larry page

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt gave Facebook glowing marks for endorsing the Android platform with its just-released Home suite of social-networking software. Chief Executive Larry Page doesn't appear quite as enthused.

When asked Thursday about the possible impact of Facebook Home on engagement with Android applications, Page ducked the question.

"I think that Google...we're really focused on building and creating great Android experiences within the strong ecosystem that we have," Page said during Google's first-quarter earnings call. "And it's really great to see developers really focused on building for Android."

Though one … Read more

As Congress readies for what's sure to be a heated debate over the controversial cybersecurity bill CISPA, leaders in the tech community are speaking out.

Unsurprisingly, a known activist for Internet freedom and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian is one of those leading the charge. In a comical video released today in conjunction with digital rights advocate group Fight for the Future, Ohanian calls on tech CEOs to join his cause (see below).

"I'm hoping all of these tech companies take the stand that their privacy policies matter. Their users' privacy matters," Ohanian said in the video. &… Read more

Bill Gates is now worth $67 billion. But he's still only No. 2 among the world's wealthiest people.

Released today, Forbes' ranking of the richest people on the planet found Gates' fortune up $6 billion this year. The increase came not so much from Microsoft stock, which has shown little sign of life recently, but from other financial holdings and private investments.

More importantly, Forbes dubbed Gates the world's most generous person. Microsoft's chairman continues to devote a large amount of his fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with the goal of wiping out … Read more

Google CEO Larry Page covers a lot of ground in a new interview with Wired's Steven Levy, but we were struck most by his poke at Facebook:

"Yeah, they're a company that's strong in that space," he says. "But they're also doing a really bad job on their products. For us to succeed, is it necessary for some other company to fail? No. We're actually doing something different."

Sadly, Page doesn't elaborate on what products he's not impressed with. The interview was conducted before this week's introduction of Graph Search, … Read more

It's said that the rich get richer. And that's certainly true at the moment in the tech world.

Grabbing Bloomberg's No. 2 spot among the world's top billionaries, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates has an estimated worth of $63.4 billion as of yesterday. Despite donating a hefty amount of money to charitable causes, Gates' net worth managed to rise 1.1 percent over the past year, making him the richest tech mogul on the list.

Worth $40.7 billion, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison saw a 3.6 percent gain in his fortune last year. The largest … Read more

Google CEO Larry Page was friendly with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs off and on, Page says in a new interview.

Speaking to Fortune in an interview published today, Page said that he and the late Apple co-founder were friendly "at times." He failed to elaborate on when he wasn't so friendly with Jobs. He did, however, hint that it might have had something to do with Android.

In Walter Isaacson's biography of Jobs, the Apple co-founder said that he was willing to go "thermonuclear war" over what he believed was Google's theft of … Read more

In his first full year as Google CEO, Larry Page had plenty to brag about. The company he cofounded with Sergey Brin in 1998 saw its stock hit record highs; its mobile operating system has 1.3 million activations a day; and its first Nexus-branded tablet debuted to strong reviews.

But even if he wanted to brag, for much of the year he wouldn't have been able to. In the summer, Page was hit with a still-unspecified illness that caused him to lose his voice. The bug caused him to sit out the Google I/O developer conference as … Read more

Wielding both wealth and influence, Bill Gates is the world's fourth most powerful person, as ranked by Forbes.

Rising to fourth place from fifth last year, Gates was cited by Forbes for his vast fortune. The Microsoft co-founder is worth $65 billion even after donating more than $28 billion toward various causes.

But it's also his mission and his influence that make Gates a powerful man.

As co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, he's been on a quest to stamp out a variety of diseases around the world. As Forbes notes, Gates estimates that the … Read more

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Few Silicon Valley companies have ever embraced a political party as passionately as Google has. Its executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, has been described as a "kind of guru" to President Obama's campaign manager, and Google employees emerged as the No. 2 donor to the Democratic National Committee in the last election.

That love affair has now become a bit one-sided. Obama's pick to run the Federal Trade Commission, Jon Leibowitz, a Democrat and former aide to Democratic senators, has been carefully preparing a legal assault on the search company.

Leibowitz took the unusual … Read more