Schmidt takes responsibility for Google’s failure in social networking

Schmidt takes responsibility for Google’s failure in social networkingGoogle‘s executive chairman Eric Schmidt has gone ahead to take the responsibility of the failure of Google’s social networking strategy.

Mr. Schmidt said that he “screwed up” in the area of social networking during the time he was chief executive officer of the online search giant.

“I clearly knew I had to do something and I failed to do it. The CEO should take responsibility. I screwed up,” he said while speaking at AllThingsD’s D9 Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

Google is facing increasing competition from Facebook, which has enables users to easily link their preferences on the web to their profiles and also share with others, in online advertising industry.

Schmidt headed the company as its CEO for more than a decade before handing over to co-founder Larry Page in April last year. He pointed out that Google has failed to enter into a alliance with Facebook and the differences between the companies are making them arch rivals.

Google is working to improve its social features and had announced a new feature to allow users to recommend content to friends directly from the company’s search-results pages. The company will start allowing users to recommend outside Web pages as well, Google said in a blog post today.

Mr. Schmidt in his speech described Google, Facebook, Apple Inc and Amazon. com as a “gang of four” that excel in using technology to attract users and help other firms build products.