Here’s an interesting excerpt that points to the emergence of such collaborative consumption startups as Airbnb, Zipcar, and Tradepal among others:
It sounds like you’re reshaping the company as well as trying to build a better social network.
I think we are. We have to do this because we’ve reached a new stage of the Web. The first was the web of links, which Google really transformed with PageRank and Google search. The next phase was the phase of apps, which Google helped drive with things like Gmail and Google Maps. The next will be the web of people—the understanding that it is people who drive the vitality and content online. The opportunity here is for Google to start recognizing people. When we know who you are, your interests, and who you know—if you let us know that—we can transform all of your activities for the better in search, in Android, in Chrome, in YouTube, in Gmail, and across all we do.
