There’s a big Web 2.0 Summit happening in San Francisco, aimed at showcasing the Web 2.0 universe, although they still appear to be having problems articulating a vision that makes the slightest bit of sense:

“Web 2.0 is about harnessing the network effect, which gets better the more people use them…It could also be called user self-service. This is the start of the real disruption, with asymmetrical competition from user self service.�

Right….

Anyway, of interest to Google hounds, Eric Schmidt had a few things to say:

  • Why did Google buy YouTube? “YouTube was growing faster [than Google Video] and video became fundamental data type on the Internet, so that’s why we bought themâ€?
  • The underlying draw is to see what users are doing and have computers suggest related or adjacent content. It is a whole new paradigm and important to users
  • We would never trap user data
  • We embarked on a strategy to build apps that are search centric and very sharable….as something use in normal life. We are not arguing it is an [Microsoft] Office replacement, but a different way of manage information

Read the full interview summary here.
More here…

Schmidt also denied the recent rumor that his company had set aside $500 million to settle copyright claims by media companies as part of its deal to acquire YouTube Inc. “Not true“.