Even more Google stories worth reading

I have been blogging about Google because I find the company so interesting. [See here... and here...]

The SJ Mercury News has had a roundtable discussion on a variety of aspects about Google.

THE GOOGLEVERSE
Intelligently designed and evolving

When it was issued, Google's mission statement -- "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful" -- seemed a grandly framed but relatively straightforward goal for a search company. Only now is the scope of the ambition behind that statement starting to become clear. These days, you can hardly call Google a mere search and ad company. Its products and services are now ubiquitous and include news, blogs, e-mail, instant messages, voice, video, maps, library books, desktop accessories, photo editing and more. It is interested in promoting open document standards, building municipal Wi-Fi systems and analyzing NASA space data. And its next moves are the subject of constant speculation.

With Google doing so much, so quickly and on so many fronts, we thought we'd pull together some smart folks and try to gain a little perspective in one of our periodic roundtable discussions. And because the subject is so broad, we're structuring the roundtable a little differently this time. The discussion among panelists and readers will continue for a week, as usual, but each day will be given over to a different aspect of the Google story. Monday, we'll talk about the core business: search and ads. On Tuesday, the subject will be Google on the desktop. Wednesday, we'll cover Google as a network. Thursday, we'll focus on the issues of copyright, privacy, security and ethics. And finally on Friday, we'll try to decipher the big picture. Please join us in discussing one of the most important Internet companies in the world.

LOOKING INTO HIS MEDIA CRYSTAL BALL (BIZWEEK)
Jon Fine: In a more delightful world, all of these reports would lack across news wires everywhere—that is, if anything still clacks across a news wire anywhere. In the current reality, you can call these the five best media stories you won't read in 2006.

(SAN FRANCISCO, NOV. 14) Google (GOOG ) has kept mum on reports that it's readying brain-search application GoogleYourMind. But a bizarre incident during a press briefing with CEO Eric Schmidt today gave ammunition to observers who ascribe supernatural powers to the leading search engine. "I know what you're thinking, and it's not funny," snapped the usually soft-spoken Schmidt following a question from a CNET Networks Inc. (CNET ) reporter about GoogleBaseTen, the company's bid to make mathematics more efficient. Schmidt's PowerPoint presentation was then interrupted, and an onstage screen alternately displayed a three-dimensional brain image -- later confirmed to correspond to that of CNET's reporter -- and the phrase "At least they can't search this." The reporter, initially stunned into silence, sprinted from the room after a lengthy list of his "hottest celebrities" appeared on screen.