Google founder wows Peres with virtual tour of his roots

Israeli President Shimon Peres wrapped up a three-day tour of Silicon Valley on Thursday with a visit to Google headquarters, where he was personally hosted by Google founder Sergey Brin. Two days after meeting Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Peres was given a private tour of the Internet behemoth’s famed campus.

At the start of his visit, Brin surprised the president with a virtual trip back to his childhood stomping grounds in eastern Europe, using a three-dimensional Google Earth display. The virtual visit, spread over five giant screens, began in Wiszniewo, Poland (now Visnieva, Belarus), the city where the president was born. Greatly moved, the president asked his host to glide over to Valozhyn, the town where his parents were born. Peres then pointed out the location where his family’s house had been, as well as where their synagogue had stood.

Brin then upped the ante and took the president on a virtual trip to the moon, where they viewed a virtual model of the Apollo 11 spacecraft, and then sped off to Mars. The president, for his part, asked to visit Israel and see Kibbutz Alumot on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, which as a young man he helped establish. The 3-D tour next proceeded to Jerusalem, where Brin showed Peres the President’s Residence, the Western Wall, and the Church of Mary Magdalene on the Mount of Olives.

Following the Google Earth presentation, Brin and Peres held a working meeting. Brin showed the president a number of Google’s latest developments, including the latest Google Translate technology, which automatically translates entire Web pages from Arabic to Hebrew and even to Yiddish.

Smiling, Brin told the president that his mother had initially been unhappy when he decided to launch Google rather than finish his doctorate. He even related, jokingly, that his mother still could not get over the “hole” in his education and was in the habit of calling his company “Google Shmoogle.”

“Israel is a pioneer of research and development, and we have great respect for Israeli developers,” Brin told Peres. He also introduced the president to the dozens of Google employees who hail from Israel. Peres thanked his host, saying, “In Israel we have learned to orient ourselves to the future, and the country’s secret of success lies in the brilliant minds, creativity, daring and special Israeli chutzpah.” At the end of their meeting, Brin led the president to the building’s underground parking garage, where the two went for a ride in the prototype of the “Google driverless car,” operated by a recently developed computerized system.

Peres’ Silicon Valley tour included the launching of the president’s Facebook page, an appearance at a conference of start-up entrepreneurs and technology bloggers, and a tour of the IBM laboratories.

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