eric schmidt

Google's Schmidt: Don't worry too much about 'Big Brother'

NEW YORK--Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt on Monday tried to dismiss fears about "Big Brother" knowing too much about everyone.

Many companies, including Google, have been developing new technology that users literally wear. Items such as Google Glass can track a person's location, heart rate, and other activity, and they're likely to become even more sophisticated in the future. They may become so advanced that people barely realize they're on, and they may not realize how much information is actually being collected.

However, Schmidt said that while we may all be hooked up to dozens … Read more

Google's Schmidt: The Internet needs a delete button

NEW YORK--The Internet needs a delete button, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said Monday.

Actions someone takes when young can haunt the person forever, Schmidt said, because the information will always be on the Internet. He used the example of a young person who committed a crime that could be expunged from his record when he's an adult. But information about that crime could remain online, preventing the person from finding a job.

"In America, there's a sense of fairness that's culturally true for all of us," Schmidt said. "The lack of a delete … Read more

Google's Eric Schmidt zeroes in on new digital age

(CBS News) Connecting us with each other in ever-newer ways is the quest of all our high-tech wizards ... and among those innovators you'll find The "Google Guy." He recently played host to our Rita Braver:

He's considered one of the most influential architects of the Internet, after a dozen years helping build Google (where's he's now executive chairman) into an international powerhouse.

But at 58, Eric Schmidt still remembers struggling with the original IBM personal computer some 30 years ago.

"It used little floppy disks, they were always breaking," he told Braver. &… Read more

Eric Schmidt admits talking to Google Glass can be weird

At least one Google executive acknowledges that using the company's interactive eyewear can be kind of odd.

Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, who spoke Thursday at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, said that talking to Google Glass is the "weirdest thing," according to a report from Reuters.

He noted that people will need to develop new etiquette for the product, which can record video and relay information that only the wearer can see.

"There are obviously places where Google Glasses are inappropriate," he said, according to Reuters.

Schmidt also said apps offered to Glass … Read more

Google's Schmidt to Colbert: I don't understand the Internet

To hear someone from Google claim they don't understand something is like hearing a fundamentalist religious believer suddenly declare he has celestial doubts.

There was something, therefore, stunningly heartwarming about Eric Schmidt's appearance on Tuesday night's "Colbert Report."

In a previous appearance on the show, Google's executive chairman had tried to be funny. This time, he allowed Colbert to be the comedian -- which was a good decision.

Instead, Schmidt took the opportunity to thrust his new book "The New Digital Age" at the cool, ironic world and offer a little hope.… Read more

Google execs' 'New Digital Age' resists cyber-siren song

When two executives at the world's most optimistic technology company write about humanity's digital future, you might expect a book brimming with excitement about the wonders to come.

Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen offer plenty of that, but what makes "The New Digital Age" worth reading is the correspondingly healthy dose of pessimism. The book, released today, ultimately is persuasive in making the case that people can steer technology so it helps us more than it harms us.

The book, with straightforward writing and compelling details, seeks to predict what happens as today's online population … Read more

Google Glass for everybody a 'year-ish' away

Google Glass is the latest hot technology getting daily buzz, but it won't be coming to stores soon and it won't be cheap. Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt addressed the question of when consumers might be able to purchase the digital eyewear during an interview with the BBC: "It's fair to say that thousands of these will be in use by developers over the next months, and then based on their feedback we will make some product changes, and it's probably a year-ish away."

During Google's first-quarter earnings call last week, CEO Larry Page rather cryptically addressed … Read more

Julian Assange's secret chat with Google's chairman

Eric Schmidt met with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in secret in 2011, according to the transcript of a wide-ranging discussion published late Thursday by the document-leaking organization.

The transcript of the meeting, which occurred while Assange was under house arrest in the U.K., was published just days before the scheduled release of Schmidt's new book, "The New Digital Age," on Tuesday. The book's co-author, Google Ideas director Jared Cohen, was also present during the discussion, according to the transcript.

The interview, offering an intimate look into the thought processes of two of the tech world'… Read more

Google's Voice Search and the thirst for conversation

Google's engineers are known for tackling difficult problems, grand challenges like driverless cars. But the grandest challenge for Google has always been search. Fifteen years into its evolution as a company, Google's brain in the cloud is becoming much more conversational and smarter.

The best evidence is Google Glass, for which speech input is the primary interface. "Voice recognition is good enough that you can talk to these things," Google Chairman Eric Schmidt said about the Glass user experience. He believes that making conversational queries with Glass and other devices will make Google's search engine … Read more