Google Factory Tour

(05/19/2008)

9:22

rafe:

Setting up for liveblog coverage now... stand by...

Monday May 19, 2008 9:22 rafe

9:26

rafe:

Passed a row of Google washers and dryers coming into conference room.

Monday May 19, 2008 9:26 rafe

9:28

rafe:

Waiting for this thing to kick off.

Monday May 19, 2008 9:28 rafe

9:29

rafe:

Trying to upload some pictures...

Monday May 19, 2008 9:29 rafe

9:30

[Image]

DSC_1472.JPG View

Monday May 19, 2008 9:30

9:31

rafe:

That's Marissa Mayer

Monday May 19, 2008 9:31 rafe

9:33

[Comment From AlexAlex: ]

What are they going to be talking about at this tour.

Monday May 19, 2008 9:33 Alex

9:34

rafe:

Search, I believe. Also possibly the new ad stuff: http://www.webware.com/8301-1_109-9947161-2.html

Monday May 19, 2008 9:34 rafe

9:34

[Image]

banner.jpg View

Monday May 19, 2008 9:34

9:37

rafe:

Waiting waiting

Monday May 19, 2008 9:37 rafe

9:43

[Image]

the-press.jpg View

Monday May 19, 2008 9:43

9:44

rafe:

Image upload a bit wonky, but here's another one. That's Stephen Shankland in the foreground, retouching his pix of Mayer.

Monday May 19, 2008 9:44 rafe

9:45

[Comment From chrischris: ]

the google video quality is very poor!!

Monday May 19, 2008 9:45 chris

9:45

rafe:

"Ladies and gentlemen, we apologize for the delay."

Monday May 19, 2008 9:45 rafe

9:46

[Comment From LynwoodLynwood: ]

rafe, I'm really interested in the google maps discussion, do you think that it will pertain to the ads or something else

Monday May 19, 2008 9:46 Lynwood

9:47

rafe:

@Lynwood, Don't know. There was the interesting ad news this AM, and there is a Maps person on the lineup today. Good question, we'll see.

Monday May 19, 2008 9:47 rafe

9:47

[Comment From BillBill: ]

Any movement?

Monday May 19, 2008 9:47 Bill

9:48

rafe:

@Bill: Nothing, we still waiting. And listening to too-mellow Jack Johnson tunes.

Monday May 19, 2008 9:48 rafe

9:51

[Comment From LynwoodLynwood: ]

if there is a Q&A and it's relevant I would like to know if you can place a google maps ad even though you don't own the business, but link to it. e.g. we run this website hotelmapsearch.com and we are looking at models where we can make money if someone clicks on a google ad for one of our hotels. Thanks, and I think this live blog widget is pretty cool

Monday May 19, 2008 9:51 Lynwood

9:51

rafe:

Come ON Google!

Monday May 19, 2008 9:51 rafe

9:51

rafe:

Ok, here we go.

Monday May 19, 2008 9:51 rafe

9:51

rafe:

Marissa Mayer taking the stage

Monday May 19, 2008 9:51 rafe

9:52

rafe:

Search is more interesting than before, etc.

Monday May 19, 2008 9:52 rafe

9:52

rafe:

She is introducing RJ Pittman, who developed Groxis, Grokker.

Monday May 19, 2008 9:52 rafe

9:52

rafe:

RJ Pittman, Dir of Prod Management...

Monday May 19, 2008 9:52 rafe

9:53

rafe:

He is manager of search properties: Alerts, Book Search, Images, Finance, Patent Search, Blog Search, etc.

Monday May 19, 2008 9:53 rafe

9:53

rafe:

"It's not enough to provide a great content experience, but we have to manage the influx, the overload of content coming in today."

Monday May 19, 2008 9:53 rafe

9:54

rafe:

Another responsibility: "Manging the user experience, and the move from one user exp to the next."

Monday May 19, 2008 9:54 rafe

9:54

rafe:

Today will be talking about three search properties:
Image Search up first

Monday May 19, 2008 9:54 rafe

9:55

rafe:

300M dig photos taken every day; 100B per year, half a trillion in circulation by 2009.

800M cameraphones sold in 08

Monday May 19, 2008 9:55 rafe

9:56

rafe:

Today: hundreds of millions of image searches every day, against billions of images indexed

Monday May 19, 2008 9:56 rafe

9:56

rafe:

How to make image search useful?

Monday May 19, 2008 9:56 rafe

9:57

rafe:

Google should have search for...
* Image similarity
* Oject recognition, e.g., "find Eifell Tower"
* Facial recognition

Monday May 19, 2008 9:57 rafe

9:57

rafe:

So I guess all these things are coming soonish.

Monday May 19, 2008 9:57 rafe

9:58

[Comment From Doug RossDoug Ross: ]

What kind of watermarking or IP protection technologies can and should be used on images indexed by Google? Is that a service that Google has considered offering?

Monday May 19, 2008 9:58 Doug Ross

9:58

rafe:

Good Q

Monday May 19, 2008 9:58 rafe

9:59

rafe:

RJ: New fronteir is working on gigantic (gigapixel) images

Monday May 19, 2008 9:59 rafe

10:00

rafe:

RJ: Geotagging. Relevant for new cameraphones, which will be able to encode location into pictures

Monday May 19, 2008 10:00 rafe

10:01

rafe:

RJ: Image search has to be inexact. People are used to searching on fuzzy terms.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:01 rafe

10:01

rafe:

RJ: Image search very important for online commerce.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:01 rafe

10:02

rafe:

Announcing today: New suite of image experiments, pairing image search with advertising.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:02 rafe

10:02

[Comment From allenallen: ]

great job rafe - i linked you up on cn

Monday May 19, 2008 10:02 allen

10:02

rafe:

Looking for "true user experience alignment."

Monday May 19, 2008 10:02 rafe

10:03

rafe:

Experience: Do an image search on google, you'll get images in ads.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:03 rafe

10:03

rafe:

Makes sense to me.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:03 rafe

10:03

rafe:

Next: News on Google News.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:03 rafe

10:04

rafe:

TJ Talking about Story Clusters. And local search.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:04 rafe

10:04

rafe:

RJ, sorry.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:04 rafe

10:05

rafe:

Google working on local news search some more. Disambiguate stories about "Paris, France," and "Paris Hilton". Uses story cluster analysis to figure out what's what.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:05 rafe

10:05

rafe:

It's not just about stories about a location, but stories from local sources.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:05 rafe

10:07

rafe:

google wifi gave me IP conflict, just switched to HSDOA

Monday May 19, 2008 10:07 rafe

10:07

rafe:

HSDPA, sorry.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:07 rafe

10:08

rafe:

RJ talking about Stock Quotes now. New visualization tools coming to stock screens

Monday May 19, 2008 10:08 rafe

10:09

rafe:

RJ "We are setting the standard for demystifying..." financial data.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:09 rafe

10:09

rafe:

Google Stocks now international, not just US. But "we're just getting started with Google Finance."

Monday May 19, 2008 10:09 rafe

10:10

rafe:

Next up: Michael Cohen, Google Labs

Monday May 19, 2008 10:10 rafe

10:10

rafe:

MC: "We realized that they're not all going to be homeruns," in the Labs.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:10 rafe

10:11

rafe:

Two examples point out directions for labs.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:11 rafe

10:11

rafe:

1. Experimental Search. You can "bolt on" experiments to search, like timeline or map view. More experiments like these coming

Monday May 19, 2008 10:11 rafe

10:12

rafe:

2. Google Trends. Still developing. "Our vision is to allow users to understand consumer markets and trends,"

Monday May 19, 2008 10:12 rafe

10:12

rafe:

If you ask me, it's scary to think that Google Search is such an accurate barometer of the consumer mindset.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:12 rafe

10:13

rafe:

This trend data could be applied to politicis, stock analysis

Monday May 19, 2008 10:13 rafe

10:14

rafe:

"If search queries were predictive of elections, you might want to mine this data for geographic differences."

Monday May 19, 2008 10:14 rafe

10:14

rafe:

Ok, cool stuff, but nothing new here.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:14 rafe

10:14

rafe:

RJ: Come by at lunch for sneak peak at the new innovations.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:14 rafe

10:15

rafe:

Yeah, I will....

Monday May 19, 2008 10:15 rafe

10:15

rafe:

Next up: Carter Maslan, Google Maps.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:15 rafe

10:16

rafe:

"Local search is a geographic lens onto any content type that has... a connection to place."

Monday May 19, 2008 10:16 rafe

10:16

rafe:

Ok.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:16 rafe

10:16

rafe:

CM's goal: Organize the world's info geographically.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:16 rafe

10:17

rafe:

Local search: Why it's hard:

Monday May 19, 2008 10:17 rafe

10:18

rafe:

Clustering. How do you take map data and understand it. What are the hints to know that two building at one address are related, and how do you identify them separately.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:18 rafe

10:18

rafe:

And, "whose reality is it?"

Monday May 19, 2008 10:18 rafe

10:19

rafe:

Now that's an interesting question.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:19 rafe

10:19

rafe:

CM's point: Different people call the same place different things.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:19 rafe

10:20

rafe:

Google maps also interprets queries based on location. E.g. "New York, New York" is different if you're looking at USA map vs Las Vegas map.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:20 rafe

10:21

rafe:

CM: Maps is very "Long tail".
See maps.google.com/recentedits

Monday May 19, 2008 10:21 rafe

10:21

rafe:

End users "are making maps more accurate."

Monday May 19, 2008 10:21 rafe

10:22

rafe:

And, "How do you create a mirror world?"

Monday May 19, 2008 10:22 rafe

10:22

rafe:

Google needs to "create a canvas," or "provide a substrate for the virtual world."

Monday May 19, 2008 10:22 rafe

10:22

rafe:

Starts with satellite imagery and hi-rez aerial images.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:22 rafe

10:23

rafe:

Demo: Let's say we're at Moscone center and we want to go to Giants game.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:23 rafe

10:23

rafe:

New street view plus navigation shows you how your turns look.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:23 rafe

10:24

rafe:

"But even street view is not where we want to stop"

Monday May 19, 2008 10:24 rafe

10:24

rafe:

Now he's switched to Google Earth

Monday May 19, 2008 10:24 rafe

10:24

rafe:

Need not just photos but a true 3D model of the planet.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:24 rafe

10:25

rafe:

CM: We coordinate two kinds of satellite images, two kinds of aerial images, plus street level an 3D modeling.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:25 rafe

10:25

rafe:

Ok, so how do we annotate the planet?
Demo: Map of bigfoot sighting with animated timeline (peaking in 1970s)

Monday May 19, 2008 10:25 rafe

10:26

rafe:

Users also doing useful things like creating transit maps in Santiago.
Or building 3D models of big buddhas in Hong Kong

Monday May 19, 2008 10:26 rafe

10:27

rafe:

Also can tell stories, like crisis in Darfur

Monday May 19, 2008 10:27 rafe

10:28

rafe:

CM showing how user annotations into Google geo data are expanding.
Next challenge: Put all that data in context for users.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:28 rafe

10:29

rafe:

Demo: Showing overlay of transit times over Zurich hotel maps

Monday May 19, 2008 10:29 rafe

10:30

rafe:

In maps, try "from: baden to: zurich" and it will map the route for you.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:30 rafe

10:31

rafe:

Now, turn on photo layer, and user-taken photos are overlaid.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:31 rafe

10:31

[Comment From Eddie TrumanEddie Truman: ]

Thanks so much for this, I'm sitting here in Scotland watching a presentation on another continent !

Monday May 19, 2008 10:31 Eddie Truman

10:31

[Comment From LynwoodLynwood: ]

rafe, I'm really interested in the google maps discussion, do you think that it will pertain to the ads or something else

Monday May 19, 2008 10:31 Lynwood

10:31

[Comment From dmitridmitri: ]

I guess the image searching ties neatly into android

Monday May 19, 2008 10:31 dmitri

10:32

rafe:

Areas left to improve:
hard queries.

Demo: query: "beachfront hotels, los angeles"

Monday May 19, 2008 10:32 rafe

10:33

rafe:

Example that determines intent based on location.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:33 rafe

10:33

rafe:

Demo: "From: SFO to: 1 market street" (assumes 1 market in San Fran)

Monday May 19, 2008 10:33 rafe

10:33

[Comment From abubakar from lahoreabubakar from lahore: ]

this "from:baden to:zurich" was cool

Monday May 19, 2008 10:33 abubakar from lahore

10:34

rafe:

Demo "marin headlands hiking"
Results too undifferentiated.

Also "Kansas State." Doesn't know if you want the state or the university

Monday May 19, 2008 10:34 rafe

10:35

rafe:

Demo: Transition from 3D map to street level. "You can see a whole claass of problems that pop up."

Monday May 19, 2008 10:35 rafe

10:36

rafe:

Transient data becomes an issue

Monday May 19, 2008 10:36 rafe

10:36

rafe:

The end result: "All the world's information, geographically organized."

Monday May 19, 2008 10:36 rafe

10:36

rafe:

Marissa coming back up now

Monday May 19, 2008 10:36 rafe

10:37

rafe:

MM: Joke: Carter's work will eventually make "Google help find your keys."

Monday May 19, 2008 10:37 rafe

10:37

rafe:

Up now Johanna Wright, Director of Search Quality

Monday May 19, 2008 10:37 rafe

10:38

rafe:

google "did you mean", an early example of defining user intent.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:38 rafe

10:38

[Comment From sjwanosjwano: ]

How does the engine deal with interpretations of Boolean search language?

Monday May 19, 2008 10:38 sjwano

10:38

rafe:

JW: More on intent, "Here's what I said; now show me what I want."

Monday May 19, 2008 10:38 rafe

10:39

rafe:

Start with Universal Search: It's the effort to bring all Google's search data to the user when they want it.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:39 rafe

10:39

[Comment From LynwoodLynwood: ]

I wonder what their algorithm will be for verifying or rating the quality of user provided geo data, on our site hotel owners provide their locations - and a lot of time it is wrong. (We've got some strange hotels popping up in Siberia)

Monday May 19, 2008 10:39 Lynwood

10:40

rafe:

More data types rising in universal search: Products, blogs, etc.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:40 rafe

10:40

rafe:

Video search is really spiking (Thanks, YouTube)

Monday May 19, 2008 10:40 rafe

10:41

rafe:

Image search takes twice the computational power as regular search. Add in all the other search types and it can take 7x the computational power.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:41 rafe

10:41

rafe:

And then there's the challenge of ranking. How do you compare a video results to a book result?

Monday May 19, 2008 10:41 rafe

10:41

rafe:

Final challenge: User experience. How to make this rich info familiar to users?

Monday May 19, 2008 10:41 rafe

10:42

rafe:

Recent changes in universal search: Reviews are now added

Monday May 19, 2008 10:42 rafe

10:43

rafe:

Newish: when the query is very broad, show a lot of results to give the user a better idea of what's available

Monday May 19, 2008 10:43 rafe

10:44

rafe:

Demo: Search "blackberry bold"
Highlihgts timeliness and blog search

Monday May 19, 2008 10:44 rafe

10:44

rafe:

Demo: Query = "How to make nan"
video pops to top.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:44 rafe

10:45

[Comment From UI GuyUI Guy: ]

How did you determine the proper balance between # of results made available and performance? Do certain customer segments request "all" results due to their due dilligence needs?

Monday May 19, 2008 10:45 UI Guy

10:45

rafe:

Demo: Query = "lisa leinbaugh photographs"
Shows her photos.
Highlights long tail results

Monday May 19, 2008 10:45 rafe

10:46

rafe:

JW: "We want to understand the user intent of every query"

Monday May 19, 2008 10:46 rafe

10:47

rafe:

Final image: Univseral search worldwide.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:47 rafe

10:47

rafe:

Now up: Tristan, International Search Quality Team

Monday May 19, 2008 10:47 rafe

10:48

rafe:

Goal: "Give our users more, even when they tell us less."

Monday May 19, 2008 10:48 rafe

10:49

rafe:

Demo: query = "Tax"
On google.com, useful links for US residents.
On google.co.uk, gives you the results you need if you're a Brit.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:49 rafe

10:50

rafe:

My question: Do people in other countries use their local Google, or just default to google.com?

Monday May 19, 2008 10:50 rafe

10:51

rafe:

Tristan: Advice: Don't ask Google.com for advice on planting tomatoes if you are in Australia. It's US-focused.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:51 rafe

10:52

rafe:

Google does over 100 languages in 150+ countries

Monday May 19, 2008 10:52 rafe

10:53

[Comment From LynwoodLynwood: ]

I don't know for sure - but DNS can serve up a certain page based on where you are coming from - if you hit our site from Europe it serves content from a European server

Monday May 19, 2008 10:53 Lynwood

10:53

[Comment From KrisKris: ]

I am a Japanese American living in USA. Sometimes, I search in google.com using Japanese, how is Google going to solve showing results in Chinese, and increase the quality of search for non-english speakers searching in google.com?

Monday May 19, 2008 10:53 Kris

10:54

rafe:

Breaking: Google Health launched. www.google.com/health

Monday May 19, 2008 10:54 rafe

10:54

rafe:

Not that we are hearing it here.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:54 rafe

10:55

rafe:

Tristan is talking about hyper-local search

Monday May 19, 2008 10:55 rafe

10:57

rafe:

Google Health, now in beta, will be discussed after the break.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:57 rafe

10:57

rafe:

Last preso before the break from Pandu Nayak...

Monday May 19, 2008 10:57 rafe

10:58

rafe:

He's talking about disambiguation, e.g., "Dr" - does it mean Drive or Doctor?

Monday May 19, 2008 10:58 rafe

10:58

rafe:

Or Domincan Republic

Monday May 19, 2008 10:58 rafe

10:59

rafe:

Ok, this is all very cool and geeky, but I feel this preso and the last were just filler.

Monday May 19, 2008 10:59 rafe

11:00

rafe:

News value here is very low so far. images in ads, nice. http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9947326-7.html. But Google Health is the other big story here, and they're numbing us now with all this talk on hyper-local disambiguation etc.

Monday May 19, 2008 11:00 rafe

11:01

rafe:

Pandu: Talking about squaring the circle, concepts of queries, etc. I am sparing you.

Monday May 19, 2008 11:01 rafe

11:02

[Comment From LynwoodLynwood: ]

this chat is reminding me of mystery science theatre 3000 :-)

Monday May 19, 2008 11:02 Lynwood

11:02

rafe:

Thanks!

Monday May 19, 2008 11:02 rafe

11:04

rafe:

Ok, I am convinced: Google Search is smarter than users give it credit for.

Monday May 19, 2008 11:04 rafe

11:04

rafe:

Maybe all this positioning is in defense of rise of semantic search, which Google i guess is sort of easing in to.

Monday May 19, 2008 11:04 rafe

11:04

[Comment From MarkMark: ]

What was the reason for the factory tour?

Monday May 19, 2008 11:04 Mark

11:05

rafe:

@Mark, I think it's the opening act for Google Health, which comes up soon.

Monday May 19, 2008 11:05 rafe

11:05

rafe:

(and by soon I mean in a few minutes)

Monday May 19, 2008 11:05 rafe

11:07

rafe:

Google Health early story: http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9947389-7.html

Monday May 19, 2008 11:07 rafe

11:07

[Comment From mauricemaurice: ]

google easing into semantic search? that sounds huge! thought they said it could be gamed and needed alot of work before they used it!

Monday May 19, 2008 11:07 maurice

11:07

rafe:

10 min break now, then Google Health

Monday May 19, 2008 11:07 rafe

11:08

rafe:

@Maurice. They never once said "semantic" but all these little improvements on "user intent" are easing them into it.

Monday May 19, 2008 11:08 rafe

11:19

rafe:

Sorry about the pause just now. My laptop crashed, had to reboot.

Monday May 19, 2008 11:19 rafe

11:19

rafe:

Fortunately, it was during the break

Monday May 19, 2008 11:19 rafe

11:20

[Comment From MarkMark: ]

After reviewing the google health site, i was wondering if they would increase their security on the site. TONS of personal information can be stored via that site.

Monday May 19, 2008 11:20 Mark

11:20

rafe:

Yes, that's the key issue with health.

Monday May 19, 2008 11:20 rafe

11:20

rafe:

Stay tuned for a few min, and we'll see

Monday May 19, 2008 11:20 rafe

11:20

[Comment From LynwoodLynwood: ]

All of the talk though today was stressing the fact that they can provide user relevant results without resorting to tracking a user's individual behavior - it's nice that they are taking up the challenge

Monday May 19, 2008 11:20 Lynwood

11:20

[Comment From mauricemaurice: ]

Interesting. Read this old article on zdnet that said Google thought semantic web needed to overcome "incompetence" incompetence ( http://shrinkify.com/70k) Looking forward to what your learn about google health!

Monday May 19, 2008 11:20 maurice

11:20

[Comment From ScottScott: ]

What exactly does "semantic search" mean?

Monday May 19, 2008 11:20 Scott

11:21

rafe:

@Scott, Generally, it means that the search engine "understands" the content it is searching.

Monday May 19, 2008 11:21 rafe

11:22

rafe:

Ok, we are starting up again

Monday May 19, 2008 11:22 rafe

11:22

rafe:

Showing a Seinfeld clip - Elaine at the Doctor

Monday May 19, 2008 11:22 rafe

11:24

rafe:

Mayer on stage now -
four components of search:
1. Comprehensiveness
2. Relevance
3. User experience
4. Timeliness

(I think, she talks fast)

Monday May 19, 2008 11:24 rafe

11:25

rafe:

She's just sammarizing now. Bring on Google Health!

Monday May 19, 2008 11:25 rafe

11:25

rafe:

BTW, "sammarize" = Summarize + Samurai.

Monday May 19, 2008 11:25 rafe

11:27

rafe:

We are waiting for details on Google Health

Monday May 19, 2008 11:27 rafe

11:28

rafe:

MM: on future of search, "It will be experienced through many new modes,,, mobile, car..."

Monday May 19, 2008 11:28 rafe

11:30

rafe:

MM: "We're just getting started..." Transitiion to Google Health

Monday May 19, 2008 11:30 rafe

11:31

rafe:

Goal to let users put their health info online and use it to "get better health care"

Monday May 19, 2008 11:31 rafe

11:31

rafe:

MEdia has been covering Goog Health for 1+ yr.

Monday May 19, 2008 11:31 rafe

11:32

rafe:

The product is now live at www.google.com/health

It is "a really exciting day for us."

Monday May 19, 2008 11:32 rafe

11:32

rafe:

Demo by Ronnie Zieger (sp?) a Dr (as in doctor, not drive):

Monday May 19, 2008 11:32 rafe

11:33

rafe:

First up: Searching for info on medical conditions

Monday May 19, 2008 11:33 rafe

11:33

rafe:

Search by medication

Monday May 19, 2008 11:33 rafe

11:33

rafe:

If you enter in your allergies and then search for a med you're allergic to, you'll get a big fat warning. Good.

Monday May 19, 2008 11:33 rafe

11:34

rafe:

Of course, users won't want to enter in all their records themselves.

Monday May 19, 2008 11:34 rafe

11:34

rafe:

So Goog Health will import data from your pharmacies, medical groups, etc.

Monday May 19, 2008 11:34 rafe

11:34

rafe:

"It's quite remarkable."

Monday May 19, 2008 11:34 rafe

11:34

rafe:

Showing Google Health data providers -- looks like about 20 or so, includign major drugstores

Monday May 19, 2008 11:34 rafe

11:35

rafe:

So long WebMD....

Monday May 19, 2008 11:35 rafe

11:35

rafe:

Med search pulls results from Google Scholar and other places.

Monday May 19, 2008 11:35 rafe

11:36

rafe:

Privacy: The user decides who (if anyone) has access to records, and can revoke it at any time. Data will not be sold or shared

Monday May 19, 2008 11:36 rafe

11:36

rafe:

(But what about ads??)

Monday May 19, 2008 11:36 rafe

11:37

rafe:

Demo: Online health resources, like cleveland clinic MyConsult. Goog Health had optionally push your med data into online resources to make the online tools easier to use

Monday May 19, 2008 11:37 rafe

11:38

rafe:

"We have an amazing start of services" Including SMS pillbox, which SMSes you pill reminders, a news feed that sends you news related to your medical profile, etc.

Monday May 19, 2008 11:38 rafe

11:38

rafe:

And some services that can convert your paper med records into "Google format"

Monday May 19, 2008 11:38 rafe

11:39

rafe:

Platform is open? Ronnie said, "Most amazing services will be the ones we haven't thought of yet."

Monday May 19, 2008 11:39 rafe

11:39

[Comment From MarkMark: ]

"GOOGLE EVERYTHING"

Monday May 19, 2008 11:39 Mark

11:40

rafe:

@Mark, no kidding

Monday May 19, 2008 11:40 rafe

11:42

rafe:

Dr Steven something, chief of Quest Diagnostics: This is a major breakthrough.

Monday May 19, 2008 11:42 rafe

11:42

rafe:

Patients who use Goog Health will have a better opportunity to discuss the medical care with their physicians

Monday May 19, 2008 11:42 rafe

11:43

[Comment From MarkMark: ]

That Slide they showed of all involved with Google health, was any big name company's missing from it?

Monday May 19, 2008 11:43 Mark

11:43

rafe:

Quest Diagnostics serves 50% of physicans in the US.

Monday May 19, 2008 11:43 rafe

11:44

rafe:

@MArk: I don't see Kaiser, Blue Cross, the VA...

Monday May 19, 2008 11:44 rafe

11:44

rafe:

I want to see the insurance cos up there.

Monday May 19, 2008 11:44 rafe

11:44

rafe:

Walgreens speaker up now...

Monday May 19, 2008 11:44 rafe

11:46

rafe:

Casey Koslowski, a pharmacist and now IT guru at Walgreens...
Talking about dangers of drug interactions that "complete profiles" could help avoid.

Monday May 19, 2008 11:46 rafe

11:46

rafe:

Google Health will get us "a more engaged patient"

Monday May 19, 2008 11:46 rafe

11:47

rafe:

Yeah, we can hope. BTW I did some research on medical informed consent many years ago. Patients should know what's going on with them, but way too many just put all their trust in their doctors etc.

Monday May 19, 2008 11:47 rafe

11:47

[Comment From MarkMark: ]

I don't think i like the idea of 100% patient medical history online... maybe its just me..

Monday May 19, 2008 11:47 Mark

11:48

rafe:

And the insurance companies don't help

Monday May 19, 2008 11:48 rafe

11:48

rafe:

Dr Dean Ornish on stage!

Monday May 19, 2008 11:48 rafe

11:49

rafe:

See http://www.webmd.com/content/pages/9/3068_9408.htm. So I guess Goog Health won't kill Web MD. Maybe index its content

Monday May 19, 2008 11:49 rafe

11:50

rafe:

Mayer: "There are thousands of partnerships that still need to be formed."

Monday May 19, 2008 11:50 rafe

11:51

rafe:

One more announcement: Walk for Good campaign

Monday May 19, 2008 11:51 rafe

11:51

rafe:

It's a gadget for iGoogle to get users walking. And it tracks your walking for the next 15 weeks. If you meet your goal, you get to vote for a charity that Goog will contrib $100k to.

Monday May 19, 2008 11:51 rafe

11:53

rafe:

It's in partnership with the Cleveland Clinic. The Chief Wellness Officer is on stage now.

Monday May 19, 2008 11:53 rafe

11:53

rafe:

"The big idea is that 70% of how well and long you live are your choice, not your genes."

Monday May 19, 2008 11:53 rafe

11:54

rafe:

"The most important thing you can do is daily physical activity" The best activity is daily walking

Monday May 19, 2008 11:54 rafe

11:55

rafe:

Walk two hours a week... decrease mortality 39% compared to peers. Now he's talking about types of walking that are best. "Google can make walking fun"...

(with a widget you put on your desktop that you can look at and feel bad about while you are sitting on your behind surfing the web.)

Monday May 19, 2008 11:55 rafe

11:56

rafe:

Ok, what I want is a Google Phone with GPS that auto-updates my Walking widget

Monday May 19, 2008 11:56 rafe

11:56

rafe:

Except that I don't know if I want Google to know where I am, how fit I am, and the state of my medical condition.

Monday May 19, 2008 11:56 rafe

11:56

rafe:

Ok, they're taking questions now. Got any?

Monday May 19, 2008 11:56 rafe

11:57

rafe:

Q: What about partnerships? Like with insurance companies?
A: We'll work with anyone

Monday May 19, 2008 11:57 rafe

11:59

rafe:

Q: Are Google Health records totally private, or is there any info aggregation going on?
A: We may aggregate data on a large scale.
Also "No Google Health user will ever find their health infomration as search results anywhere on Google."

Monday May 19, 2008 11:59 rafe

12:00

rafe:

Q: Shouldn't my DOCTOR have all my health info on hand?
A: "75% of all healthcare cost is due to chronic illness that you can prevent."

Monday May 19, 2008 12:00 rafe

12:00

[Comment From LynwoodLynwood: ]

Are the questions just for Google Health? Is there any revenue model planned for google health, and if so what will it look like.

Monday May 19, 2008 12:00 Lynwood

12:00

rafe:

@lynwood - I would assume advertising

Monday May 19, 2008 12:00 rafe

12:01

rafe:

Ornish: "Empowerment is not the same as blame"

Monday May 19, 2008 12:01 rafe

12:05

rafe:

Questions I asked.
1. How is this monetized? Advertising?

Monday May 19, 2008 12:05 rafe

12:06

rafe:

A: No, it's just a good thing to do. But there is a search box on Google Health, ans we expect users to kick off general searches from there, which are monetized.

Monday May 19, 2008 12:06 rafe

12:06

rafe:

2. Is Google Health an open platform, if people want to build apps for it?

Monday May 19, 2008 12:06 rafe

12:07

rafe:

A: The APIs are public. It's an open platform. But if you build something cool, you have to talk to us to get it integrated into the service.

Monday May 19, 2008 12:07 rafe

12:07

[Comment From LynwoodLynwood: ]

I wonder if google has the power to figure that you have a disease even though your real doctors haven't figured it out yet. Will they tell you? "Maybe you should ask your doctor about possible indications of _____ disease"

Monday May 19, 2008 12:07 Lynwood

12:07

rafe:

@Lynwood: Hah! Interesting.

Monday May 19, 2008 12:07 rafe

12:09

rafe:

Q: About insurance companies. Will Google Health data end up in hands of insurers, who will then know too much about you?
A: Users can opt in or out of this program and definetely choose not to share

(However, if and when insurance cos decide to make compliance with electronic records mandatory for their best rates, then we've got a problem)

Monday May 19, 2008 12:09 rafe

12:10

rafe:

Q: How is Google Health different form other electronic health filing systems?
A: "We haven't gotten it right yet." It's important to have an open platform

Monday May 19, 2008 12:10 rafe

12:11

rafe:

Mayer: It's about the 3 Ps and the U:
Privacy
Platform
Portability
Users

Monday May 19, 2008 12:11 rafe

12:11

rafe:

Another useful post on Google Health: http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-05-19-n87.html

Monday May 19, 2008 12:11 rafe

12:14

rafe:

Q: What risk to patients and doctors on the modification of records?
A: You can enter data that's clearled tagged "user generated" and you can annotate data from pharmacies etc, but you cannot change imported data.

(which doesn't answer the question)

Monday May 19, 2008 12:14 rafe

12:14

[Comment From classgeekclassgeek: ]

One problem with associating ads to health searches is the resulting increase in marketing doctors and hospitals will spend to compete in a more global marketplace, eventually driving prices up. Also, we'll see ads for cheap liver transplants in China!

Monday May 19, 2008 12:14 classgeek

12:14

rafe:

YEah, they're saying it's not ad supported.

Monday May 19, 2008 12:14 rafe

12:16

rafe:

Q: Where is data stored?
A: Google stores a COPY of the data on your behalf.

Q: Do you have granular privacy control - share lots of data with some people, less with others?
A: Today, it's all or none. We are working on granularity

Monday May 19, 2008 12:16 rafe

12:17

rafe:

Q: How secure is the med db in Google?
A: Mayer, "It's our highest level of security" We constructed a special infrastructure with a new level of security on it.

Monday May 19, 2008 12:17 rafe

12:17

[Comment From NathanNathan: ]

Any talk of extra security, multi-factor?

Monday May 19, 2008 12:17 Nathan

12:18

rafe:

No, no mention of user authentication into the database

Monday May 19, 2008 12:18 rafe

12:18

rafe:

That's a wrap! I'm going to head off to the lunch and demos now, and will report back later on Webware.com.