Here is another account of the interview from a Forbes blog: [blogs.forbes.com...]

And here is a video clip directly from AllThingsDigital: What Is The Eric Schmidt Google Era? [allthingsd.com]

A lot of other interesting stuff in this Schmidt interview. Here are a few that I appreciated.

Schmidt says he is very concerned that sum of the economic interests will ultimately lead to balkinization of the Internet. As lack of harmony on various laws unfolds, there could be an Internet per country. He says it is important to have an Internet that is the same everywhere.

Asked about things he [Schmidt] did wrong, he mentioned social. "I screwed up," he says.

Mossberg asks if Google knows too much about us. Schmidt responds that you might prefer to have a private company making those decisions rather the federal government. He says Google will remain a place where you can do anonymous searches. You can continue to do that if you don't log in. He says if you use it as logged user, you can see what we have, and tell us to forget it, he says. Schmidt says they need to keep some information to make algorithms better; he says they are defaulting to keep data for 12-18 months. He says privacy is a trade-off between public safety and right to privacy.

[edited by: tedster at 7:04 pm (utc) on Jun 1, 2011]

Schmidt says he is very concerned that sum of the economic interests will ultimately lead to balkinization of the Internet. As lack of harmony on various laws unfolds, there could be an Internet per country. He says it is important to have an Internet that is the same everywhere.

This guy is very funny.He isn't realizing at how his own company, in its own economic interest, is screwing up the internet with all kinds of balkinization - social, personal, places and so on. Now, is he fearing the laws of countries worldwide will go against their economic interests?

Here's the "in-a-nutshell" quote about privacy from Eric Schmidt yesterday:

Google will remain a place where you can do anonymous searches, where we don't know anything about you. And we're very committed to having you have control over the information we have about you. From our perspective, the ultimate answer is transparency - we tell people what we know and we give them the choice of getting it deleted.

Google will remain a place where you can do anonymous searches, where we don't know anything about you. And we're very committed to having you have control over the information we have about you. From our perspective, the ultimate answer is transparency - we tell people what we know and we give them the choice of getting it deleted.

Uh huh. That's the equivalent of a politician saying, "let me be perfectly clear."

As lack of harmony on various laws unfolds, there could be an Internet per country. He says it is important to have an Internet that is the same everywhere.

Inevitable, ( as is happening now ), and acts against a uniform product of scale which in turn hinders Google's totalitarian commerical intentions.

Google will remain a place where you can do anonymous searches

Coming from the company that announced they can get facebook data even if blocked by Facebook?

Coming from the company that says they want to get close to the creepy line with it's users?

Coming from the company who claims their cameras were accidentally programmed to grab peoples wifi data from their own homes?

Coming from the company who proclaims to know what its users want before they know they want it?

I could go on but even if true the announcements reveal the mindset... just yikes.

What is a "narrow" case, 1 result out of 10? 2 out of 10? It's certainly not uncommon right now. I don't fully blame Google for that though even if they are responsible, displacing the lives(livelihood) of many webmasters has led to even more extreme practices by some. People got fired because of Panda, it's too soon to work on trust for Google, they have real issues to fix first imo.

I suppose that's what I'm getting at, I want to see the new CEO fix real issues affecting the webmasters who's content is making Google billions. I have no tolerance for lip service at the moment.

P.S. I'm not pro-Bing or anti-Google either, I'll be the first to toot Google's horn when I like what they do.

sgt, Google now faces crippling $16,000 fines for each new privacy violation. A violation is a user so the math works very much against google.
[ftc.gov...]

Google Inc. has agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it used deceptive tactics and violated its own privacy promises to consumers when it launched its social network, Google Buzz, in 2010. The agency alleges the practices violate the FTC Act. The proposed settlement bars the company from future privacy misrepresentations, requires it to implement a comprehensive privacy program, and calls for regular, independent privacy audits for the next 20 years. This is the first time an FTC settlement order has required a company to implement a comprehensive privacy program to protect the privacy of consumers’ information. In addition, this is the first time the FTC has alleged violations of the substantive privacy requirements of the U.S.-EU Safe Harbor Framework, which provides a method for U.S. companies to transfer personal data lawfully from the European Union to the United States.

“When companies make privacy pledges, they need to honor them,” said Jon Leibowitz, Chairman of the FTC. “This is a tough settlement that ensures that Google will honor its commitments to consumers and build strong privacy protections into all of its operations."+

.......

When the Commission issues a consent order on a final basis, it carries the force of law with respect to future actions. Each violation of such an order may result in a civil penalty of up to $16,000.