Whether or not he is remembered for it, except for Tim Berners Lee no one else holds a candle to him in that regard. I had enough years "before" that the years "after" and what his work effected delineates it as the most profoundly disruptive period in history by a wide margin. It has become a sixth sense, so integrated with our cognition that we scarcely notice it. And he wants to take that integration much, much further.
From what the article discloses about his personality I don't much like him but will never deny his inestimable impact.
Why specifically? History is long, think of Einstein, the person that invented the penicillin, vaccines, the transistor....
Search engines existed before Page, granted not as good but they existed. Google rode the internet explosion, whereas Jobs and (drumroll...) Gates brought a computer in every home.
What he will be remembered is for tainting the Google brand. It was golden, now in many circles they see them as biased, full of ads https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7600532 , deceiving consumers and a behemoth deserving to be taken down. Downhill has started
Honestly, I think widespread automated cars will be enough (And I am going to go out on a limb and say that Google technology will be in a huge number of automobiles 25 years from today), but if G has its way, and GFiber transforms ISP/Content delivery, their energy initiatives with windblimp turbines, deep machine learning for medicine, actual robotic assistants, G Books... The list goes on and on. Search is just the cash engine for the truly transformative tech.
There has rarely been an industrial force with the ambition Page gives to Google. If they succeed in even half measures on some of these initiatives, it will be transformative.
Everything you said is in early stages or very limited markets. Sure Google has bought a lot of things and rushes to do press releases but what can be bought in the store right now? GFiber in a few cities? That's all.
Search is just the cash engine for the truly transformative tech.
Got any numbers on ho much Google spent on "transformative tech"? It looks peanuts to me, everything they spend real money and resources on seems to be linked to getting users click those ads.
Edit: Do you seriously think that GFiber isn't going to be a major player nationally? Or that automated cars will never see market? On the second part I think we're a lot closer than you might imagine:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/04/09/autonomou...
Fiber, NO! Google will discontinue it soon, they just want to force AT&t and others to offer higher speeds. It cost a fortune and even if they get their money back, it messes up their margins.
I've seen nothing to suggest that Google is only doing this to force AT&T's hand - and even if that IS the case, they are the entity responsible for catalyzing FTTH on a national scale.Edit: Also - why would G aquire massive amounts of dark fiber backbone starting way back in 05 if they just wanted to astroturf AT&T into doing the dirty work? Unless its just all just long con to meter the other isps on backbone traffic. Doubtful.
Oh, so MSFT is "beating" GOOG in R&D - MSFT's research isnt prototyping autonomous cars or actually planning space elevators, or acquiring Boston Dynamics. It's hardly"peanuts" by any definition.
Yes, there are lots of companies now rushing for a driverless car, but G is recognized as by far the industry leader and will likely license its technology to Toyota starting in 2016.Protype Prius's and Lexus RX SUVs have been logging hundreds of thousands of miles the past couple of years. They will beat GM to market most likely. Others will follow with licensing.
Since I cant reply to you below - You said G was investing "peanuts" in R&D. This is demonstrably false. Anyhow, you can brandhate on them all you want, but they are pushing the envelope in ways that few other companies in industrial history ever have. I see no reason to continue this conversation.
"MSFT's research isnt prototyping autonomous cars"
Ah, so it's autonomous cars or you're R&D-ing.
"or actually planning space elevators"
Tell us about it, how much did Google spend on it and far did they go? Oh, someone at Google thought about it.
"or acquiring Boston Dynamics."
so what? You said that Google is spending a fortune on R&D and I used the same criteria to show that MSFT is spending more. My point was to say that "R&D" as reported may include a lot of normal existing product development.
"Yes, there are lots of companies now rushing for a driverless car, but G is recognized as by far the industry leader"
By whom? Have they actually miniaturized it yet and how much does it cost per car?
Interesting, we'll see. Maybe car manufacturers learned from Android, maybe it's beneficial to them. So far, I haven't read about anyone licensing Google's tech
He won't unless he builds libraries and other public institutions.
You need to build things with your name on it in big letters for people to remember you. Larry has not as of yet done this in a big way at least not given his present net worth.
