Marissa Mayer is one of the technology luminary’s that are driving the future of search, discovery and online experience. 

She was one of Google’s first 20 employees and the first female engineer at Google.  She is currently the VP of Search and User Experience at Google, and is responsible for leading development projects and products for Google Search, Gmail, Google Maps, Google Earth and iGoogle.

Fortune recently named her one of the 50 most powerful women in the world. She was the youngest person ever to make that list on Fortune.

So, Marissa is a good, credible source on Google views, methods, models and intentions. When she speaks about search, Gmail and the like, we should all listen.  She recently gave an interview to Kevin Rose, founder of the social media news site Digg, which asked Digg users to ask then vote on questions.  Over 1000 questions were submitted.  The resulting top ten questions were asked of Marissa and captured in the video below.

I found the most interesting responses were to questions regarding Bing and Wolfram Alpha.  In both cases the response was essentially “rising tides raise all boats.”  It seems her view is the more excited that people get over search and discovery the more people will search and discover.  She also seems aware that competition will keep her own team moving forward.  That, I think, is one of the things that makes me happy that Microsoft is serious about search.

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