the reflexions insider

Tuesday’s keynote was given by Eric Schmidt, CEO and Chairman of Google, Chairman of Novell, etc, etc. There were two items of note: 1) the announcement by Schmidt that Google has just released a presentation application to their office suite, and 2) the fact that Schmidt’s appearance came on the heels of the announcement by Microsoft and AT&T that they will ask federal regulators to challenge Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick for 3-odd billion dollars.

Incidentally, while booth size shouldn’t always be the measure of the relative importance of a company at a trade show, it was telling that Microsoft’s booth was in the “low rent” section and looked like the marketing department had paid for the trip by ransacking their couch for spare change (See the photo I snapped to the right. If you squint your eyes you can kind of make out the Microsoft booth among all of the people who are looking elsewhere). Google’s, by comparison, was along the main corridor and oozing with success, basking in the glow of their giant illuminated logo. Well maybe it was part success and part confidence in knowing that they own each and every one of us.

When Tim O’Reilly pressed Schmidt on the anti-trust issue, his response lacked anything but chutzpah: “Microsoft?! Did you say Microsoft and AT&T? What is the year?”

You could almost hear those poor Microsoft people in the back of the room grinding their teeth. I just hope they’re able to score a ride back to Redmond.

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