Google Inc. (GOOG) Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said he “screwed up” in the area of social networking when he was chief executive officer of the world’s largest Web- search provider.
“I clearly knew I had to do something and I failed to do it,” Schmidt said yesterday of his efforts to help the company excel in social media. “The CEO should take responsibility. I screwed up.” He was speaking at AllThingsD’s D9 Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.
Google faces accelerating competition in online advertising from Facebook Inc., which has done a better job than rivals in helping users create profile pages and connect with friends online. Schmidt, who was CEO for a decade before handing the reins to Google co-founder Larry Page in April, said his company has been unable to forge an alliance with Facebook, the largest social network.
“We’ve tried very hard to partner with Facebook,” he said, noting that Facebook has built a partnership instead with Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) that includes search. “Facebook has done a number of things which I admire.”