Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson was Google's special guest at the internet giant's “Zeitgeist” meeting in Hertfordshire this week. Branson was introduced to the 400 or so delegates by Google chief executive Eric Schmidt as having “more than 360 companies”. Google co-founder Larry Page, who was also on stage, pointed out: “We only have one, Eric.” Branson: “I'll swap.”

* Google's Larry Page is passionate about Street View, Google Maps and other efforts to photograph every nook of the world, and always seems hurt at the idea anyone could disagree. He recounted to the Zeitgeist audience how he uses some software called myTracks which “records everywhere I go”. That meant he could review exactly where he has been on a map — for example, from Heathrow to his hotel and retrace his steps.

Most of Google management have apparently signed up to myTracks so “we have everyone's tracks”. “Except mine,” pointed out his CEO Eric Schmidt. Wise man. Page recounted how one Google executive called Jonathan was recently on holiday abroad and kept receiving messages from his colleagues at work, who were following him on myTracks, telling him he wasn't leaving his hotel enough to go sight-seeing. Only at Google...

* Whenever Google executives received a tricky question at the Zeitgeist that they didn't want to discuss, they had a stock response: “Let's talk offline.” It means let's talk privately. Only at Google...

* Aaron Sorkin, creator of West Wing, was asked on a Zeitgeist panel what he would spend a £10,000 communications allowance on if he were one of our expenses-loving MPs? Sorkin evidently has not been following the plight if sterling against the dollar. He joked that the credit crunch meant “£10,000 is about $50-60 million right now”. If only. Sorkin generously suggested sharing the cash with fellow panellists who included former No.10 spinner Alastair Campbell.

* Is Google looking to buy any businesses while the top brass are visiting the UK? Chief executive Eric Schmidt batted that away with: “What would you suggest?” City Spy wonders: Has any British company ever turned down an offer from Google? Do tell.

* City Spy was intrigued to hear the other day that one advertising agency has been dreaming up the most extreme blue-sky scenarios for the year ahead for the media industry. Someone suggested: Google to buy ITV? Well, it would solve outgoing boss Michael Grade's problems...

Spin the Ball for ITV top job

In a move that surely speaks volumes as to their faith in the current management, some shareholders in ITV have taken it upon themselves to find a successor to outgoing executive chairman Michael Grade.

Rather than wait for the company to conduct its own search, they are already talking to candidates, with Tony Ball, the former chief executive of BSkyB, thought to be the front-runner. For his part, he is believed to be interested in the job, so long as he can secure sufficient shareholder backing — no mention of the existing board there.

Quite a campaign is being mounted to push for Ball, with two PRs sounding out journalists about his suitability: Tim Burt of Brunswick and Tim Allan of Portland (himself a former BSkyB spinner).

Is Goldman small beer?

MUCH attention has been paid to the recent deal between Goldman Sachs and the attorney-general
of the US state of Massachusetts for the bank to pay $60 million following an industrywide investigation into the underwriting of mortgage-backed securities, particularly subprime, in the run-up to the credit crunch. Goldman is thought to be the first bank to have settled, and it evidently does not come out of this smelling of roses, but what about the roles of others?

Looking at data from Inside Mortgage Finance, it is possible that Goldman was nothing like the worst offender. In each year between 2005 and 2007, it was never among the top five banks in the US that underwrote such securities by volume. The “top five” roll of shame from 2007 in descending order: Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Royal Bank of Scotland, Lehman and Countrywide. With hindsight, it looks like a Who's Who of victims of the credit crunch.

The “top five” for 2006 is the same — with Lehman the leading bank.

It seems hard to believe that some of these other banks won't have to fork out too.

And, City Spy wonders, would these payments make Goldman's seem like small beer?

Ramsay on the spot at Chelsea Flower Show

On the opening day of the Chelsea Flower Show, you would expect Gordon Ramsay's Royal Hospital Road restaurant to be heaving — after all, it is only a couple of hundred yards up the road from the flower show, where hordes of well-heeled Home Counties matrons must surely have been in need of sustenance.

If they were, they weren't stopping off at Ramsay's restaurant. City Spy's man on his pushbike reports that the place was half-empty at 2pm.

* The property world is warming up for the annual Surveyors Sevens rugby tournament, which takes place in Richmond this Sunday. It is usually a lively affair involving a lot of drink, plenty of banter, a bit of nudity, and some rugby thrown in. But numbers look to be down this year as a result of some savage job-cutting and general gloom in the market. One firm in bullish mood, however, is King Sturge, which is looking to win the title for an incredible fifth year in a row. With less opposition this time around, and former Scotland international Eric Peters still on board, King Sturge is hot favourite once again.

* Morgan Stanley is advertising a job for a “credit risk hedge fund associate” whose role will be “to protect Morgan Stanley from losses resulting from bankruptcy or default”. Analysts “with proven credit experience in the hedge fund sector” should apply. How many decades' experience do they need? “A minimum of three years.”