Tuesday, May 12, 2009
LIVE: Google Searchology
The architects of Google search are holding court at company headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., this morning offering what promises to be a sort of state of the union on search. Overseeing the event, dubbed “Google Searchology”: Udi Manber, VP of Search Engineering, and Marissa Mayer VP of Search Products and User Experience. Key subjects: the challenge of solving every user problem, mobile search across multiple platforms and different UI schemes, and greater user customization through tools like SearchWiki and Google Search Options, a basket of new services just announced.
Looks like “roughly twice what Google offered” was a good enough price to score Microsoft the highly coveted Verizon Wireless search deal. At an investor conference today, Ivan Seidenberg, CEO of Verizon Communications, said the company has struck a five-year deal with Microsoft to make its Live Search the default search engine on Verizon mobile phones. 
The prospect of a mobile revenue stream larger than the $16.6 billion in desktop revenues Google reported in 2007 has inspired the company to put its 700 MHz spectrum spat with Verizon behind it. And now the companies are becoming fast frienemies … or is it enemiends?
