The smartest person in content

Marissa Mayer, Google's VP of consumer products, has been called the most powerful woman in the world. That's certainly debatable -- but one could make a convincing case given how her work touches tens of millions of lives each day.

She's also been called the smartest person in content, and evidence of that comes out during this hourlong interview at the opening of the Tow-Knight Center at City University of New York earlier this month.

CUNY's Jeff Jarvis, of Buzzmachine fame, interviewed Mayer and AOL CEO Tim Armstrong and touched on a variety of media issues, most of which centered around the belief both have that "local" is an enormous opportunity for audience and revenue.

It's clear from watching this video why Mayer is where she is. She oversees Google's local, mobile and mapping strategies, and has great ideas on how to give people what they want, when they want it and how they want it.

And while Armstrong has interesting ideas of his own, Mayer is clearly the one with vision that's ahead of the curve. Mayer used to work for Armstrong, before he left Google to join AOL. It's interesting that in buying Huffington Post, Armstrong has tied his future to a woman who knows how to make money off digital content. What comes around, goes around, I guess.