I would make it google the best facilicater of information and connctions. ..Ecommerce +social apps, with a built in trust model

what's he talking about? the first few results for "barcelona hotels" actually let me book a hotel room in barcelona.

what else would one be looking for with that search?

I would focus on making "features, not products".

So, I would fully merge Blog search into News. I would get rid of Sets, Suggest etc. And merge Ride Finder and Transit into Google Maps. (etc etc)

They've got themselves in a mess and they need to get out of it... fast.

>> what's he talking about?

The first three results are sponsored links. And the right-hand column is cluttered.

Then there's the topic refinment (which isnt a bad thing normally) that takes up even more space).

Please don't get rid of Sets Mambo, I use it about once a month!

The first HOTEL in "barcelona hotels" search is in #26

wrt sets ...

==>"I use it about once a month!"

How and why ??

>> Please don't get rid of Sets Mambo, I use it about once a month!

They should make the "~" results more vast then. For instance, i should be able to search for "~bmw" and get jaguar, mercedes etc. in the results as well.

> ==>"I use it about once a month!"
>
> How and why ??

I go to http://labs.google.com/sets and enter something. The last thing I used it for is to power http://blogoscoped.com/related/ , but I often use it in other circumstances. For example, to get a list of popular actors.

PS: Just used Sets to look-up more US computer game magazine titles for potential use in CoverBrowser.com...
http://labs.google.com/sets?hl=en&q1=computer+gaming+world&q2=&q3=&q4=&q5=&btn=Large+Set

Would anyone else get rid of some of those darn betas? At least Gmail for goodness' sake. . .

I'd actually work on bringing some sort of synergy into the products

For example.. I run adsense, adwords, analytics and webmaster console on my site. Why must I visit 4 websites?

Adwords can tell me which keywords get the most conversions, why can't they tell me which keywords end up clicking on adsense the most?

It seems like all of these should be one product, and share their information with each other.

What about incoporating Google homepage with Google Reader with Gmail? Why can't I see my website stats overview or adsense overview or adwords overview on my google homepage?

Why can't I easily use google docs as a CMS for my own custom blog like I can do with blogger? Is docs built into gmail as well as it could be?

Can I save as HTML right to page creator from google docs?

It's great Google has all these products, but none of them seem to know that the others exist.

Also.. to the barcelona hotels. You can't count the "sponsored results" as "results" when saying that the google results are crappy. That's like saying CNN news sucks because they keep reporting "shock the monkey and win an ipod." They're 2 different things.

I would argue that a site that lets me book hotels and compare rates SHOULD be above an individual hotel in barcelona. I searched hotels plural, and broad... not barcelona hilton or something, the broadness of the search would imply i want broad information about a variety of hotels.

This is just a case of the searcher searching for something, getting what he searched for, and then complaining about it. Learn how to search.

Buy biotech companies, labs and found Google BioLabs and Bioinformatics focusing on regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. Although it is a different market, it is a trend for IT folks to invest into Biotech and the pattern of the near future.
First full-time biotech employee at Google BioLabs post on my pimm.wordpress.com :)
  

I would actually bring down Google for a day. It would be fascinating to see how the world survives without access to Google for an entire day.

This would also give the startup community an insight into what consumers might consider the "alternatives" to Google.

If you dont use Google search would you use Yahoo, Ask, Kosmix, Wink?

What would replace Google calendar, Gmail, Blogspot?

I just imagined that... For me it'd be utter chaos. I think i visit Google way too much during the day.

Also.. sorry about that "learn how to search" comment. In the past week or so I've been very bitter... starting battles with too many sites.. I need to stop that.

Michael says:
>> The first HOTEL in "barcelona hotels" search is in #26

A nicer version of Ryans comments – you're not looking for "hotel", you're looking for "hotels". Using more hotel-specific search words "hotel barcelona", I end up with reviews of Hotel Jazz and Hotel Melia Barcelona as the 5th and 6th results, and a direct link to Hotel Colon (there's an accent on the last o, honest!) as the 7th.

Anil makes interesting points about taking down Google for a day. I've got lots of contact information in gmail only – I used to back it up to CSV every week or so, but then got lazy. Should get back to doing that. However, most contact emails are @gmail.com these days anyway.

As for changes – I'm not sure that Larry and Sergey really have any significant control over what happens anymore. Stepping in for a day and issuing any specific set of mandates may send a few ripples here and there, but I expect the further out of step with the way things are currently done, the longer and stronger a presence would be required to have those come close to being enacted.

After all, with only a day in the saddle, I'd bet the best way to have any lasting effect would be to personally and significantly impress as many Googlers as possible, so as to gain their respect in order to continue having input into the social network that is the company after the day. Maybe assebling a full-sized model of SpaceShipOne somewhere that it'd be noticed...

Of course I'd un-censor Google.cn and publicly challenge other companies to follow.

And if the Commies shut down the operation, I'd spend at least the same sum as YouTube cost to undermine the Great Firewall and to publicize the need of internet freedom and freedom of speech in China and everywhere. Dictatorships can only survive by keeping people in the dark. Like a vampire, they die in the sunlight!

Using my mobile,8 am- i agree with ryan , prefer 2 have analytics+sitemap+adwords+docs+the new google website optimizer.
I will make voice search+ music player+mobile ads connected to location. I will invite my son 2 googleplex- i will offer more funds 2 africa by google.org

Google results do consist of some clutter but they are no worse than other search engines. I think the problem though is that the way Google works will automatically allow more 'individual' material to go to the front page.
As an example, if you search for 'Spore' (the Game) on Google, the first page will result only in individual articles and videos while the first site/fan site with a collection of these articles is in page 2 (www.sporeuniverse.net).
I think the reason that that happens is because these (fan)sites link to this content more than other pages link to them. Definitely it is arguable which type of site gives more information to the user, but I do believe that Google should lower the weight of individual articles in highly-ranking sites.

I would get the team to start work on incorporating Indian language input in the search engine, Gmail and the chat facility within Gmail. It would be a godsend to millions of Web users in my country and go a long way in expanding the market.

Google calendar...I'd have the person working on Google calendar read the group and implemement the suggestions (task list, etc...)

I think google is great...

"what's he talking about? the first few results for "barcelona hotels" actually let me book a hotel room in barcelona."

yeah , but they are all third party – rather than the hotels themselves.