A whole bunch of founders and co-founders of high profile web properties have banded together to sign an open letter to Washington in opposition to SOPA and Protect IP. The letter has been signed by Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Andressen …

Do they not like it, or do they simply not want to conform to a new social media platform? These are just a few of the questions I have after seeing the chart detailing how much members of Google management …

Ken Auletta, author of the book Googled: The End of the World As We Know It, has written an interesting piece for The New Yorker, claiming to know more about why Eric Schmidt has relinquished his CEO role to Google co-founder Larry Page (effective April 4). 

Auletta, who claims to have conducted 11 interviews with Schmidt for the book, writes:

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. 

Sergey Brin and Larry Page are going to become much closer to their financial advisors over the next five years.  Google disclosed in a regulatory filing late last week that the cofounders each intend to sell about 5 million shares of the company’s stock during that period of time.

People who don’t really believe that Google wants to make the world’s information "universally accessible and useful" will, going forward, have a more difficult time arguing their point.  Yesterday, Creative Commons announced that it’s received a $500,000 gift from Anne Wojcicki and Sergey Brin.

It’s no secret that real-time search is one of Google’s weak points.  Since Bing launched, fewer people have been willing to acknowledge Google as the best search engine overall, too.  But the search giant seems to be fighting back, as new reports have it addressing issues on both fronts. 

Google held its annual stockholders’ meeting yesterday evening and to accompany that Co-founder Sergey Brin decided to re-share the 2008 Founders’ Letter, which was originally published on Google’s Investor Relations site. Brin says they wanted to make this more widely available so they posted it on the Official Google Blog.

Google is calling for Proposition 8 opposition support. A post on the Official Google Blog talks about the company’s opposition to legislation that eliminates the right of same-sex couples to marry. Back in September, Google Co-founder Sergey Brin posted this:

Some guy is claiming to be the third founder of Google. Hubert Chang has released a video in which he talks about helping Sergey Brin and Larry Page come up with PageRank, Google’s business model, and even the name "Google" back in 1997, but chose to pursue his Ph.D at NYU rather than attach his name to the Google project. Listen to what Chang has to say:

Google Co-founder Sergey Brin has started a new personal blog called simply – Too. "While Google is a play on googol, too is a play on the much smaller number – two," writes Brin. "It also means ‘in addition’, as this blog reflects my life outside of work."

Vanity Fair released its annual ranking of the world’s most powerful people this week and our favorite executive trio was tied for third, just under Vladimir Putin and Rupert Murdoch.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin are about as powerful as people get in the U.S. tech industry, and it seems they enjoy a similar standing among U.K. media figures.  Google’s cofounders have come out on top of the new MediaGuardian 100 list.

Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt says the Google founders have grown up.

"The boys have grown up," Schmidt said at a news conference before the company’s annual meeting referring to founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Google co-founder and multi-billionaire Sergey Brin has concerns about Microsoft’s unsolicited bid and proxy fight preparations to takeover Yahoo.

Ruth Kedar of KedarDesigns.com designed the Google logo in the version that became famous around the world (the original tries at designing the logo were by Google co-founder Sergey Brin, reportedly, using the Gimp software). I asked Ruth how the Google logo design came about originally, and here’s her reply.

Video advertising online shares close ties with its more well-known sibling, the television ad, and that’s what will make it a success.

There’s probably no truth to the following theories: Google’s starting its own airline; Google has a clandestine arrangement with NASA to set up data centers on the moon; the founders plan to hire their own Tattoo to shout "The plane! The plane!" for their own bored billionaire amusement.

That $625 million Google paid for Postini recently isn’t a signal that Google has its hands on its wallet, ready to make the really big social networking buy out there.

Google has dropped some cash in Anne Wojcicki’s 23andMe biotech firm, to the tune of $3.9 million for a minority holding in the company co-founded by Sergey Brin’s new missus.

Mark Malseed, co-author of The Google Story, takes an in-depth look at Google co-founder Sergey Brin and his family, mother Eugenia (NASA research scientist), father Michael (mathematics professor), and brother Sam. Here’s what Mark saw when he entered Sergey’s spacious Googleplex office 211, shared with Larry Page:

The challenge of finding Senators willing to hear Google’s point of view on network neutrality will look like a walk in the park compared to the prospect of changing course with its business in China.