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At a technology conference Monday in San Francisco, Google CEO Eric Schmidt noted that his company is working with Apple on “many more” new projects.  Other than Schmidt serving on Apple’s Board of Directors, this is his first mention of the companies partnering on future projects. 

In addition to working together on the iPhone - integrating Google’s search features, the companies are “doing more and more things together.  We have similar goals, similar competitors.” Sounds to me like they’re planning a joint attack on Redmond, WA.

Read [MarketWatch] Via [LoopRumors]

There has been so much talk lately about the iPhone, and today rumors surfaced about an alleged Google phone.  It’s not very likely that the two companies will face off against each other - with Google CEO Eric Schmidt being on Apple’s board of directors and all.  So tell me...why wouldn’t the two combine forces and shake up the industry?

Ever since Schmidt joined Apple’s board, it has been unclear what the connection between the two companies is, which gives them the perfect opportunity to throw out a curve ball.  Think about it… an Apple iPod phone, with Mac OSX lite, a few Google apps pre-loaded, YouTube integration, and Google as the default homepage, of course.  The ULTIMATE content phone, wouldn’t you say?

And who knows… maybe Google will subsidize the costs of the device itself.  Eric Schmidt seems to believe in that strategy with his comment last month:

“Your mobile phone should be free. It just makes sense that subsidies should increase.”

It was no secret that Google was in talks to buy YouTube this past week since Michael Arrington shared a tip offered by an insider.  Well, it’s now official, and huge news at that.  Google has announced plans to acquire number one video sharing site YouTube for a mere $1.65 billion in a stock-to-stock transaction (meaning Google gets all of YT’s stock and YT gets $1.65 billion worth of Google stock).  Google’s General Counsel David Drummond mentioned that stock was chosen as the transaction medium so it would be tax-free for YouTube.  YouTube will slowly be sucked into the vortex known as Google until the deal is completed in the fourth quarter of this year.

According to Google’s press release on the matter, “YouTube will operate independently to preserve its successful brand and passionate community.” I’d say this is a great idea for Google so they don’t corrupt the popular site with corporate nonsense.  The only confusing part of this strategy is how Google Video fits into the picture.  As you well know, Google Video is the second most popular video sharing site (to YouTube of course).  How they plan on operating these two divisions as separate entities is beyond me.  I suppose it’s possible they’re planning on heavily integrating AdSense and their other advertising solutions into YouTube and analyzing the return.

Today, both Google and YouTube executives had a conference call to discuss the acquisition.  Included were Eric Schmidt (Google’s CEO), Larry Page (Co-Founder & President, Products), Sergey Brin (Co-Founder & President, Technology), and Chad Hurley (YouTube’s CEO).  Others were on the call, but for the sake of space and time, I’ll spare you.

For the time being, the companies will not be announcing any juicy information regarding the partnership since there are a number of regulatory things that could stop the deal from closing.  Much of the call discussed how both companies share the same vision of serving end users, and Larry Page said how YouTube’s Chad and Steve remind him so much of himself and Sergey.  Isn’t that cute?  YT’s Chad discussed the community element of the partnership as seen below:

“Our community has played a vital role in changing the way that people consume media, creating a new clip culture. By joining forces with Google, we can benefit from its global reach and technology leadership to deliver a more comprehensive entertainment experience for our users and to create new opportunities for our partners,” said Chad Hurley, CEO and Co-Founder of YouTube.  “I’m confident that with this partnership we’ll have the flexibility and resources needed to pursue our goal of building the next-generation platform for serving media worldwide.”

For details on the conference call, check out PaidContent, TechCrunch.

It doesn’t look like Google’s going to have any trouble with being number two in web video...since they’ve now got number one in their back pocket.

Read [Press Release]

Guess who’s “in bed” with whom?  Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt has been officially elected to sit on Apple’s board of directors.  I bet you didn’t see that coming (we didn’t either).  Schmidt has had quite a bit of experience between his former job at Novell and current job at Google.  Before Novell, he was even the CTO at Sun.  Impressive resume, wouldn’t you say?  In a statement, Schmidt noted his praise for Apple.

“Apple is one of the companies in the world that I most admire,” said Eric Schmidt. “I’m really looking forward to working with Steve and Apple’s board to help with all of the amazing things Apple is doing.”

I can’t tell if this is a conflict of interest or not.  Although Apple and Google are in completely different niches of the technology industry, they’re still both in the same industry.  I guess this means there’s no GooglePC after all, huh?

Read [Apple]

Today we will find out that Google’s GBuy was nothing buy hype, they’re launching Google Checkout (checkout.google.com).  According to CEO Eric Schmidt, the checkout process will be faster than it has ever been before.  “The goal here is to make it be one nanosecond from the time the customer decides to buy to the time the transaction is complete and the product is on the way,” Schmidt said.  In addition to being a speedy process, Google will also combine the service with AdWords, waiving the transaction fees for merchants that decide to purchase advertisements on the ever-popular service.  By combining these two competitive advantages, Google Checkout will have a step up on the competition from the get-go.  Companies such as Buy.com, Starbucks, Timberland, and Levis have decided to join Checkout in its launch today.  Expect news from Paypal in coming weeks.

Video courtesy Official Google Blog

Via [PaidContent]
Read [NYTimes]