very different story. It works today. IOS is 98 percent done, and it will be here soon.

No matter what you say or launch, the takeaway is going to be, “Google launches Dropbox competitor.” What do you make of the competitive landscape?

Pichai: I think if we wanted to do it, we would have approached it very differently. We’ve gone to great lengths to built it around an online application experience. We want this to be about creating and collaborating — and your data is there for you. I think others have taken a file/data approach, and saying you have [access to] that everywhere. It’s nuanced, but I think it’s very different.

And for an active Google user, the integration we provide is very valuable. [As for Dropbox,]  I think the work they’ve done is great. This is a secular shift in terms of how people are living in the cloud, and I think it’s good to have innovation in the space.

Are we going to see TV ads for this?

Pichai: Not that I know of.

Johnston: The Super Bowl’s a long time from now.

Pichai: If the Niners make it.

Google Drive will start being available to some users today, and it will roll out globally “over the next several weeks,” said a spokeswoman.

Walt Mossberg has a thorough review, and I also have an interview with Chrome and Apps SVP Sundar Pichai and Google Drive product manager Scott Johnston that I’ll publish soon. But for the sake of setting them out clearly, here are some of the basic Google Drive specs:

• Each Google Drive includes 5 gigabytes of free storage. Docs created with Google don’t count against that limit.
• Users can pay for up to 16 terabytes of storage — 25GB for $2.49 per month, 100GB for $4.99, 1TB for $49.99, 16TB for $799.99 — with many levels in between. Drive will also be included for enterprise Google Apps users as part of their pricing structure.
• Drive is available for Web, Mac, PC and Android phones and tablets. The team showed me a working version on an iPad, and said iOS would be available very soon.
• Drive is the new Docs. For users who have Drive on their accounts, docs.google.com will start redirecting to drive.google.com. All of users’ Google Docs are automatically imported into their Drives.
• In addition to creating regular Google Docs files, users can install apps through the Chrome Web Store. The 18 launch partners include HelloFax (faxes), Balsamiq (mock-ups), Lucidchart (diagrams), DocuSign (signatures), SlideRocket (presentations) and MindMeister (mind maps).
• There are lots of ways to sort and view files, including an activity stream of all the most recently modified documents that you have access to, and a grid view that shows thumbnails.
• Users can also search across all their files, with image recognition and optical character recognition automatically applied to new pictures and scanned documents so they can be more easily searched even if they don’t have much metadata.
• When users click to add a photo in Google+, they’ll now have the option of taking it directly from their personal Google Drives. Google Drive will also be available for attachments in Gmail, but not at launch.
• There are chat conversations associated with every file, where users get notified whenever someone leaves a new comment.

View the slideshow

Girouard had been responsible for Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and other cloud applications.

After eight years at Google, Girouard plans to start his own company, though not in the enterprise space. Google Ventures will be investing in his start-up, alongside Kleiner Perkins and NEA.

(Update: Girouard’s new company is called Upstart, with the tagline “The Startup is You.” According to a splash page, “Upstart lets you raise capital in return for a small portion of your future income.”)

Meanwhile, back at the Goog, Girouard’s responsibilities will transfer to Sundar Pichai, leader of the Chrome and apps team. Pichai is one of Google CEO Larry Page’s septumvirate of product heads, who were established when he took over the company last April. Part of Pichai’s agenda has been to lessen the divide between enterprise apps and consumer apps.

Departures by long-time Googlers are surprisingly rare. Google’s first employee, Craig Silverstein, left to join Khan Academy last month.

Pichai: We are focused on creating unique computing experiences based on the Web. This is a very different model, but it will naturally co-exist with other models of computing.

Brin: I think it’s just a much easier way to compute. Ultimately the most precious resource is the user’s time.

How will you market the Chromebook?

Pichai: We look forward to getting the word out about Chrome and the Chromebook, but our partners will market their specific devices.

Have you given any though to making the Chrome Web Store available on other browsers?

Upson: Yes, we’ve been talking with other browser developers, like Mozilla and standards bodies so that over time we’ll be able to have the Chome store available on other browsers.

What did you learn from the beta? What are the trade-offs you have to make with this sort of computing?

Pichai: Just from a personal experience, giving it to my family and friends, it’s amazing to see how much they used it….We’ve given it to children, my daughter has one. Overall, the feedback has been positive….There have been some criticisms, the file system which we’ve now resolved….People have said they’d like the devices to be faster, which is why we’re using this new Intel processor….And we’re constantly improving Chrome itself, so the devices are just getting better. But with the Cr-48s, the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

What sort of support infrastructure have you put in place for Chromebook subscriptions?

Sengupta: It’s effectively the same service and support plan that we’ve been offering our enterprise customers through Google Apps.

Pichai: [Anecdote about getting a Chrome laptop up and running in 4 minutes] End to end this is a very different experience from a support standpoint. Since you’re not installing software on the computer, it tends to work a lot better….One of the costly parts of enterprise computing is provisioning new computers. This is something that we’d like to see go away.

What percentage of Google is still on Windows?

Brin: “I don’t have an exact number for you. I’d guess maybe 20 percent, but I’d have to get back to you. … I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with Windows. It has a lot of great security features. But I think the complexity of managing your computer is really torturing users … It’s torturing everyone in this room. It’s a flawed model fundamentally. Chromebooks are a new model that doesn’t put the burden of managing the computer on yourself. I hope next year to be able to report that we have a very small percentage of our employees using anything other than Chromebooks.”

Why should Chromebook users trust Google with their data?

Brin: This model doesn’t say ‘just trust Google’. You’re free to use other services. … You are trusting Chrome and Chrome OS to protect you against malicious things. You can go to any Web site out there. The Chrome team’s job is to make sure those sites can’t do malicious things to you.

Your CFO recently said that everyone that uses Chrome is a “locked-in” user. Can you comment?

Pichai: He misspoke. There is no lock-in. You can change your settings at any time.

Will Chromebooks be SIM-locked?

Sangupta and Pichai both note that it’s very easy to swap out SIMs on the Cr-48 and the same will be true of the Chromebook.

What’s the Chromebook hardware upgrade cycle look like?

Pichai: The current enterprise plan is for three years, so at the end of three years you’ll get a new Chromebook. But there is warranty support as well, so if something goes wrong with the device before that we’ll obviously replace it.

Any details on that $500 million DOJ charge?

Brin: “Fortunately, since we changed roles a few months ago, I don’t have to deal with filings, and the DOJ, the SEC or other acronyms.”

Is there competition between the Android and Chrome teams?

Pichai: Our goal is to focus on the users and bring the best ideas forward. We share common code and infrastructure with the Android team, but the final product is two different visions.

A final question: Aren’t you creating a sort of walled garden on Chromebooks by creating a Google-centric experience

Pichai: We are presenting the Web. I cannot imagine a more contextually open design. Everything is a link away….If you want to use Yahoo Mail, you just add a bookmark….I think this is really one of the most open operating systems around.

Levy relates that Sundar Pichai (the recently appointed SVP of Chrome who has been leading Google’s software projects for years) spiked Google’s GDrive storage service just prior to launch because he thought it was out of line with the cloud-based future. (Both Pichai and GDrive leader Bradley Horowitz spoke to Levy directly for his book.)

Google was about to launch a project it had been developing for more than a year, a free cloud-based storage service called GDrive. But Sundar had concluded that it was an artifact of the style of computing that Google was about to usher out the door. He went to Bradley Horowitz, the executive in charge of the project, and said, “I don’t think we need GDrive anymore.” Horowitz asked why not. “Files are so 1990,” said Pichai. “I don’t think we need files anymore.”

Horowitz was stunned. “Not need files anymore?”

“Think about it,” said Pichai. “You just want to get information into the cloud. When people use our Google Docs, there are no more files. You just start editing in the cloud, and there’s never a file.”

…Eventually they won people over by a logical argument–that it could be done, that it was the cloudlike thing to do, that it was the Google thing to do. That was the end of GDrive: shuttered as a relic of antiquated thinking even before Google released it. The engineers working on it went to the Chrome team.

In another longer section, Levy describes how Google product manager Wesley Chan, who had pushed for the company’s GrandCentral acquisition and was leading development on Google Voice, concocted and executed a plan to block Google from buying Skype, which it was seriously considering. (The timing and order of these events isn’t made explicit, which is a recurring issue through the book, but I’m a niggler for those details.)

Chan apparently bragged directly to Levy about his machinations:

With [Salar Kamangar and Sergey Brin] on board, Chan devised a plan to kill the Skype purchase. As he later described it, his scheme involved “laying grenades” at the executive meeting where the purchase was up for approval. Chan tricked the business development executive who was pushing the acquisition into thinking that he was in favor of the deal: he had even prepared a PowerPoint presentation with all the reasons Google should buy Skype. Chan says that halfway through the presentation, though, the trap sprang. Brin suddenly began asking questions that the deck didn’t address. “Who’s going to run this?” he demanded. “Not me,” said Kamangar. Craig Walker said he had two kids in school and wasn’t about to make regular runs to Eastern Europe. “What are the regulatory risks?” A lawyer said it might take months to get approval. Finally, Brin looked at Chan and asked why Google would want to take the risk to begin with. Chan dropped his defense entirely and began explaining why Google had no need for Skype.

“At that point,” recalls Chan, “Sergey gets up and says, ‘This is the dumbest shit I’ve ever seen.’ And Eric [Schmidt] gets up and walks out of the room. The deal’s off.”

Ruthless! Which of your darlings have you killed today?

On some level of journalism, I guess anything could happen.

At least that’s according to a recent article by Business Insider’s Henry Blodget about an alleged “mole” at Twitter who was allegedly spying for Google, specifically about an exec the microblogging service was trying to poach from the Silicon Valley search giant.

In a decidedly splashy, hello-traffic, ALL-CAPs headline–THE SEARCH FOR THE “TWITTER MOLE”: All Eyes On John Doerr“–Blodget pointed his J’accuse finger at the legendary venture capitalist as the culprit.

Based on…

Well, based on nothing, it appears, except rank speculation and what appears to be no attempt to get Doerr to comment.

And, while it’s not my cup of tea, whatev, I suppose.

Except when I read down to the bottom and landed on this gem:

We have talked to several sources familiar with aspects of the situation. Thus far, we have not been able to confirm either assertion.

First, no one has even confirmed that Google was tipped off in advance of Twitter’s poaching effort, much less by a Twitter mole.

This doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

And later still:

So we haven’t been able to confirm the “high-level mole at Twitter” story. And we think there’s a good explanation for why there might not be a mole at all.

Secondly, we have talked to no one who has any evidence other than the logic above that, even if there is a Google mole at Twitter, the mole is John Doerr. One insider we spoke to, in fact, dismissed the idea out of hand.

Say what?

It’s kind of like thinking that a sparkly Civil War-era vampire falling in love with a moody chick in the Pacific Northwest and flying through the pines all day and mooning over their cruel fate was real.

Okay, that was a Hollywood movie called “Twilight,” but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen!

Thus, Doerr–a tough customer to be sure, capable of all kinds of sharp-elbowed behavior–is guilty until proven innocent?

Or just not guilty at all, but let’s just say he might be anyway, without a shred of evidence, because it could have happened!

(Courtroom confession: It was All Things Digital‘s Liz Gannes, who did it on the blog with scoop on the Twitter talent raid effort of Sundar Pichai!)

Speaking of evidence, less than a week later, Javert–oops, I mean, Blodget–was back in another kangaroo court performance with another terrifically loud headline:

“The Guy Who Says He Owns 50% Of Facebook Just Filed A Boatload Of New Evidence–And It’s Breathtaking.”

Breathtaking, I guess, if you are in that fantasy teenaged girl mode, but deeply suspect if you are anyone with a modicum of journalistic responsibility.

It is perfectly fine for Blodget to dredge up the copious emails from a man named Paul Ceglia–who alleges he possesses a contract that he struck with Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg at the time of its creation–and analyze them.

And it is certainly notable that a credible law firm, DLA Piper, has taken on the case for Ceglia and it does seems unlikely that it would have done so without doing some level of due diligence.

In fact, in an interview with Am Law Daily, DLA partner Robert Brownlie, international co-chair of the firm’s securities litigation, said: “At first I shrugged it off as incredible. I would not have gotten involved and DLA would not have gotten involved if we had any doubts about the facts or evidence in the case.”

That was, of course, countered by Facebook’s lawyer Orin Snyder at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, who said in a statement that the Ceglia allegations were part of “a fraudulent lawsuit brought by a convicted felon.”

By the way, in fancy-lawyer parlance, that translates to a liar-liar-pants-on-fire defense.

So, microwave the popcorn and get ready for the drama, because no question, it is clearly going to be juicy all around with a whole lot of social networking poking!

In fact, such a case is tailor-made for Blodget, who has always been a very gifted writer with a nose for sharp-edged analysis.

It’s too bad, then, that he did not hone his knife to such an edge when it comes to Ceglia, giving him much too much credibility based on what could be fake emails, especially since they come from a man with a history of fraud.

History, in fact, that Ceglia is depending on in this case, since Zuckerberg most definitely has one in regards to partnerships gone bad.

Thus, Zuckerberg has been sneaky before, ergo he’s sneaky here.

That’s no surprise as a legal tactic, of course, and I threw in the “ergo,” since I too want to play Perry Mason in a blog.

But. More to the point, while Facebook was certainly hard-nosed in dealing with both protracted and high-profile legal challenges from the Winklevoss twins and also Eduardo Severin, I don’t think I have ever seen the company explicitly say evidence was completely fabricated, as it is alleging Ceglia’s emails are.

As I said, I have no idea if they are or they’re not, but I do know this: While those emails are certainly bombshell in nature, they are designed to be so precisely because it is a lawsuit in which the principal is trying to shame Facebook into settling.

None of that seems to concern Blodget, who concludes at the end of the post:

“In short, to us at least, the emails don’t read ‘fake.’”

In short, to me at least, that’s for fake-email experts and the courts to decide.

The real fact of the matter is, who knows? I certainly don’t, although I do know it’s terrifically easy to file a lawsuit and claim just about anything you like.

And the same seems to be true–more and more these days and not for the good–for blogs too.

As for me, I need to get back to my goal of proving that sparkly vampires do exist.

Until now, business operations has been managed by Shona Brown, who had also once run “People Operations,” as human resources is called at Google.

More recently, HR has been run by VP Laszlo Bock, who initially reported to Brown and later directly to former CEO Eric Schmidt.

He will now report to Pichette, sources said.

Brown will narrow her duties to leading Google’s philanthropic efforts, via Google.org. She takes over from new business development VP Megan Smith (please see disclosure below), who has run “Dot Org” on an interim basis as its general manager since the departure of its initial high-profile Executive Director Larry Brilliant in 2009.

Google declined to comment on personnel matters.

Brown has been with Google since 2003 (which was well after Larry 1.0; Eric Schmidt became CEO in 2001). Here’s how my colleague John Paczkowski described her role last week:

Before she came to Google, Brown spent a decade consulting for McKinsey and is widely credited with optimizing Google’s internal structure.

But Page is not a McKinsey guy and he’s obviously not a big fan of Google’s current management organization anymore.

That might not bode well for the legendarily sharp-elbowed Brown who most sources describe as highly strategic but also as extremely difficult to work with.

Still, if Page is tinkering with the way Google is organized, Brown might also be the one he turns to to find a new structure.

That said, he seems to be fine doing it on his own and some suggest Brown will move to another role within the company rather than leaving.

Not all agree.

Said one source: “I wouldn’t be shocked to see Shona go. Frankly, I’m surprised she survived as long as she did, but then I didn’t think Rosenberg would last this long either.”

But, said another about Brown, who has previously taken time off from Google and returned: “I’d never count Shona out.”

Page’s big reorg aims to make the 12-year-old company he co-founded faster and more innovative to fend off the stagnation of middle age. The first step was removing long-time product chief Jonathan Rosenberg, followed by the elevation of seven long-time product leaders to senior vice president of their respective domains: Sundar Pichai (Chrome), Vic Gundotra (social), Andy Rubin (mobile), Salar Kamangar (YouTube), Alan Eustace (search), Susan Wojcicki (ads) and Jeff Huber (local and commerce).

And as for the newest big winner, Patrick Pichette? Unlike many of the others in Page’s inner circle, Pichette is a more recent Googler. After spending seven years at Bell Canada, Pichette replaced the retiring George Reyes in 2008.

Pichette has been a regular presence on Google quarterly earnings calls, the next of which is this Thursday at 1:30 PT. While whatever Google did in the first quarter of 2011 was surely interesting, the call should be the first public comment on the new Page regime. It will be a big test for Page, who notoriously loathes the public eye.

Meanwhile, Google’s management bio page should be sent packing to the Internet Archive any day now.

While it’s only a week out of date–my, how things have changed.

(Full disclosure: Smith is married to All Things Digital Co-Executive Editor Kara Swisher.)

Things are sure shaking over at Google, since the sudden departure on Monday of Jonathan Rosenberg, Google’s head of product management and one of its most senior executives.

While his exit was portrayed as friendly all around, sources with knowledge of the dicey situation said that was definitely not the case.

Instead, moving aside Rosenberg was newly installed CEO and Co-founder Larry Page’s first parry at remaking the search giant in his own image.

Moving management chairs around is one of the tried-and-true way new leaders often try to effect that kind of dramatic change and several sources said Page has been tossing them about rather than just rearranging them.

That was certainly clear in last night’s knighting of six new SVP titles upon a group of execs, all very close to Page.

The promoted in new business units: Sundar Pichai, SVP of Chrome; Vic Gundotra, SVP of social; Andy Rubin SVP of mobile; Salar Kamangar SVP of YouTube and video; Alan Eustace SVP of search; Susan Wojcicki SVP of ads.

Of them, Eustace was previously an SVP, in charge of engineering and research, and Wojcicki had recently held the title SVP of product management.

It’s all the next step in Page’s overhauling the company’s management structure, as I reported in this column earlier this week was in the works.

As I wrote:

The main theme that seems to be emerging: An elimination of Google’s more centralized functional structure–where Rosenberg was one of several manager kingpins–to one in which the individual business units and their engineers, such as its most independent Android division, rule more autonomously.

Reimagined like this, Google would become an ambidextrous organization with more powerful unit line execs, mostly engineers, doing what needs to be done to succeed, less burdened by the need to vet every little effort through various managers of Google’s powerful operating committee.

This, of course, brings into focus that fates of several other SVPs on the formal management structure list on Google’s Web site and still serving on that OC.

Leaving Eustace off, since he has a new SVP title, they are: Nikesh Arora, SVP and Chief Business Officer; David Drummond SVP, Corporate Development, and Chief Legal Officer; Shona Brown, SVP, Business Operations; and Patrick Pichette, SVP and Chief Financial Officer.

How their roles evolve or do not–all might stay as is, of course–will be the next interesting part of what I am calling PageYank:

Nikesh Arora:

In a widely read column earlier this week, investing gadfly Eric Jackson argued that Arora is probably the most vulnerable of all the senior executives at the company.

The high-profile Arora is well known both inside and outside the company as both highly ambitious and consistently pugnacious.

While that is not necessarily a bad thing to be, that style has garnered him some criticism and he is often referred to as “Darth Vader” among detractors (and even some supporters).

Still, Arora has been a consistent producer of results over his tenure, which might be all that matters. In fact, it might also make him an attractive candidate for a CEO job outside Google.

But, perhaps most important right now though, is that Arora is “definitely not part of Larry’s inner circle,” said one source, adding “and that’s a very important place to be right now.”

Incidentally, that inner circle currently seems to consist of many of those promoted last night–Kamangar, Rubin, Pichai and Gundotra–as well as search leads Udi Manber and Amit Singhal and, of course, Co-founder Sergey Brin.

And not, it seems, Arora.

David Drummond:

With Kent Walker recently promoted to an SVP title, along with being Google’s general counsel, does the company need a Chief Legal Officer or does it need to winnow down another layer of management?

As one source told me, “Why do you need a Drummond, when you’ve got a Walker?” It’s a fair point.

While also in charge of both public policy and corporate development, Drummond has been known more for benign absence at Google than for aggressive presence.

Some also suggest that the affable exec, who has been at Google since early on and is presumably very wealthy, might also not want to sign up for the long-term commitment that Page now expects of his top managers.

Shona Brown:

Before she came to Google, Brown spent a decade consulting for McKinsey and is widely credited with optimizing Google’s internal structure.

But Page is not a McKinsey guy and he’s obviously not a big fan of Google’s current management organization anymore.

That might not bode well for the legendarily sharp-elbowed Brown who most sources describe as highly strategic but also as extremely difficult to work with.

Still, if Page is tinkering with the way Google is organized, Brown might also be the one he turns to find a new structure.

That said, he seems to be fine doing it on his own and some suggest Brown will move to another role within the company rather than leaving.

Not all agree.

Said one source: “I wouldn’t be shocked to see Shona go. Frankly, I’m surprised she survived as long as she did, but then I didn’t think Rosenberg would last this long either.”

But, said another about Brown, who has previously taken time off from Google and returned: “I’d never count Shona out.”

Patrick Pichette:

He’s not going anywhere, as far as I can tell. The friendly and erudite Pichette is widely admired at the company and by Page–the most important admirer of all at Google these days.

He’s also been a smart and stable presence on earnings calls and does a job with Wall Street analysts and investors that Page is pretty much uninterested in and–more to the point–completely incapable of doing well.

Let’s be honest about the socially awkward CEO: Page’s frequently prickly and robotic style makes Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg look like Cary Grant.

Pichette stays.

As for everyone else, as Page reaches even further down into the organization at Google, it will be interesting to see where the next chair will fall.

One thing is clearest of all: Page is positioning himself as the centerpoint of the entire company.

Because make no mistake, these new autonomous divisions all report to him, in a system that mimics Apple and its legendary leader Steve Jobs.

A tough act to follow, to be sure.

PREVIOUSLY:

• Google’s Page Begins Major Reorg: Engineers, Not Managers, In Charge
• Product Chief Jonathan Rosenberg to Leave Google
• Larry Page as CEO: Steve Jobs or Jerry Yang?

A spokesperson for Google confirmed the reorganization and called it a formalization of what had been anticipated since earlier this year when Page started rethinking and taking over Google’s business.

DigitalDaily’s John Paczkowski had written as much in a story earlier this week. The Los Angeles Times is also reporting the reorganization.

The six promoted executives replace Jonathan Rosenberg, the SVP of product management who announced he was leaving the company this week. Of them, Eustace was previously an SVP, in charge of engineering and research, and Wojcicki had recently held the title SVP of product management.

In a bid to revitalize the company, Page has placed himself in a hands-on role at the center of the organization. Each business unit is set up to run as its own independent start-up, as an alternative to the more horizontal division of labor under Rosenberg and former CEO Eric Schmidt.

The Google spokesperson declined to comment on what the shake-up implied for other current top executives, which include Nikesh Arora, Shona Brown, David Drummond and Patrick Pichette.

According to a source who was present for festivities celebrating the promotions today, spirits and expectations are running high. Which makes sense, because it was a party.

Update: Google clarified that it is calling the teams “core product areas” rather than “business units,” as we had originally stated.

Two of the new directors come from the software security firm McAfee, where Jive CEO Tony Zingale held a board seat from 2008 until its $7.7 billion acquisition by chip giant Intel: Charles Robel was McAfee’s chairman and has been on its board’s audit committee, and sits on the board of Autodesk and is the lead independent director on the board of Informatica; and David DeWalt was McAfee’s president, and before that was president of software sales and services at storage giant EMC, following the acquisition of Documentum, which it acquired in 2003 and where he was CEO. Dewalt is chairman of the board at Polycom.

Jonathan  Heiliger  is  the  Vice  President  of  Technical Operations at Facebook, meaning he’s the one who makes Facebook go. He reports directly to CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Before that he led the engineering team at Walmart.com, and before that he was COO at Loudcloud, the company that ultimately became Opsware.

Sundar  Pichai  is  vice  President  of  product  management at Google, and oversees such products as Google  Toolbar,  Chrome  and Chrome  OS. Before Google, he worked at Applied Materials, the maker of chip manufacturing gear, and was management consulting for McKinsey and Co.

I asked CEO Tony Zingale about Jive’s plans to go public. He wouldn’t comment on that, naturally, but its well understood that Zingale, who ran software company Mercury Interactive until its $4.5 billion sale to HP, was brought on with an IPO in mind, as The Wall Street Journal reported last year. He also wouldn’t comment when I asked him if Jive has hired any bankers.

But he did say that Jive is at what he called “an inflection point.” In case you hadn’t notice, social enterprise software is a segment that’s growing like crazy, with offerings from Salesforce.com, Parature, Yammer, and a host of others. “We’re building the next great enterprise software company,” Zingale says. “And guys like this don’t join boards of companies that aren’t already successful and that don’t have a pretty good runway ahead of them.”

Jive certainly has some momentum. It has about 3,000 corporate customers–including big names like Cisco Systems, Nike, VMWare, Intel and fast food giant Yum Brands–and about 15 million end users. And last year it landed a big $30 million investment from Kleiner Perkins. Its other investor is Sequoia Capital, which invested $15 million in 2007. Boomtown’s Kara Swisher talked to Zingale and another Jive director Ted Schlein about the investment in a video interview last year, which I’ve added below.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110330/in-another-pre-ipo-move-jive-software-adds-four-directors-all-with-public-company-experience/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110328/twitter-gets-its-messiah-dorsey-officially-returns-to-lead-product/ http://allthingsd.com/20110328/twitter-gets-its-messiah-dorsey-officially-returns-to-lead-product/#comments Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:54:36 +0000 Liz Gannes http://networkeffect.allthingsd.com/?p=4860 Jack Dorsey will return to Twitter to lead its product team, he announced today.

The Twitter inventor’s return to lead the company he was kicked out of is reminiscent of Apple’s restoration of CEO Steve Jobs, and Twitter is similarly hopeful that Dorsey’s vision will lead it to greatness on his second run.

However, there’s at least a couple differences: Dorsey will remain CEO of Square, the payments company he founded after leaving Twitter. (Dorsey will be CEO of Square “forevermore,” he said in a tweet.) And Twitter already has a CEO: Dick Costolo.

Before Dorsey agreed to rejoin, Twitter had made multiple attempts to hire a high-profile product star from outside the company–with candidates like Google’s Sundar Pichai and Neal Mohan considering taking the gig.

Meanwhile, Dorsey, who has been chairman all along, had been helping Twitter in an expanded role since last fall when Costolo took over from Evan Williams.

Negotiations for Dorsey’s return were first reported last week.

Twitter as a product is not terrifically different than when Dorsey came up with the idea, though obviously the stakes are much higher now. Can a part-time guy–albeit the guy–get the job done?

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110328/twitter-gets-its-messiah-dorsey-officially-returns-to-lead-product/feed/ 2 http://allthingsd.com/20110324/twitters-long-hunt-for-product-leadership/ http://allthingsd.com/20110324/twitters-long-hunt-for-product-leadership/#comments Thu, 24 Mar 2011 18:25:52 +0000 Liz Gannes http://networkeffect.allthingsd.com/?p=4760 Twitter has spent months searching for a product leader, and had multiple high-profile potential hires turn it down. But it is starting to make some progress.

This morning the company confirmed it had hired Satya Patel, a former AdSense product manager who was for the last four years focused on software and Internet investments as a partner at Battery Ventures, to be a director of product management.

Patel (pictured at right) is to start April 4, Twitter said. His hire was first reported by Fortune.

Patel will be a product leader, but not the product leader.

That top spot is still unfilled, and has been since Jason Goldman left the company at the end of last year.

Twitter is actively trying to persuade co-founder and Chairman Jack Dorsey to take a more active product role, as was reported yesterday by Business Insider. Dorsey, however, has a day job as CEO at Square, the payments company he co-founded in 2009.

Other than Dorsey, Twitter seems to have a fixation on hiring Google people.

Neal Mohan (pictured at left), a VP of product management at Google who runs DoubleClick, had also recently been in late-stage discussions to join Twitter, but he was persuaded to stay at Google, according to multiple sources. Mohan is a very significant player at Google and would have been a big catch for Twitter. However, having a monetization person lead Twitter’s product would have likely been a source of internal friction, those sources noted.

(Related: Late last year Twitter added former DoubleClick CEO David Rosenblatt to its board.)

Before Mohan, Sundar Pichai, Google’s VP of product management in charge of Chrome and Chrome OS, made a similar choice after being recruited for Twitter’s top product spot. Pichai decided to stay at Google in January after Google made him a large competitive counteroffer.

For Patel (and Dorsey, if that develops), Twitter product management would not be their only job. If Dorsey were to return to Twitter, he could potentially cede Square leadership to COO Keith Rabois, an experienced leader from stints at PayPal and Square and one of Silicon Valley’s leading angel investors. Meanwhile, Patel will maintain some of his board seats and remain a venture partner at Battery, as reported by Fortune.

The big allure of Dorsey is not only that the idea for Twitter sprang from his brain, but that he has been involved with the company all along, especially since last fall when Dick Costolo replaced Evan Williams as CEO. That would make him a lot easier to integrate than an outsider, sources noted.

Twitter’s employees and investors alike speak with admiration of Dorsey and express wistfulness that the company’s true product visionary was forced out in 2008 when Williams took over. Dorsey’s homecoming would be kind of messianic.

Meanwhile, Williams is much less involved in Twitter these days, having spent much of the winter in Tahoe, though he did come by the office yesterday to interview Lady Gaga.

However, Twitter hasn’t just been waiting in a holding pattern for a product head honcho to show up; others at the company have been working on various interesting features and products that will soon launch, said multiple Twitter sources. And importantly, the company recently migrated and stabilized its infrastructure, a necessary and overdue upgrade that is probably a good thing to do before any major product launch.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110324/twitters-long-hunt-for-product-leadership/feed/ 3 http://allthingsd.com/20110114/google-holds-onto-product-vp-sundar-pichai-after-daring-twitter-talent-raid-attempt/ http://allthingsd.com/20110114/google-holds-onto-product-vp-sundar-pichai-after-daring-twitter-talent-raid-attempt/#comments Fri, 14 Jan 2011 15:53:35 +0000 Liz Gannes http://networkeffect.allthingsd.com/?p=2374 Google VP Sundar Pichai has decided to stay at Google after being aggressively courted by Twitter to join the fast-growing company as its VP of product, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.

Pichai, who is Google’s VP of product management in charge of Chrome and Chrome OS, had been Twitter’s top pick after longtime VP of product Jason Goldman stepped down last month, as NetworkEffect reported last week.

Suffering from employee departures for companies like Facebook or their own start-up efforts, the search giant seems to have been able in this instance to persuade its talent to stay put.

While I haven’t been able to nail down what exactly Google paid to keep Pichai, it was apparently a significant increase to his previous compensation package. Google declined to comment on the matter.

Stories of Google paying millions of dollars to keep key employees are not uncommon these days. And Pichai is said to be particularly valued by Google CEO Eric Schmidt and SVP of Product Management Jonathan Rosenberg.

Meanwhile, Twitter–which has many product leaders within the company, including co-founder and former CEO Evan Williams–will continue its search for one product VP to rule them all.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110114/google-holds-onto-product-vp-sundar-pichai-after-daring-twitter-talent-raid-attempt/feed/ 2 http://allthingsd.com/20110108/twitter-courts-googles-sundar-pichai-to-be-its-head-of-product/ http://allthingsd.com/20110108/twitter-courts-googles-sundar-pichai-to-be-its-head-of-product/#comments Sun, 09 Jan 2011 02:49:46 +0000 Liz Gannes http://networkeffect.allthingsd.com/?p=2133 Sundar Pichai, the man in charge of Chrome and Chrome OS at Google, is being aggressively courted by Twitter to be its next head of product, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.

However, added sources, Google is fighting hard to counter the Twitter offer, so Pichai could easily stay with his current employer. At Google, which he joined in April 2004, Pichai is a VP of Product Management.

If successful, the hiring of Pichai would be a major raid for Twitter, and mark its place next to Facebook as an up-and-comer in the race to entice away top Google executives.

More importantly, Twitter could use the product help.

The San Francisco microblogging company, which just raised a massive funding, has done relatively little product development recently, in large part because its focus has been absorbed by overwhelming growth and infrastructure problems.

Pichai certainly fits the bill as a head of product for Twitter, given his job at Google. The well-regarded tech exec heads the Silicon Valley search giant’s high-profile Chrome browser and Chrome OS efforts.

Pichai was front and center at an unveiling of Chrome OS plans in November, and touted the Chrome browser’s 40 million users only a year after its debut in 2009.

But not everyone is so sanguine. Paul Buchheit, founder of Gmail (and FriendFeed) predicted a very short life for Google’s still-in-beta Chrome OS, noting–on Twitter in December–that he thought the product would be axed or fused with Android in 2011.

As Mobilized’s Ina Fried wrote at the time:

Google originally hoped to have Chrome OS-based computers for sale this year, but has run into some delays. Last week, the company released a beta version of the software and distributed to testers an unbranded laptop running the operating system. However, it’s worth noting that in doing so, Google has hardly made the strongest hardware case for the operating system, using a relatively bulky netbook with a reliable, but hardly power-sipping Intel Atom processor.

The idea of merging the two operating systems has some merit. Doing so would pair a top-notch browser with an ecosystem that already has a lot of applications and developers.

For now, the operating systems are distinct, with Android running hundreds of thousands of applications and used largely on phones, along with a few tablets, such as Samsung’s Galaxy Tab. However, Google VP Andy Rubin confirmed after his appearance at last week’s D: Dive Into Mobile that the company is working on a new version of Android, known as Honeycomb, that is geared exclusively to tablets. (The full video of Rubin’s onstage appearance was posted on our site earlier today.)

Acer and a couple of other hardware makers have said they plan to do Chrome OS netbooks next year once the software is ready.

If hired, Pichai would fill an open spot left by the departure of longtime Twitter VP of Product Jason Goldman, who stepped down at the beginning of December.

The attempt to bring on Pichai to lead product brings into question former CEO Evan Williams’s role at the company. When he stepped down as CEO, Williams said it was in order to focus on product strategy, and when Goldman gave up his position, many assumed Williams was the natural substitute.

While Pichai would be a strong choice for the job, he has not been an active user of the product.

Until recently, that is.

Pichai’s own Twitter account has a grand total of 118 tweets, with about a third of them posted in the last month.

Yesterday, in an interview with BoomTown’s Kara Swisher at D@CES, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo said some product goals for Twitter included a better experience for passive users and a more “agnostic” experience across platforms.

Costolo also mentioned a new zero tolerance policy for infrastructure problems, and said that Twitter does not consider itself a “platform company,” but rather one that has APIs.

The Google-Twitter connection is strong, and not just on the we-want-to-buy-you front–Google has often cast its acquisitive eyes at Twitter and still does.

And many Twitter employees were formerly Googlers, although not all in the same era or area.

Costolo himself came to Twitter after being at Google, which had acquired his last start-up, FeedBurner.

Other former Googlers include many on Twitter’s product team, such as Othman Laraki and Elad Gil, who were product managers at Google Mobile Maps and Google Toolbar before joining Twitter through its acquisition of their geo start-up Mixer Labs.

In addition, last year, Twitter nabbed Google lawyer Alexander Macgillivray as its general counsel.

And, of course, Twitter co-founders Williams and Biz Stone had worked at Google after it bought Blogger. They created Twitter after they left the company.

It’s possible that Pichai leaving Google might have something to do with the company favoring the Android mobile operating system over Chrome OS, but seems more likely that the Twitter role would just be a compelling opportunity for him.

Twitter declined comment, and Google has not responded to an inquiry about Pichai.

Until this nail-biting talent raid has a resolution, here’s a video of Pichai talking at the Web 2.0 Summit in 2009:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110108/twitter-courts-googles-sundar-pichai-to-be-its-head-of-product/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20100519/video-sports-illustrated-shows-off-a-google-ready-magazine/ http://allthingsd.com/20100519/video-sports-illustrated-shows-off-a-google-ready-magazine/#comments Wed, 19 May 2010 18:12:18 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=19692 Sports Illustrated hasn’t come to Apple’s iPad yet, but the magazine is already showing off a new version of its future: A digital version designed with Google in mind.

This one, which Editor Terry McDonell showed off at Google’s I/O developer conference today, looks a whole lot like the one the publisher says it is bringing to Apple’s gadget soon. The real difference here is the way readers/buyers get their hands on the thing: Rather than buying it from Apple’s App Store and downloading it to your iPad, you would access it via your Web browser, after purchasing it from an app store Google manages.

For most users, this may not matter very much. Regardless of which store you buy it from, the magazine should function the same way. (Don’t get hung up on the fact that it’s a Web-based app.)

But for publishers like Time Inc., the Time Warner (TWX) unit that puts out Sports Illustrated and titles like Time and People, it’s potentially a big deal: It opens up a much wider audience for the company’s publications, since they should work on any device that supports Google’s Chrome browser. Just as important, it gives Time Inc. another vendor to work with, one that might be willing to grant it concessions Apple (AAPL) won’t–like control over subscriber information, perhaps.

But all of this is a little speculative, as neither Time Inc. nor Google (GOOG) has released concrete details about the app store or the magazine. But the hope is that both will be ready in the fall.

Meantime, here’s McDonell’s presentation. He’s introduced at the event by Sundar Pichai, Google’s vice president of product management.

And here’s cleaner version of a similar demo, which McDonell taped in advance:

This doesn’t look remarkably different from the tabletized magazine demos Time Inc. and Sports Illustrated have shown off before. That is, SI (and mag publishers in general) are still primarily concerned with porting their printed product to digital form, adding some audio and video, as well as selected links to the Web. This makes sense given that both demos were produced with the Wonder Factory design shop.

See for yourself: Compare and contrast today’s demo with the one SI showed off last fall:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100519/video-sports-illustrated-shows-off-a-google-ready-magazine/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20091119/chrome-netbooks-headed-to-market-by-2010-holidays/ http://allthingsd.com/20091119/chrome-netbooks-headed-to-market-by-2010-holidays/#comments Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:15:54 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=29449 Direct from Google headquarters and liveblogged by John Pazckowski, the company’s Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management, and Matthew Papakipos, engineering director for Google Chrome OS–joined by founder Sergey Brin–discuss how they plan to bring the OS to the market, then answer some questions from the audience. Third of three segments:

How will Google bring Chrome OS to market? The company is working with vendors to specify reference hardware. You cannot download and install Chrome on just any device, you will have to purchase a Chrome device. Google is looking at a launch window of late 2010, before the holidays.

Google sounds very concerned about the end-user Chrome OS experience. Pichai says the company wants to ensure that the displays, keyboard, etc., on the netbooks that run Chrome are robust and easy to use.

Pichai wraps things up, but before the Q&A, we’re shown a short explanatory video. “The first thing I want to do when I fire up my computer is browse the Internet….If there isn’t any Internet, I might not even use my computer….What if when you pressed on, your PC turned on, what if your operating system was more like a Web browser…what if it was a browser?…Chrome OS is a totally rethought computer that lets you focus on the Internet, which is what most of use our computers for these days anyway.”

Q&A
At this point, Sundar Pichai opens the event to questions:

If you’re specifying hardware components, do you have an idea of what they’ll cost?

A: “We expect Chrome netbooks to be in the price range of what people have come to expect….We are not specifying a price target.” Price will be determined at the OEM level.

Will the APIs support W3C standards?

A: “We’re working very closely with the W3C to standardize as much as we can….In general we want to see everything standardized across multiple browsers.”

Will there be an application store?

A: “The Web offers hundreds of millions of applications. Our job is to make people aware of them.”

What about desktop applications that are not available on the Web?

A: “We expect most of our users to have a second machine at home….Chrome OS is about a delightful experience on the Web….If you’re a lawyer spending your entire day on contracts, etc., this is not the machine for you.”

Will you support Microsoft Silverlight?

A: In the case of certain selection plug-ins, we are working to integrate them. No comment beyond that.

Since Chrome is open source, could people build their own variations?

A: Yes. We expect people will do many interesting things with it.

Do you see Chrome running on laptops or desktops?

A: We’re initially focused on netbook-like form factors–clamshells, etc. That said, the OS is being developed to work on other devices.

Is there any level of offline access? What happens when I’m on a plane and don’t want to pay for Wi-Fi?

A: Chrome devices are primarily intended to be Internet-connected. That said, it will have some caching abilities so, for example, you could play a game offline.

Virtualization?

A: Yes. You could run Chrome today on a virtual machine.

Are you working with outfits like Adobe to, say, build a Web-friendly version of Photoshop?

A: We’re very excited by things like Photoshop on the Web and we’re working hard to make that possible.

Will Android apps work on Chrome? Are there plans for third-party apps?

A: Pichai dodges this one. If it’s a Web app, he says, it will work on Chrome. The Web works very, very well for Google’s purposes, he adds.

Will Chrome work on both X86 and ARM?

A: Yes.

Is there a direct business model for Chrome OS or is this another variation of the-more-people-who-use-the-Web-the-better-for-Google?

A: We are working with partners. No plans for advertising. That said, Pichai notes again that anything that runs on the Web will run on Chrome. And of course, AdWords does, indeed, run on the Web.

[Sergey Brin joins the Q&A]

Do you want Android Apps to run on Chrome?

A: We are focused on creating the use case in which everything is a Web application, but hopefully we can do more in the future.

How does Chrome handle peripherals? Can it print?

A: Most keyboards, cameras, phones, etc., will work. In terms of printing…yes, Chrome OS will print and we’re working hard to make that possible.

What is Chrome’s strategic position for Google?

A: [Brin]: Call us dumb businessmen, but we really focus on user needs rather than focus on business strategies. We believe that the Web platform is a much simpler way of computing for individuals to use, and that’s a very important need in the market right now. That’s what we’re trying to fulfill.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20091119/chrome-netbooks-headed-to-market-by-2010-holidays/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20091119/chrome-os-turning-on-a-pc-should-be-like-turning-on-your-tv/ http://allthingsd.com/20091119/chrome-os-turning-on-a-pc-should-be-like-turning-on-your-tv/#comments Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:59:51 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=29445 Direct from Google headquarters, and liveblogged by John Paczkowski, Google’s Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management and Matthew Papakipos, engineering director for Google Chrome OS, explain some of the advantages of the operating system. This is the second of three segments:

Among Chrome OS’s advantages: Speed, simplicity and security. Every application will be a Web application. There will be no desktop apps. Chrome OS is essentially a browser with a few modifications. All data in the Chrome OS reside in the cloud. Pichai: “We want all of personal computing to work that way….If I lose my Chrome machine, I should be able to go out, buy a new [one] and re-create my previous computing experience easily.” Chrome OS will run completely inside the browser security model, he adds, noting that security is one of Google’s (GOOG) top priorities along with speed. “Turning on a PC should be like turning on your TV,” he says.

Chrome OS is very similar in appearance to the Chrome browser. “Chrome OS is Chrome,” says Pichai. Google made it look like a browser, because the browser is familiar.

And indeed, Chrome OS does look quite a bit like a browser. Multiple apps load into tabs, for example. It also features “Panels,” which Pichai describes as persistent lightweight windows. “All Chrome data resides in the cloud. Anything you put in the machine is immediately available to you anywhere.”

As netbooks become more advanced and battery life improves, they will evolve into entertainment devices, says Pichai, who notes that via Google Books, a netbook can become an e-reader, and through YouTube, a video device.

A quick demo of the user interface, which seems very simple and intuitive. “It just works,” says Pichai in an unintentional nod to Apple (AAPL). An interesting remark: Anyone who writes an app for the Web has written an app for Chrome, says Pichai, joking that Microsoft (MSFT) is already developing for it.

Speed, simplicity and security, says Pichai. We’re trying to make the computing experience delightful.

With that, Sundar Pichai hands the stage over to Engineering Director Matt Papakipos.

Papakipos, too, offers the “we want to make computing delightful” sound byte and notes once again that turning on the PC should be like turning on the TV.

Chrome OS eliminates the bootloader, auto-launching the browser. The OS also auto-updates itself, making sure that it’s always current with security patches, etc. Everything from the firmware to the kernel is secured with a cryptographic signature to ensure a secure boot. In the event malware is detected, the system repairs itself automatically.

The basic application security protocol for current operating systems allows apps the same privileges as the user. This presents obvious security issues. Whenever you install a new app, you’re taking a risk, says Papakipos. But Web applications like those that Chrome OS use are different. They are Web apps so they don’t have system-level privileges. Additionally, all apps run in secured sandboxes that are separate from one other and from the OS. Finally, all apps must be signed and verified before each use.

In terms of file systems, Chrome’s is locked down. It’s a read-only root-file system, obviously quite different from other operating systems. All user data are encrypted and synched to the cloud. Essentially, Google uses the PC for caching. Again, if you should lose your machine, you buy a new one, fire it up and it synchs with the cloud, restoring your previous computing experience.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20091119/chrome-os-turning-on-a-pc-should-be-like-turning-on-your-tv/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20091119/chrome-the-end-of-desktop-apps/ http://allthingsd.com/20091119/chrome-the-end-of-desktop-apps/#comments Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:02:23 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=29434

Direct from Google headquarters and liveblogged by John Paczkowski, Google unveiled its Chrome OS. This is the first of three segments:

Google did not offer a beta of the new operating system today. Vice President of Product Management Sundar Pichai says Google is a year away from an official launch. The company, however, is making Chrome OS code available today.

According to Pichai, Google’s Chrome browser has some 40 million users one year after launch. He boasts about the browser’s speed, noting that it handles Javascript 39 times faster than Internet Explorer. There will be three more big Chrome announcements in the future: Chrome for Mac, Chrome for Linux and the debut of Chrome Extensions.

Google’s goal is to ensure that Web applications function as well as desktop apps, Pichai explains. The company is figuring out a way for Web apps to safely take advantage of the operating system in the same way that desktop apps do. A few examples: Graphics, video/audio applications, real-time communication, notification and local storage.

“By 2010 we expect to have all these things built into Chrome.”

The advent of Chrome coincides with a perfect storm of converging trends, Pichai notes, including the tremendous popularity of netbooks during the recession, the growing acceptance of cloud apps and the rapid innovation in mobile devices. Smartphones are becoming more like laptops, he adds, and laptops are becoming more like smartphones. Is there a better level of computing available for these devices? There is, says Pichai, and he believes it is Chrome OS.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20091119/chrome-the-end-of-desktop-apps/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20091119/a-first-look-at-googles-chrome-os-on-thursday/ http://allthingsd.com/20091119/a-first-look-at-googles-chrome-os-on-thursday/#comments Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:51:03 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=29252

Speaking at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans this past July, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said of Google’s forthcoming Chrome OS, “Who knows what this thing is?”

Today, he found out. The operating system, a direct challenge to Microsoft Windows, was on display at a media gathering at the Google HQ this morning.

Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management, and Matthew Papakipos, engineering director for Google Chrome OS, presided over the event, which the company described as a “technical announcement.”

That meant that Google (GOOG) was not releasing a beta of the operating system this week, as had been rumored.

That said, it was an overview of Chrome, as well as Google’s plans for its launch in 2010, so let the Chrome OS liveblogging begin:

• There will be no beta today. Pichai says Google is still a year away from an official launch. However, the company is making the code available today.
• Pichai says that a year after launch, the Chrome browser has some 40 millions users. He boasts about the browser’s speed, noting that it handles Javascript 39 times faster than Microsoft’s (MSFT) Internet Explorer. There will be three more big Chrome announcements sometime in the future: Chrome for Mac, Chrome for Linux and the debut of Chrome Extensions.
• Google’s goal is to ensure that Web applications function as well as desktop apps. Pichai says that the company is figuring out a way for Web apps to safely take advantage of the operating system in the way desktop apps do. A few examples: Graphics, video/audio applications, real-time communication, notification and local storage.

  “By 2010 we expect to have all these things built into Chrome,” Pichai adds.

• The advent of Chrome coincides with a perfect storm of converging trends, Pichai says, noting the tremendous popularity of netbooks during the recession, the growing acceptance of cloud apps and the rapid innovation in mobile devices. Smartphones are becoming more like laptops, Pichai adds, and laptops are becoming more like smartphones. Is there a better level of computing available for these devices?

  There is, according to Pichai, and Google believes it is Chrome OS.

• Among Chrome OS’s advantages, Pichai says: Speed, simplicity and security. Every application will be a Web application. There will be no desktop apps. Chrome OS is essentially a browser with a few modifications. All data in the Chrome OS resides in the cloud. Pichai: “We want all of personal computing to work that way….If I lose my Chrome machine, I should be able to go out, buy a new [one] and re-create my previous computing experience easily.”

  Chrome OS will run completely inside the browser security model, he adds, noting that security is one of Google’s top priorities along with speed. “Turning on a PC should be like turning on your TV,” he says.

• Chrome OS is very similar in appearance to the Chrome browser. “Chrome OS is Chrome,” says Pichai. Google made it look like a browser, because the browser is familiar.
• And indeed, Chrome OS does look quite a bit like a browser. Multiple apps load into tabs, for example. It also features “Panels,” which Pichai describes as persistent lightweight windows. “All Chrome data resides in the cloud. Anything you put in the machine is immediately available to you anywhere.”
• As netbooks become more advanced and battery life improves, they will evolve into entertainment devices, says Pichai, who notes that via Google Books, a netbook can become an e-reader, and, through YouTube, a video device.
• A quick demo of the user interface, which seems very simple and intuitive. “It just works,” says Pichai in an unintentional nod to Apple (AAPL).

  An interesting remark: Anyone who writes an app for the Web has written an app for Chrome, says Pichai, joking that Microsoft is already developing for it.

• Speed, simplicity and security, says Pichai. We’re trying to make the computing experience delightful.

With that, Pichai hands the stage over to Engineering Director Matt Papakipos.

• Papakipos, too, offers the “we want to make computing delightful” sound byte and notes once again that turning on the PC should be like turning on the TV.
• Chrome OS eliminates the bootloader, auto-launching the browser. The OS also auto-updates itself, making sure that it’s always current with security patches, etc. Everything from the firmware to the kernel is secured with a cryptographic signature to ensure a secure boot. In the event malware is detected, the system repairs itself automatically.
• The basic application security protocol for current operating systems allows apps the same privileges as the user. This presents obvious security issues. Whenever you install a new app, you’re taking a risk, says Papakipos.

  But Web applications like those that Chrome OS use, are different. They are Web apps, so they don’t have system-level privileges. Additionally, all apps run in secured sandboxes that are separate from one other and from the OS. Finally, all apps must be signed and verified before each use.

• In terms of file systems, Chrome’s is locked down. It’s a read-only root-file system, obviously quite different from other operating systems. All user data are encrypted and synched to the cloud. Essentially, Google uses the PC for caching. Again, if you should lose your machine, you buy a new one, fire it up and it synchs with the cloud, restoring your previous computing experience.
• How will Google bring Chrome OS to market? The company is working with vendors to specify reference hardware. You cannot download and install Chrome on just any device, you will have to purchase a Chrome device. Google is looking at a launch window of late 2010, before the holidays.
• Google sounds very concerned about the end-user Chrome OS experience. Pichai says the company wants to ensure that the displays, keyboard, etc., on the netbooks that run Chrome are robust and easy to use.
• Pichai wraps things up, but before the Q&A, we’re shown a short explanatory video. “The first thing I want to do when I fire up my computer is browse the Internet….If there isn’t any Internet, I might not even use my computer….What if when you pressed on, your PC turned on, what if your operating system was more like a Web browser…what if it was a browser?…Chrome OS is a totally rethought computer that lets you focus on the Internet, which is what most of use our computers for these days anyway.”

Q&A

At this point, Pichai opens the event to questions:

If you’re specifying hardware components, do you must have an idea of what they’ll cost?

A: We expect Chrome netbooks to be in the price range of what people have come to expect….We are not specifying a price target. Price will be determined at the OEM level.

Will the APIs support W3C standards?

A: We’re working very closely with the W3C to standardize as much as we can….In general, we want to see everything standardized across multiple browsers.

Will there be an application store?

A: The Web offers hundreds of millions of applications. Our job is to make people aware of them.

What about desktop applications that are not available on the Web?

A: We expect most of our users to have a second machine at home….Chrome OS is about a delightful experience on the Web….If you’re a lawyer spending your entire day on contracts, etc., this is not the machine for you.

Will you support Microsoft Silverlight?

A: In the case of certain selection plug-ins, we are working to integrate them. No comment beyond that.

Since Chrome is open source, could people build their own variations?

A: Yes. We expect people will do many interesting things with it.

Do you see Chrome running on laptops or desktops?

A: We’re initially focused on netbook-like form factors–clamshells, etc. That said, the OS is being developed to work on other devices.

Is there any level of offline access? What happens when I’m on a plane and don’t want to pay for Wi-Fi?

A: Chrome devices are primarily intended to be Internet-connected. That said, it will have some caching abilities so, for example, you could play a game offline.

Virtualization?

A: Yes. You could run Chrome today on a virtual machine.

Are you working with outfits like Adobe to, say, build a Web-friendly version of Photoshop?

A: We’re very excited by things like Photoshop on the Web and we’re working hard to make that possible.

Will Android apps work on Chrome? Are there plans for third-party apps?

A: [Pichai dodges this one.] If it’s a Web app, it will work on Chrome. The Web works very, very well for our purposes.

Will Chrome work on both X86 and ARM?

A: Yes.

Is there a direct business model for Chrome OS or is this another variation of the-more-people-that-use-the-Web-the-better-for-Google?

A: We are working with partners. No plans for advertising. That said, Pichai notes again that anything that runs on the Web will run on Chrome. And of course, AdWords does, indeed, run on the Web.

[Sergey Brin joins the Q&A]

Do you want Android Apps to run on Chrome?

A: We are focused on creating the use case in which everything is a Web application, but hopefully we can do more in the future.

How does Chrome handle peripherals? Can it print?

A: Most keyboards, cameras, phones, etc., will work. In terms of printing…yes, Chrome OS will print and we’re working hard to make that possible.

What is Chrome’s strategic position for Google?

A: [Brin]: Call us dumb businessmen, but we really focus on user needs rather than focus on business strategies. We believe that the Web platform is a much simpler way of computing for individuals to use, and that’s a very important need in the market right now. That’s what we’re trying to fulfill.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20091119/a-first-look-at-googles-chrome-os-on-thursday/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090805/google-acquires-on2-technologies/ http://allthingsd.com/20090805/google-acquires-on2-technologies/#comments Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:31:03 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=22815 Google’s acquisitive appetite has returned. This morning the company said it will acquire On2 Technologies, which develops video compression technology, for $106.5 million.

A stock-for-stock transaction, the deal will see each share of On2 exchanged for 60 cents worth of Google class A common stock. On2 shares closed at 38 cents Tuesday, so the company and its investors are presumably quite pleased with the deal.

As is Google (GOOG), which plans to use On2’s (ONT) advanced compression technologies to enhance YouTube and perhaps even make its own video infrastructure play.

“Today video is an essential part of the Web experience, and we believe high-quality video compression technology should be a part of the Web platform,” said Sundar Pichai, vice president, Product Management, Google. “We are committed to innovation in video quality on the web, and we believe that On2′s team and technology will help us further that goal.”

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090805/google-acquires-on2-technologies/feed/ 2 http://allthingsd.com/20080901/the-entire-google-chrome-blog-announcement/ http://allthingsd.com/20080901/the-entire-google-chrome-blog-announcement/#comments Mon, 01 Sep 2008 21:15:55 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=3058

As was reported earlier this morning by BoomTown, Google has confirmed on its blog that it will launch its new Chrome browser tomorrow.

Google (GOOG) said it would be launching Chrome in 100 countries, but it will only be in beta in Windows (Google said Mac and Linux versions were coming soon).

The move by the search giant, although the blog does not say so, is clearly a direct shot over the bow of Microsoft (MSFT), which dominates the browser market with 74 percent share.

Here is the blog post in full:

A fresh take on the browser

9/01/2008 02:10:00 PM

At Google, we have a saying: “launch early and iterate.” While this approach is usually limited to our engineers, it apparently applies to our mailroom as well! As you may have read in the blogosphere, we hit “send” a bit early on a comic book introducing our new open source browser, Google Chrome. We will be launching the beta version of Google Chrome tomorrow in more than 100 countries.

So why are we launching Google Chrome? Because we believe we can add value for users and, at the same time, help drive innovation on the Web.

All of us at Google spend much of our time working inside a browser. We search, chat, email and collaborate in a browser. And in our spare time, we shop, bank, read news and keep in touch with friends–all using a browser. Because we spend so much time online, we began seriously thinking about what kind of browser could exist if we started from scratch and built on the best elements out there. We realized that the Web had evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications and that we needed to completely rethink the browser. What we really needed was not just a browser, but also a modern platform for Web pages and applications, and that’s what we set out to build.

On the surface, we designed a browser window that is streamlined and simple. To most people, it isn’t the browser that matters. It’s only a tool to run the important stuff–the pages, sites and applications that make up the Web. Like the classic Google homepage, Google Chrome is clean and fast. It gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go.

Under the hood, we were able to build the foundation of a browser that runs today’s complex Web applications much better. By keeping each tab in an isolated “sandbox,” we were able to prevent one tab from crashing another and provide improved protection from rogue sites. We improved speed and responsiveness across the board. We also built a more powerful JavaScript engine, V8, to power the next generation of Web applications that aren’t even possible in today’s browsers.

This is just the beginning–Google Chrome is far from done. We’re releasing this beta for Windows to start the broader discussion and hear from you as quickly as possible. We’re hard at work building versions for Mac and Linux too, and will continue to make it even faster and more robust.

We owe a great debt to many open source projects, and we’re committed to continuing on their path. We’ve used components from Apple’s WebKit and Mozilla’s Firefox, among others–and in that spirit, we are making all of our code open source as well. We hope to collaborate with the entire community to help drive the Web forward.

The Web gets better with more options and innovation. Google Chrome is another option, and we hope it contributes to making the Web even better.

So check in again tomorrow to try Google Chrome for yourself. We’ll post an update here as soon as it’s ready.

Posted by Sundar Pichai, VP Product Management, and Linus Upson, Engineering Director

Also, here is the entire comic book Google is using to explain the technical aspects of Chrome, and here is Digital Daily’s John Paczkowski with a CliffNotes version of the comic (believe me, you’ll need it).

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

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