There it was in black and white – Eric Schmidt calling his company an operating system for advertising (a Wired interview).
Wired: How should we think about Google today?
Schmidt: Think of it first as an advertising system. Then as an end-user system — Google Apps. A third way to think of Google is as a giant supercomputer. And a fourth way is to think of it as a social phenomenon involving the company, the people, the brand, the mission, the values — all that kind of stuff.
And that’s exactly what Google has become, and wants to be – the foundation for advertising on the web. But I’d not stop at advertising. It’s clear that the real goal isn’t just advertising. It’s commerce.
PS – I’ll be interviewing Eric at the Web 2 Expo next week…