The Google we already know controls our pockets, makes sense of the web and wants to understand our behavior. That one company already has such extensive reach is pretty crazy, which also raises a weighty question: What would a Google 2.0 look like? According to a new report from The Information, CEO Larry Page has been trying to figure out just that. As the story goes, he rounded up the company’s brass over a year ago to suss out what big problems were really worth tackling and to set Google’s course accordingly.
As if self-driving cars, balloon-carried internet, or the eradication of death weren’t ambitious enough projects, Google CEO Larry Page has apparently been working behind the scenes to set up even bolder tasks for his company. The Information reports that Page started up a Google 2.0 project inside the company a year ago to look at the big challenges facing humanity and the ways Google can overcome them. Among the grand-scale plans discussed were Page’s desire to build a more efficient airport as well as a model city. To progress these ideas to fruition, the Google chief has also apparently proposed a second research and development lab, called Google Y, to focus on even longer-term programs that the current Google X, which looks to support future technology and is headed up by his close ally Sergey Brin.