Google executive chairmanEric Schmidtrevealed that Facebook rejected Google’s offer to partner up with the world’s biggest social network for its rich source of personal information.
Eric Schmidt, who spoke at the D9 conference organized by AllThingsD, noted that “Google’s search could be improved with access to Facebook’s data about Web surfers’ friends and acquaintances,” but didn’t go into detail which deal he was referring to.
“We tried very hard to partner with Facebook. They were unwilling to do the deal,” he said.
Google’s rival, Bing, seems to have more luck teaming up with Facebook, bydeeply integrating its social featuresnot just into its search results, but into its search algorithms, fundamentally changing the way it will create results.
Google has been trying to establish a social network of its own butnone has really taken offso far. Schmidt is taking responsibility for “screwing up” in that aspect, failing to act on the importance of social networking during his time as the CEO.
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What about the rumoredmajor social productcodenamed Google Circles designed totake on Facebook, which unfortunately we have yet to hear more about? Or the recently launchedGoogle +1perhaps?
It may be the logical move given that Schmidt said thatGoogle’s new strategyfor search is to provide you with answers, not just links, which banks heavily on social information rather than artificial intelligence.
Story byFrancis Tan
Francis Tan is the Asia editor of TNW, who is based in the Philippines. He is particularly interested in Asian Internet startups, social me(show all)Francis Tanis the Asia editor of TNW, who is based in the Philippines. He is particularly interested in Asian Internet startups, social media and e-commerce. Get in touch with him via Twitter@francistanor Emailfrancis@thenextweb.com.
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