28 September 2011 | Author: R Wood Media Intern

Google discusses why it's its own worst enemy at Zeitgeist conference

To celebrate its 13th birthday, Google hosted its annual Zeitgeist conference to talk about the future and reflect on the future of the search giant.

During the conference in Paradise Valley, Arizona, CEO and search mastermind Larry Page was asked what he feels is the biggest obstacle to the success of the company.

His response? Google.

"One of the interesting things that we've noticed is that companies correlate on decision-making and speed of decision-making," Page said.

"There are basically no companies that have good slow decisions. There are only companies that have good fast decisions.

"So I think that's also a natural thing as companies get bigger, they tend to slow down decision-making. And that's pretty tragic."

Other topics of conversation included driverless cars, Google's past failures, and the firm's recent $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility.

Following the proposed acquisition of Motorola Mobility, Google now faces an antitrust review by the American Federal Trade Commission.

When pressed about what the merger will mean for both companies, Page discussed how Google's workforce will double, while its market capitalization won't.

"While it's significant, it's not doubling out market cap as much as we'd like it to. It's relatively small in that sense."

He also noted that it was a natural partnership, citing Motorola as among the first hardware providers to back Android.

Comparing the acquisition of Motorola to that of YouTube in 2006, Page said that Google "has always strived to take those kinds of risks and recognise those kinds of opportunities."

In Page's opinion, other early failures included a botched attempt at an ad deal with Yahoo. "We made a mistake not having enough capital," he said.

Watch the full discussion below:

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