Eric Schmidt

Google Inc. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt delivered Tuesday's closing keynote at the Newspaper Assn. of America annual conference in San Diego, conjuring up visions of an open, interactive future for the audience of newspeople. In order to move forward, he said, newspapers will have to get used to the idea that they are not just generators of trusted, professional content, but also aggregators of the new kinds of content the Web has enabled.

Google Inc., facing mounting competition in the Internet search advertising market from Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc., expects that rivalry to drive up ad prices and increase its revenue, Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said Wednesday. "There is a surprising, if not bizarre [fact that] more competition in auctions can actually produce more revenue, rather than less," Schmidt said at a news briefing at Google's Mountain View, Calif., headquarters.

Eric Schmidt has a message: Don't let the lava lamps fool you. Google Inc. is serious. As Google's chief executive, Schmidt presides over a headquarters filled with trinkets, pets, free food and bouncy-ball chairs. But the whimsical workplace belies the company's focus on cold, hard numbers.