Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Google's Head of Research — We Don't Do Hardware

Posted by Zonk on from the to-the-gmobile dept.

mr_sifter writes "In a recent, wide-ranging interview Google's Head of Research, Dr Peter Norvig, revealed the firm has no interest in developing its own hardware. (Except a phone, apparently.) Said Norvig, 'We want to work everywhere and be neutral. That neutrality is important.' Interestingly, Norvig is tough on where the company's priorities are at the moment, saying: 'I think there could be much better tools, we're [Google] still kind of isolated in what we do. You give us a question and we give you an answer ... We're really focused on either the five second-type question ... We don't really support the five month or the five year queries, the project or life-long goal.' He also talks about the importance of adding a narrative to search, mobile technology, and how Google's strong financials mean the company can run research in an unusual way."

4 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I remember another company once said this... by apt142 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The funny thing is, MS arguably has better hardware than they have software.

    --
    Star Pirates
  2. Google does do hardware by DrDitto · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Just look at the job postings:

    http://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/egr/408676278.html

  3. Re:I remember another company once said this... by empaler · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Running it on Vista?

    Seriously, I have a MS-keyb+mouse set, and it's awesome. Probably one of the best keyboards I've had - only, as soon as I installed Vista, half the cool functions weren't available. Kind of embarassing, that.

  4. Re:Don't believe this by drspliff · · Score: 2, Interesting

    They don't make hardware, and if I read the article correctly they don't plan to get into the that market.

    At the moment (iirc) their using off the shelf components bought in bulk to power their server farms. If you're buying anything close to the amount of hardware Google is using you need people who are well versed in the stuff in order to make the right architecture decisions. Otherwise you just get a huge 20+ geek argument about which Intel or AMD processor to use.

    Hiring hardware testers is not the same as hiring hardware designers with the intent to start fabbing your own stuff.