Google Factory Tour-ists

Tons of copy still coming in about yesterday’s Google Factory Tour and the products discussed or launched during the dog-and-pony show. Not surprising given that some 100 journalists attended in person and an estimated 500 journalists/analysts watched via webcast (a chance to participate in the q-and-a’s would have been nice) Make no mistake, the payoff was higher for Google than for the journalists — but every time we learn more about how something works, users benefit.
Om Malik: “Whatever the reasons, it is clear, Google is perhaps the only company that can knock Steve Jobs from his pedestal when it comes to media adulation. … Perhaps they don’t know, we the media are known to bite the hand that feeds. The glorious rise, and fall of Netscape, was covered with equally enthusiastic glee by the modern media.”

– SearchEngineWatch has all the presentation slides. One of my favorites: Google around the world.What people in the U.S. often miss is Google’s global reach. Number of languages for some Google products/services: Google.com, 100-plus; AdWords, 41; AdSense,22; Gmail, 13; Google Desktop Search, 10. Google News has 22 editions. Google accepts 48 currencies.
Google Earth (th is not a plan to take over the world; it’s Keyhole on steroids, 3D, high-res satellite images that are like being there.Update: Charles Cooper always treats “these orchestrated events with great suspicion, but you have to turn up–just in case. Unfortunately, the best I can say about this gabfest is that lunch was swell. This was a pure PR snow job … When it comes to explaining what’s really going on at Google, these guys have a lot to learn. I’m not talking about the kissy magazine cover stories PR regularly places. I’m talking about getting the goods.
Microsoft is far savvier about brainwashing the Fourth Estate. And their execs–at least the smarter ones like Steve Ballmer–will occasionally level with us about what’s not working.”

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