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rumormonger
Is Eric Schmidt Hanging Out with His Ex-Girlfriend Again?
Google's CEO was once thought to be quite serious about Marcy Simon; Eric Schmidt's sometime PR consultant was spotted wearing an engagement ring. Then, a breakup and talk of another woman. But the pair have reportedly reached a new accommodation. More » -
clips
Microsoft's Bing Puts Google and Yahoo on the Defensive
In the tech world, dominance can be lost with mere clicks, which in turn spring from mere thoughts. Perhaps that's why Google and Yahoo's CEOs are so quickly dismissing Microsoft's new search site, Bing. More » -
print is dead
Google's Newspaper That Wasn't
Eric Schmidt now says Google thought about buying a newspaper but rejected the idea as "crossing the line" between technology and content. The real message for newspaper hacks: You're just not profitable. Compared with, say, TV and movies. More » -
antitrust
Uh Oh, Google's in More Antitrust Trouble!
Google's G1 is the biggest enemy of Apple's iPhone. And Apple is making a big push into the Web. So it's totally hunky-dory that Google and Apple share board members, right? Wrong, say antitrust cops. More » -
print is dead
Maureen Dowd Gapes at the Horror of Google
What happens when the prim self-satisfaction of New York's media elite meets the smug hubris of Silicon Valley's unblinking technocrats? Why, a Maureen Dowd profile of Google CEO Eric Schmidt, that's what happens. More » -
print is dead
Google CEO: Newspapers Need to Speed Things Up
What's the mysterious plague that's killing newspapers? According to Google CEO Eric Schmidt, it's not search engines, Craigslist, or Monster.com. It's those agonizingly slow-loading websites! More » -
layoffs
Google Execs in Secret Layoff Meetings
More layoffs are coming to Google, employees there believe. A Googler tells us top executives abruptly cancelled meetings across the Googleplex Friday.
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geeks gone wild
Who's Saying 'Fly Me' to Eric Schmidt?
How does Eric Schmidt do it? The computer nerd runs Google, has Obama's ear, parks his jet fleet in a NASA hangar, and has a rocking girlfriend. Is she the reason he flies so much? More » -
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antitrust
It's Time to Ask if Google's Too Big to Fail
Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently told the BBC that the U.S. should break up banks that get "too big to fail." What about Google? Is it too big — and should the government take action? More » -
free
Google, No Longer the Land of the Free
The accountants have taken over the Googleplex, once a hotbed of amiably unprofitable innovation. The notion that ads would pay the way for everything has been dropped — and "fee" is replacing "free." More » -
wantrepreneurs
Obama's Tech Twit Conference Will Destroy Us All
The nation is in crisis, our economy on the brink. And yet President Change is spending time with a group of technowastrels whose sole noteworthy accomplishment has been to spend other people's money.
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Shut Up, Google
Why Google CEO's Twitter Diss Is All Wrong
Eric Schmidt is an old dude who just doesn't get Twitter. That groupthink consensus emerged after the Google CEO dismissed the fast-growing messaging service at a conference. But he missed the real critique Twitter deserves.
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Googlefreude
Marissa Mayer: Google's Biggest Failure
Google's perfectionist cupcake princess is totally misunderstood! That's the claim Marissa Mayer, the VP who oversees Google search, makes to a credulous New York Times, which licks up the frosted version of her career.
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death of print
Google Boss to Newspapers: No Bailout
Everyone wants a sugar daddy to save them. Wall Street has found one in Washington. But the newspaper industry has been batting its eyes in the direction of Mountain View, Calif., home of Google. Ha! More » -
Inaugural Cash
Google Execs Pay $150,000 for Obama Bash
It's Google's presidency. We're just watching it. Six Google executives, including CEO Eric Schmidt and cofounder Larry Page, have donated $25,000 apiece to fund President Barack Obama's swearing-in party. -
wilson sonsini
Lawyers nix champagne amid popped bubble
It may be time to put a cork in Silicon Valley's most famous law firm. Wilson Sonsini is no longer celebrating its new attorneys with champagne. That trimmed perk is just the beginning of its woes. -
kate bohner
Google CEO's unemployed girlfriend
What's the use of dating a megabillionaire if he can't throw some bucks your way? Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who's been seeing video producer Kate Bohner since last fall, hasn't come through with funding for her documentary production firm, so she's out of a job. -
rumormonger
Henry Blodget wants you to think Eric Schmidt will quit
Two weeks after Valleywag stopped believing that President-for-Change Obama might steal Eric Schmidt from Google, Silicon Alley Insider editor Henry Blodget has weighed in with the same speculation. His bullet list of reasons Schmidt might quit isn't crazy, but here's the six-word version of Blodget's post: "We have no inside knowledge here. " I have enough inside knowledge to say this: true Googlers don't see Google as a stepping-stone to a government job. Government is part of the problem. Google is the solution. (Photo by Reuters/Carlos Barria) -
your privacy is an illusion
Google CEO has no time for your privacy
Is Google becoming the king of the Web? Well, duh — that happened about five years ago, before anyone really noticed. But activist groups, now and again, worry about whether Google knows too much about us. Yesterday, Consumer Watchdog's John Simpson quizzes Google CEO Eric Schmidt about whether his company is doing enough to guard our privacy. More » -
rumormonger
Google CEO pulled over for driving with a cell phone
No man is above the law — not even multibillionaire Google CEO Eric Schmidt. At least that's what we hear from a well-placed tipster, who says Schmidt recently confessed to having been pulled over by the cops last month in Los Angeles for talking on his cell phone while driving. (California law recently changed to require the use of a headset.) Oh, but it gets worse for Schmidt. More » -
caption contest
Eric Schmidt's 20 percent time project
Google CEO Eric Schmidt, left, sits at a campaign event for Barack Obama in October. YouTube's growing role in politics makes Schmidt an unelected Washington player. Can you think of a better caption? Leave it in the comments. the best one will become the post's new headline. Yesterday's winner: jasonnellis, for "That's not a sweater, honey." (Photo by cjwoolridge) -
don't be evil
Eric Schmidt and the YouTube election
Is YouTube making Google a political player? The video-sharing site, with its stratospheric bandwidth bills and questionable new ad formats, may never pay Larry and Sergey back in cash for the $1.65 billion they shelled out to buy it in 2006. But it doesn't have to. YouTube, having conquered online video, is taking over political broadcasting. The conventional unwisdom in Manhattan and Washington, D.C., is that this election made YouTube. Pah! It's true that campaign videos spread faster than ever thanks to YouTube. But they made up a tiny fraction of clips and traffic on the site. Politicians owe YouTube a debt that Google is just starting to collect on — and hosting President Obama's 21st century fireside chats is just a down payment. More » -
barack obama
President Change dumps radio for YouTube
This week's Democratic Party weekly address by our audaciously hopeful President-elect will not be on boring old NPR. Barack Obama's going to upload to YouTube, reports the Washington Post. The WaPo says the Obama administration will also make "online Q&As and video interviews" part of its communications strategy. Think this is payback for Google CEO Eric Schmidt's late-to-the-game Obama endorsement? More » -
America's CTO
Eric Schmidt rejects Obama's lame CTO job
"I love working at Google and I'm very happy to stay at Google, so the answer is no," Google baldfaced-liar-in-chief Eric Schmidt told Jim Cramer on CNBC Friday, when asked if he'd take a job with the incoming administration. "Google is its own exciting opportunity." I know what you're thinking: Obama turned him down already, how cold is that? More likely, Schmidt truly doesn't want the job. He just wanted Obama to ask. More » -
America's CTO
Doerr pushes Bill Joy on Obama
At yesterday's Web 2.0 Summit, Kleiner Perkins whiz John Doerr — a man so successful he can get away with wearing the same three ties for ten years — told attendees that Barack Obama should skip over Googlers Eric Schmidt and Vint Cerf, and instead hire Kleiner Perkins partner and Sun co-founder Bill Joy as his national chief technology officer. Obama's job description was focused more on counter-terrorism intelligence and IT supremacy. Doerr thinks that's misguided: “The most important thing he's got to do is kick-start a huge amount of research and innovation in energy." Energy tech is Doerr's current focus at Kleiner, of course. But it's unclear to me whether Joy is now a leader or a dilettante on the topic. Doerr also suggested the U.S. "staple a green card to the diploma" to keep foreign-born engineering students from going back home after graduation. Throw in a fixed-rate mortgage for gossip bloggers, and I'll endorse the whole package. -
caption contest
With my $1 salary, I'll be getting a tax cut!
Even before Google CEO Eric Schmidt officially endorsed Barack Obama, he was cozying up to the Democratic candidate. Take this interview in May, for example. What was Schmidt really thinking when this photograph was taken? Suggest a caption in the comments. The best one will become the post's new headline. Yesterday's winner: its_a_feature, for "Zack and Mari make a porno." -
dumbphones
Does Eric Schmidt hate show tunes?
The FCC is having its own vote today, on whether or not to allow future wireless gadgets to operate in parts of the radio spectrum already in use by wireless microphones. Google is all for the new spectrum-sharing policy. Professional musicians and their audio engineers are dead set against it. More » -
antitrust
America's CTO bows to the feds on Yahoo-Google deal
When did Eric Schmidt turn into such a wimp? When Google and Yahoo first proposed a deal to have Google sell search ads for Yahoo, Schmidt brazenly gave antitrust regulators a four-month deadline to review it. After that, Google would blaze ahead with the deal. The deadline came and went. Over the weekend, Google and Yahoo turned in a revised deal that they hoped would impress regulators. The bottom line: It is half as lucrative as Yahoo had hoped, generating $400 million a year rather than $800 million, limiting Google-sold ads to a quarter of Yahoo's search-related revenue. It's better than nothing, but it leaves Schmidt in a weak position the next time he wants to talk tough with the feds. Then again, maybe he's planning to dump Larry and Sergey for a nice, safe government job. -
eric schmidt
America's CTO does infomercial for Obama
In exchange for his late-to-the-party endorsement of Barack Obama, Google CEO Eric Schmidt got a spot on Obama's prime-time infomercial last night. Note how Schmidt explains his decision, made only after Obama took a substantial lead in the polls: "When I read his economic plan and saw the people endorsing it, Warren Buffett, I thought, 'This is the right plan for America.'" In other words, Schmidt didn't endorse Obama until he saw it was popular with the right people, and might help Google get its search deal with Yahoo passed under an Obama administration. Brave! We still don't think you'll get that government job, Eric. -
politics
Valley homophobes still drafting Yes on Prop 8 response ad
BoomTown reporter Kara Swisher rappelled from a skylight at Jerry Yang's secret hideout to score this draft copy of an ad, in which a bunch of tech bigwigs come out in favor of gay marriage — or at least in opposition to Proposition 8, a California state ballot initiative which would ban it. No Valley company in its right mind would be seen opposing gay marriage, so why bother? More » -
search
The Yahoo-Google deal? Let's just assume that's not happening
Yahoo's deal to outsource some of its search advertising to Google continues to face scrutiny on Capitol Hill. Google CEO Eric Schmidt had said he'd carry out the deal whether or not regulators had finished their review. Regulators called his bluff, and America's CTO has now lost face, not to mention credibility. Why not just bow out and move on? That seems easier. -
eric schmidt
Google now getting into the energy business
Let's face it: Google's every attempt to venture outside its holy circle of search and ads has been a financial nonstarter. So is it thinking about getting into the energy business? Yes. Read between the lines in CEO Eric Schmidt's statements to the New York Times. "Our primary mission is one of information," he says. "As to whether we will be in these other businesses, we will see.” See? When a project is some years off, America's CTO out-and-out lies. Remember how he denied, for years, that Google was working on a Web browser, and then presto ta-da, Google Chrome emerged fully formed from the forehead of Sergey Brin? Right. So if Schmidt is merely ditherating about the idea that Google could play in the energy business, you might as well be getting utility bills in your Gmail tomorrow. -
toogle many googlers
Google waffling ahead on monster office building
"A space-age structure that could be the greenest office building of all time." "A living building that has no carbon footprint." That's the spin. So is this: Google spokespeople are telling reporters that plans are on hold. Charleston East, site of Google's planned superplex, used to be a parking lot for Mountain View's Shoreline Amphitheater, just up the road from Google's main campus Now the lot is idle, pending a bunch of paperwork by the city. But here's the truth: The building was planned when Google was growing by more than 100 employees per week worldwide. Last quarter, it added 500 Googlers to its ranks — about 40 a week. That's why Google has shuttered a café. There's green, and then there's green. Eric Schmidt, America's CTO, is not thinking about the tree-hugging kind right now. -
party plane
Why Larry and Sergey bought a fighter jet
Larry, Sergey, and Eric have a fighter jet, and you don't. They also have a sweet place to park it: Moffett Field, the airstrip closest to the heart of Silicon Valley. Even Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has to get chauffeured down to San Jose to board his private plane. Remind us, how did the Googlers get such a sweet deal? More » -
toogle many googlers
America's CTO gets a fighter jet
There's a new party plane at Moffett Field. Not another boring Boeing — this one's a Dornier Alpha Jet, a German/French built fighter plane that seats two. The New York Times is updating its report faster than I can retype, so I'll skip NASA's phony backstory and cut to the facts: "It is not clear who exactly owns or flies the fighter jet. Mr. Schmidt is an avid pilot." I'd love to replace this Wikipedia stock photo with shots of the real thing. Pics or it didn't happen, right? -
rumormonger
It's like PageRank for layoffs
Yes, Google has laid off employees before. But those were DoubleClick employees. America's CTO, Eric Schmidt, managed to cull any deadwood from Google's Mountain View campus without it becoming a hot story. This time it's different, writes one of my leakers, and all the smart people can smell it. Here's the algorithm: More » -
eric schmidt
America's CTO prepares for Google's layoffs
"All of us are vulnerable,'' Google CEO Eric Schmidt told a Bloomberg reporter yesterday . "It's a race between a contraction in advertising, which would affect everybody, and a very positive shift from offline to online." Carly Fiorina couldn't have said it better. This photo of Squirrel Boy with Barack Obama and PepsiCo Chairwoman and CEO Indra Nooyl is a bit stale — July 28 — but it makes the point: Schmidt has what Tom Wolfe called the right stuff to lead geeks. Try to picture Larry and Sergey in that room as the co-heads of U.S. technical preparedness for a terrorist attack. Vint Cerf, maybe, if he ever ships a project more tangible than Net Neutrality. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) -
commenter of the day
Churchill
Today was your last day to register to vote in California. Coincidence or not, today was also the day Google CEO Eric Schmidt decided to stump for Barack Obama. Is Schmidt trying to sway undecided voters, or just aiming for a government post? Either way, today's featured commenter, Churchill, explains why this wouldn't work: More » -
eric schmidt
Google CEO auditions for America's CTO
The Wall Street Journal has an 800-word report this morning announcing Eric Schmdt's plans to "hit the campaign trail this week" for Barack Obama. Blah blah blah natural evolution, Google is officially neutral, "I'm doing this personally," says Schmidt, a week after self-appointed Internet Co-Founder Vint Cerf came out of his own Obama closet. What does Schmidt really want? It's buried at the end of the WSJ's report: More » -
online video
Why YouTube's desperate revenue hunt is on the money
CEO Eric Schmidt botched Google's $1.65 billion acquisition of YouTube. Under his misguided traffic-first strategy, the online-video site has seen off would-be rivals, but failed to grow a business. When he decided, rather late, to make revenue a priority, he wasted time looking for a magical new ad format. (The one result of this effort, YouTube's InVideo ads, which are overlaid over a video as it plays, seems to be a complete failure.) Now, YouTube cofounder Chad Hurley admits there is no "silver bullet." YouTube has abandoned one of its shibboleths — that viewers are turned off by "preroll" ads which play before a clip — and is experimenting with a number of moneymaking schemes. More »







































