"... Eric is still around and filling an important role ..."
I think this could be a bigger adjustment than you think. Google under Schmidt has not gained ground on social search and in effect dropped the ball. An important lesson running a product on the open Internet. Google with the massive financial and technical lead can loose ground and revenue to competitors.
Brin was quoted above in the google earnings address, "We’ve Touched 1 Percent Of What Social Search Can Be" ~ http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/20/sergey-brin-weve-touched-1-...
"... Eric is still around and filling an important role ..."
I think this could be a bigger adjustment than you think. Google under Schmidt has not gained ground on social search and in effect dropped the ball. An important lesson running a product on the open Internet. Google with the massive financial and technical lead can loose ground and revenue to competitors.