With the news that Google CEO Eric Schmidt is stepping down and founder Larry Page is taking over in the role, both gentleman and Google co-founder Sergey Brin joined the earnings call to address questions from analysts. One analyst asked about what Google’s plans were with incorporating more social elements into the business. Schmidt deferred to Brin, saying that this was an area that Brin has been working on, which we knew from previous reports.
Brin said that the notion of realtime and social are both important to search, and the company has worked to make search for realtime and to include social elements within search such as integration with Twitter in results. But he added that there would be much more to come, saying that “we’ve only touched one percent of what” social can be within search.
So clearly 2011 is going to be the year that Google really pushes social. On the call, Brin said that he’s working on some new projects at the company that he couldn’t name. Clearly all of this seems to point to the fact that Brin is leading Google’s social plans. And that Brin thinks that Google has only touched the tip of the iceberg when it comes to social.