14 DAY TRIAL // Google's Larry Page took over as CEO about a year ago. Since then, Google launched Google+, Search Plus Your World, ticked off people with a rather harmless privacy policy change, gotten a visual revamp and so on. It hasn't been quiet. One year into the job, Page posted a lengthy update on his and the company's mission.
For something several thousand words long, it doesn't really say much, at least not something that hasn't been said before. Page talks about the focus on social, the need for a beautiful product, long-term bets, love and trust and so on.
While there's no news or some big new vision, the piece is worth a read since it provides a great overview of how Google's boss sees the company.
"Excellence matters, and technology advances so fast that the potential for improvement is tremendous. So, since becoming CEO again, I’ve pushed hard to increase our velocity, improve our execution, and focus on the big bets that will make a difference in the world," Page writes.
"Last April, I began by reorganizing the management team around our core products to improve responsibility and accountability across Google," he remembered.
"I also kicked off a big clean-up. Google has so many opportunities that, unless we make some hard choices, we end up spreading ourselves too thin and don’t have the impact we want," he added.
Page touched on the big topics at Google. One was a more beautiful experience. He's the one behind the big redesign that's been sweeping across Google products for almost a year now. He believes that simplicity and beauty should be at the core of any Google product, the technology should do all the heavy lifting, the user only has to enjoy it.
He also talked about the new direction in search, specifically, about the need for personalization. Obviously, he's talking about the Search Plus Your World revamp introduced earlier this year, to quite a lot of discussion.
He didn't spend too much time on the privacy policy change, except to reiterate what Google has been saying, the change was needed to allow its products to better work together.
Google's quarterly financial report is coming next week, so you'll probably hear most of this all over again then.