As reported, Google CEO Eric Schmidt is turning over his CEO role to co-founder Larry Page, in favor of an Executive Chairman role.  We sat in on a call with those two and co-founder Sergey Brin, who talked a little bit about the management strategy. 

Listening to Google’s earnings call, the conversation began with the big news – Eric Schmidt is stepping down as CEO of the company. Unfortunately, not a whole lot of previously unavailable information came out of that, but there was a quick introduction of the news from Schmidt, Larry Page (who will take his place) and Sergey Brin, followed by a Q&A with those three. They apparently didn’t have the time to stick around any longer, so it went by very fast. 

The next time you drink, eat, or maybe buy new furniture in the company of a Googler, consider letting him or her pick up the tab. Leaked info indicates that everyone at Google will get at least a 10 percent …

It’s time again for Google’s shareholders to toss some confetti and raise glasses of not-particularly-cheap champagne.  The search giant released its third quarter earnings report this afternoon, and it beat analysts’ forecasts by an impressive amount.

Google was supposed to report a net revenue figure in the neighborhood of $5.25 billion.  Instead, the company was able to report $5.5 billion.  Then it scored an even bigger victory in terms of earnings per share, managing to generate $7.64 rather than $6.67.

Michael Arrington of TechCrunch created a fake Facebook account for Google CEO Eric Schmidt, showing that Facebook probably needs to do more to verify users. I’m guessing that Schmidt still has access to more personal information on Arrington, however. 

Any Google shareholders who have been concerned that Android might be costing the company money can find something else to worry about.  Eric Schmidt indicated that the free mobile operating system is supporting itself and might at some point bring in $10 billion per year.

Last week, Eric Schmidt stated in an interview that Bing, not Apple or Facebook, is Google’s biggest competitor.  Now Steve Ballmer has responded, essentially agreeing and indicating that Bing will continue to innovate and pose a threat.

Microsoft’s CEO told Sharon Pian Chan with respect to Schmidt’s comment, "He’s right! . . .  We’re his best competitor, and we’re a very good competitor and we’re going to do a very good job."

According to Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Bing is its main competitor – not Facebook or Apple. He sat down with Alan Murray of the Wall Street Journal, who was kind enough to post an embeddable video of the conversation. 

Do you think Bing is Google’s biggest threat? Share your thoughts here.

Google and its CEO, Eric Schmidt, are in a little bit of trouble in France.  Due to the appearance of some controversial search suggestions in connection with a plaintiff’s name, a court’s convicted both the company and the man of defamation.

Specifically, it seems that Google France would suggest terms like "prison," "rape," "rapist," and "Satanist" when searchers would try to look up an individual (who was once convicted of corrupting a minor).

Google CEO Eric Schmidt appeared on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report yesterday. The show’s site has video of the interview, which it kindly encourages embedding of. 

Yesterday, we looked at a video Danny Sullivan posted at Search Engine Land, in which he grilled Google CEO Eric Schmidt about listing Google’s 200 ranking signals. 

According to Michael Arrington at TechCrunch, the new MySpace (aka: Project Futura) is coming to some users on October 15, though that is subject to change. According to his sources, it will include a lot of white space and focus on the activity stream. Sounds like another familiar social network. 

Danny Sullivan has posted a few videos from Google’s Zeitgeist event, and one of them is a fairly entertaining banter between Sullivan and Google CEO Eric Schmidt.  Sullivan  asks why Google doesn’t list its 200 ranking factors. Schmidt’s response:

A country in which Google’s search engine enjoys a market share of around 90 percent is soon going to see even more of the company.  Google’s announced that it will build a research center and help create some sort of cultural institute in France.

Given that Google has encountered resistance to its book-scanning program in France, we should note that the country’s authorities support these plans.  In fact, Eric Schmidt actually met with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who approved.

If Eric Schmidt’s to be believed, YouTube might become profitable any time now; the CEO had only positive things to say about the site at a conference today.  However, his admission that it’s still operating in the red may come as a major disappointment to many supporters.

Consumer Watchdog has created a new anti-Google video portraying Google CEO Eric Schmidt has some kind of evil ice cream man. The video is a commentary on what the group perceives to be Google’s lack of regard for consumer privacy. 

In between the announcements about iPods, Apple TV, and a music-oriented social network, Apple and Google’s mobile rivalry heated up a little more today.  Steve Jobs, while discussing the success of iOS, also tossed out what was likely a veiled insult at Eric Schmidt and Android.

Search Engine Land Editor-in-Chief Danny Sullivan points out how poorly Google handles those gaming Google News, using Google Trends as a starting point.

Do you find Google News to be too heavily polluted? Share your thoughts.

Google has been expected to get into gaming for sometime, but now it looks like the wheels are really in motion. The Wall Street Journal reports that Google is in talks with Playdom, EA’s Playfish, and Zynga.

Google neither blew estimates out of the water nor bombed with its second quarter financial report this afternoon.  Shareholders seem to be focusing on the targets the company missed, however, sending the stock down sharply in after-hours trading.

Let’s get the bad news out of the way first.  Google reported earnings per share of $6.45, even though analysts had hoped to see $6.52.  Also, paid clicks decreased three percent compared to the first quarter, which isn’t exactly a positive development.

The Wall Street Journal is running a piece discussing how tech companies (like Google, Yahoo, AOL, Groupon, etc.) are touting new online ad formats. Author Jessica E. Vascellaro has some quotes from Google CEO Eric Schmidt about some things the company is thinking about within this realm.

For one, according to this piece, Schmidt says Google is looking at addressing an apparently popular concern from advertisers – that there are too many ad formats to choose from.