There's a Twitter virus going around - all afternoon my feed has been full of people repeating the following message.

Don't click, it teases. And of course people do. It's not worth it, honest.

I couldn't resist either but I set up a test account to see what would happen. I took some screengrabs for reference and to save other people the hassle.

When you click on the link - http://tinyurl.com/amgzs6 - you're taken to a simple web page with a button that looks like this.

At the bottom of the page, there's a single link to Korben.info.

(If you want a screengrab of the page in full then you can find one here.)

If you press the button at the top of the page, nothing obvious happens - there's no response. But the next time you look at Twitter, you've updated with the "don't click" message.

And that's that. Boring. So now you know - don't click.

There's a proper explanation of how this works here.

Sadly, it's hard to completely disagree with Paul Carr's critique of Le Web in The Guardian. (Which is a shame, as it's written in such a spiteful tone of voice that I really wish I could say it was all lies.)

During the tedium of the 4pm start-ups presentation, I kept seeing the article flash up on people's laptops around me, and it's being repeatedly discussed on the Twitter backchannel. Bad news travels fast and all that.

For my part... I've been disappointed in the quality of the panels here, and generally have come away with fewer insights than I would have expected. The events on the main stage haven't been fantastic, and could have done with being a bit tighter (surely Loic could employ someone to do proper preparation and production?), and even the products on show in the exhibition have been a bit lackluster.

Plus the food wasn't great (and there wasn't much of it) and the wifi didn't work and the venue, though very pretty, is in a pretty tedious bit of Paris.

Having said all that, there are interesting people here, and I've made some contacts that will be very useful in the next six months. But if you paid the full admission, 1,500 Euro is a lot of money for that alone.

Other observations:

• The quality of the startup presentations that I caught was really, really poor. Is it all just down to the language barrier? I'd rather see people pitch in their native language, with a translator, if they can't make the case properly in English.

• Never mind technology, there are really interesting things happening with content in Europe. Why wasn't there a single presentation across the two days from any European media organisation? The company I work for could contribute a dozen examples, and I'd love to have heard of similar work being done across the rest of the continent.

• On a similar note... there were two dominant themes to the discussion. 1 - Isn't the recession awful? 2 - Why aren't we as good as Silicon Valley? There's more to discuss than that, surely. If Le Web is to inspire web people all over Europe, get the best examples of European content and technology up there on stage.

• Michael Arrington is the most passive-aggressive interviewer I've ever seen. There must be a better way.

• The Twitter backchannel is really really addictive.

Must go, some photographer just took a picture of me sitting pathetically in the corner tapping away on laptop.

I was going to publish my crib notes on yesterday's interview with Orange France chairman Didier Lombard (you can watch here), then changed my mind. There was only one bit that anyone needs to hear.

Question from audience member (@tommorris):
"Asking as an orange customer in the UK, I'm wondering about data prices. In the UK, the data which i have used in the past couple of days would have cost me three or four pounds. Here, roaming, it would have cost me six to seven hundred pounds. We're part of a common market, can't we sort this out? Why is it costing so much for data?"

(round of applause from audience)

Response from Didier:
(awkward shuffling, laughter) "You have to ask the UK regulator, which will give you the answer. I don't want to enter into details of that... because... eh... it depends on the local situation... regulation in the UK is one of the, let's say, less efficient, we know.. because... eh... for a lot of reasons, and the situation you describe depends on that... (more laughter) I am not here to open discussion with the UK regulators... It's not only Orange... it's all the UK market, in this case."

That's beyond unhelpful. It's inaccurate. And he had the audacity to describe his company as a "network company" at the beginning of the interview.

My notes and quotes below. Was an interesting insight into how Google operates and where the next big developments might be. Spoiled a bit by interviewer behaving like a spoilt child.

As ever, the quotes may not be exact, and unless otherwise indicated, the direct quotes are from things said by Marissa. Sorry if there are any minor inaccuracies, email me and I'll change if so.

• michael arrington starts asking loic awkward questions on stage about food and wifi. no need really. does arrington think he's voice of the 'le web' people or something?
• launching global zeitgeist for 2008... faster rising search terms, etc etc...
• "what is love" is one of the most asked questions worldwide
• "this is the first time that we've broken it down over 30 countries"
• "the global trends are interesting but time/country-specific trends are more so"
• launching a second product... iGoogle themes for causes... this is all a bit piecemeal isn't it?
• Arrington asks about Chrome browser
• Marissa asks how many people in room are using it as a default browser... 10 or 15 hands go up... not bad but she's disappointed
• promises moving Chrome out of Beta this year... Google and Linux versions
• arrington "why is it important to take chrome out of beta"
• we have two types of beta - "client-software betas" are shorter.. a lot of OEMs will not distribute beta software. where something is "server-side", like Gmail, beta is less-well defined. we'll keep things in beta if there are important advances we want to make.
• "Chrome will come out of Beta very very soon."
• Arrington asks about search-wiki.. describes it as an 'abomination'.. 'the really ugly stuff beside the search results'
• "it's just three little icons, don't get so worked up about it!" - goes on to describe the functionality
• "why did we do this? search needs to be more dynamic and more personalised"
• "this is a great way for us to experiment with both those factors"
• talks about how search is not iterative... you might make the same decision over time, but no context is restored
• "around 40% of searches are repeat searches" - individuals repeating the same queries
• arrington asks if people are going to get an option to opt-out
• "in time we will probably give people an option to turn the icons on/off".. "beginning of next year"
• "the default will be on because we want to drive participation"
• arrington asks how all of this aggregated data is being used
• "right now the search wiki results are not being used to influence wider search"
• "there is a possibility of us doing so - when we see really large signals, ie, a thousand people making the same deletion"
• arrington asks where search is going next... "is there a point where google has too much market share, has done too much?"
• "we welcome competition"
• "we have the basics, we have a pretty good ranking algorithm"
• talks about different search modes.. not restrained to laptops/keywords.. but search via voice, search from cars, etc etc
• talks about incorporating more rich media.. maps, video, books... into search results
• "we want to stitch together the best answer for our users"
• loic asks "when will we have good video search"... seesmic angle, clearly
• "speech to text is further along and more likely to see a breakthrough than face-recognition software"
• "youtube is making face-recognition more difficult.. there are so many more people in video than there were 10, 20 years ago" - ie, it used to be film stars only
• arrington asks how far away this stuff is
• "i think we will see considerable advances in the next five, ten years."
• talks about personalised search... usual caveat about being careful with users' data
• "we don't know what will fuel personalised search, but we think it will be one of the traits of the successful search tools of the future"
• "another part of personalisation is the social aspect"
• "the virtual world mirrors the real world... we want people to be able to get better recommendations through search"
• conversation about how poor local search is... "we think that's a big opportunity"
• questions from the audience
• question about "not being evil", china, etc...
• "we take privacy very seriously at google... user trust is very valuable" choice and transparency etc etc etc
• "we want to provide our service... we have a choice between engagement and estrangement... giving search to end users in china is a greater benefit... though we have a constant debate internally at google"
• rubbish question about "why are my suggestions for feedback not adopted"... loic intersects
• "We pride ourselves on innovation and some of the best suggestions come from our users"
• arrington "how many times a day does someone type google into the search box"
• marissa talks about how that can be a legitimate search "but we see it more than we expect"
• question about how google voice search is biased towards an american accent...
• marissa talks about how accent recognition is a wider problem... seems to be implying that the data set collected by google voice search is being used to improve speech-to-text recognition
• interesting question "how did you help the company scale and deal with extreme pressure"
• "on how do we pick people... vast array of different disciplines... one broad approach to recruitment... two principles... are they smart... do they get things done"
• "we're really looking for people who have a lot of fire and passion and are able to execute their ideas"
• "when you have a really good idea it just takes off... the scale was thrust upon us... we tried to adopt practices that we knew would scale... that attention to detail goes a long way... reduces friction"

Twitter's (potentially) fatal flaw. The problem with eavesdropping on everyone's conversations is that sometimes they'll be talking about things that you're not interested in.

I'm trying to be selective, honest.

david weinbrger

TITLE: "leadership at the end of the age of information"
My summary: Interesting lecture about how networks can change the face of representative democracy, organisational structures in a corporation, and how individual interact with each other. Useful observations on how social systems are used and abused.

• "this is an old-fashioned talk because that's what I was asked to do"
• "it's a good time to look at what the age of information has done to our idea of leadership"
• "the stone age has ended but we still have stone... the age of info has ended but we obviously still have information"
• "we've always reduced and standardised what we know.. so machines can process it"
• "we've known from the beginning of the information age that we know more about things than the systems do"
• "peculiarities and quirks make a person who they are.. machines strip that out and make people boring!"
• "on a person's facebook page there's lots of information about a person... and lots of links.. created without control or centralisation"
• "a much richer view of a person than we got during the age of information"
• "hyperlinks increase contextualisation... they're the opposite of 'information'"
• "the architecture of links creates an abundance of stuff.... and of crap!"
• "but we know how to deal with crap"
• "it's abundance of good which is a problem"
• "our culture/institutions aren't ready for that"
• "leadership has been based upon scarcity"
• "most people are followers"
• "the process of making a decision is exactly the opposite of how computers work"
• "the cliche is that it's lonely at the top"
• "we treat leadership as a form of heroism"
• "that systems rely on a single person is a structural flaw - but for some reason we've turned it into something positive!"
• "no one person can do the job we expect a leader to do"
• "the jobs of leaders can be disagregated"
• "decision making is a failure of leadership"
• "wikipedia - decisions are taken only when the system has failed. and then the decision making is akin to a coin toss"
• "strategies impose scarcity on the future"
• "real leaders are realists - they would not have built wikipedia"
• "realism simply isn't ambitious enough"
• "in a networked world... leadership is a property of the network"
• "networks have the properties that we used to want from a leader"
• starts to reference Obama's campaign
• "the obama team has an understanding of how the web works - put up a new website, it's not perfect, what is, keep fixing it"
• "let's say the obama campaign wanted to launch a social network for citizens"
• "conversation and intimacy don't scale"
• "potentially millions of small conversations"
• "the more interesting ones would rise up, become more visible"
• "eventually someone from the government might jump in"
• "now a user is engaged with talking with the government. that's great, right? tight?"
• "but who elected this person? simon willis calls this 'reputational democracy'"
• "this is a new level of democracy that did not exist before"
• "that system is highly dependent on little tiny choices that the developers make"
• "a move from a 5-star system of rating to a thumbs up/thumbs down model could have massive implications for the dynamic of the system"
• "there's nothing wrong with this, if the decisions are taken in a networked way"
• "it's impossible to predict what the new leadership will be"
• "we are engaged in a struggle over the nature of leadership"
• "there is no way through it except to struggle on"
• "i hope that old-style leadership will be toppled from its mythical position"
• "we needs leaders everywhere"
• "leadership needs to take on the properties of the best networks"

Notes and quotes from a chat with Nikesh Arora of Google Europe

My summary: Slightly bland chat with heavy focus on how Europe under performs in tech sector, and views on whether or not capital is easy to come by during an economic downturn. Google says yes, audience says no.

• Google had 500 employees in Europe 4 years ago... has 2,000 today... of 20,000 worldwide
• "more than half the revenues of google come from outside the USA"
• "it's an interesting time.. like having a hangover after a big party"
• "there are very very positive signs out there.. both on the government side and corporate side"
• "i expect the USA to come out of this before europe does"
• "we're using the opportunity to regain our focus"
• "we're making sure that we're focussed on users and great products"
• "this is a wonderful opportunity to find the best people out there"
• Loic asks a question about why the USA devours all start-ups...
• "there is going to be ongoing entrepreneurial activity in europe"
• "this room is testament to the fact that there -are- startups in europe"
• loic asks about cultural difference
• 60 different nationalities working in google europe
• "in general, there is a lower appetite for risk in some businessed in europe than there is in the US"
• "failure is not always considered a bad thing in the US"
• "people have to step up and take the risks"
• "the next google is going to come from a garage"
• "it is wrong to think of the world as broken up into countries and languages - the audience is 1.4bn people"
• "entrepreneurs tend to focus on the country they know the best - it's a fatal flaw"
• "language should not be a barrier to adoption"
• "start with an idea that 1.4bn people can use."
• loic "should google launch a fund to save europe?" "should google help europe" (clapping from audience, remarkably)
• "in the current market people have to have a very very good idea"
• "three or four years ago, access to capital was harder in europe. not now"
• "google ,apple, etc, were all started in economic downturns, not upturns"
• "the economic climate does not dictate whether or not you are going to be successful"
• awful question from the audience about why google doesn't provide 'to do lists'....
• twitter feedback: http://twitter.com/conoro/statuses/1046723874: "He's totally wrong about access to capital. I should bring him over to Dublin to see the suss there."
• aggressive question from audience: "what is Google doing to Jaiku"
• "we going to find an interesting way to integrate Jaiku with our products"
• cheeky question from Loic - "how do i get acquired by Google Europe" - giggles from audience
• "if your aspiration is to get acquired by Google, you're going to get the wrong result"
• "if you have a great idea that noone else has, it won't just be google looking to acquire you"

Early-morning Le Web tweet.

Just for the record... as I came over from the UK yesterday, my body considers this a 6am start. Bleurrrrrrrrrgh.

May blog here about events at Le Web tomorrow - subject to wifi availability / time / energy / MacBook battery life.