Page will be the first to admit he is a long way from cementing his legacy. He talks of Google's someday being 10 times larger than it is now, and tackling far more significant problems. How to get there is not obvious. New products and businesses -- self-driving cars or mobile payments -- must be big enough to move the needle at a multibillion-dollar behemoth. He insists that new products pass a "toothbrush test" -- they must be important enough that most people will use them at least twice a day. "Google is in uncharted territory," Page concedes. "I don't think there's an example from history I can take or another company and say, 'Why don't we just do that?' "
For years, Page and other Google execs have mused about the perfect search engine. It would always understand what you mean. It would know you and would deliver results tailored to your interests. And it would give you answers to things that matter to you -- even when you didn't ask. Late in 2011, during an offsite meeting with his top brass, Page insisted it was time for Google to begin to deliver on the last of those promises, which insiders sometimes call "assist" functions. That set things in motion quickly. By January 2012 Googlers had developed an idea for a product that met Page's exacting standards, and some six months later the company unveiled Google Now, which is available on the latest generation of Android devices. Using information from your calendar, e-mail, past searches, and location, the mobile-centric search tool can alert you to leave for the airport immediately so as to not miss your flight because an accident has traffic backed up along the way. It responds to voice commands much as the iPhone's Siri does -- and with fewer errors, according to many reviewers. It can automatically update you on your favorite team's sports scores, even if you didn't know it was playing. Says Alan Eustace, the senior vice president in charge of search: "We're giving you something you didn't ask for but that we think you should know."
That Google Now went so quickly from vision to product is a testament to Page's reinvigorated Google. Page has long said that the biggest threat facing Google is Google itself, and since becoming CEO he has zeroed in on bloat, bureaucracy, and just about anything that slows innovation. (His obsession with speed can take peculiar forms. He once asked Sundar Pichai, the senior vice president in charge of the Chrome web browser and other apps, to be mindful of the seconds it took executives to transition onstage at companywide meetings. "You should come closer to the stage and stand, so you don't make the company wait," Pichai remembers being told.)
Page pushes willingly and forcefully past obstacles with an overriding purpose: to make sure Google succeeds in the post-PC era. In March, for instance, Google raised hackles among some users and consumer advocates when it made sweeping changes to its privacy policies. The older policies limited how data could be shared across Google products and stood in the way of services like Google Now, which draws personal data from various sources. To Google, tying these capabilities together is essential as users shift from PCs to mobile devices, where apps must be more tightly integrated with one another and where hardware and software must work seamlessly.
It's also part of an effort to skirt a problem that is nagging many tech companies that have become giants in the web era: the fact that mobile screens aren't as friendly to ads as larger PC screens. Page says the opportunities in mobile will actually increase with better targeting of people's location and services like "click-to-call," which allows mobile-phone users to call with a single tap a business listed in an ad. "I'm optimistic that we can make more money than we do now, because the software's better, devices are better, and there are more capabilities," he says. Others share his optimism. WPP's Sorrell, who famously called Google a "frenemy," says that the search giant is now a "friendlier frenemy." WPP, Google's largest customer, increased its spending on Google by 25% in 2012, to about $2 billion. Says Sorrell: "It's a remarkable company in a very strong position."
In September Google introduced a new YouTube app for the iPhone and iPad in response to Apple's decision to remove pre-installed YouTube software from those devices. In early December Google upgraded Google Now to include some of the functionality of Apple's Passbook. Then Google released a new version of its maps for iOS, giving users another alternative to Apple's error-riddled mapping application, which the Cupertino, Calif.-based company introduced in 2012 to replace Google Maps. So goes the tit for tat in the war between the two giants of the mobile world, which is being fought not only in the marketplace but also in courtrooms across the globe. "It would be nice if everybody would get along better," Page says.
Despite the pitched battles, the two companies continue to work together when necessary. "We have a big search relationship with Apple, and so on, and we talk to them and so on," he says. Page has met with Apple chief Tim Cook to try to resolve the protracted patent disputes between Apple and makers of Android phones. While they have made progress in some areas, a broader agreement has proved elusive.
that shyt gonna get thrown out with the quickness