Monday, October 10, 2005

Chinese Censorship

It could take 300 years to index all the world’s information and make it searchable, according to Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt.

Replying to an audience query at the Association of National Advertisers annual conference at Phoenix City in the US, Schmidt said, “We did a math exercise and the answer was 300 years.”

He added, “Of the approximately 5 million terabytes of information out in the world, only about 170 terabytes have been indexed,” he said earlier during his speech. Speaking about ads on the Internet, Schmidt said that “despite initial scepticism, he had quickly realised ads actually do have value if you can figure out the right ones to show.

Of the estimated $283 billion spent on advertising in the United States, $11.3 billion is spent on the Internet, with Google taking in about 1 percent of that, Schmidt said. He predicted that there will always be ads on the Internet but that there may be an “ad-free subset” of the Internet that might offer a different way for people to pay for things, such as using micro-payments.

During the question-and-answer session, audience members turned to social, ethical and legal topics. One question dealt with criticism Google and Yahoo have received for cooperating with Chinese government censorship efforts. “The technology is neutral. It can be applied for good or evil,” he said. “Overwhelmingly, the message of technology is a positive one.”

0 评论:

Post a Comment

<< 家庭