Back in March, Google CEO Eric Schmidt caused a little controversy when he was quoted as thinking of Twitter (and the other micro-messaging services like it) as a “sort of poor man’s email systems.” He later clarified his remarks a bit. Tonight, he has joined the service.
Current Googlers such as Hunter Walk (YouTube) and former Googlers such as Chris Sacca welcomed Schmidt to the service tonight, pointing to his account, eschmidt0. Yes, you’d think he could have gotten a better name (for example, ericschmidt is currently suspended, and presumably available). But maybe he’s continuing Google’s love affair with 1s and 0s.
So what was Schmidt’s first tweet? Like any good Twitter user, he took some time for self-promotion:
CNN GPS with Fareed Zakaria on Nov 29th, starts around minute 17; Fareed is a very good interviewer http://bit.ly/6GwGjn
His second tweet? Another self-promotional one:
WSJ op-ed on newpapers and online news; thanks to the WSJ for publishing ! http://bit.ly/895j8L
Yeah, he’s going to fit right in here. (Well, as soon as he gets a real avatar, at least.)
Back in April, talk swirled that Google was thinking about buying Twitter. Apparently, the company didn’t not want to sell — even for a billion dollars. Twitter has since raised a huge new round of funding at a billion dollar valuation.
In August, Schmidt sat down with us for a interview that spawned two posts (and a mention of Twitter).
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Usually when Twitter goes down it happens in the middle of some sort of event that causes a rush of tweets. Today is just a regular old lazy Sunday, and yet here we are, with it being down.