Obamas visit

Why was he there? Who wasn’t invited and why? What did they talk about? Why was he really there? These are the questions being debated this morning about Obama’s visit last night to the home (dare I say “lavish Woodside estate”) of tech investor and Google board member John Doerr. Stanford University President John Hennessy (also a Google board member) was present and so was Google CEO Eric Schmidt, but not incoming Google CEO Larry Page. Who Was There? Here’s the full list of attendees according to the NY Times, LA Times and SF Chronicle: John Doerr, partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Carol Bartz, president and CEO, Yahoo! John Chambers, CEO and chairman, Cisco Systems Dick Costolo, CEO, Twitter Larry Ellison, co-founder and CEO, Oracle Reed Hastings, CEO, NetFlix John Hennessy, president, Stanford University Steve Jobs, chairman and CEO, Apple Art Levinson, chairman and former CEO, Genentech Eric Schmidt, chairman and CEO, Google Steve … [Read more...] about Obama’s Silicon Valley “Tech Supper”

President Obama may be facing his toughest interviewer yet; the YouTube community.  On January 30th, just a few days after his State of the Union address, President Obama will participate in a live streamed interview by answering  questions that were submitted on YouTube.  The YouTube community will vote on questions to be selected and the top will be selected to ask the President.  Questions can be submitted through January 28th and YouTube recommends  questions are submitted in video format (20 seconds long) but also accept questions via text. Not only will the community ask the questions, but the top voted users will be selected to ask the President live.  A handful of users will be invited to participate via a Presidential Google+ Hangout.   In addition to the Presidential interview, the Republican party will also participate.  An official response will be issued after the live stream on the … [Read more...] about The YouTube Community Interviews The President: Obama To Answer Questions Via Google+ Hangout

After his recent visit to India on January 26, 2015, President Obama made history by becoming the first sitting United States President to visit the world’s second most populous country twice. So, what did President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Naredra Modi discuss during this recent visit? One of the main conversations between the two global leaders was economics. For many U.S. businesses, India is an extremely promising market. Take Dominos, for example. India has become the second largest market for the pizza maker, with 818 stores. By 2020, there could be over 2,000 Dominos located in India. Besides Dominos, companies like Boeing and Allstate are planning to invest in the country. And, major brands from the States aren’t the only ones benefiting from the Indian market. Entrepreneurs and startups are also faring well. Douglas Leone of Silicon Valley’s Sequoia Capital told the Economic Times of India in October that, “We could not be more thrilled. We … [Read more...] about SEOlympics: Top Marketing Blogs of India

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a big fan of reading Google patents — or, when I’m feeling lazy, reading Bill Slawski’s analysis of them over on his blog, SEO By The Sea. I also have a particular interest in those involving entities, as they are (to me at least) the ones that are defining the problems Google is trying to solve. As machine learning evolves, entities represent how search engines increasingly are viewing the world. Before we dig into this latest Google patent, which was granted on December 22, 2016, let’s first define an entity to make sure we’re all on the same page. According to the patent, the definition is as follows: [A]n entity is a thing or concept that is singular, unique, well-defined and distinguishable. For example, an entity may be a person, place, item, idea, abstract concept, concrete element, other suitable thing, or any combination thereof. To keep things simple, you can casually think of an entity as a noun. Another … [Read more...] about Newly-granted Google patent sheds light on how the search engine sees entities

Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that, during a “critical phase” of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) antitrust investigation of Google, the company had a series of regular meetings at the White House. According to the WSJ’s report, these meetings occurred roughly once a week: Google’s access to high-ranking Obama administration officials during a critical phase of the antitrust probe is one sign of the Internet giant’s reach in Washington. Since Mr. Obama took office, employees of the Mountain View, Calif., company have visited the White House for meetings with senior officials about 230 times, or an average of roughly once a week, according to the visitor logs reviewed by the Journal. The article thus suggests Obama Administration intervention in the FTC’s decision-making process. Accordingly, it prompted the agency to respond in an unusual and defensive press release. The question of any impropriety in the outcome … [Read more...] about WSJ Report Suggests Intervention In FTC’s Google Investigation By White House