My professional journey in Search
started in 1990
when I came to the United States
from India as a young computer
science graduate student
to study Search with some of the
pioneers of the field
and today I am responsible
for Search at Google. It
has been an incredible journey
and after 25 years
of working in Search
the question people ask
me most often is
'What keeps you going?'
Now before I answer that question
let me tell you a story
Somewhere in the United States
a young couple was blessed
with a beautiful daughter.
Soon after their child was
born she developed severe
allergies to most foods
When their daughter turned one
their doctor prescribed them
half a tablet of Claritin
a commonly prescribed
anti-allergic medication
to be given to the child every
day.
One day, soon after the
child learned how to walk
she discovered several bags
unopened bags of diapers
in her room. Guess what the child
does next? She pushes those
diapers next to a tall
dresser,
climbs up these makeshift
steps, discovered
an unopened package
of Claritin in the top
drawer,
and yes, eats all ten
of them.
Not in a million years did
her parents ever imagine
that a one-year-old would be
able to get into the top
drawer of a tall dresser
When they found their child
licking the empty packaging
the parents just realised
that their child had overdosed
on medication.
After a frantic call with
the doctor they rushed their daughter
to the nearby hospital, which
was twenty minutes away.
Those twenty minutes were
the toughest twenty minutes of my
life.
I can still remember that feeling
as I stand here today, because
there's nothing more scary than
the thought of losing your child
In those twenty minutes I wish
someone had told me that the chances
of something really bad happening
are extremely low.
Today, that information is
just one search away
so that parents don't have
to spend twenty minutes
in a car, scared to death
for the future of their child
Now thankfully our daughter is
a happy, healthy teenager
attending Cornell University
and now we exchange
notes about how the Cornell
party scene has changed in
the last twenty years since I left
Cornell.
So, back to what keeps me
going, the answer
is simple. I have seen
first-hand how information
can completely transform
people's lives, and empower
them to live a more meaningful
and fulfilling life
every day. And today, we
have the opportunity to
bring to everyone in
this world more information
than was available to the
elite few just twenty
years back.
Yes, Search has come
a long way since Google
started in 1998
but our mission has always
been the same, to organise
the world's information and
make it universally accessible
and useful.
When I started at Google
fifteen years back, the information
revolution was just starting
Searching meant a bulky
computer on a slow dial-up
connection.
For people in remote villages
and kids in schools
around the world, scenes like
these were not at all uncommon
You'd gather around one computer
wait for your turn to use
it, but still, the ability
to search for anything
and find it was magical
See, people are inherently curious
We have a strong desire
to learn, and in those early
days, being able to search
the web gave us
the feeling of owning
a computer that knows all
the answers. It was tremendously
empowering.
On a personal level, all
this was simply fascinating
You see, the image of a computer
that knows all the answers
was etched in my brain
as a young boy. I grew
up in India watching endless
reruns of Star Trek on
our black and white TV, and
just like many of you, I
just loved it. I was especially
captivated by the computer
on Starship Enterprise, remember
that?
Captain Kirk and his crew
would ask the computer anything
anytime, and the computer would understand
them and answer. 'Computer
this.' 'Computer, that.' Now, many
of us were inspired
by science fiction
when we were little. Kids who dreamt
of flying around in space
in a spaceship became astronauts
or children who
dreamt of colonising Mars
became members of the Elon Musk
fan club.
I, on the other hand, dreamt
of the Starship computer
and here I am today
the person responsible
for building my dream for
the entire world.
Now Star Trek was set
in 23rd century
and I'm happy to report that
my inspiration, Gene Roddenberry
got it wrong by a couple
of centuries. We will have
something better than that Enterprise
Class computer in this century
in our lifetimes.
In fact, that dream is becoming
a reality right in front
of our eyes. Consider this
every day 3.4
million people get their hands
on a new smartphone
To put that in perspective
that's more than the entire
city of Madrid getting
a new smartphone every
day, 365 days
a year.
By some projections, the
world will have over 5
billion people with Internet
access by 2020.
Most of this access will happen
on these beautiful devices
that we carry in our pocket
in our purses, in our
backpacks, or on
our wrist. 5 billion people
from that humble farmer
in Africa, who just got
his first smartphone, to
that entrepreneur in Silicon
Valley.
From the Queen of England
to that mother in India
who's just trying to take care
of her kids. Everyone
will have access to the same
information so that they can
improve their own, their family's
and their community's lives
And they can do this simply
by talking to a device that's
always with them. It's like
everyone can be Captain Kirk
Can you think of something more empowering
than that?
We truly are a privileged
generation, that we get
to build this dream together
Now this shift to mobile presents
a beautiful new canvas
for all of us to reinvent
what we do, to innovate
and to delight users in
new ways. So what do people
want from their mobile devices
Of course they want to communicate
with other people, but at the same
time, they want answers
to all their questions
and they want to be kept in
the know, proactively
without having to ask
with the information buried deep
in their apps and services
We can build this future, but
no one company
can build it alone.
It needs the amazing
apps and services
and content that you
are producing. Together we
can paint a beautiful picture
on this canvas, which
will serve billions
of people around the world.
Let's start with answers. As
you may imagine,
giving answers to every
question is something very core 250 00:08:18,200 --> 00:08:18,090 to our mission.
A question is a beautiful
thing.
A question can take you
anywhere.
It opens a world
of opportunities
and creates new possibilities
and connections. It takes
us places we have never
been before, literally
and metaphorically. Sometimes
it's just an act of
curiosity, or
as I told in my story
earlier, a matter of a parent's
need. And yes, indeed, that's
our daughter, when she was one-year-old
Cute, very cute.
Now, many times an answer
is just the beginning or part of
a task. We also want
to make it easy for people to
get stuff done on their mobile
phones. There's amazing
useful content in
apps, so we are working
with many app developers
around the world so that people
can discover their apps
and find answers in
their apps with a single
tap, without having
to fumble through a grid of apps
or without having to wonder, 'Should
I search for it on the web, or
do I have an app for that?'
Together, you and us
we can build really great
experiences when
we marry the endless possibilities
of your apps with the
smarts we have built in
Google and Android, and in fact
I wouldn't be surprised if
people in your organisations
are already working with my team
to make this future possible
and I really want to thank you
for all your support. But together
we can do even better. Even
before people ask, we
should be able to give them the
information they need
Do that, and we are building
Now cards just like these
People can summon these
Now cards in their
Google app, whenever they have
a free moment, so that they can
catch up with stuff they care about
for example, when they are waiting
for a train. And these Now
cards can also notify
you when you absolutely need
to know something, for example
if your next meeting is across
town and traffic is unusually
heavy, a Now card can
buzz you and say, 'Hey, it's time
to leave.' Or, if you've been searching
for flights in one of the apps
and the prices of that
flight just dropped, a Now
card can send you a notification
saying, 'Hey, you want to do this.'
As I said a bit earlier, we
truly are a privileged generation
that we get to build this dream
together, and with great privilege
comes great responsibility
People as fortunate as you
and me,
we have a huge responsibility
to bring this information revolution
to everyone in the
world.
We have all experienced the
joy of searching and learning
on the web, and now we need
to bring it to the next
5 billion people
so that they can feel
a little more empowered
everyday with the information
they need,
so that they can really
focus on things that
matter to them, and open
a world of possibilities
with just a simple question
After 25 years of working
in Search, I'm more optimistic
about the future than ever
before. Thank you.