Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) Counsel David Heiner wrote a memo about the situation that Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is involved in with the European Commission. Google pointed out on a blog that Microsoft has ties to two of the companies involved with the complaint. Heiner directly responded with the following note:

“Complaints in competition law cases usually come from competitors. (Believe me, I know: I’ve been chief competition counsel at Microsoft since 1994, so I’ve seen plenty of competitor complaints. Novell, when current Google CEO Eric Schmidt was at the helm, was never hesitant about complaining to regulators about Microsoft. Google hasn’t been shy about raising antitrust concerns about Microsoft in the last few years, either.) This is the way that competition law agencies function: They look to competitors in the first instance to understand how particular markets operate, the practices of dominant firms and the competitive significance of those practices.”

Do you think that Eric Schmidt is getting a taste of his own medicine here? Or do you think Microsoft is bringing up the past in the wrong context here? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Mozilla Director of Community Development Asa Dotzler was not very happy with the anti-privacy comments that Google CEO Eric Schmidt made. As a result Dotzler suggested that Firefox users switch to Microsoft’s Bing.com and gave instructions regarding how to switch from the default Google search engine.

“I think that the thing that bothers me most about Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s comment is that it makes clear that he simply doesn’t understand privacy,” stated Dotzler. “That a company with so much user data on its servers is led by someone who just doesn’t understand privacy is really scary to me and it should be scary to you as well.”

Dotzler was referring to an interview that Schmidt had on CNBC when he was asked if Google users should trust their search engine as a “trusted friend.” Schmidt responded “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.” Dotzler added that Bing has a better privacy policy than Google too.

What are your thoughts about Dotzler’s statements? Do you think his words are convincing enough to switch your default search? Let us know in the comments.

Google was rumored to be making an offer to buy out Twitter back in the day but that deal fell through. The only thing left for Google to do was sit back and watch Twitter grow, only to make a search deal with them a couple of years later. Now Google CEO Eric Schmidt has joined Twitter with the user name ericschmidt and the company verified that it is actually him. So who would the Google CEO think is worthwhile to follow? Here’s the list of the first 86 people he decided to follow.

1. JerryBrown2010 – Jerry Brown – Current Attorney General for California

2. wiredscience
- WIRED Magazine Science section

3. karaswisher
- Kara Swisher, Editor for AllThingsD.com

4. wyclef
- Wyclef Jean (Hip hop artist)

5. om
- Blogger Om Malik (gigaom.com)

6. maddow
- MSNBC Correspondent/Host of The Rachel Maddow show

7. GStephanopoulos
- ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent George Stephanopoulos

8. pennjillette
- Penn Jillette (magician and co-founder of Penn & Teller)

9. MCHammer
- MC Hammer (former rap artist and tech entrepreneur)

10. goldman
- Jason Goldman – Director of Product Strategy at Obvious

11. googlecalendar
- Official Google Calendar Twitter account

12. googleresearch
- Official Google Research Twitter account

13. googlenews
- Official Google News Twitter account

14. googlereader
- Official Google Reader Twitter account

15. marissamayer
- Vice President of Search Product and User Experience at Google

16. BarackObama
- Twitter account of President Barack Obama (updated by White House staff)

17. tonyrobbins
- Motivational speaker Tony Robbins

18. elatable
- Head of Google communications and social applications Bradley Horowitz

19. slettvet
Sierra Slettvet (Google Ads employee)

20. katiejstanton
- Google Finance Product Manager Katie Stanton

(more…)

Recently Google CEO Eric Schmidt went on Fox Business News to do an interview about why the search engine company is going on a hiring spree again. Interviewer Neil Cavuto and Schmidt had a general converation about mobile devices and the economy too. Cavuto pointed out that Google is “taking over the world” and some people are starting to fear the company. Cavuto pointed out that this same thing happened to Microsoft. “Hopefully we won’t repeat the mistakes that Microsoft made 10 years ago that ultimately led to all these things that happened to them,” said Schmidt in the interview.

Google CEO and Chairman Eric Schmidt earned a BSEE in 1976 from Princeton University. Now he’s giving back a lot more to Princethan than he did in tuition money back in the 1970’s. Eric and his wife Wendy are donating $25 million to the Princeton in order to create an endowment fund for supporting technology research. The new endowment is called The Eric and Wendy Schmidt Transformative Technology Fund.

The Fund will give away awards for peer-reviewed competitions. “The Schmidt Fund will be used to support the invention or implementation of entirely new technologies that will have a major impact on a field of research or to acquire a piece of equipment or an enabling technology that will change the direction of research in a field,” stated Princeton in a press release.

Schmidt is on the board of trustees at Carnegie Mellon University and Princeton University. Schmidt was an advisor to Barack Obama during his presidential campaign.

Apple may have decided to reject Google Voice, but Verizon Wireless plans to embrace the application. Google and Verizon have an Android partnership and the results of this deal will appear in the next few weeks. The first two Android powered phones will be available on Verizon later this year.

“You either have an open device or not, and this will be open,” stated Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam in a conference call with journalists today.

“In Verizon, somehow, the leadership has decided to embrace a very different philosophy, which works very, very well with the Internet,” added Google CEO Eric Schmidt on the conference call. Verizon and Google started their partnership discussion about 18 months ago. Verizon was the third telecommunications company to launch a phone on the Android operating system. T-Mobile and Sprint were the first two companies. Verizon is the largest wireless carrier based on the number of subscribers.

On August 3, Eric Schmidt stepped down from the Apple Inc. Board of Directors due to conflicts of interest. This Tuesday Apple’s Board of Directors will be meeting to discuss some of the possible replacements of Schmidt.  Schmidt had been an Apple Board member for about 3 years.

Some of the other board members include Intuit Chairman Bill Campbell, Avon Products CEO Andrea Jung, former Vice President of the United States Al Gore, Chrysler finance chief Jerome York, J. Crew CEO Millard Drexler, and Genentech Chairman Arthur Levinson.

It would not surprise me if Apple appoints someone highly involved in the Internet application or cloud computing space considering that Schmidt’s company is one of the best in that sector.

A former Google employee and informant with TechCrunch has reported that when Google CEO Eric Schmidt was on the Apple Board of Directors, the two companies agreed not to poach from each other.  Google Inc. has been hit pretty hard by Facebook poaching their employees and Palm Inc. recently installed a former Apple executive as their CEO.

The agreement was never made official or written, but it was an understanding.  The understanding was even made clear to Google’s recruiters according to the TechCrunch informant.

The primary reason why Google CEO Eric Schmidt stepped down from the Apple Board of Directors was due to the increase in competition between the two companies.  After Schmidt joined the Board of Directors, Google announced a new browser, a mobile operating system, an application store for their mobile phones, and an upcoming operating system.  Apple has all of these products and services themselves.

Apple did not pay Eric Schmidt for being a board member, but he did receive several Apple products as compensation.