Google Labs Set to Expand and to Become "More Transparent"

Google Labs will soon become "more transparent in its interaction with end users," R.J. Pittman, who heads Google's consumer search operations, told Beet.TV earlier this week in this video interview.  He also said the company is making a major commitment to expand and accelerate the rate of innovation of the Labs.

In June, Google made the first big step in opening up the Labs with the launch of of GMail Labs.  Here is a report on that development by Saul Hansell of The New York Times.

R.J. did not disclose what product development would be opened to the public, but indicated this will happen shortly. 

We can surely expect the inevitable expansion of new products from Mountainview. It will be fascinating to see how the public might become be part of the process.

This is the second in a series of interviews done with R.J. earlier this week in the New York Google offices.  We will be publishing three more segments over the week.

-- Andy Plesser, Executive Producer