Obama outlines presidential plans at Google
US presidential hopeful Barack Obama gave a talk at Google’s headquarters yesterday, in which he outlined policies for a more open, innovative Internet.
Speaking to an audience of Google employees at the company’s Googleplex base in Mountain View, California, Obama praised the ambition and invention of the technology company that has become the world’s best-known Internet company in a little under a decade.
“We need to make sure that the next success story, the next Google, happens here in America. The Google story is about what can be achieved when we cultivate new ideas and keep the playing field level for new businesses.”
Obama’s visit highlights the importance now placed on Internet campaigning by candidates for the presidency. Fellow candidates for the 2008 US Presidential elections, including Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Ron Paul and John Edwards have also made recent visits to Google’s headquarters.
Each also have campaign websites where traffic is closely monitored for signs of which hopeful might be taking a lead or losing ground in the race to the White House. According to figures from Nielsen/Netratings, Obama is creating the most buzz among Democratic candidates online, pulling in 717,000 unique visitors in July, compared to Hillary Clinton’s 437,000.
During his speech at Google, Obama promised to appoint the country’s first “Chief Technology Officer” to make more government documents and information available online. He also reiterated calls for Net Neutrality policies to remove network restrictions and promote freedom of competition.
The issue of whether Barack had enough experience to become President was also raised at the event.
“Sergey and Larry [Google's co-founders] didn’t have a lot of experience starting a Fortune 100 company,” he responded.
As the momentum builds for the November 2008 elections, the main candidates will all be keen to associate themselves with the success and innovation of companies like Google; the thought leaders and gatekeepers of the online information marketplace.
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