Google executives discussed their strategy for the future with financial analysts for the first time since going public last summer. This is normal for large public companies, who typically meet with Wall Street financial analysts at least once a year to discuss their financial outlook and other business related topics.
Google's executives spent most of the presentation talking broadly about the company's agenda for the futureand their approach to expanding their line of products and services.

Here are some key points:

1) Google is likely to require its users to begin providing personal informationin order to usesome of its products and services, said CEO Eric Schmidt. Requiring people to provide their identity and a password to gain service access isa common practice, but wouldbe new for Google. Schmidt said that having more personal information would enable Google to offer more useful improvements.Notimetable was provided, and there were no specifics onwhich services might require registration.

2) Google's executives are operating under thenotion that 70 percent of the company's resources should be focused on its search engine, even though it accounted for virtually all the company's 2004 revenue ($3.2 billion). Another 20 percent of Google resourceswill bedevoted to it's search related products, such as the shopping comparison sub-site "Froogle", and the remaining 10 percentwill befocused on experimental services, such as a three-dimensional mapping program called Keyhole.

3) Don't be surprised ifsome of Google's products, including its widely read compilation of recent news stories "Google News", remain in the "beta" stagefor as long as five years. The "beta" tag is a sign that Google engineers still anticipate making significant improvements to the service.

4) A hiring spree that has added 2,300 employees in the last two years still hasn't been enough to satisfy Google's expansion plans. Google co-founder Sergey Brin said the company would like to hire employees at an evenmore rapid rate, but has trouble finding enough qualified applicants to meet its high standards.

5)Execs downplayed recent media reports that the company is preparing to branch into new directions by introducing a browser, a service for registering domains, and phone service over the Internet. "Most of the things we read are a surprise to us," said co-founder Larry Page.
Interesting stuff. I'm not sure that I believe everything that Page and Brin are saying, especially with regards to key point #5. Only time will tell...