No one enjoys conflicts of schedule, but this latest one really annoys me. Motorola Mobility, the major Android OEM maker being acquired by Google, is co-hosting a smartphone and tablet unveiling with Verizon Wireless in New York City Oct. 18, which is smack dab in the middle of Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco: Yes, the very same show where 90 percent of the high-tech world with stakes in the Web,

So I want to address the meme that Google's top executives are not heavy Google+ users after Michael DeGusta posted this piece lamenting the lack of updates by Google Co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt and other big wigs at Google. DeGusta, an entrepreneur and former Web production lead at Apple, noted: Management caring deeply about their company's products and using them every day is almost always a prerequisite of making great products.

It's a constant question to which there is never a satisfactory answer. Google Executive Chairman was asked by PBS correspondent Gwen Ifill this week if Google could beat Facebook at its own game" vis-a-vis the Google+ social network. As you can see from the clip, Schmidt, ever the political animal, replied: It's very hard to beat a fast-moving incumbent in exactly same game in technology because it changes so quickly.

This is how Google's homepage looks, one day after Apple Founder Steve Jobs passed away after a long bout of illness that started with pancreatic cancer in 2004: Clicking the link takes you to Apple's homepage , which brought tears to my eyes when I saw it last night: Simple. Tasteful, but elegant, the way Jobs himself might have designed it. Why do I mention this on Google Watch, of all places? Good question.

How can you tell the Apple loyalists in the crowd? They're the ones shouting the loudest to defend Apple, which didn't announce the iPhone 5, now officially a unicorn, today for its "Let's Talk iPhone" event in Cupertino, Calif. Of course, I'm full aware that I'm writing this post as the editor of a blog called Google Watch , so you'd be inclined to think I have a preference for Android products. And you'd be right. Even so,

When Amazon unveiled the Kindle Fire tablet last week , many media members and analysts noted that the device featured zero Google branding. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos regaled the New York City audience with details about the tablet without once mentioning that it was based on Android. That posed no surprise. Amazon had been long expect to launch its own custom Android slate, sans Google brand. It launched its own Android Appstore without Google's blessing.

Planning a trip with Google Maps just got a lot more fun, as the company is now letting users plan their travel routes in 3D using Google Earth. That's right. Maps users looking to drive, bike or take a bus or train can check out so-called helicopter views using the 3D preview feature . First, users must make sure they have the Google Earth plug-in installed to use this feature. Then, users must enter their starting and destination points and however they are traveling.

Regular readers of this blog may have noticed that I've spent the majority of my time opining on and noodling over Google+, how it's feature set and user base are growing and what it all means vis-a-vis Facebook and their battle for out attention, If you said I was caught up in the minutiae around Google+, you'd be right. That's why it's great to have industry gurus to sit 30,000 feet above, take it all in, and blast out the big picture view others of us miss from the ground.

Members of the media received a special treat from Samsung Mobile tonight: an invite to join the consumer electronics company and Google for a special night, dubbed "Samsung Mobile Unpacked 2011Google Episode." Here's most of the invite to the event, which is dated Oct. 11 and takes place in San Diego, the same day and city CTIA Wireless is happening this fall: If you've been following Ice Cream Sandwich developments at all,

Google+ is getting integrations with Google Voice, Google Apps and other products, according to Matt Mastracci, CTO and founder of DotSpots, and now a Gr.ipe team member . Mastracci went digging in Google+ code and learned that Voice, Apps, a Facebook Wall-like feature and something called Google Experts are on the way. Google Voice, with which users would be able to make calls from Google+ that don't display their phone number,

Amazon will unveil its Android-based Kindle Fire tablet tomorrow morning in New York City, TechCrunch confirmed. MG Siegler, who scored the first exclusive hands-on by media , gathered some more intel about the device, which will be a 7-inch, color tablet resembling RIM's PlayBook, ahead of the event. Here is the bullet point summary of the device that would deign to challenge other Android tablets, if not Apple's vaunted iPad, with its custom,

People who paid attention to the new Facebook Timeline user interface viewed it with many different opinions. It's great because it offers users the opportunity to host their history online. It's terrible because it's too creepy and all inclusive, a money-grubbing bid to better target users with social ads. As social media guru Charlene Li told me , having more info about a user can lead to more precise ads. In the competitive context,

I watched Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt tango with several U.S. Senators in Congressional antitrust hearing Sept. 21 with an air of great excitement and anticipation. My feeling was that either Schmidt would open his mouth and stick both feet in it, or that the Senate would fumble and ask too many questions that belied its stunning lack of knowledge with the subject matter - the business of search. Really, neither happened,

The whole who-will-beat-the-iPad meme has seen a lot of revising of late. When the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 came out months ago, people assumed it would cut into the iPad 2's lead. It hasn't happened. HP's TouchPad failed, until it was heavily discounted. In the last few months the as-yet-unlaunched Amazon Kindle Tablet has been viewed as an Android tablet that can take share versus the iPad. But let's be honest here.

Google really wants people to use its newly opened-to-all and refreshed Google+ social network . So much so, that is has basically offered the equivalent of a house ad on its homepage for all to see: The cloudy blue sketch points to the Google+ link, where existing users will get whisked away to Google+ profile. New users will be asked to create an account. The red arrow is my own addition to point out Google's link the Google+ profile of Blackeyed Peas frontman will.i.am,

MySpace Co-Founder Tom Anderson, a welcome regular on the Google+ pundit circut since the social network launched June 28, has some advice for those Google or Facebook haters who love to talk about which company has copied who. Long story short: Google+ apes Facebook in concept, but when it rolled out it became clear its Circles follower construct and Hangouts group Web conferencing features differentiated it from Facebook.

There's been a lot of news around Google+ over the last few days. Actually more faux controversy than news, and some of it involves Facebook, so consider this a Google+ versus Facebook wrap. First, Mike Elgan wrote a detailed post for Datamation about how Facebook is becoming the next Yahoo. He notes that in addition to copying Foursquare and Groupon to check-ins and local deals, Facebook has been copying Google+ features left and right. For example,

How are Google's plans for local deals and mobile payments shaping up? It depends on who you ask. Google will tell you everything is simpatico, but honestly, where is Google Wallet? I attended the super-hyped, exciting launch event in Google's Chelsea office in Manhattan in May. The service was due to launch in New York City and San Francisco this summer. Technically, it is still the summer and will be for the next 5 days, but come on!

Earlier this year, I had a discussion with Shailesh Nalawadi , the Google Product Manager running Google Goggles, the visual search application that lets Android and iPhone users snap photos of landmarks, paintings, some products and sudoku puzzles. In a conversation revolving around how Goggles would evolve to work as an augmented reality app, Nalawadi indicated he and his team were trying to make Goggles smarter. Since that conversation,

Nothing like an SEC filing to shed light on the ins-and-outs of deals. Motorola Mobility, which is in the process of being acquired for Google for $12.5 billion , filed a proxy statement explaining how the bid went down, including how Motorola got the search engine giant to sweeten the deal by $3 billion. The filing chronicles the play from initial talks in July, to acceleration to get a deal done in August as Google's need for patents grew more intense.