Google Introduces Google Play, a One Stop Media Hub

STUNNED BY DRE
Google continues to expand its presence crossing into areas currently dominated by fellow web giants like Amazon. Microsoft and iTunes. The company rolled out GooglePlay which is its first move into building a digital entertainment hub for media consumers.

The Internet search giant says users can store up to 20,000 songs for free and buy millions of new tracks, download more than 450,000 Android apps and games, browse ebooks and rent movies. The initiative brings together Google Music, Google Books and Android Market. Visitors to those sites will be redirected to a single page that features tabs for books, music, games and movies, whether they are browsing the Web on a computer, tablet or smartphone. Google Play can be reached from any browser or mobile device.

[LAtimes]

Google's New Music Service Launched Today

STUNNED BY NELSON
Internet superpower Google launched its long planned music service today, further pushing the company deeper into content distribution and media. Bloomberg Media reporter Jon Erlichman speaks on it

Google's CEO Is Worried That The Tech/Web Giant is Losing Its Cool

STUNNED BY KERWIN
Start ups are always cool and and everyone wants to work for the hot start up. But when said start up grows into a $100 Billion giant, a new set of responsibilities and rules come into play .The coolness cools and a corporate culture slowly moves in. This seems to be the story at Google once dubbed the coolest place to work. But if CEO/Founder Larry Page has his way (which he is), Google will preserve the cool by any means necessary.

Mr. Page has never been more impatient than he is now. He is on an urgent mission to pull Google through a midlife crisis that threatens to knock it off its perch as the coolest company in Silicon Valley.

So Mr. Page, Google’s co-founder and former chief executive, who returned to the top job in April, is making changes large and small. He dropped more than 25 projects, saying they were not popular enough. He masterminded Google’s biggest deal by billions, the $12.5 billion Motorola Mobility bid, a bold move that positions the company to enter the hardware business. Borrowing from the playbooks of executives like Steven P. Jobs and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, he has put his personal imprint on the corporate culture, from discouraging excessive use of e-mail to embracing quick, unilateral decision-making — by him, if need be. 

 [NYT]