Google clarifies website position
Google is not going to embark on a new instalment of the “browser wars” against Microsoft, according to Eric Schmidt, chief executive.
He also said Google would not seek to turn its website into a broader internet portal, a move that would take it into more direct competition with both Microsoft and Yahoo.
Both ideas have been urged by outside observers as ways for Google to capitalise on its powerful online brand awareness, while also strengthening its defences against the new wave of competitors attracted by the phenomenal success in the search engine-related advertising business.
Mr Schmidt's comments came last week as Google executives used the company's earnings announcement to discuss strategy publicly for the first time since April, when it filed for an initial public offering. Shares in Google soared a further 15 per cent on Friday, pushing the stock to $172.43 more than double the level achieved at its float two months ago.
Speculation about Google's strategy has intensified as Microsoft has come closer to launching its own search engine, and Yahoo has laid out a plan to integrate search into many of the features on its internet portal in a way Google cannot match.
Mr Schmidt responded that, with the search engine business at an early stage of development, there was no need to shape strategy around fending-off new competitors. “It's very possible that Google and Microsoft and Yahoo and others can all do well,” he told the FT. “At this stage, the focus has to be on your customers and your own strategy.”
One widely rumoured defence against Microsoft has been a Google web browser potentially countering the software giant's ability to embed its own search engine into its dominant Internet Explorer browser and Windows PC operating system.
“ We are not building a browser,” Mr Schmidt said. He would not comment on whether any Google workers had developed ideas for a browser in the 20 per cent of their time that Google sets aside for them to work on personal projects, but added: “There are always people who are experimenting with new ideas.”
Even without its own browser, Google is on a collision course with Microsoft, having this month launched its own software that lets users search information on their PC hard drives.
Mr Schmidt also shed light on one of the more intriguing aspects of Google's unusual approach to corporate governance: its lack of a chairman since it filed to go public in April.
Since there is no legal requirement in the US for companies to have chairmen, and Google's nine-person board of directors has more urgent issues to think about, the issue has not been addressed, he said. Google 澄清开发战略
Google 首席执行官艾立克?施密特 (Eric Schmidt) 称， Google 不会针对微软 (Microsoft) 发起新一轮“浏览器之战”。
他还表示， Google 不会寻求将其网站变成一个更广泛的互联网门户网站，这样做将会使它与微软和雅虎 (Yahoo) 形成更直接的竞争。
这两个想法都是外部观察人士所力劝的，它们被看作是既能让 Google 利用其强大的网上品牌认知度，又同时强化对新一波竞争对手防御的方法。由于搜索引擎相关广告业务获得了巨大成功， Google 吸引了众多对手。
施密特先生在上周作出此番评论时， Google 的管理人员利用了公司公布赢利的机会，公开讨论了公司的战略。这是自公司 4 月份提交首次公开上市申请以来的第一次。 Google 股价上周五进一步飚升 15% ，将该股推高至 172.43 美元，为两个月前上市水平的两倍多。
随着微软即将推出自己的搜索引擎，雅虎也已制定出计划，欲以一种 Google 无法比拟的方式，将搜索功能整合进自己互联网门户网站的许多功能里，有关 Google 战略的传言加剧了。
施密特先生对此的回答是，由于搜索引擎业务处于早期发展阶段，故没有必要为阻挡新竞争者而设计策略。有一个广泛流传的传言称，为了防御软件巨擘微软， Google 在开发一种新的浏览器。微软有能力将自己的搜索引擎嵌入其占主流地位的 IE 浏览器和视窗个人电脑操作系统中，而 Google 的浏览器可能抵制这种能力。
“我们不是在设计一款浏览器，”施密特先生表示。 Google 给员工留出 20% 的时间开展个人项目工作，对于是否有哪位员工在这段时间里拥有开发一款浏览器的点子，他不愿进行评论。但他补充道：“一直有试验新点子的人。”
即使没有自己的浏览器， Google 也正处在同微软发生冲突的过程中。 Google 本月推出自己开发的一款软件，可以让用户在他们的个人电脑硬盘上搜索信息。
