一些知情人士稱﹐谷歌公司今年9月份聘請的原有線電視公司高管傑里米•斯特恩(Jeremy Stern)是此前谷歌與媒體公司接觸過程中的主要談判者。
谷歌發言人表示不會針對傳言或臆測發表評論。迪斯尼、時代華納和探索傳播的發言人則拒絕置評。
上 述公司的接觸凸顯一個事實﹐即電視領域的控制權之爭已經愈演愈烈了。近年來﹐電話公司開始闖入這個原本被有線電視和衛星電視運營商所佔據的市場。而今像亞 馬遜(Amazon.com Inc.)這樣的公司開始在節目內容上下功夫﹐而蘋果公司(Apple Inc.)等企業則在通過iPad等設備努力創造新的節目收看體驗﹐這些新設備很有可能成為一類新的電視機。
與此同時﹐康卡斯特(Comcast Corp.)等老牌有線電視運營商和衛星電視運營商則開始還擊﹐他們開發出自己的應用程序﹐並通過互聯網上的節目授權內容與他們的離線電視節目訂戶建立互動。
谷 歌進軍付費電視領域的努力存在很大變數。目前美國電視運營商每年從廣告客戶以及月付費訂戶那裡獲得的收入總額超過1,500億美元。谷歌公司作為全美最大 的互聯網廣告銷售商﹐也打算從電視廣告那裡爭得部分市場。而該公司的最新計劃又將進一步威脅到有線電視和衛星電視運營商的訂戶收入。
此外 ﹐谷歌公司推出的其他一些舉措使得用戶能夠以較低費用收看網上視頻﹐從而也有可能影響到利潤豐厚的電視訂閱服務模式。10月末﹐該公司陸續同一些知名製片 公司簽約﹐為旗下視頻網站YouTube推出大約100個靠廣告收入支持的免費網上“頻道”。谷歌此外還推出了一種名為Google TV的軟件﹐這種軟件可以安裝在電視或有線電視機頂盒內﹐幫助人們搜索並收看來自互聯網和電視頻道的內容。鑒於用戶對於第一版軟件的接受程度不高﹐谷歌在 10月末又推出了新版的Google TV軟件。
曾在谷歌公司任產品主管的凱瓦爾•德賽(Keval Desai)稱﹐谷歌多年以來一直在考慮進軍電視業務。德賽目前在InterWest Partners LLC做風險投資。
他說﹐“電視建立在一個封閉系統之上﹐這是為何人們要想看ESPN或是其他頻道﹐就只能去找傳統的有線電視和衛星電視運營商。”而隨著電視更多地和互聯網建立聯繫﹐“像谷歌這樣的網絡公司將能夠讓人們看到同樣高質量的內容﹐”而且很可能收費較低。
迄 今有關堪薩斯城這項計劃的許多細節──比如定價以及包括那些頻道──都還不明朗。該計劃是否會拓展到堪薩斯城之外的地區也是個未知數。目前在堪薩斯城之外 ﹐只有加州的帕洛奧多也在谷歌推出網上視頻電話服務的考慮範疇之內。谷歌公司已經為加州帕洛奧多的部分居民舖設了高速互聯網線路。
谷歌於去年2月份公佈其計劃在某地舖建寬帶測試網絡﹐當時該公司曾表示不打算讓網絡覆蓋全美。
理 論上講﹐大多數娛樂傳媒公司應該都會拒絕授權別家企業使用自己的節目﹐而那些屬於分銷商──比如有線電視運營商──的頻道可能會是例外。不過﹐也有一些傳 媒公司的管理人士指出﹐頻道所有者一向喜歡將他們的頻道授權給各類分銷商﹐衛星電視運營商也好﹐電話公司也罷﹐只要他們付的錢不比現有分銷商少。
還有個大問題﹐即谷歌的野心有多大。
這 家總部位於加州山景城的公司的高管們最近幾個月一直在同傳媒企業高管談論他們的其他一些想法。據熟悉談話內容的知情人士透露﹐其中一個內容是﹐通過允許付 費訂戶獲得完整有線電視頻道內容的方式﹐擴大該公司YouTube網站頻道內容的可能性。這個想法一旦實現﹐YouTube將變成“虛擬”有線服務。不過 ﹐據另一位熟悉谷歌公司的知情人士稱﹐雖然相關公司可能就這個想法進行過初步討論﹐但目前這個想法尚未正式提上談判日程。
無論如何﹐一些 媒體公司的管理人士表示﹐他們相信早晚有一天﹐谷歌或是蘋果這樣的科技企業將開始通過互聯網提供類似有線電視和衛星電視節目內容的虛擬服務。那將遠遠超越 谷歌在堪薩斯城的設想﹐在堪薩斯城﹐谷歌不過是想用自己的網絡傳播視頻。新業務的推出將改變電視服務市場群雄割據的局面。目前﹐除衛星電視運營商外﹐大多 數電視節目供應商的服務只能覆蓋部分地區。
堪薩斯城寬頻項目如今進展順利。谷歌曾表示計劃在2012年初正式開始運作該項目。根據SNL Kagan的數據﹐目前堪薩斯城電視訂戶數量最多的前三家電視運營商是時代華納有線電視公司、以及衛星電視運營商Dish Network Corp.和DirecTV。
谷歌目前與Dish和DirecTV有廣告業務合作。
Sam Schechner / Amir Efrati
Google Agrees to Allow Owners of Wi-Fi Routers to Opt Out of Database
New York Times
By KEVIN J. O'BRIEN BERLIN — Google, under pressure from privacy regulators in the Netherlands, said Tuesday that it had agreed to give people around the world the option of keeping the names and locations of their home or business Wi-Fi routers out ...
Google’s Lab of Wildest Dreams
By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER and NICK BILTON
Published: November 13, 2011
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — In a top-secret lab in an undisclosed Bay Area location where robots run free, the future is being imagined.
Ramin Rahimian for The New York Times
Google is said to be considering the manufacture of its driverless cars in the United States.
Related
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Bits Blog: What Do You Want in the Future? (November 14, 2011)
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg News
Sergey Brin, one of Google's founders, is said to be deeply involved in Google X.
Noah Berger for The New York Times
Sebastian Thrun, one of the world's top robotics and artificial intelligence experts, is a leader at Google X.
It’s a place where your refrigerator could be connected to the Internet, so it could order groceries when they ran low. Your dinner plate could post to a social network what you’re eating. Your robot could go to the office while you stay home in your pajamas. And you could, perhaps, take an elevator to outer space.
These are just a few of the dreams being chased at Google X, the clandestine lab where Google is tackling a list of 100 shoot-for-the-stars ideas. In interviews, a dozen people discussed the list; some work at the lab or elsewhere at Google, and some have been briefed on the project. But none would speak for attribution because Google is so secretive about the effort that many employees do not even know the lab exists.
Although most of the ideas on the list are in the conceptual stage, nowhere near reality, two people briefed on the project said one product would be released by the end of the year, although they would not say what it was.
“They’re pretty far out in front right now,” said Rodney Brooks, a professor emeritus at M.I.T.’s computer science and artificial intelligence lab and founder of Heartland Robotics. “But Google’s not an ordinary company, so almost nothing applies.”
At most Silicon Valley companies, innovation means developing online apps or ads, but Google sees itself as different. Even as Google has grown into a major corporation and tech start-ups are biting at its heels, the lab reflects its ambition to be a place where ground-breaking research and development are happening, in the tradition of Xerox PARC, which developed the modern personal computer in the 1970s.
A Google spokeswoman, Jill Hazelbaker, declined to comment on the lab, but said that investing in speculative projects was an important part of Google’s DNA. “While the possibilities are incredibly exciting, please do keep in mind that the sums involved are very small by comparison to the investments we make in our core businesses,” she said.
At Google, which uses artificial intelligence techniques and machine learning in its search algorithm, some of the outlandish projects may not be as much of a stretch as they first appear, even though they defy the bounds of the company’s main Web search business.
For example, space elevators, a longtime fantasy of Google’s founders and other Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, could collect information or haul things into space. (In theory, they involve rocketless space travel along a cable anchored to Earth.) “Google is collecting the world’s data, so now it could be collecting the solar system’s data,” Mr. Brooks said.
Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founder, is deeply involved in the lab, said several people with knowledge of it, and came up with the list of ideas along with Larry Page, Google’s other founder, who worked on Google X before becoming chief executive in April; Eric E. Schmidt, its chairman; and other top executives. “Where I spend my time is farther afield projects, which we hope will graduate to important key businesses in the future,” Mr. Brin said recently, though he did not mention Google X.
Google may turn one of the ideas — the driverless cars that it unleashed on California’s roads last year — into a new business. Unimpressed by the innovative spirit of Detroit automakers, Google now is considering manufacturing them in the United States, said a person briefed on the effort.
Google could sell navigation or information technology for the cars, and theoretically could show location-based ads to passengers as they zoom by local businesses while playing Angry Birds in the driver’s seat.
Robots figure prominently in many of the ideas. They have long captured the imagination of Google engineers, including Mr. Brin, who has already attended a conference through robot instead of in the flesh.
Fleets of robots could assist Google with collecting information, replacing the humans that photograph streets for Google Maps, say people with knowledge of Google X. Robots born in the lab could be destined for homes and offices, where they could assist with mundane tasks or allow people to work remotely, they say.
Other ideas involve what Google referred to as the “Web of things” at its software developers conference in May — a way of connecting objects to the Internet. Every time anyone uses the Web, it benefits Google, the company argued, so it could be good for Google if home accessories and wearable objects, not just computers, were connected.
Among the items that could be connected: a garden planter (so it could be watered from afar); a coffee pot (so it could be set to brew remotely); or a light bulb (so it could be turned off remotely). Google said in May that by the end of this year another team planned to introduce a Web-connected light bulb that could communicate wirelessly with Android devices.
One Google engineer familiar with Google X said it was run as mysteriously as the C.I.A. — with two offices, a nondescript one for logistics, on the company’s Mountain View campus, and one for robots, in a secret location.
While software engineers toil away elsewhere at Google, the lab is filled with roboticists and electrical engineers. They have been hired from Microsoft, Nokia Labs, Stanford, M.I.T., Carnegie Mellon and New York University.
A leader at Google X is Sebastian Thrun, one of the world’s top robotics and artificial intelligence experts, who teaches computer science at Stanford and invented the world’s first driverless car. Also at the lab is Andrew Ng, another Stanford professor, who specializes in applying neuroscience to artificial intelligence to teach robots and machines to operate like people.
Johnny Chung Lee, a specialist in human-computer interaction, came to Google X from Microsoft this year after helping develop Microsoft’s Kinect, the video game player that responds to human movement and voice. At Google X, where he is working on the Web of things, according to people familiar with his role, he has the mysterious title of rapid evaluator.
Because Google X is a breeding ground for big bets that could turn into colossal failures or Google’s next big business — and it could take years to figure out which — just the idea of these experiments terrifies some shareholders and analysts.
“These moon-shot projects are a very Google-y thing for them to do,” said Colin W. Gillis, an analyst at BGC Partners. “People don’t love it but they tolerate it because their core search business is firing away.”
Mr. Page has tried to appease analysts by saying that crazy projects are a tiny proportion of Google’s work.
“There are a few small, speculative projects happening at any one time, but we are very careful stewards of shareholders’ money,” he told analysts in July. “We are not betting the farm on these.”
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