Thank you to my friend Jason Dalrymple from Teasy for allowing me to use his computer to blog during this session.

The conversation has begun.

Eric is speaking about Google's new expanded mission and their new personal homepage iGoogle. According to Eric, Google now = Search, Ads, & Apps. Tom made the point that people in the room were authoring content and searching Google while they spoke, of course true. Eric mentioned that at his weekly hourly staff meeting he gave up trying to keep his key staffmembers off their laptops. They tried that for a week but they ended up on their Blackberries instead.

According to Eric, Google co-founder Larry Page had Eric's bio projected on the wall of his office when Larry walked into Larry's office for the first interview. Eric originally thought 'who is this arrogant guy' but he mentioned now many people do that.

They just discussed everyone having an online bio compilation on the web that is permanent and the oversharing of what young people put online that hurts them later. Eric proposed all people when they turn 21 can change their name. Tom commented, George Bush would not have been elected president had their been cell phone vloggers at Yale in the 70s. People will be more careful not that they're living with a online historical record.

"You and I knew each other when the world was round." - Tom

In response to a question on what is it like to be a public figure Eric responded:

"Well, we could apopt the lifestyle of Paris Hilton and be in the media all the time."

"People that are public figures have reputations to maintain. Information about their behavior can be used to create a meme, that may in fact be a false one." - Eric

Eric mentioned: One of the problems with storytelling online is that you can tend to create stories with small data points to create a false story reinforced by confirmation biases.

Paraphrasing Eric: It is possible using Google to truly create false memes to reinforce biases.

Tom has asked a question about Google Earth causing a security issue. Eric is replying that governments, even dictators, do at some level need some political support to continue their leadership and/or domination. They will respond to political pressue. When they shut down Google Earth, the backlash in Bahrain forced the goverment to restore access. The citizens were emailing pictures of the amount of land the ruling family had taken from the people. Sometimes the cover up is worse than the crime. The Bahranian government eventually had to break down.

Now Eric is talking about China's great Firewall. There is no web site that describes the operation of the Great Firewall. There are techniques to go around the firewall, techniques he won't go over because "everyone here is blogging." 140 million internet users in China.

Eric to Tom "please don't use the word dominant (in reference to Google)" They are afraid of being called dominant.

Eric is referencing the 20% time in which technical people can spend 1 day per week working on anything they think that might change the world.

Google made a decision 18 months ago to be more transparent. To be open about what they are doing and why they are doing it. He is saying that criticism can be healthy and that the criticism of Google has made them stronger.

Eric shared that they made the decision to buy YouTube quickly. Afterwards they learned of the incredible complexity of the media world and rights management companies that ends up slowing down decision making. He is hoping that technology will make rights clearing. People care more about video than they do words. He mentioned the Edwards so pretty video and the loss of the election by George Allen due to using the Makaka made up 'slur' which ended up tipping the balance of the Senate and thus having an impact on the world. Video is exploding. It is one of the keystone technologies for the world. The explosion of content is valuable to people who care about building communities. We think Google has the best answer for managing information. He is talking about the long tail of content and the the reference from a book from the 16th century. Highly important information that is important to a small community can be delivered quickly with YouTube and Google. Eventually cell phones will have an upload to YouTube button.

According to Eric, in recruiting, the most important decision you can make: find people that are passionate and creative and have a broad range of interests.

Eric has announced that one of the democratic debates will be on YouTube.

Tom made the point that innovation happens when two people in different fields can get together to connect the dots. Does your mind have an API?

Eric is mentioning that technology may topple dictatorships and create democracy. In a dictatorship, step one close the borders, step two take over the television and radio station. The Internet makes it impossible to do that. The Internet is the single best expression of personal freedom that has ever been built.

The next generation of political leaders will behaving differently. More authentically. However, the Internet is the best way of delivering sound bits ever created. Politicians need more humor. People don't want to see a long monotone.