Description:

Google is famously driven by data. Until Google+ that data was about web pages, places and news. Now that Google has added people to the mix, how will they use this data? Is social data really critical to Google's mission of organizing the world's information, or is it more relevant to their business model of advertising?

In a conversation with Tim O'Reilly, Bradley Horowitz (Google's VP of Product Management) will talk about Google's successful social network and the long-term value that it brings to users and Google itself.

This webcast is an extended preview of conversation taking place at O'Reilly's Strata Summit, Sept. 20-21, in New York City. Part of a weeklong series devoted to data, including Strata Jumpstart (Sept. 19) and the Strata Conference (Sept. 22-23), Strata Summit will look across the new economy of data, highlighting opportunities and challenges for business and society.

The conversation will touch on:

• How the Google+ team thought about social data--design and policy principles that underly the service
• What Google is learning from Google+ interaction data
• Interesting or even surprising discoveries from Google+ data analysis
• challenges and lessons on the infrastructure side

About Tim O'Reilly

Tim O'Reilly is the founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, Inc., thought by many to be the best computer book publisher in the world. O'Reilly Media also hosts conferences on technology topics, including the O'Reilly Open Source Convention, the Web 2.0 Summit, Strata: The Business of Data, and many others. O'Reilly's Make: magazine and Maker Faire has been compared to the West Coast Computer Faire, which launched the personal computer revolution. Tim's blog, O'Reilly Radar, "watches the alpha geeks" to determine emerging technology trends, and serves as a platform for advocacy about issues of importance to the technical community. Tim is also a partner at O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, O'Reilly's early stage venture firm, and is on the board of Safari Books Online.

About Bradley Horowitz

Bradley Horowitz is Vice President of Product for Google's social products including Gmail, Blogger, Picasa, and the recently launched Google+ Project. He has also led product for Google's consumer application division which includes Gmail, Gtalk, Google Voice, Google Reader and Calendar. Before joining Google, Horowitz was Yahoo's VP of Advanced Development where he drove the acquisitions of Flickr and MyBlogLog, launched the Brickhouse incubator, and developed new products like Yahoo! Pipes. Previously, he was Co-Founder and CTO of Virage, where he oversaw the technical direction of the company from its founding through its IPO and eventual acquisition by Autonomy. Horowitz has a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Michigan, and an M.S. in Media Science from the MIT Media Lab.