Google X is something we’ve heard about, on and off, for a few months now. The name brings to mind some sort of Skunkworks division of the company that is working on projects other than search, email, or Google’s other activities, and that seems to be the case. The X Labs have supposedly been working on a project as diverse — and far from Google’s core business — as a space elevator and Google’s famous self-driving cars. The latest to come from the X division is Wesolveforx.com, which hasn’t been completely defined yet, but seems to be something new for Google, possibly a conference series. The site simply describes it as a “forum to encourage and amplify technology-based moonshot thinking and teamwork, ” which leaves room for a lot of possibilities.
Most of the evidence points to a series of short lectures, focused on solving serious problems with the use of technology. While some have pointed towards a think tank of sorts, Google does already have Ideas, its NYC-based “think/do tank” where it can work on non-traditional projects. Ideas was recently rated the best think tank created in the last 18 months, so we know they are doing something right, even though they don’t seem to be things that affect the average Google user (at least not to their knowledge).
The conference idea does make sense because the site clearly states “Attendees login here” and there is an email submission form where anyone can put in their information, seemingly to request an invitation or at least get on the email list. This points towards something with open admissions and larger attendance than a think tank, such an an event series like the TED talks.
The image below, found in the site’s CSS, makes it pretty clear that We Solve for X is a sort of open lecture series. It mentions 12 minute presentations and references “the audience you’ll be presenting to”. It seems as though the talks will be focused on solving major problem with science fiction-like applications of technology. This is totally in keeping with where we’ve seen more forward-looking parts of Google focused over the past few years.
The video below was made available on the site as well as We Solve for X’s YouTube channel. It has no hard information, but gives a general tone for the program, which is aimed at thinking through larger problems than one might expect a commercial organization to be working on.
So, stop by wesolveforx.com, sign up, and you should know more soon. In the meantime you might want to follow Google’s newly-hired Richard W. DeVaul who has tweeted a number of times with the #wesolveforx hashtag and works at Google X.
Google X, via Android Police
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