If you’ve read my notes from the recent CAL conference, you mayhave noticed that I was able to ask the first question of Ms. Schroeder after her keynote address. Here’s a more complete version of that event.
Ms. Schroeder finished her talk on the topic of Google Print and then opened up for questions. I’d been prepared for this and I quoted back to her the following line from a Novebmber 3, 2005 Washington Times article:
…nor has Google defined what a “snippet” is: a paragraph? A page? A chapter? A whole book?
I then informer he that all she had to do was go to the Google Print homepage and click on “About Google Print” to see that Google does, in fact, define exactly what a “snippet” is: “a few short sentences of text around your search term” and that a screenshot of such snippets is available.
Ms. Schroeder’s response was pure politician. She quickly said that what was in the article wasn’t what she meant at all. What she “really meant” was that “Google gets to define what a ‘snippet’ is and what if they decide it’s something else in the future.” She added that no company should have that right over materials that aren’t their’s in the first place. She then proceeded to thank me for “allowing [her] to clarify that.”
Thanks Ms. Schroeder, you managed to completely deflect the question. Next time, get it right in the first place.
